The Newsletter is now “The Blogger’s Opera”

The World & Opera are changing so fast that today I am abandoning the old posted Newsletter format on this website and converting to “The Blogger’s Opera”, an interactive site which will allow all of us to keep up with everything Operatic in the Bay Area and the World.

In addition to my regular Opera contributions, all of you can post your thoughts, news and reviews of operas, broadcasts, CDs & DVDs. In addition , you can pose questions for discussion, post ads for tickets needed and to sell, trade opera CDs/DVDs/books, etc. and much more. Anything about Opera is appropriate. I hope that you will pass this information on to your firends and make “The Blogger’s Opera” a regular stop.

Will Kent, October 1, 2008

A Small Preview of my Fall Course at SRJC

I am busy finishing up the preparations for my new Passion for Opera course that I will teach this Fall (September 30- November 4) at Santa Rosa Junior College. The class is titled:  “Bringing Down the House” and you can read a full description of it on this website under 2010 Courses. To register call 707-527-4371

I always discover many new and exciting singers each year,  and one of the singers I will be featuring in the Fall is the Bulgarian soprano, Alexandrina Pendatchanska.  Pendatchanska  is blessed with a beautiful, distinctive, agile, expressive voice that has grown by leaps and bounds in the approximately 20 years since she was 17 years old when this video was made.

The video is introduced by the great Bugarian dramatic soprano, Ghena Dimitrova, who recently died.  It is a rare singer who can manage the astonishing dramatic coloratura roles by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.  Here Pendatschanska proves that if she could sing like this at the age of 17, it’s little wonder that she’s a star in Europe. The puzzling question, of course, is WHY aren’t the U.S. Opera houses picking her up?

See what you think…there will be more of  Pendatchanska in the Fall,  and I predict you won’t forget her soon!  Here she “brings down the house” with E strano…Sempre libera from Verdi’s La Traviata

Rialto Cinema and Elsie Allen High School Fringe Aid Presents: “Dancing Across Borders”

Rialto Cinema is partnering with Elsie Allen High School’s drama department to

present Sonoma County’s premiere of the acclaimed documentary film, “Dancing Across Borders”.  The one night show is on July 29th at7 pm.

This is a benefit event to help the award winning drama students at Elsie
Allen High School raise the $56,000 necessary for themselves and their drama
instructor, Rob Burt, to attend the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s
largest drama festival.  Elsie Allen was chosen from over 2,000 nominees to be
one of 75 American high schools to perform at the Fringe Festival.  At the
Festival they will perform  plays that are written and produced by Elsie Allen
students and they will be mentored by master actors, costume designers and
make-up artists.  Rialto Cinema has graciously agreed to provide their largest
theater on the evening of July 29th for this event. The film is an inspiring
story about a young Cambodian dancer and the development of talent and the
mastery of an art form.  Please visit www.dancingacrossborders.net for a sneak
preview about this amazing movie.  In addition, before the film starts,
classical Cambodian Dancer/ChoreographerCharya Burt will deliver a special live
performance with San Francisco Opera cellist Ruth Lane.

Tickets are $20 and are available at the Rialto Box office, through Brown Paper

Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com, or from Kathy Korlin at 707-569-0757. If
you are not able to attend but would like to send in a donation to support this
worthy tax deductible cause, you may make your check out to EAHS Fringe Aid and
send it to Elsie Allen High School, attention Rob Burt, 599 Bellevue Ave., Santa
Rosa, CA  95407

Thoughts on Fleming, Armida & HD Transmissions

Renee Fleming is, amongst other things,  a thoughtful artist.  Whether in her book on singing or in interviews (as the one here), she comes across as a passionate singer intent on spreading the word about opera to all. She has followed her goal magnificently.

I have followed Fleming’s career with enthusiasm since first hearing the live recording she made of Rossini’s Armida at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro in 1993. I was struck by the beauty and glamor in the voice, the amazing agility of her instrument in this florid music and  a vocal range that rose to the heights and plunged to the depths with equal thrill.  In 1997, I heard Fleming  at Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York in her only other performance of Armida after Pesaro; it confirmed that in person  she was every bit as accomplished  as her recording purported.

So, it was great interest and a bit of angst  that I attended her current run at the Met of Armida ( a Met premier)  earlier this week (13 years after Carnegie Hall) and then watched the HD transmission of Armida on Saturday at the Rialto.

It is always amazing to me what an actress Fleming is!  Seemingly,  reserved and cautious off stage and just plain awkward as an interviewer at intermissions in the HD transmissions, she literally abandons her own persona as she takes on  Manon, Violetta, the Marschallin or the sorceress Armida on stage.  The voice has lost some of its agility and definitely some of the extremes of range from 13 years ago,  but that is to be expected.  The beauty of voice remains and what it  has gained is color, nuance, interpretation and a certain freedom to  sacrifice perfection when needed  for expression.

As wonderful as the HD Transmission is ( and it adds much to opera), I was pleased to find that for me it does not replace or exceed the experience of being at the Met and hearing great performances live.  As I sat through the performance at the Rialto on Saturday,   I appreciated the intimacy that HD  brings to the audience by making every seat the best in the house.  But HD also equalizes the voices too much and separates them out from the orchestra.  As a result,  one misses how vocal volume and projection and vocal  blend with the orchestra  can thrill and mesmerize best  in the context of a live in theater experience.

