Welcome Malena!(our Roberto Alagna's and Aleksandra Kurzak's new born babe!)

Today's is a great day for Roberto Alagna !
He left Werther on Bastille stage to Aleksandra Kurzak's side because Malena arrived and is worth millions operas in the world... quite right to be with his new family and I do not mind if I do not see him back on Sunday!

Malena is sure to be musical with a Tango inspired name ! (photo from Art Journal)
Congratulations !

EDITA : "ON VOUS AIME" (last encore, Salle Pleyel Jan 25 Mozart Concert)

Amazing night at Salle Pleyel!
I popped up to Paris for this Mozart concert, knowing I might not see Edita Gruberova in Paris in my next future.
Emotion could be felt all along the concert, partly because probably, like me, some in the audience were parting from their adored singer, and others were moved simply to see her performing a demanding program with so many skills, plus the energy of a young singer,  and the commitment of a top class singer with tremendous aura when she reaches her special realms where I think she is still unique so far.
Even Edita felt tears coming during a very moving"Welcher Wechsel...Traurigkeit" (Die Entführung aus dem Serail).
Again I had an autograph signed and a photo taken, my treasures,  I keep for the girls!
 It was a fine concert, Mozart sounded great with and without Edita's voice ! The young conductor Douglas Boyd has a passion for Mozart which could be felt in particular in Idomeneo Ballet music I had never heard on stage as it is always cut, therefore  I discovered and loved it, thinking that Rossini must have listened carefully to this work. Then, the Mitridate Ouverture and Aria were a treat. Before I left home I read  about the conductor, and during the concert I thought I was still paying tribute to Claudio Abbado's art   through this young man who founded the Orchestra of Europe. Then I simply thanked Edita Gruberova's fine musical taste for such a musical evening offering orchestral parts not often played during Voice concert, like Adagio in C minor K546.
For the second encore, Edita bravely sang Elettra again  without any restraint in quality and energy, as could be heard in her foolish laugh!

Edita Gruberova - Münchener Kammerorchester - Douglas Boyd

Airs de concert

Saturday 01/25 2014 8:00 PM

• Edita Gruberova : soprano
• Münchener Kammerorchester
• Douglas Boyd : conducting

Programm

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Don Giovanni / Ouverture
• "Crudele?...Non mi dir" (Don Giovanni)
• 6 Deutsche Tänze in B-Dur
• "Welcher Wechsel...Traurigkeit" (Die Entführung aus dem Serail)
• Adagio et Fugue, en ut mineur K546
• "Martern aller Arten" (Die Entführung aus dem Serail)
• Entracte
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Mitridate / Ouverture
• "Qual tumulto...Soffre il mior cor con pace" (Mitridate)
• Idomeneo / Balletmusik de l'acte III (1ère et 2nde pièces)
• "Giunse alfin il momento... Deh vieni non tardar" (Le Nozze di Figaro)
• Cosi fan tutte / Ouverture
• "Fiordiligi, Temerari, sortite...Come scoglio" (Così fan tutte)

After the first encore the audience was even more enthusiastic and would cheer warmer than ever, until a true 'déclaration d'amour' rose up from the audience!
It is all in this short video, and any time I play it I am really happy, a kind of childish happiness and I rejoice seeing Edita launching herself again in this very difficult aria she did as a first encore, she wanted to keep the Mozartian unity of the concert and she was right! She really gave us her musical singing high knowledge and all the energy of her deep love of singing and respect for her audience.
She is a true inspiration for me. Belonging to her age group, I often think how wonderful she is and how well she manages to keep her art of singing and  acting abilities,  after forty five years on stage.


                                  EDITA FOR EVER !
Elettra, d'Oreste d'Ajace(Idomeneo), end of the last encore (25-01-2014 Salle Pleyel /Douglas Boyd &Münchener Kammerorchester.(I am grateful for this link on this aria to Opera_cat I found on the web wanting to read a proper translation, here is also the roots of the tormented alianated soul seeing devilish creatures around her ) Edita Gruberova gave accents of delusion and horror in this overdemanding aria she sang twice....Last Laugh ... applause!

I must 'count my blessings'!....this season, because I enjoyed some smashing nights like Cecilia Bartoli's Mozart revival (Edita Gruberova 's concert is also a Mozart revival) and some personal highlights I have not blogged about like Firma on Jan 21 with my dear young friends, then, a fantastic Straniera in Marseille last November. I will blog about  it when I come back from Bastille Werther.(Feb 2)

                                                                                                    

Then, I will discuss my favourite living mezzo singers!

On air from Notre-Dame de Paris: Le Requiem de Berlioz for Claudio Abbado, conducted by his faithful Gustavo Dudamel.

 (Pict Sainte Victoire this afternoon, peaceful, hardly any one around. Amazing light which made me realise the intensity of the colours, in the morning I was in Paris, with dim,poor light when I left around 8am)


Notre-Dame de Paris le Requiem de Berlioz for Claudio Abbado.

Happy hour:..with ANNA N.

Russian version of  'Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun '
(Anna Netrebko's site photograph)

Claudio Abbado: Best Rossini ever !

I am sure this great musician will always be among us.
Next saturday, Claudio Abbado will take us on his Viaggio, and it is one of the best Rossini with wonderful singers.
MUSIQ 3

 programme ce samedi 25 janvier 2014 20:00

Hommage à Claudio Abbado : Il Viaggio a Reims de Rossini

Directeur musical de la Scala, de l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Berlin, artisan essentiel de la Rossini-Renaissance, merveilleux touche-à-tout, fondateur d’orchestres, pédagogue incomparable, Claudio Abbado est décédé ce 20 janvier à Bologne.

