Que horas são em São Paulo, Brasil ?

domingo, outubro 28, 2007

One Voice for Innocence and Experience


PAMINA is soft, gentle and lovely; the Queen of the Night is angular, cold and brilliant. Yet the German soprano Diana Damrau is to sing both of these roles, the female leads in Mozart’s “Zauberflöte,” at the Metropolitan Opera within two months.

It is not unheard of for a soprano to try both roles in the course of a career. Although the Queen of the Night is the mother and Pamina the daughter (the original Pamina, Anna Gottlieb, was only 17), singers today tend to reverse the chronology. They take on the Queen of the Night — a physically taxing part, with its high-flying cascades of notes carrying the voice to its uppermost reaches — when they are young and have more stamina. Some former queens take up Pamina, with its more mellifluous and sustained singing, as their voices ripen. Lucia Popp sang both parts at the Met, the Queen of the Night in 1967 and Pamina in 1981. Mary Dunleavy was the queen in 1998 and 2001, Pamina in 2006. READ MORE HERE

No one has ever sung both roles at the house in a single season. But Ms. Damrau is fearless.

sábado, outubro 27, 2007

Music Review | 'Macbeth'


The Scottish Opera: The Thane, His Lady, That Spot


There was much news at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday night. For the first time in nearly 20 years the company presented Verdi’s breakthrough early masterpiece, “Macbeth,” in a stylistically eclectic, grimly effective and, at times, intriguingly playful production by the English director Adrian Noble, making his Met debut. As Macbeth, the baritone Zeljko Lucic, little known to Met audiences, gave an honorable and affecting performance of an intimidating role.


Related

An audio excerpt from the Metropolitan Opera's production of 'Macbeth' on October 22. (mp3)

Yet the big news came from the artist whose excellence should by now be no news at all: James Levine. Two years ago Mr. Levine’s poor health and reduced stamina were affecting his work. No longer. He looks much better and more fit, and is conducting with seeming focus and bountiful energy. READ MORE HERE

quinta-feira, outubro 25, 2007

Leilão de pertences de Maria Callas


Sotheby's leiloa cartas e vestidos de Maria Callas em Milão

Plantão | Publicada em 24/10/2007 às 11h29m

Reuters/Brasil Online

MILÃO (Reuters) - Diversos objetos pessoais da diva da ópera Maria Callas, que vão desde cartas de amor até vestidos de noite, serão postos em leilão em Milão, em dezembro.

Os objetos, que pertencem aos herdeiros do falecido marido da cantora lírica, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, lançam luz sobre aspectos da vida que Callas dividiu com o homem a quem deixou antes de ter uma relação explosiva com o armador grego Aristóteles Onassis.

A coleção a ser leiloada pela Sotheby's inclui cerca de 295 objetos, incluindo materiais comprados por Meneghini num leilão após a morte da cantora grega-americana, em 1977, disse uma porta-voz.

Cartas de amor escritas por Callas a Meneghini, industrial italiano que era 28 anos mais velho que ela e atuava como seu empresário, serão oferecidas por entre 50 mil euros e 70 mil euros.

Fotos de "La Divina" no palco e uma delas com o presidente americano John F. Kennedy serão oferecidas por a partir de 1.000 euros. O metrônomo de seu uso pessoal terá lance mínimo entre 1.000 e 1.500 euros.

O leilão também vai incluir vestidos de noite criados pelo estilista Biki, de Milão.

Nascida em Nova York, Maria Callas tornou-se um dos maiores ícones do século 20 e é vista como responsável, praticamente sozinha, pelo renascimento do "bel canto" italiano.

Callas, que cantou no teatro de ópera La Scala de Milão, morreu em 1977, aos 53 anos.

O leilão vem atraindo interesse da Grécia, que no passado comprou relíquias antes pertencentes à soprano.

"Tudo o que posso dizer é que estamos interessados", disse um funcionário do Ministério da Cultura grego, Panayiotis Kakoliris. Ele não revelou quanto o país estará disposto a gastar, nem como o dinheiro será levantado.

