Sakura... Asian singers from the CNIPAL in Avignon (29-03-2014)

Snowy cherry-trees from Tongji Green Campus ( my better half is in Shanghai for a while and sends me these wonderful reminders of what Spring is like over there).
A very happy  birthday to Eyes which will be a historical one this year!Eyes(ometric)
(No music on line, unless you want to hum 'Printemps qui commence ....' with Vesselina Kasarova ... or Rita Gorr...)
I was in Avignon yesterday for another Cnipal Concert.

 As I was in Cologne last Thursday  and Friday, I missed the concert in Marseille. In Avignon, it is called Apér'Opera, guess why! (But I had to catch my two buses to go back home so, no tasting of our good wines for me...)
Here's the billboard of the March concert:(the pianist is different in Avignon)

Je NIn KIM Soprano

Jiwon Song Baryton
Masahiro Iwase Baryton
Grégory Leonti, piano
Cnipal, Foyer du public Opera d'Avignon.

This concert was special, dedicated to Asian singers and  to Asian melodies in the second part.
The first part was  special Carte Blanche to Je Ni KIM.

She is finishing her two years under the Cnipal and has a successful contract with Theâtre du Châtelet in June for 'The King and I".
She will be Tup Tim !
When  I first heard Je's voice (Masterclass in Marseille, in October) I simply thought she was a true Angel from what must be paradise... I was  amazed. Her selection for this first important role is not that a surprise to me!
She is a wonderful coloratura in the great tradition, vocalising is done with intelligence, beauty of the sound always,  and smiles.. she is so graceful!
Well! we had plenty of wonderful moments with three well chosen arias : Alcina( Tomani à vagheggiar), La Sonnambula (Ah! non creda mirarti... ah non giunge) and then the very hard and contrastive Zerbinette 's aria :Grossmâchtige Prinzessin... which was real fireworks, with the famous D, I think,

no trouble for Je!

She came back for the melodies in a white dress adorned with pearls which was very well suited for the song called 'costume d'apparat' for a vision of beauty one evening.. so poetic in the French translation and the refinement of her singing in Korean ((Isang Yun, 1917-1995 who had a rather  sad life due to historical facts but very successful on the music side according to the programme, which is always very well informed on the musical background with even the translation of the arias, and it is also very  rich on the young singers cursus, so many years of studying, vocal competitions, and prizes, I am admirative. It shows how high they consider the tradition of singing, and they want to get the best as well in the various places where they learn).
 Jiwon Song (smiling, on the left) gave a stunning Aleko, and then sang a cappella (his bass- baritone voice is so full and rich...) their famous Korean anthem Arirang which means so much! ( I had heard it in Seoul, and was moved to tears to see them singing their heart out) it was the encore and the three of them made us sing too!

 The first melody sung by Masahiro Iwase was a jewel: the young singer appeared in his traditional costume so dignified and moved, that it was something special before he sang.
 He is a real poet, I heard "Sakura" the poem about cherry blossoms, and I liked the melody, his gestures, his pauses and inflections, his melancholy about his lost love, and yet another Spring is here and he is wondering ... if they could meet again, ask 'how are you'.. 'it's been a long time'... even so the cherry street is full of blooming flowers... but love is lost...(Sadao Bekku 1922-1989, but do not look for this melody on youtube, it is not at all what I listened to...!).
I hope one day Masahiro Iwase will record these melodies for us!

What is ever so moving when I recall these moments is that they will never occur again, only in my memory.
L'instant, comme ces fleurs de printemps ephémères... These young artists are so precious!
I wish them a great successful musical life, personal life too.

The pianist joined them, he played beautifully, Rachmaninov... a wonder in Aleko... Applause!!!!!

-II- Oper Dom Köln, Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila, V.Kasarova and L.Ryan (19-03-2014)

