Moving-moments. Photos from Adriana in Berlin

Photo @ Bettina Stoss, moving-moments.de
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That's the name of the photographer's website. So here you go. There are 4 pages of photos from Adriana Lecouvreur, Deutsche Oper Berlin, October 2010. The concert performance featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann.
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Screening of R&J in Bucharest, June 28

Part of Bucharest Music Film Festival that takes place every year in Bucharest, Romeo et Juliette, the movie, will be screened on Tuesday evening, starting at 9pm local time in "George Enescu" Square, right next to the Romanian Athenaeum.

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I'm sure you've seen it many times on DVD, but if you're around, take a seat and enjoy it. No admission fee. And hopefully, no rain.
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Libertango. By Martha

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More Martha. Bare with me :)
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I always found it amazing that the fingers know where to go on the keyboard by themselves. Her eyes are following the score. It happened to me many times and I still can't explain it. Doesn't this video make you feel good? Smile with her!

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2 for 1 ticket offer from Evening Standard

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Evening Standard readers can purchase 2 for 1 tickets on £65 and £90 tickets for the concert on O2 Arena on July 29. More details here.
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Angela Gheorghiu talks to Jon Tolansky, interview in Opera Magazine

The interview was published in the July issue of the British magazine Opera. Just because it can't be read online unless you have a subscription (except for the first two pages that are posted here), I'll make a summary, for curious minds.
The three main topics are Tosca, ROH's production and Angela's observations on the role:

[...] Puccini, like Verdi, was a genius in the subtle way he could make a voice change its characteristics as the course of events in the drama affects the personality of the role. In Tosca, the textures and colours of the vocal and orchestral writing when Tosca sings in the first-act duet with Cavaradossi convey such a girlish quality in her. There is a freshness and sweetness in the lines, they are almost innocent-sounding, even though of course she knows how to entrance her man, and she knows what it is to feel jealous. There is a youthful delicacy in her in this duet, and Puccini gives the soprano a great challenge to convey this and then follow it with such a dramatic difference later when she becomes distressed and we see how strong she is as she fights so hard to protect Cavaradossi.[...]
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Then they talk about Puccini's "Madama Butterfly", the meanings and interpretation.

[...] That moment after Sharpless has asked Cio Cio San what she would do if Pinkerton were not to come back, when Butterfly replies, "Two things I could do - go back to entertaining the people with my songs - or better - to die", sounds so chillingly real in Gheorghiu's performance because she so accurately fulfills Puccini's instructions: "Butterfly is struck numb as though from a mortal blow to the body - she sings in a voice sounding like a child's submission, almost stammering". [...] And although Gheorghiu has consciously prepared dramatic truth by her fastidious observation of the score, the actuality of the expression has been emotionally spontaneous.
"Maybe 80 per cent of the time I am on stage or in front of a microphone, I am not at that moment thinking about singing or about technique. It is like my soul, it is something different, it is not the voice. The voice is also there, it has to be there, and it has had to be prepared - but at that moment of singing the preformance, there is more. The response is never a conscious exaggeration - it is a natural expression. I am never pretending. I am never playing to play. It is just how I am at that moment. And it costs"
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The last character they talk about is Adriana Lecouvreur, mentioning the recent premiere at the ROH.

[...] Gheorghiu defines what is surely a vital characteristic of Adriana's personality and appeal when she refers to the "almost dreamy" music Cilea sometimes gives her on the one hand and the powerful strength she expresses on the other. This elusive and illusory element, inextricably part of the fragile line between fantasy and reality in Adriana's life and art, was one of the most magical and subtle qualities in Gheorghiu's performance, conveying so tellingly the frailty and isolation Adriana feels beneath her glittering fame.
[...] You need to feel you are speaking before you are singing, otherwise the musical expression is not true, and also this is the only route to having the clarity of the voice. Of course in Adriana Lecouvreur the soprano has her dramatic spoken recitation at the end of act 3, which is such an unusual and wonderfully striking passage that I love to perform, but quite apart from that, in this verismo opera I hear the words in the libretto spoken in my mind before I sing them".
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Two more things are mentioned in the interview:
* that she'd like to direct an opera "and sooner maybe than you think! This is a real part of me, deep inside, and I do understand some things"
* and that a newly recorded CD of arias is coming out this autumn on EMI Classics.
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Citius, Altius, Fortius

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Via ROH's Facebook page. Now the part with the grey-ish surface she's standing on in the video makes sense. A photo that might be seen again as part ROH's Olympic campaign. Earlier in the day there was another one posted on FB, with the World Stage logo on it. Now it's gone.
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Keep on Photoshop-ing, dear ROH. Maybe more close ups to come?
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Angela and ROH's Olympics campaign

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Like, like, like!
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Thanks, H!

