Just a thought: Mozart under the stars again.

It was a fine evening spent with Mozart and a voice I appreciate more and more as I feel its precious phrasing its qualities and beauties of a fine baritone voice as time goes by.
And time seemed so unreal in this place by the sea in the Summer.
My little ones shared this musical evening for the first time and that made that event even more rewarding.
They loved it and were so pleased to meet the artist with me. The following morning was spent swimming.
Mozart and Arnaud Kientz accompanied by fine musicians, plus sunshine and swimming ... made a peaceful summer interlude in a place which is still almost like paradise.

The programme was rich and unusual with concert pieces I discovered, the cello was so good...with infinite seductive power.
LINK to the "catalogue" which was very elegant and witty as usual with this refined singer. (not complete though on this extract and polluted by the rude noise of a roaring motorbike).

Did we hear the mermaids singing in the soft roll of the waves when we came back from the concert at Clairval in Carqueiranne that night?
Then we left for the Alps and music as always went nourishing the memory of happy peaceful moments.
Now I am back home and the girls are back home too. They will have happy memories of musical evenings with me. We also shared L'Enfant et les Sortilèges ( Aix Festival), it was a great time too as the cast and the production were refreshingly young, sexy and funny! The intimacy of the really small operahouse called 'jeu de paume' helped a lot in this crafty setting and enjoyable 50 minutes shared with a very young and participating audience for a change!

A night at the opera in front of my telly:ZDF La Boheme

While reading and listening through Youtube I found the complete upload of the opera, it could be handy . Many thanks to the uploader. (today, 7 08 2012 )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lx-Gqi-4Po


My highlights of a very moving Boheme from Salzburg Festival with feelings expressed at the utmost by the whole cast.
Special mention to Mimi, darker than ever with outburts of violence and despair never felt in this role before. The modernised version is "un coup de génie"! D. Gatti made it sound devastating.
In my previous post, having seen only the rehearsals I was trying to guess what her death would be like.`
Of course Mimi must die but it is not as bad as I imagined, (just by the look of her at first sight).
Now I have watched this Bohème several times, I can correct my comment.
Mimi seems to be suffering from asthma, a modern illness in highly polluted megacities. So, she is suffocating, not coughing, she has her medecine (it seems to be something like ventoline) at hand in her bag. In fact Rodolfo,( when he was looking through her handbag act 1 sc 2) holds it and she nearly snatches it because it is her saviour.
Anna Netrebko sings and acts in a very powerful way which makes me feel the despair of the character even more than ever, it is a stunning performance. This Bohème rediscovered in a version which is done for the image, seen on TV, is a very good film where I almost forgot the actors were singing...If Puccini can be transformed this way, without any change in either the music part or the libretto, it is all due to the cleverness of Damiano Michieletto and the acting plus singing skills of course of this team. The proper film is going to be smashing, there I am puzzled by the power of the image combined with the orchestral work and the singing. It has no relation with the previous very good film recently done casting Rolando Villazon as Rodolfo. It now looks conventional compared to this last Salzburg Bohème. I read Jonas Kaufmann is also taking the part of Rodolfo. It is a star team although I like P.Beczala a lot here.


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Here are the links
http://youtu.be/A164gntHfjg
http://youtu.be/lh_1i6CRZlc


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LEADING TEAM

Daniele Gatti, Musikalische Leitung
Damiano Michieletto, Regie
Paolo Fantin, Bühne
Carla Teti, Kostüme
Martin Gebhardt, Licht
Kathrin Brunner, Dramaturgie
Nikolaos Lagousakos, Choreografische Mitarbeit
Ernst Raffelsberger, Choreinstudierung
Wolfgang Götz, Einstudierung Kinderchor

BESETZUNG

Piotr Beczala, Rodolfo, ein Dichter
Anna Netrebko, Mimì
Ailyn Pérez, Mimi (23.8.)
Massimo Cavalletti, Marcello, ein Maler
Nino Machaidze, Musetta
Alessio Arduini, Schaunard, ein Musiker
Carlo Colombara, Colline, ein Philosoph
Davide Fersini, Benoît, Hausherr
Peter Kálmán, Alcindoro, Staatsrat
Paul Schweinester, Parpignol
Steven Forster, Parpignol (Artist)
Wiener Philharmoniker
Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor
Salzburger Festspiele und Theater Kinderchor
Carlo Colombara: Colline 'Vecchia zimarra senti'(quadro quarte)
Anna Netrebko-Mimi,Maximo Cavaletti-Marcello (quadro terzo,Al di là della Barriera d'Enfer) "O buona donna, mi fate il favore..'


A night at the opera in Shanghai.

This is the first striking event I want to keep in my memory before it vanishes.
I have to try to express what I felt during this performance of a traditional Chinese opera at the Yifu Theater. (June 22 2012)
We were given a hand out in English inside the beautiful programme. At least we managed to understand the situation and also who were the main characters on stage. There were beautiful decorative subtiles (much bigger than ours, easy to be read from a distance, but these were only decorative for me! D. can read some of the nice designs but I am still like a blind person in this place, I do not read and speak so it is really frustrating).
With the music (four musicians and ritual instruments accompanied the singers) and the gestures, it was possible to guess the feelings which were expressed. The voices were fascinating when getting in the high range. The rhythm accelerated while the singers'heads shook with the sounds produced, then the audience was reacting with pleasure in a sort of roaring wave until the applause thundered. I cannot imagine such enthousiasm expressed during an aria in any house here. That night the audience was not dead silent like it is here and its participation was intense. I noticed people knew the parts very well and were anticipating the great moments of singing for each character.
I understood the sorrow of the Mother because she wept. At one point the hero wept and cried his sufferings. It was strange to hear violent cries on separate repeated notes. Each character had a tune which was acclaimed with roars of pleasure and thunder of applause.
These are some samples of the evening.

The beauty of the costumes, the rich material and colours will always make me dream. Every thing on stage has a meaning and so has the slightest gesture of a finger moving in the air as a response to the singing or certainly being also part of the meaning of the singing.

At one point when the Princess presents the hired baby the audience laughed heartily. But I did not get the message entirely!
Will I, one day, get the 'message'?
Still, watching them performing so beautifully and listening to these stunning musical parts is a real experience of some piece of Art completely different.
what I will like to recall with happiness is the cheerful audience and the strange uproar of satisfaction .
So, next year in Shanghai at Yifu theater again to get more into this amazing Art of singing, dancing, performing!