It’s a happy day for opera that we have both experiences available.  And although Armida was mostly about Fleming, Lawrence Brownlee was a standout about whom I’ll have more to say.

Announcing Fall Opera Class SRJC

I’ve posted a description of my  Fall, 2010 Opera Class and the optional San Francisco Opera Performance the class will attend. In the menu at the top of the page to your  left,  please click on 2010 Courses to read about “Bringing Down the House!”

I’m really having fun preparing it. Any questions or comments?  Let me know what you think!

Rialto Cinemas to be Honored

There has been a great community outcry, since we learned that the lease was taken away from The Rialto Cinemas who will be forced to move in a couple of months.  Ky Boyd, the owner,  has served the community in more ways than I can list. For those of us who love Opera, Ky brought the Met Live in HD transmissions ( at great risk and expense) to Santa Rosa, Sonoma County and beyond.  

Ky seems to be successful in everything he does, which obviously was his undoing in a climate where greed and self interest reign supreme.  We will miss the Rialto Ciinemas but look forward to following Ky wherever he wants to move his theater.

You can show your support for  Ky and the Rialto Cinemas and demonstrate how important he is to the community by attending the presentation by the City of Santa Rosa of a Special City of Santa Rosa Recognition on Tuesday, May 4th at the Council Chambers, City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue. The presentation will be at the top of the agenda.

Adler Fellows Perform in Healdsburg August 3rd

Here’s an announcement about an exciting opera event coming up in Healdsburg.  Leah Crocetto,  soprano and current Adler Fellow,  was a winner in the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions!!

Plaza Arts Center/Healdsburg Center for the Arts presents the 8th Annual OPERA IN THE GARDEN, featuring young artists from the Adler Fellows Program of the San Francisco Opera.  We invite you to Healdsburg to hear some of  the international stars of tomorrow singing in the lush gardens of Madrona Manor followed by an opportunity to meet them over a sumptuous dinner prepared by chef Jesse Mallgren. The event will be held on Tuesday August 3rd. If you would like an invitation to this event please forward your name and mailing address to David Robinson at drobinson501@aol.com

Rolando Villazon’s Comeback, Vienna 3/22/10

Rolando Villazon sang for the first time  on the opera stage since his vocal cord surgery  Monday night at the Vienna State Opera. Villazon has been plagued with vocal problems for 2 years which culminated in his diagnosis of a vocal cord cyst.  By all accounts he scored a triumph in Vienna on Monday.

From the miracle of you tube, see what you think.  His ovation was 15 minutes long.  The thought of Opera without Villazon has been very depressing.  Opera is looking ever so much brighter today.

Musical Divas

Divas can be naughty and disappoint some to please others (and usually themselves). After the triumph mezzo Elina Garanca had in the Met’s new production of  Carmen, this year, (replacing Angela Gheorghiu, who canceled all Carmen performances with  her estranged husband, Roberto Alagna) it’s not that surprising that Garanca will not be making her debut at San Francisco Opera in Werther this Fall.

Garanca is a superstar now,  and she calls the shots.  The shots are often related to money,  and money is more valuable and easier had in Europe than in far off San Francisco. Word has it that David Gockley discovered on Garanca’s website that she was booked for several lucrative  recitals in Europe at the same time she was supposed to be in San Francisco, so he fired her…  better now than the “indisposed” announcement a week before opening night.

And speaking of cancellations,  Gheorghiu recently announced that she “doesn’t want to make so important a debut in a role like Carmen at the Met with just the 2 remaining performances she didn’t cancel( even though they are with her preferred tenor, Jonas Kaufmann),  so she canceled those too.  (I suspect that Gheorghiu saw Garanca in the HD Carmen Transmission and realized that she wasn’t a mezzo).  Replacing Gheorghiu will be the amazing mezzo, Kate Aldrich, who should be a great seductress to Kaufmann’s Don Jose.

And who will replace Garanca in Werther in San Francisco?   British mezzo, Alice Coote.  Here she is in Handel’s Alcina

And here’s Angela’s replacement at the Met: Kate Aldrich, whoops with Roberto Alagna. From Donizetti’s La Favorita.

A Tragedy of Operatic Proportions

Dan Tocchini and his Santa Rosa Entertainment Group’s takeover of the Rialto Cinemas is a tragedy of operatic proportions for the people of Sonoma County.  The ousters have put bullets through the hearts of thousands of movie goers, opera lovers and theater aficionados who revel in the magic that Ky Boyd and his Rialto staff bring to their patrons.  I have never been so mesmerized in a movie theater as in the past 3 years, watching, with a packed audience at the Rialto, live transmissions from the Metropolitan Opera.

Boyd took a huge financial chance on this venture and many others because he believes that the bottom line doesn’t always trump movies and entertainment that don’t attract mass audiences.  With that kind of heart and entrepreneurial spirit, the Rialto apparently became a victim of its own success and attractive pickings for large predators.

