Before having dinner with a friend last night (August 22, 2012), he handed me a copy of the August issue of Opera News. While he knows that I am not a voracious reader of most industry publications, he said "A lot of your friends are in this issue; just glance…
Read MoreCange’s Corner
World Choir Games (Cincinnati). But where are the attorneys???
As the city of Cincinnati continues its incredible renaissance by reclaiming historic neighborhoods, redeveloping long neglected public lands, and renovating the most spectacular collection of Italianate architecture ever seen in the United States, one was struck this past week by the presence of thousands of visitors, and hundreds of choirs,…
Read MoreThere ARE no recipes!!!!
When I have friends over for a meal, and the dinner plates are readied for consumption, I am often the recipient of looks of disbelief from my guests. "This looks amazing", "My god David, this looks delicious", "Oh my god, I can't wait to start eating"...these are just of few…
Read MoreAnd then there were 5…(generations)
The passage of time is so sneaky, we hardly note the 'tick-tick-tock' of life's clock. Then one day we awake and realize that we have grown old(er) {see: Old in San Diego, from the August 2011 blog archive}. Sometimes it is sad, as when we realized that our childhoods were…
Read More100 years YOUNG??? (Dallas Symphony and Bruckner)
When one tallies the affect and effect of 100 years' time, we can clearly say "Wow; how things have changed!" as much as we can say "Wow; some things never change!" My grandmother turns 100 this year. She lived through two world wars, the Great Depression, enjoyed radio--but also saw…
Read MoreMaking History: Dallas Opera–and a decades old production!!
With each breath and step we take, a sliver of history is created: Micro-history, I like to call it. Macro-history, however, is created via demonstrable over-arches that bend the arc of narrative...at least, and until--in the case of records--they are replaced. Such will be the case later this week when…
Read MoreA Steady Diet of Bach (A Dallas Symphony Orchestra/St. Matthew Passion experience: March 29, 2012)
As an undergraduate music student at Baldwin-Wallace College (now Baldwin-Wallace University) in Northeast Ohio, we were force-fed an unrelenting amount of music by, arguably, the greatest composer to have ever lived, Johann Sebastian Bach (just don’t tell Mozart or Beethoven…and for goodness’ sake, don’t breathe a word to Wagner!). The…
Read MoreVann Vocal Institute, 2012 (Trying to keep our sanity…)
As some of you know, in addition to my operatic performance career, I have spent the last five years establishing (by invitation) a small but growing vocal institute in Montgomery, Alabama; a city with which I have had a decades-long association. As the Artistic Director of the Vann Vocal Institute…
Read MoreCOC's "Love from Afar": The joys and challenges of contemporary opera!
This past weekend, a friend and I attended the other current offering at Canadian Opera Company; Kaija Saariaho's Love from Afar, based on the 12th century poetic text La Vida breve by Jaufre Rudel, with modern libretto by Amin Maalouf, and stage direction by Daniele Finzi Pasca. As the "Hollywood-ization"--or…
Read MoreWhen a "Fantasy" becomes reality…(LOC's 'Fantasy of the Opera, 2012' takes center stage)
If one ever wonders what happens when a bunch of opera singers meet well dressed donors under a themed evening of glamor, drinks, dinner/dancing, and a cabaret performance where anything BUT opera is performed; they need go no further than the Lyric Opera of Chicago to find out. Once a…
Read More"Afternoon Delight"…a COC regularity!
On this cold, foggy, but rainy Toronto Tuesday, in the midst of a winter that won't make up its mind; the Greater Toronto Area ("The GTA" to us regulars...ha, ha...not really a regular...but I just couldn't resist) had the opportunity to shed a few pounds over their lunch hour. That…
Read MoreCOC: The most interesting Opera Company in North America???
During a recent industry related conversation, one of opera's most informed insiders intimated to me that Canadian Opera Company (COC) would, "in five years' time, become the most interesting (opera) house in North America." While it is not likely for me to question the authority of this source, I found…
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