Nascida com o nome Maria Kalogeropoulos, Callas apresentou-se na Grécia pela primeira vez aos 18 anos de idade. Ela é adorada mesmo por pessoas que não são fãs da ópera.

O leilão acontecerá em 12 de dezembro, e uma exposição será aberta ao público em 7 de dezembro.

terça-feira, outubro 23, 2007

SOMBRAS DE GOYA
































Sombras de Goya

(Goya's Ghosts, 2006)


» Direção: Milos Forman
» Roteiro: Milos Forman, Jean-Claude Carrière
» Gênero: Drama
» Origem: Espanha
» Duração: 114 minutos
» Tipo: Longa
» Trailer: clique aqui
» Site: clique aqui

» Sinopse: Nos primeiros anos do século XIX, em meio ao radicalismo da Inquisição e à iminente invasão da Espanha pelas tropas de Napoleão, o gênio artístico do pintor espanhol Francisco Goya é reconhecido na corte do Rei Carlos IV. Inés, a jovem modelo e musa do pintor, é presa sob a falsa acusação de heresia. Nem as intervenções do influente Frei Lorenzo, também retratado por Goya, conseguem evitar que ela seja brutalmente torturada nos porões da Igreja. Estes personagens e os horrores da guerra, com os seus fantasmas, alimentam a pintura de Goya, testemunha atormentada de uma época turbulenta.

» Elenco ::.

- Ator/Atriz Personagem

- Javier Bardem Irmão Lorenzo

- Natalie Portman clique para ver o perfil Inés / Alicia

- Stellan Skarsgård Goya

- Randy Quaid Rei Carlos IV

- Blanca Portillo Rainha María Luisa

- Michael Lonsdale Padre Gregorio

- José Luis Gómez Tomás Bilbatúa

- Mabel Rivera María Isabel Bilbatúa

Annick Massis


Annick Massis has performed the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor numerous times. But she’s lost none of her fascination with the musical and dramatic complexities of the character.

“She is fragile, but also very strong. She is mad, but normal,” declares the French soprano. “She is living in a time and place when women have no power. And everyone betrays her—Enrico, even Edgardo and Raimondo. So to go mad feels right.”

Massis also sang the role at the Met in 2002, becoming the first French soprano to do so since Lily Pons. But she is eager to recreate it in Mary Zimmerman’s staging—which she will do on October 17, 20, and 25. “When you have a new production, there is a new energy that’s very exciting!”

She especially appreciates Zimmerman’s openness to performers’ ideas. And she looks forward to exploring her chemistry with the cast, in particular during Lucia’s two duets—the first-act love scene with Edgardo and the second-act confrontation with Enrico—which she feels are crucial musical and theatrical counterpoints to each other.

With such dramatic riches before her, she is vigilant about not getting carried away vocally. “You must always be thinking,” she explains. “Otherwise you will come to the end, and… !!”

The end she’s referring to is Lucia’s famous mad scene, at which point she feels that she must hold nothing back. “It is an honor to perform a mad scene,” Massis says, her eyes glowing with enthusiasm. “You are giving yourself totally to the audience, and they are giving themselves to you. It is a very powerful communal experience, a privileged moment.” —Ellen Keel

Ifigênia in Tauride

The Met’s New Iphigénie Opens in Seattle

October 15, 2007

Stephen Wadsworth’s stunning new production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, which opens at the Met on November 27, had its premiere at Seattle Opera last Saturday, where it won a tumultuous ovation as well as critical praise. “Wadsworth is a master at extracting meaningful drama from every scene,” the Seattle Times said, going on to call the production, "a theatrical marvel." The Seattle Post-Intelligencer asked, “How could such a gem of the lyric theater escape notice for so long?” The production, the newspaper said, was "a rare treasure," and the work itself, "an opera of astonishing beauty." Here’s a photo from the production.