First of all in this production, which has a contemporary purpose, the conductor has to be praised for what he managed to combine: The  singers, (not the easiest part)  to be  matched  with the surrounding effects, mainly war noise, bangs, rockets,  gun- firing and explosions (I really jumped off my seat as one bang was so unexpected..), plus the human noise when associated to barbarism,  acts of slaughter vicious laughs during rapes, and giggles from mobs excited by hatred, violence, 'sex and booze', and consequently to  maintain the beautiful musical lines of this romantic  music  and its exoticism in such turmoil and chaos. I think Antonino Fogliani delivered a 'tour de force'.
 The orchestra and chorus sounded so moving (especially on the Israeli side during the Prayer).  The last orgiac snene (act 3) which is meant to be the well known Bacchanale (Greek orgiac celebration,  under the spell of Bacchus) was stunning.
  They all came  running through the back Parterre  Entrance, crossing tthe audience while  shouting, laughing, drinking, in full light, it was quite a shock. (exit the soapy lascivious  'danse ') I still wonder how   Antonino Fogliani   managed to cope with all these levels of singing and drama. Then, once on stage, they all indulged in barbaric behaviours accompanied by the famous erotic Bacchanale.  I had a strange feeling of derision which is associated with the worst human behaviour past and present. Unforgettable visions.. Vesselina Kasarova was acting like the monster she is in this tale, castrating wounded Samson and holding his bleeding penis as her last war trophee... Gore as it was the Bacchanale went on... until the end where the last wink was to terrorism... Samson lying and showing his belt ready to blow the place up... I was expecting another big bang... the last one. The curtain fell in dead silence.
There was really only one setting, for the second act, the bedroom scene as a modern hotel room in a very warm country where a South American type of ventilatore is the main ceiling decoration, with a huge king size bed occupying the center of the space, some fitted cupboards on one side, the door and corridor being opposite, allowing us to see how Samson hesitates to enter the room,  tortured by his conscience and faith.
In that scene,  I appreciated Lance Ryan more, I found him totally pathetic  opposed to the demoniac Vesselina-Delila who almost dragged him in and tried her big act of seduction.
When the scene began, she was wearing black swimming trunks, and I thought she looked terrific, bouncing on the bed, athletic and yet sexy, almost as an Esther William's relative . Vesselina Kasarova is suited for this role because she always has the strength of her aesthetic presence, and the gorgeous colours of her voice which can range from rather awful low tones to splendid rich blazing high  tops.
But what I will never forget is how 'Printemps qui commence' surprised me as it was pandemonium on stage then at the right hand corner appeared Vesselina in tight jeans and flashy pink jumper and high-heels,  her voice soared while the crowd was laughing and giggling ... exit 'la danse des fleurs'... the derision of the war is the real truth and probably this vison is like what happens when old paintings are being restaured to a cleaner, truer  appearance.
Bravo to the whole cast and the 'chef', special mention to the chorus... and Camille's music which withstood this new look. Special mention to the baritone Samuel Youn, his  Fench is perfect and he made a real diabolic highpriest, more than  that here..., well suited to Vesselina's voice and dramatic skills.
Vesselina Kasarova got the warmest  applause.
I waited at the stage door to say hello and express my admiration, I do not know if I managed to do so,  I was so much impressed by her.
She allowed me to take a photo (I asked if Facebook Vesselina fans, Smorgy being at the head of the fan-group for me,  could put it on her facebook page, she agreed! She told me she would sing in Paris in December 2014, Liederabend... I think it could take place either at Pleyel or TCE .. it has to be found out precisely).

Here's her last sweet smile after a heavy role...which is hers and only hers at the moment.
Lance Ryan and Vesselina Kasarova, end of the opera. (19-03-2014)

Still under the spell of an opera version I was thrilled to attend.
My admiration to the whole cast and the stage directing which were amazing that night, a night not to be forgotten....

Curtain call:

-I-Cologne : Samson et Dalila, Camille Saint-Saëns revisited by T. Knabe .

- I- Arrival and places of interest in my short stay.

Backstage entrance next to bus station where the geat City2city bus arrives!

 Left home on the 18th  at 6h30am.
Arrived in Köln  at 21h30  by City2City Bus I took  at Frankfurt bus station.(very cheap fare and friendly driver).
what did I see directly the bus moved to its  stop opposite Cologne Hbf?

Huge adverts for the opera! with flashy lights, that is  never seen at home! ( Unless you go Place de La Bastille or right in front of Opera Garnier, it is quite difficult to see nice huge opera posters.  Opera billboards are rather confidential !)
Then I had the answer to my question about the wisdom behind such a long trip: Vesselina Kasarova was welcoming me just outside the Station, smiling!

 On the 19th,  I walked to the Dom to make sure I got accustomed to the way to follow to get there in the evening. I was again surprised to see the beautiful Vesselina's posters all around the Dom gallery which has a wonderful view on the Rhine.
.She looked like an ace card, and indeed she is the trump card in this cast! Samson und Dalila Köln Dom

At this sight I felt reassured.. Here's a place where Opera is taken seriously!
Of course, I came for Vesselina Kasarova's Dalila  mainly, but there's the Cathedral  in Heine's poems ( Schumann's Dichterliebe, Saint Christopher, the Three kings, the Rhine...plus the Farina's Rosoli scent bottles at the Perfume Museum..then the huge excavations in front of the Town hall which will reveal treasures in the Jewish Goldsmith ancient suburb plus the Roman remains .