Notre angoisse était née en 2001, à l’occasion du centenaire de la naissance de Verdi. On disait Abbado gravement malade, il devait diriger en hommage au compositeur, son Requiem à la Philharmonie de Berlin. Le voyant apparaître, le visage tiré, émacié, mince à faire peur, le monde entier avait frissonné : "Abbado est venu diriger son propre requiem". Dieu-soit-loué, il n’en fut rien, la décennie qui suivit donna tort aux oiseaux de mauvaise augure et Abbado continua - loin du tumulte des Berliner qu’il quitta gracieusement en 2002 - à s’attacher à des projets personnels.

Alors que d’autres eurent thésaurisé une réputation aussi illustre, de tournée ronflante en tournée ronflante, Abbado envisagea sa carrière à la manière d’Alexandre-le-Bienheureux : le projet, ses artistes, primaient sur les paillettes et les cachets mirobolants. Malade, il fit honneur à sa réputation en ne cédant rien aux lois du marché et du marketing. Des annulations massives nous avaient prévenu du pire, il y a quelques semaines, nous voilà effondrés, comme orphelins de l’un des plus grands musiciens de notre temps.

Samedi soir, nous rendrons un bien modeste hommage à Claudio Abbado en diffusant Il Viaggio a Reims de Rossini, un opéra qu’avec Philip Gossett il avait recréé au Festival de Pesaro. Abbado sut faire la démonstration qu’une œuvre légère prend des ailes quand on la dirige rigoureusement, que l’allégresse n’est rien sans technique et qu’un épiphénomène de pure frivolité comme ce Viaggo peut atteindre des sommets de beauté sous une phalange aussi sincère.

Il Viaggio a Reims de Gioacchino Rossini
1984 : Claudio Abbado (dir.), Cecilia Gasdia (Corinna), Katia Ricciarelli (Madama Cortese), Lella Cuberli (Contessa di Folleville), Lucia Valentini-Terrani (Marchesa Malibea), Francisco Araiza (Conte di Libenskof), Edoardo Gimenez (Cavalier Belfiore), Samuel Ramey (Lord Sidney), Leo Nucci (Don Alvaro), Enzo Dara (Barone di Trombonok), Ruggero Raimondi (Don Profondo), Chœur philharmonique de Prague, Chamber Orchestra of Europe - Deutsche Grammophon

Hommage à Claudio Abbado avec de nombreux invités en plateau.

Production et animation : Camille DE RIJCK

Happy hour! Three cheers for Valentino Castronovo!

(photo shared from  bebe-buzz-grossesse)


Happy  first new Year to Valentino and best wishes to his Mum, Dad  and lucky brother who now has a playmate at home!

Charles Castronovo new babe

Backstage after Manon in Toulouse. I had a nice chat with a very nice singer and kind hearted person! (Where he told me they were expecting a huge present around Christmas.. and I found out on Charles's twitter)




 Ekaterina Suirina and her husband(photo shared from soprano Ekaterina Suirina's site)
What about a sweet lullaby record   from your countries...Sicily+ America+Russia+ Ecuardo....?

Song for Eternity.

The end,
The Beginning ?
Eternal Bliss of such rendition.
The Four Last Songs
(Thanks so much to the Lied and Art Songs, and palamede92 for this fantastic upload).

La Forza del Destino : Radio Days ( France Musique).available until 03/02/ 2014

 (screen capture from Bayerische live stream )
France Musique, available until 03/02/2014
Soirée Lyrique, Judith Chaine

Well, as the video link from the Bayerische Staatsoper disappeared  nearly as soon as it appeared we have the fantastic France Musique offer for some weeks left now. I realised the previous date had changed.
It compensates the lack of Cds  notorioiusly visible on Anja Harteros 's side.
For me she is a greater singer than some others and yet she has a meager discography.
She could have well made a "Verdi" celebration Cd as she has been singing Verdi soprano heavy roles for some years now: Don Carlo's Elisabetta, Simon Boccanegra's Amalia Grimaldi, Othello's Desdemona, Il Trovatore's Leonora and now Leonora in La forza...not counting Traviata at her beginnings.
Luckily,  on the internet we can enjoy her tremendous singing for a while, always neat, true to the character she plays with passion and musicality.
She feels this music and  has all the range of colours to make us  share her intentions. She is a marvellous colourist and her melody soars with sincere commitment. She is " true" with no affected poses like some other  soprani at the top of the scale... for me she is the most believable one.
Now we can enjoy the prayers, but are they prayers? Is it only a matter of faith expressed in these heartbreaking melodies ......
May be it is her feeling of fate and that is the reason why her voice is so true, sometimes harsh, and resounding in my heart.
I was unlucky at the Big Lottery tickets at the Bayerische Staatsoper, but I will not miss the two nights of her recital in Paris.
Salle Pleyel
Still I only managed to see her in two operas: Alcina at the TCE, the unforgettable couple with Ruggero- Vesselina Kasarova ( also underrated in some ways... will I travel to Cologne in March for her Dalila ? ), then also with Vesselina Kasarova in Tannhaüser... smashing memories...great singers... both DD  in their own ways.
What is obvious to an amateurish person like me is that they do not benefit of the record  industry like the mediatised Anna Netrebko or her singer partner Piort Beczala.
Or is it the Peter Gelb effect derived from the live cinema broadcast from the Met ... which I will resist as long as I can go to my nearest opera house.
At the  light of Anja Harteros career for several years now it makes me realise even more that business is not always concerned with top quality....