Photo © Rozarii Lynch

It’s the first time the Met and the Seattle Opera have joined forces for a co-production. The Met presents eight performances of Gluck’s work through the end of December with Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo in the leading roles and French conductor Louis Langrée making his company debut.

domingo, outubro 21, 2007

Aida no Cradicard Hall - São Paulo

Efeitos clássicos

AÍDA
Egito: a ópera de Giuseppe Verdi estreou no Cairo em 1871. São Paulo: produção traz 240
artistas em cena

Caio Quero

Shows pirotécnicos, efeitos especiais, projeções em três dimensões, figurinos luxuosos e mais de duas centenas de artistas em cena fazem parte da supermontagem ‘Aida - Monumental Opera’. O espetáculo, que se confundiria facilmente com mais um dos musicais da Broadway em cartaz na cidade, desembarca em São Paulo para uma temporada que começa na quinta (25) e segue até 4 de novembro. A produção é do alemão Franz Abraham, com direção do americano Joseph Rochilitz.

Com ares dos grandes musicais que se misturam ao universo lírico da ópera composta em 1871 pelo italiano Giuseppe Verdi, o espetáculo traz a Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional da Ucrânia e o Coro Nacional Acadêmico do mesmo país, além de um corpo de bailarinos checos. Quem comanda a orquestra é o alemão Walter Haupt, que já esteve no Brasil em duas ocasiões, para a cantata cênica ‘Carmina Burana’, de Carl Orff.

Entre os solistas estão a soprano usbeque Assia Davidov e a mexicana Eugenia Garza, interpretando o papel título, e mais sete cantores, entre europeus e latino-americanos.



Onde: Credicard Hall (4.000 lug.). Av. das Nações Unidas, 17.955, Santo Amaro, 6846- 6010. Quando: 5ª (25) a 29/10 e 1 a 4/11. 2ª e 5ª, 21h; 6ª, 22h; sáb., 17h e 22h; dom. , 15h30 e 20h30. Quanto: R$ 90 a R$ 320.

terça-feira, outubro 16, 2007

FALECIMENTO

CARLOS VIAL - no detalhe - foto tirada no Theatro Municipal de Snøa Paulo em 1982 na Ópera " O Navio Fantasma" , juntamente com seus amigos , da esq para direita, Regina Elena Mesquita, Eloisa Falcomer, Caio Ferraz, Luiz Tenaglia, Eloisa Baldin, Vera Ritter e sentados, Joaquim Paulo do Espírito Santo e Maestro Mário Zaccaro.



É com muita tristeza que comunico aqui a morte de meu querido amigo, professor e grande cantor Carlos Augusto Vial.
Ele tinha somente 57 anos e fomos amigos por 30 anos.
Hoje pela manhã ainda estivemos juntos no Theatro Municipal, onde trabalhávamos, e ele só se queixou que estava com dor na coluna ... foi para sua casa e não teve tempo para nada, nem de chamar por socorro....

É um grande perda para o Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, para o Coral Lírico Municipal, onde ele atuou por 37 anos , nos últimos 10 ou 15 anos era nosso orientador vocal, para a Escola Municipal de Música, onde era professor de canto, para seus inúmeros alunos, para seus amigos, sua irmã Helena, para seu amigo Nelson e para todos nós , seus amigos ....

Adeus meu amigo.....

segunda-feira, outubro 15, 2007

PRODUCTION NEW TO SAN FRANCISCO OPERA

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder

F illed with ritual and symbolism, Mozart’s final masterpiece is a playful but profound look at man's search for love and his struggle to attain wisdom and virtue.
From the virtuosic arias of the Queen of the Night to the folksong-like melodies of the bird catcher Papageno, the full range of Mozart's miraculous talent is on display in this magical fairy-tale opera. Donald Runnicles conducts an enchanting cast headed by the rising Russian-American soprano Dina Kuznetsova and the lauded lyric tenor Piotr Beczala, whose moving portrayal of Lensky in San Francisco Opera's Eugene Onegin was hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "triumphant."



