Soprano Maria José Siri finishes Manon Lescaut seated after slipping on nude torso
After first aid and an unscheduled break, Maria José Siri finished the opera seated in front of the giant nude sculpture.
Puccini
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Striking musicians cancel Netrebko and Kaufmann’s Puccini anniversary concert at La Scala
The concert to mark the centenary of Puccini’s death at La Scala was cancelled at the last minute because of strike action.
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Interview: meeting soprano Marigona Qerkezi who helps celebrate the centenary of the death Puccini tonight
Marigona Qerkezi, the soprano from Kosovo, talks about her career and life so far, and celebrating Puccini’s 100th Anniversary.
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The Chinese music box that inspired Puccini’s Turandot has been found
The Chinese music box that inspired some of Puccini’s score for his last, unfinished opera, Turandot, has been tracked down in Turin.
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[Interview] Tenor Luciano Ganci – singing with “a heart and soul full of love and joy”
Tenor Luciano Ganci, at 42, finds himself with a large repertoire including 20 Verdi roles. I talked to him about training, preparation and his career so far.
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[Interview] “Me and my voice” American tenor Michael Fabiano on music and other passions
American tenor Michael Fabiano talks about singing Verdi and Puccini, preparing for his Turandot debut, and his many offstage activities.
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Angel Blue answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start singing? When I was 6 years old. Why did you start singing? My Dad. Which singer inspired you most when you were young? My Dad, my sister, and Leontyne Price Which singer do you most admire? My Dad and Leontyne Price. What’s your favourite role? Violetta and Tosca. What role…
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Interview with Jonas Kaufmann: opera in the age of #MeToo and why he refused to go to the sauna
Jonas Kaufmann: [#MeToo is happening in opera] and not just for the girls! We men are at risk too! I know the situation well because as a young man it happened to me. I was at the beginning of my career and an agent offered me a concert, a fantastic opportunity. But in return I…
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Interview with Riccardo Chailly on Andrea Chénier and his 40 years at La Scala
Chénier is not only a masterpiece of verismo, but it mirrors many contrasting aspects that preceded the music of the 20th century: there’s Wagner, with echoes of the prelude of Tristan; there is Mahler, in the striking modernity of the orchestration; there is Puccini, who was certainly influenced when writing his Tosca four years later……
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Angela Gheorghiu’s releases first studio recording in six years: Eternamente – The Verismo Album
The studio recording – her first in six years – explores the generation of Italian composers that followed Verdi, including three duets with tenor Joseph Calleja Eternamente – The Verismo Album, Angela Gheorghiu‘s first studio recording in six years, will be released on 20 October 2017, and will feature performances of opera and song by Italian…
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Jonas Kaufmann on his return to singing after 4 months, and his love of Italian singability
Jonas Kaufmann has not sung since September when he sang the programme from his glorious new cd, Dolce Vita, at Teatro San Carlo in Naples. He was forced to cancel his imminent appearances due to voice problems… then a few more dates… then a few more, even cancelling his appearance at the Nobel Prize Award…
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Tenor fractures spine after stage collapses during Turandot
Friday night’s performance of Turandot at the open-air theatre in Torre del Lago nearly finished in more tragedy than the opera had already delivered when, just after midnight, part of the stage collapsed sending tenor Marco Voleri to the ground. After the two-metre fall, Voleri was taken to the local hospital in Versilia where it was ascertained that he…
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Fiorenza Cossotto answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A in italiano When did you start singing? When I was a girl. Why did you start singing? For my own personal enjoyment. Which singer inspired you most when you were young? No one. Which singer do you most admire? The good ones. What’s your favourite role? More than one… all the masterpieces. What role…
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Mark S Doss answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start singing? I was in the 5th grade when the music teacher, Mrs Mapson, asked me to sing the Wells Fargo Wagon song from Music Man. She heard me sing it back to her and then exclaimed, “Wow, that’s beautiful! You could go to New York right now and make a…
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dance | design | music & opera
Sylvano Bussotti: flamboyant composer, poet, set and costume designer, theatre director, and… and… and…
Silvano Bussotti, known as Sylvano, is an Italian eccentric, some say genius, and the word ‘flamboyant’ appears in many articles about this modern Renaissance man. He is a composer, poet, set and costume designer, painter, journalist, actor, singer, theatre and film director and sometime bad boy of the arts. Internationally he is more known as a composer,…
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Great Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya dies at 86
Russian opera legend Galina Vishnevskaya has died today, December 11, at the age of 86. Vishnevskaya was born in St Petersburg (Leningrad) 25 October 1926, and cast out by her parents at six weeks. She was raised in absolute poverty by her grandmother. As a ten year old Galina was presented with a gramophone and…
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Cecilia Bartoli on her voice, her repertoire, on turning down Carmen and facing up to Norma
Cecilia Bartoli‘s been busy: not only getting ready for her new tour featuring the extraordinarily difficult arias by Agostino Steffani that are featured on her new CD Mission, but also doing the promotional rounds with radio, television and newspaper interviews. The content is mostly the same – why Steffani? who was he? – but it…
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Cecilia Bartoli on discovering a new composer, vocal styles, and bella Italia
Cecilia Bartoli‘s new album will be on the shelves in a couple of weeks’ time. If Mission is successful it should put early Baroque composer Agostino Steffani (1655-1728) back on the musical map. He largely fell off it because his ‘day job’ as a diplomat and priest made it necessary for him to write many of his works…
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Great American soprano Evelyn Lear dies at 86
Great American soprano Evelyn Lear died yesterday at 86. She was one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated American 0pera and concert singers, enjoying a long and remarkable career spanning 5 decades and including 7,500 operatic and concert performances. Between 1959 and 1992, she appeared in more than forty operatic roles, appeared with every major opera company in the…
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America’s Got Talent’s goth Andrew De Leon gives an unusual but moving account of “O mio babbino caro”
He might not have the voice of Philippe Jaroussky or Andreas Scholl but Marilyn Manson goth Andrew De Leon certainly gives a moving performance of Puccini‘s “O mio babbino caro” and his story is almost unbelieveable.