What a beautiful City...

view from the Dom

The Cathedral as the central masterpiece in the City with the Sation next to it ... very strange at first sight, is so attractive, so many things of beauty to admire and learn about... 
I was fascinated by the Medieval carved statue ofSaint Christopher , and also by a striking carved scenery

 the beautiful faces of the three Mary their vivid eyes,  worth contemplating for a while.. when the organ plays in this huge nave, at  Midday celebration. 
 

Karine Deshayes : Mezzo, French style and more!

At Melomania getting ready for the interview. Photo yvette

On the 12th of March,  I was lucky enough to join an open chat at a music shop I recommand to any visitor fond of classical music and opera.
 Having met the owner of this shop,  Melomania,  (previously La chaumière à musique) on facebook,  then in "real life" at Werther ( Bastille last February),  I enquired to make sure I could join this open evening with Karine Deshayes and Roselyne Bachelot. All the details for joining this open chat  were here at Forum Opera.
Karine was talking about her last cd .

photo yvette

 Roselyne was presenting her book.
 That was a great evening where I finally met the witty members of Forum Opera. ( I have been reading on the web for years).
Karine Deshayes is now in the full 'bloom' of her voice and it is a wonder to see how she goes from one role to another. I simply adore the colours of her voice.
Her natural  simplicity  and generosity that evening,  was in contrast with Roselyne Bachelot's mannered attitude, she once was Health Ministry. (She used to wear pink, there, she wore all blue, perhaps for the blue note, now she indulges in music).
Karine was asked when she found out she wanted to become a singer. She told us she wanted to sing like Blanche neige once she saw the film,  wanted to be Blanche Neige, and her parents went mad as she sang all the tunes non stop... so her passion for singing started in early childhood!
Being questionned about the one and only  unhappiness with a stage director, incident which made her leave the cast during the rehearsals, she did not have resentment or any feeling of the sort, she quietly explained she could not have given the best of her art,  therefore it was better to leave the production. And this was said with smiles!
I personally appreciate her plain black long dresses I saw her wear once at the Palais des Papes concert and in this  video for Les Cantates Romantiques. She is giving us the message that she does not want to distract us with bling bling stuff... what counts is her rendition and what she does musically to capture our emotion. And indeed she is very moving.
I saw her Urbain (les Huguenots, opera de Strasbourg, http://blogs.qobuz.com/andretubeuf/2012/03/26/les-huguenots-a-lopera-du-rhin/) and I cannot forget her beautiful singing and her incredible acting, moving, witty, fantastic!

many thanks to

luvxl

" Cantates Romantiques " made me discover this less known style of French music so heartfully sung by Karine accompanied by a fine orchestra and conductor.
This year and season I will almost see all her appearances  on the French stage.
I am 'aux anges' as we say...!
At the moment,  Karine Deshayes is rehearsing  for her new role, Romeo (Capuleti e i Montecchi, Bellini), in the Carsen production  I saw at Bastille, casting Joyce Di Donato and Anna Netrebko.
Her Blanche Neige dream is just one side of her passion, she loves personifying  a young man and enjoys  the fencing lessons !
I am looking forward to discover this new cast with the Castronovo family and Karine Deshayes!

Ekaterina Suirina and Charles Castronovo, thanks to operawarhorses.

Metamorphosen under Marek Janowski at Salle Pleyel, Orchestre de Paris 13/03/14.

Sometimes some changes have huge echos in one's mind.
 I was fairly disappointed at Anja Harteros 's cancellations (both nights12, 13 March) at Salle Pleyel. Then I reorganised my first evening, had the two tickets refunded, got a cheaper one for the 13th, and really was absolutely flabbergasted by the whole concert.
How could I find words to  even try to describe what I felt during those two Strauss pieces seperated by schubert's Inachevée... luckily, because it offered a space to breathe and feel on safe grounds.
Marek Janowski looked completely part of it all, he did not make one move to the audience, just got into it and made the orchestra express what I believe to be his own breath, which could fairly well be what Strauss felt the last year of his life.
This tall, elderly man who simply bathes in this music was astonishing, and made the orchestra give their best. The 23 string instruments involved in this half an hour dense meditation captivated my whole mind and body. I felt numbed and aching like the lead violin when it cries. And the cellos in these minor long phrases  bring tears.
The audience who was fairly noisy during the 8th, even applauded  between the two movements, was dead silent, caught in it just like me. I could feel the change of atmosphere.
Now, reading the programme, the historical background of this last composition makes me wonder how my  young parents went through  that time. I cannot believe I was born in the middle of it...
Marek Janowski had the orchestra applauded several times but did not linger on stage, not indulging himself in pleasing the audience. I admire him even more.
But why no recordings  were done by France Musique when such a kapellmeister is visiting Orchestre de Paris?

parc floral(Yvette)

Early Sping in Paris under a huge toxic cloud made me tour the Parc floral once more. Breathing was easier under the trees.
The camelias and Magnolias were in full bloom.
Reassuring, even under high pollution....
Back home, I am still under the spell of this  Richard Strauss concert conducted by Marek Janowski.