Tamino: Piotr Beczala
Pamina: Dina Kuznetsova
Papageno: Christopher Maltman*
The Queen of the Night: Erika Miklósa*
Sarastro: Georg Zeppenf
For a full cast listing with artist profiles, click here


Conductor: Donald Runnicles /Donato Cabrera (10/31)
Original Production: Sr Peter Hall
Director: Stanley M Garner*
Designer: Gerald Scarfe*
Lighting Designer: Michael Gottlieb
Original Lighting Designer: Richard Pilbrow






Don Carlos gets personal on a grand scale


Don Carlos
October 15, 2007

CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC




(out of 4)

By Giuseppe Verdi. Canadian Opera Company. Conducted by Paolo Olmi. Directed by John Caird. To Nov. 3 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W.
416-363-8231

We all know that it's not safe to go to the movies, or the opera house, for a history lesson. Instead, for the price of admission, we expect to be transported to somewhere beyond our day-to-day world.

In the case of the original Don Carlos by 19th-century Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, it's a 3 3/4-hour trip through the emotional and social havoc created by an egotistical, absolute monarch.

The opera's depiction of 16th-century Spanish King Philip II, son Don Carlos, third wife Elisabeth de Valois, intrigue at the Spanish court, the Inquisition and pleas from oppressed people in Flanders is based in fact.

But librettists Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle crafted an uneasy mix of grand spectacle and personal pathos for the five-act work commissioned for the Paris Exposition of 1867.

Verdi revisited his score several times after the premiere, eventually settling on a much shorter Italian version for Milan in 1884.

In either version, this is Verdi at the height of his powers, pushing the right emotional button at the right moment. But it takes a rare combination of talent and skill to balance the grand with the personal, to make an emotional impact without clobbering the audience, to move the story forward without truncating the arc of each scene.

The choruses are rousing. The solos, duets, trios and larger ensemble passages build and release tension so imperceptibly that the listener is experiencing the emotional reaction well before realizing how the manipulation has come about.

Best of all, despite Verdi's reputation for a heavy orchestral hand, the most powerful effects are wrought with solo melodies: a cello here, an oboe there. READ MORE

Met Legends: Marilyn Horne

The Guild Event Calendar

Thursday, November 29, 2007 8:00 PM
The Kaye Playhouse

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA GUILD PRESENTS

MET LEGENDS:
MARILYN HORNE


Photo by Marty Umans

In the inaugural event of a new Guild series, this great artist will join us to watch rare film and video clips of her performances and to discuss her life and career with OPERA NEWS editor and chief F. Paul Driscoll.

Program Tickets: $50 for Guild Members and Met Patrons; $75 for all others
Following the program, join Miss Horne and other guest artists for a champagne and dessert reception. $125 for priority seating and reception

For information and tickets, call 212-769-7009.

sábado, outubro 13, 2007

Tenor Joseph Kaiser in Met debut



















NEW YORK -- At 66, Placido Domingo says he's too old to sing the part of a love-struck teenage Romeo. But he's better suited than anyone for the role of coach and mentor to a young tenor who's considered a budding opera star.

Joseph Kaiser made his Metropolitan Opera debut Wednesday in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette," with Domingo - best known as a tenor - conducting the orchestra. Kaiser, a 29-year-old Canadian, was a surprise replacement for famed tenor Rolando Villazon, who canceled six weeks ago. READ MORE HERE

THE MET


Le Nozze di Figaro

(The Marriage of Figaro)

Approximate running time 3 hrs. 25 min.

Mozart’s eternal masterpiece features two superb ensemble casts, including Hei-Kyung Hong and Anja Harteros sharing the role of the Countess, Lisette Oropesa and Ekaterina Siurina as Susanna, Michele Pertusi and Simon Keenlys

ide as the Count, and Erwin Schrott and Bryn Terfel mining the inexhaustible riches of the title role.

The production of Le Nozze di Figaro

has been trimmed by one intermission. There is a brief pause between acts one and two.


Lucia di Lammermoor


Approximate running time 3 hrs. 25 min.

