Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth

 opera  2 Responses »
Apr 092012
 

 

Magda Olivero 102 years old1 Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth

Just after Magda Olivero’s 102nd birth­day, (on March 25), the went to visit her. This remark­able woman still has a lot to say. While many of her opin­ions are maybe inev­it­able for someone of such an age (the Mil­anese are no longer well-mannered; mod­ern opera pro­duc­tions have gone down­hill; there are no out­stand­ing sing­ers nowadays), many of her com­ments con­tain an ele­ment of truth, and are not just the rant­ings of a fuddy-duddy.

Here is Olivero on listen­ing to young singers:

So far nobody has left me speech­less. They sing, but without tech­nique. The prob­lem is that there are many teach­ers, but few of any worth. They don’t teach that to sing you must breath and sup­port the voice: a won­der­ful rule that isn’t taught. The found­a­tions are not firmly in place when the singer already starts con­front­ing opera arias. We used to spend years doing vocal exer­cises. Only in this way can a voice become uni­form, smooth and increase its range, and you learn express­ive­ness. Today no-one sings with expres­sion; it seems they don’t under­stand what inter­pret­a­tion means. And every­one imme­di­ately wants to tackle the most dif­fi­cult com­posers, like .

I hope that a young singer man­ages to find someone who knows how to spot defects, and can explain how to inter­vene. And when someone tells them that they have a beau­ti­ful voice to not be big-headed but under­stand that they must con­tinue study­ing, you never stop learn­ing. Today, how­ever, they want to get there fast, which is sad because they end up ruin­ing their voices.

She then she revealed that on the day of her birth­day… she sang!

Photo from the Cor­ri­ere della Sera

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  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth

Marie-Agnès Gillot in Milan for Pippo Delbono’s “After The Battle”

 ballet, music, theatre  No Responses »
Oct 142011
 

Dopolabattaglia Gillot FotoLorenzoPorrazzini Marie Agnès Gillot in Milan for Pippo Delbonos After The BattleThis is how The intro­duced Del­bono to its read­er­ship in an inter­view last year:

Part theater, part dance, part car­ni­val, part music, the works of Pippo Del­bono are hard to cat­egor­ize; they leave view­ers altern­ately elated, drained, shocked and thoughtful.

His com­pany, with which he has per­formed all his works since the 1980s, is also hard to cat­egor­ize. It includes Bobò, 73, whom Mr. Del­bono met at a men­tal asylum in 1996. Bobò was born deaf and with micro­cephaly and had been insti­tu­tion­al­ized for 45 years. Gian­luca Bal­laré a former pupil of Mr. Delbono’s mother, has Down’s Syn­drome. Nel­son Lar­ic­cia, ema­ci­ated, was for many years home­less. Mr. Del­bono refers to the com­pany as “family.”

Del­bono has had a cult fol­low­ing for years, though since two years ago when he won the pres­ti­gi­ous European Prize for New Theatre — whose pre­vi­ous recip­i­ents have included —  his fan base has been grow­ing rap­idly.… [con­tinue reading]

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Two new video clips with Cecilia Bartoli including the Traviata brindisi with Pavarotti

 opera, recordings  2 Responses »
Aug 192011
 

Elysian Films have put two pre­vi­ously unseen clips of record­ing arias (one with Pav­arotti) in ’s Con­ser­vatoire, Sala Giuseppe . Anthony Fabian, who formed Elysian Films in 1993, is a UK-based pro­du­cer of fea­ture films and cinema shorts, as well as arts and clas­sical programmes.

Enjoy…

… [con­tinue reading]

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American baritone Cornell MacNeil dies at 88

 obituary, opera  No Responses »
Jul 212011
 

Cornell MacNeil 400x347 American baritone Cornell MacNeil dies at 88The Amer­ican bari­tone Cor­nell MacNeil died on July 15, he was 88. He was best known for his many Verdi roles.

From 1959 to 1987, he sang 26 roles in more than 600 appear­ances at the ,  includ­ing more than 100 per­form­ances of . In a 2007 inter­view James Lev­ine commented:

The lar­ger and more com­plex the part, the bet­ter he was: Boc­canegra, Rigo­letto, Macbeth, , Fal­staff, Iago — a lot of these parts could be said to be the most chal­len­ging and var­ied. He sang lots of Amonas­ros and Scarpias mar­velously well, but those more com­plex ones were where he was at his best.”

Dur­ing the war MacNeil joined the Radio City Hall Glee Club and also did back­stage announce­ments.… [con­tinue reading]

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150 years ago today Italy was united — Antonio Pappano comments

 music  No Responses »
Mar 172011
 

On March 17, 1861, the Par­lia­ment pro­claimed Vic­tor Emmanuel II King of Italy. It’s been a bumpy ride but 150 years later the coun­try is cel­eb­rat­ing. ’s Va, pen­siero from is being played on radio and tele­vi­sion as much as the National Anthem. , although Eng­lish, com­ments on the home of his ancestors.

“It was not so long ago that all these sep­ar­ate provinces gave up their autonomy, joined together, and star­ted to speak more or less the same lan­guage. may have been here for ever, but Italy is a very new idea. There’s a lot of cyn­icism now, but Itali­ans still have a kind of uto­pian hope, and it’s rooted in – for instance, in Verdi’s pat­ri­otic choruses.”

“Itali­ans don’t have unity as one of their traits.… [con­tinue reading]

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Muti goes against doctors orders and conducts Nabucco in Rome

 opera  No Responses »
Mar 132011
 

muti nabucco Muti goes against doctors orders and conducts Nabucco in RomeLast night, only a month after being fit­ted with a pace­maker and hav­ing facial sug­ery after a fall, went against the wishes of his Chicago doc­tors and con­duc­ted at the Rome Opera. The per­form­ance is one of many cel­eb­ra­tions dur­ing the next week to cel­eb­rate the uni­fic­a­tion of 150 years ago.

Maria Stefan­elli, from the Teatro dell’Opera’s press office said,

His doc­tors abso­lutely for­bid him to con­duct Nabucco in Rome fol­low­ing sur­gery to repair facial injur­ies sus­tained in the fall and to have a pace­maker implanted. They wanted him to have two more weeks of rest. It was very import­ant to him. He wanted to do it at all costs.”

’s Nabucco was premièred in 1842 when Aus­trian rule dom­in­ated the north of Italy.… [con­tinue reading]

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Muti’s triumph with Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon: and his first “encore” in 25 years

 opera  No Responses »
Dec 042010
 

20101201 muti napolitano Mutis triumph with Rossinis Moïse et Pharaon: and his first encore in 25 years“Stay with us!” yelled an enthu­si­astic sup­porter dur­ing the applause at the open­ing of Moïse et Pharaon in . has been toy­ing with the idea of becom­ing the musical dir­ector of the Rome Opera for some months now, but has now cla­ri­fied his position:

I can’t accept a post if I’m unable to guar­an­tee my pres­ence. To be the musical dir­ector of the Rome Opera would mean com­mit­ting many months to being here, and I’m not yet unemployed!”

Com­ment­ing of the first night of the Rome opera sea­son, Muti said,

The even­ing was a triumph.”

If fact he even repeated the chorus “Dal tuo stel­lato soglio”, the first “encore” he has allowed in 25 years, the last being at La Scala with Nabucco’s “Va’ pen­siero”.… [con­tinue reading]

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