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Swedish baritone Ingvar Wixell dies at 80
Swedish baritone Ingvar Wixell who for 30 years was a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin company has died at age 80, the Dagens Nyheter daily said Monday. Wixell was born in Lulea, northern Sweden where he played the viola and sang in a choir. He decided he wanted to be an opera singer after…
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Gloves off in Washington: Placido Domingo strikes back
Washington Post music critic Anne Midgette was often critical of Placido Domingo during his years with the capital’s opera company. However when she criticized his conducting of Tosca a month ago, Domingo decided that enough was enough, and wrote a letter to her paper. On September 12, Midgette wrote; All the performances were hampered, indeed…
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Kaufmann, Netrebko and Schrott at the Royal Albert Hall
Opera singers Jonas Kaufmann, Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott are to perform together for a special concert performance at the Royal Albert Hall in June 2012. The trio (“Opera’s Greatest Stars”) will be accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and will sing a selection of arias and music by composers including Puccini, Verdi and Mozart….
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Newsweek finds out what makes Anna Netrebko tick… and why she hates ‘toska’
The papers are full of interviews with Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, especially during this, the month of her 40th birthday. They are not exactly carbon copies of each other, but very similar: plans to open a restaurant, overcoming geographical boundaries to meet up with hubby Erwin Schrott, and her adopted home, Austria. Peter Pomerantsev, a British…
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Andrea Bocelli in Central Park: “The World’s Most Beliked Tenor”?
Mr. Bocelli’s fans seemed thrilled, rain or no rain. There remains a considerable divide between the passions of the audience he has reached (his recordings have sold more than 65 million, according to his Web site) and the assessment of most music critics. There is genuine warmth and sweetness in his sound. When he nails…
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Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra has died. He was 43.
Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra died today from head injuries he suffered nine days ago in an accident while riding his scooter in Sicily. Following the accident on 27 August near Ragusa, Licitra was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Catania where he was reported to be in a stable condition after surgery. He was not…
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Fabio Luisi’s moving house – but will Jimmy Levine be moving out?
Fabio Luisi is moving to New York. He and his wife, Barbara Luisi, a former violinist and now a photographer, and their 13-year-old son are moving to New York in May, to an apartment on West 96th Street. Luisi has reduced his schedule at the Vienna Symphony and declined to extend his contract as chief…
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Tenor Vincenzo La Scola dies at 53
Vincenzo La Scola, an Italian tenor known internationally as both an opera singer and a crossover artist, died on April 15 in Turkey, where he was giving a master class, from a heart attack. He was 53. His manager, Silvana Sintow-Behrens said on her website: It is with shock and greatest sadness that we must…
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Talk about last minute replacements: Terfel saves Tosca
Well, of course, he didn’t because she stabbed him first, and then forgot to read the small print on the safe-conduct papers; but that’s another story. Meanwhile at the Met… Is there a great bass-baritone in the house? This desperate cry was answered with a resounding yes at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on Saturday, said The…
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“Vincerò” or “I shall win!”? The opera translation dilemma
Soprano Jane Eaglen once told me that she would never sing Norma in English, how could “Casta Diva” be replaced by “Chaste Goddess”? In fact for Italian speakers, translations are often excruciating to listen to – but what about those who don’t speak Italian? Lyndon Terracini, artistic director of Opera Australia, addresses the issue: When Mozart…
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