In this new production by acclaimed theater artist Mary Zimmerman and conducted by Maestro James Levine, Donizetti’s famous tragic heroine is portrayed by one of her greatest recent interpreters: Natalie Dessay. She brings vocal virtuosity and dramatic commitment to the role of the young woman who is cornered by forces that break her heart and mind. Marcello Giordani and Giuseppe Filianoti share the role of her lover Edgardo, while Mariusz Kwiecien is her scheming brother Enrico, and John Relyea is the compassionate Raimondo.


Opéra de Paris


Roméo et Juliette

Découvrez des extraits de Roméo et Juliette, la création chorégraphique de Sasha Waltz sur la musique de Berlioz.

L’Opéra de Paris crée l’événement en confiant à la chorégraphe berlinoise la partition de Berlioz - Roméo et Juliette - pour un spectacle qui réunit le Ballet, l'Orchestre et les Choeurs.

sexta-feira, outubro 12, 2007

"Senhor dos Palcos", ator Paulo Autran morre, aos 85 anos, em São Paulo


SÃO PAULO - O ator Paulo Autran morreu por volta das 16h desta sexta-feira, aos 85 anos, em São Paulo, com complicações pulmonares e cardíacas. A informação foi confirmada pela assessoria de imprensa do Hospital Sírio-Libanês, onde ele estava internado desde quinta-feira. Segundo informações da assessoria de imprensa do hospital, o estado do ator, que foi internado por problemas intestinais, piorou durante a madrugada da sexta-feira.

Autran lutava contra um câncer de pulmão e um enfisema pulmonar havia um ano, sendo submetido a tratamento de rádio e quimioterapia. Por causa da doença, o ator, que fumava desde os 23 anos, foi internado diversas vezes. Apenas nos últimos 15 dias, foram duas internações. LEIA MAIS

ELENA SULIOTIS
























The Short Happy Life of Elena Suliotis
JAMES C. WHITSON remembers the soprano who skyrocketed through the opera world in the 1960s.


Few singers possess a genuine stage presence — that magnetic quality that keeps one's eyes glued to them — and fewer still command that kind of attention on record. Only one, in my experience, has walked straight through the speakers and right into my living room. She looked innocent enough — the first band on Side 2 of Decca's greatest hits collection, The Royal Family of Opera. But Elena Suliotis, in the guise of Abigaille, bent both Nabucco and me to her will in one of the most electrifying portrayals ever committed to disc.

That excerpt, from the 1965 recording with Tito Gobbi ( "Salgo già del trono aurato" from Nabucco, as heard on the 1965 Decca recording [Decca 417 407-2]), was her studio debut, and it turned out to be the apex of her short recording career. Within ten years of her professional debut, Suliotis's voice was in ruins. Her career is frequently described as "meteoric," a term both flattering and pejorative. Her discography mirrors that dichotomy — volcanic temperament and coruscating focus in a live Gioconda from Buenos Aires, and in the studio Norma, graceless phrasing and clumsy passagework in turn. Read More Here

Opéra National de Paris

Philippe Jordan Named as Music Director Designate of the Opéra National de Paris

October 12, 2007

Philippe Jordan
Philippe Jordan
© Johannes Ifkovits 2007
Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan has been named the music-director designate of the Opéra National de Paris, the company announced today.

Jordan, 32, the son of the late conductor Armin Jordan, will join the Paris Opera beginning with its 2009-10 season. He currently holds the title of principal guest conductor at Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden, in addition to being a regular in European and American opera houses. He previously served as chief conductor of Graz Opera. This season, he conducts the Met's performances of Le Nozze di Figaro before making his debut with the New York Philharmonic. Next season, he is slated to pace a Ring cycle at the Zurich opera house.

Per his appointment, Jordan effectively replaces conductor James Conlon, who in 2004 stepped down as the Paris Opéra's music director to assume the same position with Los Angeles Opera. Since then, the French company has relied on a spate of guest conductors to fill the role. Jordan's appointment will find him beginning his tenure concurrent to that of the company's new director, Nicolas Joel, who was announced last December as the successor to Gérard Mortier.
More information can be found at the Opéra National de Paris and the OPERA NEWS Archives.