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Tosca, reissued by EMI

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Part of Home of the Opera collection, EMI reissued Tosca. There are three CDs, the third one being a Bonus CD containing the synopsys and the libretto in several languages.
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It's already available on Amazon.co.uk and soon available on Amazon.com (July 12)
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What makes a great soprano?

Hard to say. This BBC documentary tries to give an idea through the words of some of the best opera singers ever. Dame Kiri tells the story of her career and points out that it's all about the passion, the passion for singing which endures for a lifetime.
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It gets along perfectly with the Saturday morning coffee. Enjoy!
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Va-t-on vous revoir ensemble sur une scène?

... asked Alain Duault in the latest interview taken to A&R in Vienna last month and published in Qobuz Magazine. In a language more familiar to most of us, the title means "are we going to see you together on stage again"?

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He said ... "Non "
She said... "Non? "
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Hehehe.... think again?
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Then he said ... "Je ne sais pas... Je ne pense pas... Pour le moment... On a déjà fait beaucoup de choses ensemble... Pour un événement particulier, peut-être... " (I don't know... I don't think about that... for the moment. We sung a lot together. For a special event, maybe...)

Then she said... "On va voir. Il y a quelque temps, c'est moi qui ai dit non ; aujourd'hui, c'est Roberto... En fait, on ne sait pas [...]. (We will see. So far I was the one saying no. Now the one saying no is Roberto. In fact, we don't know)
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Ok, we got it. We're waiting for THE special event :). In the meantime, read the entire interview from Qobuz Magazine. There is a nice photo there too.
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La Boheme at Liceu, March 16 & 19, 2012

I heard that Barcelona looks great in Spring, la stagion dei fiori
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The tickets go on sale:
*July 4 to 10 - for subscribers
*July 12 - general booking
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If you're in town, also go listen to Teodor Ilincai. He's Rodolfo on March 15 and some other dates. Check out the entire cast list for all 18 performances of La Boheme at Liceu Barcelona.
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Win tickets for O2 concert via EMI Facebook page

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You just have to LIKE the post EMI & Virgin Classics Facebook page. They offer three pairs of tickets for the concert at O2 Arena on July 29. The lucky winners will be announced this Friday.
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L'elisir from Liceu 2005, in video

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This one and many more from that Liceu production back in 2005, via Facebook fan page
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Happy Birthday Martha Argerich!

She's 70 and still playing. I listen to her live four years ago and I'll go listen to her again pretty soon playing Beethoven's Triple Concerto, along with Capucon brothers. For me she's the best piano player in the world.
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Listen to her. Look at her fingers, her eyes. She feels the music and makes you dream with her. She hasn't changed a bit during her career. She's famous yet so gentle and shy and passionately into what she's doing. It's hard to name one favorite piece. Rachmaninov #3, Tchaikovsky #1, Beethoven #1 but not only the concerts. Also the solo pieces. I've chosen two, let's say... from then and now.
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Chopin - Polonaise #6 "L'heroique"

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And Witold Lutosławski, Variation on a Theme by Paganini for 2 pianos, with Martha and her lifetime friend Nelson Freire

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Bogdan Mihai, with Angela in Japan

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In a recent interview for Radio Romanian Cultural, the Romanian tenor Bogdan Mihai announced that he was invited to take part in the two concerts that Angela has in Japan, on October 11 and 16. If the other Romanians that joined Angela in concerts (Stefan Pop, Teodor Ilincai, Marius Manea, Vlad Mirita) are lyric tenors, Bogdan is the bel canto man. Which means.... different program. He says in the interview that he'd like a 100% belcanto program and that he wishes to sing together Vieni fra queste bracia, the duet from I Puritani. This one:

Wouldn't it be great?

The interview ends with Angela singing Vien diletto from I Puritani.
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