Song for the soul: Morgen, Richard Strauss.

Tomorrow night, and the night after, I will not be listening to Anja Harteros  at Pleyel. It was a much awaited moment in my listener's life.  I do not feel like joking about this cancellation.
German not beeing familiar to me, I tried to get into the poems and music beforehand.
With "Morgen "it is not so difficult when it is possible to come across  wonderful uploads on youtube, sung by Lucia Popp, or Arleen Augier or Elizabeth Swarzkopf, this precise one with sensible comments, precious links and above all, the musicscore. (All my gratitude to Merefoix).
Morgen has the quiet pace of a stroll, perhaps the last one into eternity of memory, with  steps, I imagine, following the   curve down to the shore where life begins and ends.
And as I follow the notes on the word ' niedersteigen,'my steps are going down to the sea of Eternity of mutual love, friendship, existence....share ....like the music and the words do here, mutual share!
(Longing to hear Anja Harteros I am very fond of, voice and style of singing, all my thoughts go to her tonight).
When I started thinking about that post I did not know the cancellation had arrived at Pleyel.
But I have  good news which makes me react better to this bad one: Through Intermezzo 's blog I met a wonderful generous operafan who is willing to find me tickets for this summer Festspiel. So this world of sharing mutual passion for a singer even if she cancels a lot(and I feel sorry for all the reasons she has in doing so because she is such a fine person, so discreet and really wonderful soprano), has the power to make peole react, help and share.
Forum Opera (as often), knows Anja Harteros will not be replaced. So the concert will be orchestral only.
I am looking forward to listening to it though because the conductor is a must and I do not often  listen to Strauss concerts.
From Forum Opera:
Après ses récents triomphes, à Munich pour l‘essentiel, les parisiens se faisaient une joie d’applaudir Anja Harteros Salle Pleyel mercredi et jeudi soir prochains, 12 et 13 mars, dans la scène finale de Capriccio, à laquelle on avait adjoint pour l'occasion une poignée de lieder orchestrés de Richard Strauss. Las, la soprano souffrante vient d’annuler sa participation, obligeant Marek Janowski et l’Orchestre de Paris à revoir le programme. Dorénavant symphonique, il alternera des pages de Richard Strauss (Mort et Transfiguration, Métamorphoses, pour orchestre à cordes) et de Franz Schubert (Symphonie n° 8 dite « Inachevée »). Sauf erreur de notre part, l’agenda d’Anja Harteros n’indique aucun autre rendez-vous parisiens dans les mois à venir. Un nouveau défi pour Stéphane Lissner ? [Christophe Rizoud]]

"Gérard Mortier ! Au bûcher!"

is quoted by himself as the best compliment he ever received when he was at the head of Opera National de Paris. Here's the link where he lively says it during this fascinating last summer Oxford conference.
I feel very sad this morning, this loss was expected (he was fighting cancer).
Opera for him was not a dead art, he prefered Verdi to Puccini, (I cannot blame him, and his wit expresses very well  in this talk what it meant..).
He was looking for spirituality in music and says  when to look for it in Verdi's opera for instance.
He wanted contemporary musicians to open the door of opera houses.
But above all for me (and this is why I admire him so much) at the very end of this talk he gives his belief that opera exists only in the opera house, not at the cinema. ( the argument that it brings opera to the masses is a false one, of course).
I remember his Wozzeck at Bastille as the best production I have ever seen.
I could not make it for Le Roi Roger. (one of my huge regret).
I will miss him.
He loved Bob Dylan. (Me too). Desolation Row.

Happy Hour .

 Exit Marguerite -Anna Netrebko from Faust in Baden Baden for me... So here's the game to decide if I still "love" the Prima Donna.... plucking the daisy... The jewels she advertises for and yet does not want to sing for... very paradoxical attitude! (But she did record the Jewel Song ...)

(Marguerite.... si tu veux faire mon bonheur, Marguerite donne-moi ton coeur...)
Je t'aime
Un peu
Beaucoup
Passionnément
A la folie
Pas du tout.

 

But we still have the ..castafiore. (Hergé) ! And let's laugh with her!