Rolando Villazon Sings Again!

Well for all of the embarrassment of the British reality TV show, From Pop Star to Opera Star,  it all seems justified by having Rolando Villazon,  who stars on the show,  sing for the first time in public since his surgery and year long absence from the opera stage.

Even though he is miked,  the innate and thrilling beauty of the Villazon sound is there in copious amounts as are the depth and breadth of  the astounding passion that is Villazon’s trademark.  The song  is L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra by Francesco Tosti.

It’s a great comeback,  and one that will hopefully lead Villazon back to the opera stage,  unmiked for the continuation  of this tenor’s glorious career.

The You Tube has some technical glitches that aren’t the fault of your computer,  but it’s well worth ignoring and hearing Villazon to the finish!

SF Opera 2010 The Makropulos Case

Opera is full of strange stories, but Janacek’s 1926 opera,  The Makropulos Case comes close to winning the Gold.  It is the last Fall offering of the San Francisco Opera season for 2010-11.  Even to  give a synopsis would spoil the fantastical mystery of the opera…so it’s best to come to be entertained by the great soprano Karita Mattila as Emilia Marty (a diva to end all divas) and just let the story unfold.   Mattila has become a Janacek specialist and San Francisco has had the chance to see her magnificent performance  in Kat’a Kabanova. She has also widely perfomed Jenufa.  This opera premiered in the same year as Puccini’s Turandot,  but that is the only thing these two operas have in common.  Here is the great soprano, Anja Silja as Emilia Marty.

Jonas Kaufmann in Recital LA Opera!

Just announced:  Jonas Kaufmann will make his debut with Los Angeles Opera in a recital on March 11, 2011.  Hold your breath and watch the upcoming announcements for Cal Performances 2010/11 season.  Kaufmann just might be headed to Berkeley.  If not, get to LA.!!

Kaufmann at the Paris Opera 2010 as Werther:  Pourquoi me reveiller

SF Opera 2010 Cyrano de Bergerac

Franco Alfano is best known as the composer Toscanini asked to finish Act 3 of  Turandot following Puccini’s untimely death in 1924.  Poor Alfano has been bashed ever since as the hack who ruined Puccini’s masterpiece,  paying little attention to what the great maestro had intended.  As a result and/or  in spite of the “hack job”,  Turandot today is one of Puccini’s most popular if not greatest works, and most of us love Alfano’s ending.

Franco Alfano (1875-1954) also composed 8 of his own operas in the first half of the 20th century.  All had fallen into obscurity until Placido Domingo resurrected Cyrano de Bergerac (1936) as a vehicle to sing as he approaches 70.  Since that time a few other tenors have followed his lead adding Cyrano to their repertoire.

Will Alfano’s work remain  in the standard repertoire once Domingo drops the role in the next decade? Probably not. Domingo is the star here and the opera is secondary.  These performances will be memorable and legendary and most likely sell out. They’re not making Domingos anymore!

SF Opera 2010: Madama Butterfly

Butterfly Again? It fills the seats, and it’s Puccini;  so it’s not all bad.   Patricia Racette has been a pretty spectacular Butterfly here for the last several outings,  so 2010 brings us 2 new unremarkable casts for this run with the exception of the return of  Daniela Dessi to San Francisco Opera in the role of Butterfly.

Dessi was recently fired by Franco Zefferelli from the Rome production of  Traviata because she was too old and “fat”.  You would think that Zefferelli,  who is far too old himself and whose productions are always HUGE, would have a sweet tooth for large sopranos,  having worked with, fawned over and  hired many in his day.  Or perhaps,  his comments only state the obvious about Dessi,  skirting what he really thinks.  Perhaps…just perhaps,  she can’t sing???

San Francisco will have the chance to see for themselves as this Italian cult legend arrives to portray a 15 year old geisha.  If the voice is close to what it has been in the past,  she’ ll triumph.  If not, this Butterfly may well become a legendary camp performance.  See what you think:

SF Opera 2010: Nozze di Figaro

It will be good to have a Mozart masterpiece, The Marriage of Figaro, back at San Francisco Opera. I would have preferred the less often heard and,  in my opinion, ultimate Mozart opera: La Clemenza di Tito; however, the success of both operas depends on a great cast of Mozartian singers.

The Marriage of Figaro shows promise first and foremost with the Figaro of  Bass-Baritone, Luca Pisaroni, a singer of elegance and vocal beauty. I still have not made a decision about soprano Danielle DeNiese (Susanna).  I have not heard her live, and her Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice in the Met HD broadcast a couple of years ago offered too little to tell.  Her CD’s and You Tube offerings, however, are less impressive than her looks, always suggesting to me an operatic conflict of interests. 

I look forward to experiencing soprano, Ellie Dehn as the Countess and baritone Lucas Meacham as the Count. Both are relatively unknowns who early on are showing signs of great potential. The pressure will be on Dehn, especially,  to prove her worth in such an iconic role.  Be aware that this cast is scheduled only through 10/5 with several changes for the last several performances.

Here are Pisaroni and De Niese in the opening duet from The Marriage of Figaro: