Lucia Aliberti to Open Manoel Theatre Season in Concert of Arias

"The famous Soprano Lucia Aliberti is to perform at the Concerto per l’Unità d’Italia to be held at the Manoel Theatre on Friday 30 September at 8pm. Here she talks to Erika Brincat about her career and her love for the world of opera. The 2011 - 2012 season at the Manoel Theatre opens with Concerto per l’Unità d’Italia’- a concert of operatic music by Italian composers Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, Catalani and Verdi. The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and well-known soprano Lucia Aliberti will perform under the baton of the theatre’s music director Brian Schembri. The concert is being held in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy and the Istituto Culturale Italiano." [Source] Read the full interview to find out how her career started, the composers that rank among her favorites, what ice cream has to do with returning home, some of the most prestigious events the soprano has taken part in during her career, why there is a restaurant in Tokyo named after her, which is her favorite gown to wear in concert and how she finds balance in her busy life.

"Son vergin vezzosa" I Puritani (Bellini)

Renée Fleming Interviews Francesca Zambello About "Showboat"

Opera seasons are about to launch all across America and everyone is getting out their calendars to plan for which performances will take top priority in their ticket-purchasing budgets. If you are looking for a long romantic weekend around Valentine's Day, then the Lyric Opera of Chicago is the place to be. The company will be performing the musical Showboat on February 12 at 2:00 PM and February 13 at 7:30 PM. Music is by Jerome Kern and the book & lyrics are by Oscar Hammerstein II. Watch a video of Renée Fleming interviewing the director of the show, Francesca Zambello, by clicking here. To learn more about the cast, production and ticket information, click here.

Ukrainian Soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska Interviewed

"Ritorna vincitor" Aida (Verdi)

"Liudmyla Monastyrska, soloist at the National Opera of Ukraine, has a lyrical-dramatic soprano with rear beauty and power. She conquered the Kyiv audience by brilliant performance of such complicated and bright parts as Aida from the eponymous opera by Verdi, Santuzza from Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Liza from Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Amelia from Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. Now she has a whole army of admirers in Great Britain as well. The foreign critics call her a rising singing star of world scale, a follower of the traditions of Solomia Krushelnytska, Maria Callas, Montserrat Caballe, and predict a brilliant future for the Ukrainian diva. Liudmyla is a bright representative of the Ukrainian vocal school. She was an external student of the famous pedagogue Ivan Palyvoda at the Kyiv Music College. At the National Music Academy of Ukraine she was taught by the

"La luce langue" Macbeth (Verdi)

wonderful singer Diana Petrynenko. In 1997, Liudmyla won the Lysenko Competition of Singers, where she impressed the jurors by wonderful performance of Aida’s aria (after this performance she was invited to work with the troupe of the National Opera of Ukraine). But due to various family reasons the singer did not perform on the Kyiv stage till 2008. And in a matter of three years Monastyrska’s name has become a flagship of the Kyiv Opera. She has also sung at the Municipal Theater of Opera and Ballet for Children and Youth and toured a lot. The singer has recently returned from London, where she took part in productions of Aida and Macbeth, performing the leading parts." [Source]

"Voi lo sapete, o mamma"
Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni)

The interview discusses such topics as whether she will return to sing for Kyiv audiences now that she has become internationally famous, experience of taxing conditions in a repertory theater, working with famous conductors (including Fabio Luisi, Antonio Pappano, Daniele Rustioni), her feelings on opera director's concepts, growing up in a non-musical family and how singing Ukrainian folk songs helps her to relax after a performance. Read the full interview here. A full biography is after the jump.





(Photo Credits: Bill Cooper [Aida], Clive Barda [Macbeth], Oleksandr Putrov [Cavalleria Rusticana])

BIOGRAPHY

A native of Kiev, Liudmyla Monastyrska made her stage debut at the Ukraine National Opera in Kiev as Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin in 1996. Having graduated from the Kiev Tchaikovsky Music Academy she became principal soloist of the Ukraine National Opera two years later. She has since appeared in leading dramatic soprano roles such as Aida, Amelia, Gioconda, Lisa, Nedda and Santuzza at the Ukraine National Opera and the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. The 2009-10 season marked Ms. Monastyrska highly acclaimed last-minute debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin as Tosca - a role that immediately led to her much heralded Italian debut at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago under the baton of Alberto Veronesi. 2010-11 will mark her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Lady Macbeth in spring 2011. Future engagements include, amongst others, her return to Deutsche Oper Berlin in Tosca and Macbeth in spring 2012 as well as her La Scala debut in Milan. Ms. Monastyrska and her family make their home in Kiev. [Source]

How Klaus Florian Vogt Spends His Weekend

The heldentenor with Annette Dasch
in the Bayreuth Lohengrin.

"Klaus Florian Vogt is everything a heroic tenor should be: tall, handsome, romantic and in possession of the kind of voice that wins him standing ovations at opera houses from the Met in New York to the hallowed halls of Bayreuth, Germany, where he is currently appearing in Lohengrin. Mr. Vogt takes up the role of the Knight of the Swan for the duration of the opera festival, which ends August 28. When the singer isn't performing, he spends his free time flying a single-engine plane, surfing, riding horses and playing football with his sons and his neighborhood friends. Above all, he says, he's a family man and looks forward to just being home."

The interview discusses how he spends his weekend and topics like hobbies, his wife (also a singer) coaching him, favorite restaurants and whether he sings in the shower at home. Read the full article here.

Introducing 26-Year Old Scottish Soprano Nadine Livingston

"This Glasgow-born soprano who won rave reviews for her performance in Verdi's Rigoletto is coming to Edinburgh to try something a bit racier:
Who is she?
A Glasgow-born soprano with star potential who has been winning rave reviews for her performances at Scottish Opera in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Now she’s coming to the Edinburgh Festival to try something a bit racier — Anna in Brecht and Weill’s satirical opera-ballet The Seven Deadly Sins, a fable of vice and virtue in the cities of Depression-era America.

How did she get involved in opera?
'As a child, I was into Destiny’s Child and R and B. But when I was 13, my great-uncle took me to see Tosca at Scottish Opera and I was instantly hooked. My friends all thought I was a bit weird, but I just dreamed of being an opera star.'

How did the dream come true?
Nine hard years of vocal study followed, after which she was snapped up on a two-­year contract with Scottish Opera. 'I’ve been hugely fortunate to have had a wonderful teacher in Barbara Robotham,' she says.

Is she still dreaming?
'I’m terribly excited that next year I’ll make my debut at Covent Garden, singing one of the three Rhinemaidens who launch Wagner’s Ring. And there’s so much I’m still longing to sing: more Mozart, more lieder, more Russian music. Anna in The Seven Deadly Sins is something a bit different — dry and witty and a real stylistic challenge.'

And what does she do when she’s not singing?
She lives in Mugdock Park outside Glasgow, where she loves walking her retrievers Archie and Ellie. 'But I’m not altogether a romantic country girl: a little bit of me is a shopaholic too!'" [Source]

Listen to the soprano sing "Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém," "Come Scoglio," "Donde lieta," "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" and "Adieu, notre petite table" on her official website by clicking here. Read a full biography after the jump.

Nadine Livingston is 26 years old and studies with Barbara Robotham. Nadine studied at the Royal Northern College of Music where she gained a First Class BMus Honours and a Postgraduate Diploma, with Distinction. She is also a Samling Scholar. Nadine is now an Emerging Artist at Scottish Opera.

In 2004 Nadine was the winner of the Alexander Young Prize for third and fourth year girls at the RNCM. In 2006 Nadine was the winner of the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Prize for the Singing of Strauss and also received an Eva Turner Award. Nadine was re-awarded an Eva Turner for the two following years. In February 2007 Nadine was the winner of the Frederic Cox Award and was also the winner of the 2008 Clonter Opera Prize. Nadine has been the recipient of a Countess of Munster Scholarship, Ian Fleming Scholarship, Sybill Tutton Award and a Caird Scholarship. Nadine has sung in masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Sir Willard White and Jane Eaglen and Dame Anne Evans.

In a series of excerpts at the RNCM, Nadine sang roles including Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme, Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo and the Governess in Britten’s Turn of the Screw. On the concert platform Nadine has sung oratorios including Handel’s Messiah, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and Mozart's Requiem. In December 2006 Nadine enjoyed traveling to China to sing Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Macao Orchestra, and returned to sing with them again for Easter 2008. Last summer Nadine sang with the National Youth String Orchestra of Scotland as part of the Edinburgh Festival and later performed Britten's Les Illuminations with the Goldberg Ensemble. In January 2008 Nadine sang Schoenberg's 2nd String Quartet with the Vertavo String Quartet. She also sang Vaughan Williams Symphony No.3 and Neilson Symphony No.3 with the Halle Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder. These performances were also broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Having performed the role of Polly in the College’s production of Weill’s The Threepenny Opera in March 2006, the lead role of Tatyana in the college's production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin Nadine sang the role of Susanna in the RNCM’s production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. In December 2008 Nadine performed the role of Rosalinde in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus at the RNCM and then went on to cover Fiordiligi, Cosi fan tutte, for Scottish Opera. Nadine is currently an Emerging Artist at Scottish Opera and having sung the title role in Janacek’s Katya Kabanova and Musetta in Puccini's La Boheme, Nadine has just sung the role of Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and is currently singing Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Scottish Opera. Future engagements include Anna in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with Scottish Opera and Company Chordelia and Woglinde in Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House.

Ildebrando d'Arcangelo Does Not Collect Women!

(Photo: Uwe Arens/Deutsche Grammophon)

In a new interview with Kleine Zeitung, the bass-baritone discusses singing with Anna Netrebko in Rossini's Stabat Mater, his new Mozart-dedicated CD on Deutsche Grammophon, similarities (and differences) to the character of Don Giovanni in his own personal life, the special love he has for the movie Gladiator (he's seen it 10 times...) and how he feels about being the "Antonio Banderas" of opera. Read the full interview by clicking here.

PROMETHEUS (2012) - News Update, Pictures and Video

This year we've had a lot of buzz surrounding Ridley Scott's new movie, "Prometheus". At first, everyone thought this was a prequel for the "Alien" franchise, but after letting the media mince the concept for a while, the filmmakers disclosed that this is not a prequel to "Alien", but a stand-alone sci-fi epic and that fans will recognize a strand of "Alien" DNA. These last two words became a sort of riddle for all to guess. What did they mean ? Is it a prequel or not ? The mystery lingered on for a couple of months, but recently the veil has been lifted and we're starting to get a good idea about what the project is really about. Read the full article to get the complete scoop on "Prometheus".

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Magazine Cover Models: Erwin Schrott and Anna Netrebko

Opera Chic gives complete coverage of the Italian magazine Io Donna cover story titled "Viviamo d'Arte, Viviamo d'Amore." The blog post gives an English translation to the interview as well as lots more photos. These two have really cranked up the sexy volume in the opera world. As much as they lead separate lives, it is apparent that the couple is very much a singular force with both business and family. Check out the Opera Chic post here.

Diva From Down Under Once Wanted to Be Mariah Carey

'Amelia Farrugia is humming The Merry Widow Waltz as she (there’s no other word for it) waltzes around a dressing room beneath the soaring sails of the Sydney Opera House. Dressed in a figure-hugging black silk gown, black fur and carrying an enormous feathered fan, she looks every inch the opera diva about to take the lead opposite David Hobson in Opera Australia’s The Merry Widow. So it comes as a surprise when the Mosman mother-of-one says she nearly ended up in the gown and wig of a barrister instead of an opera star. 'I got into law at the University of Sydney and intended doing that, and it was Dad’s idea that I pursue singing instead,' she says. As a 16-year-old, the only musical member of a 'not really musical' family, she had been decidedly nonplussed when her teacher told her that her voice was more suited to the classical repertoire than that of a pop star. 'I was a bit ‘oh’, because at that stage you want to be Mariah Carey,' she says. 'But when I was in high school, a teacher played 'Summertime' from (Gershwin’s opera) Porgy and Bess and I loved it. I remember thinking ‘God if I could sing like that’.' Opera might seem like a fait accompli for the vocally-blessed Farrugia, but if you’re one of the many who would like to ‘know’ opera and throw around words like 'libretto' and 'contralto' without blushing, how do you learn to love what many consider to be the most refined art form?" [Source]

Watch a clip of Amelia as Musetta in La Bohème after the jump.

Erwin Schrott Admits to GQ He Feels Like a Circus Performer

The ring master in Paris.

"Das Auftreten auf internationalen Bühnen genießt Schrott: 'Der Wunsch, herumzukommen im Leben, war in der Tat immer ein Motiv für meine Entscheidungen. Ich träumte als Kind schon davon, in einem Wanderzirkus zu arbeiten. Deswegen wurde mein Traum auch wahr – letztlich bin ich ja nichts anderes als ein vagabundierender Zirkusartist. Ich habe mich nie mit Alternativen beschäftigt', berichtet Schrott. 'Meine Eltern mussten immer schuften – mir dagegen erscheint es so, als wäre das, was ich tue, gar keine Arbeit.'"

He also discusses his love of Anna Netrebko and that he wants nothing more for her than to be happy. He also talks about his days growing up in Uruguay and getting caught smoking on the school yard. Check out the August 2011 issue of German GQ for the complete interview. [Source]

Lorenzo di Bonaventura Interview - RED and G.I. JOE Sequels

Tags: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura reveals interesting tidbits about the sequels to "Red" and "G.I. Joe". While the sequel to last year's comedy thriller starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren is more of a work in progress for now, the other one, known as "G.I. Joe: Cobra Strikes" is moving along much faster, securing Dwayne Johnson as Roadblock and rounding up pretty much all of the cast from the first one. See for yourself in Bonaventura's interview.

Tags: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

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LARRY CROWNE (2011) - Interviews with Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston and Wilmer Valderrama

Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston and Wilmer Valderrama talk about their work on "Larry Crowne" a movie written and directed by Hanks himself, now in theaters. If you want to find out more about this movie, read the following post : In Theaters Now, LARRY CROWNE (2011). To watch the rest of the interviews, read the full article.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

INDEPENDENCE DAY and STARGATE Sequels, Dean Devlin Interview

I've always wondered why they've never considered a sequel for "Independence Day". It's just the kind of popcorn flick that begs for a sequel. Come to think of it, none of the movies Ronald Emmerich makes ever get sequels. Kind of makes you respect the man a little more. Anyway, Emmerich's long-time collaborator, producer/writer Dean Devlin, made a few confessions about the sequel for the 1996 sci-fi actioner and talked about some ideas for a future "Stargate" trilogy. To hear for yourself, watch the interview below, courtesy of Collider.com :

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To the Manor Born: Danielle de Niese at Home in Glyndebourne

"The 32-year-old Australian-American soprano not only stars at Glyndebourne, the privately run opera house in southern England, where we are meeting, she lives there too. In December 2009, De Niese married Gus Christie, third-generation owner and executive chairman of Glyndebourne Festival Opera. They live in the 17th-century country house adjoining the auditorium, where this summer she will sing the role of the beautiful, unattainable Adina in a revival of a 2007 production of Donizetti's light-hearted L'elisir d'amore, of which all 16 performances have already sold out. Nestling in the Sussex Downs, Glyndebourne is a rural idyll. For much of the year the predominant sound is of sheep in the surrounding fields. But for four summer months it is an internationally renowned opera house, overrun by black-tie audiences, many of them bankers and city types who think nothing of spending £250 (Dh1,508) on an opera ticket. Today in the quiet pre-season period, De Niese could be forgiven for keeping her door shut. And yet she has agreed to have lunch with me in one of the in-house restaurants, today being used as the canteen for staff and performers. De Niese makes an unlikely lady of the manor. The daughter of Sri Lankans who emigrated to Australia, she spent her early years in Melbourne and, aged 9, was the youngest winner of Young Talent Time, a TV show. Shortly after, she moved with her family (she has a younger brother) to Los Angeles, where she became a guest host on a live show for teenagers called LA Kids. Given this precocity, it comes as no surprise to discover that De Niese was only 15 when she made her professional opera debut with the Los Angeles Opera. She later went to the Mannes College of Music in New York."

"What does De Niese make of Glyndebourne's dyed-in-the-wool English traditions of behaviour and dress? 'When I first came to England [six years ago], it was like coming back to something I knew,' she says, as we plunge into our food. 'I spent my first ten years in the Commonwealth. I come from cricket, crumpets, cucumber sandwiches, the Queen.' The alliterative picture she conjures up makes me laugh and I ask if that is what defines English culture for her. Not at all, says De Niese. 'That would be like saying French means eating escargots, Italian is pasta, American is cheeseburgers. It goes deeper. What I see as especially English is the charm — everyone is so polite. Being restrained is part of the charm. And I love the sense of humour — it takes me back to Australia. The English are great at making fun of themselves.'"

"'Why do the English use the word pants for underwear? I was in the gym, where I do boxing, so I had to take my wedding ring off. It wasn't till afterwards that I realised I'd forgotten to put it back on. I told Gus I'd left my ring in this guy's pants. They weren't his actual pants. The word ‘pants' comes from ‘pantaloon', doesn't it?' While De Niese is earnestly recalling the incident, I can't help wondering what a blast of fresh air this classless woman, a product of talent, not privilege, must have injected into the social milieu of the Christie clan. If Christie had consciously set out to update Glyndebourne's image, he could not have done better."

"Although De Niese has been doing most of the talking, she has finished eating far ahead of me. To help me catch up, I ask her about the dazzling earrings, bracelet and long gold necklace she is wearing, all with matching white-and-grey mother-of-pearl. She has, she explains, a 'relationship' with French luxury jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels, meaning she wears their most expensive products on public occasions. So what is the value of today's assemblage? For the only time in our conversation, De Niese falters. A mere £19,000, she says, 'but these are for keeps.' This distinguishes them from the jewels she wears for photo shoots and big social events. 'When I'm wearing millions of dollars to the theatre [on loan], they like to have bodyguards in my dressing room. In places where there is already high security, like when Gus and I were invited to Buckingham Palace, the guards don't need to be there. But they do have their uses. When I arrived at St James's Palace to see Prince Charles and Camilla, I put the heel of my shoe through my Donna Karan dress. It was so funny to see the guards trying to thread needles.'"

Read the whole interview here.

(Photos: Chris Dunlop/Decca)

Sarah Coburn Chats About Motherhood in the Opera World

Soprano Sarah Coburn is interviewed in Cincinnati where she is currently singing the role of Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto. One of the more interesting questions:
Q: How do you prepare these days for the stress of going onstage in the leading role?
A: It is much easier than before baby...Now, instead of sitting around worrying all day on opening night, I am spending the day blowing bubbles and watching Elmo's Potty Time. How can you be a nervous wreck when you've got Grover's Accidents Happen song stuck in your head?
[Source]

Hasmik Papian Gets Profiled by the Armenian Mirror-Spectator

In a new interview, soprano Hasmik Papian discusses her life beginning with playing the violin and transitioning to singing, her favorite role, when she will return to Armenia, being the mother of a 10-year old, restrictions of being an opera singer and her upcoming performances in La Gioconda. "'I won four international competitions and after the first one, the son of the great tenor, Mario Del Monaco, Giovanni, who was the head of Opera Bonn, [in Germany] heard me sing. Bonn, at that time, was the capital of Germany. If you sing well [ in a major city like that] it goes around quickly,' Papian said. She got a contract and started singing there. That was back in 1993. She started looking for opportunities at the end of her contract there. She was soon booked for a debut recital at the Vienna State Opera. 'I was there for rehearsals at 11 a.m. There was a big crowd at the artists’ entrance. I thought there must have been an accident, but it was only spectators who had come to my rehearsals. They came to wish me good luck. After

With Karl Lagerfeld

my debut, I decided if I could not live in Yerevan, this is the place I would love to live,' she recalled. While she called Yerevan her 'beloved city,' Papian said that Vienna has, hands-down, the 'best audiences.' In fact, she said, the government does much to promote opera, and the art form is so identified with the city that there are planeloads of Japanese tourists who come for the weekend to attend a single performance. She added, 'I never left Armenia. I almost look at [my absence] as a business trip.' She noted that she goes back every year and added she plans to live in Armenia at the end of her career. As for her favorite stage, she said Metropolitan Opera in New York City 'is one of the best stages in the world.'" [Source] Visit the soprano's official website here.

Ann Patchett Talks Benefits of Friendship with Renée Fleming

Party pals: Fleming (l) & Patchett (r)

"Patchett divides her career into two distinct phases: before and after Bel Canto. Before her fourth novel became a paperback bestseller, Patchett struggled. Her second novel Taft could not live up to the passionately personal promise of her debut, and the fact that it is so little read still rankles. She calls it her 'neglected child . . . it's as if it smells or it's sticky or something.' But Bel Canto, a stylish and theatrical kidnapping fantasy set in an unnamed South American capital, was a game-changer. 'I sort of jumped into a different kind of bracket," she says bluntly. 'I've met so many interesting people because of it. I've become very close friends with Renée Fleming [the American soprano] because of that book, it's like I'm invited to better parties now, ha ha.'" [Source]

Lawrence Brownlee Takes a Moment to Thank the Choir

Tenor Brownlee now sings solo.
(Photo: Marty Umans)

"Brownlee, who has performed with Cincinnati Opera and the Cincinnati Symphony, will make his May Festival debut in Mendelssohn's "Elijah" on Saturday in Music Hall. None of this could have happened, said the 38-year-old Ohio native, without his high school show choir at Youngstown East High School. 'I'm a very proud Buckeye,' said the tenor by phone from Toronto, where he was singing the role of the Prince in Rossini's bubbly opera, La Cenerentola (Cinderella). 'We had a very good high school music program. Because of my exposure to classical music, it opened up so many experiences to me.' The high school show choir made him realize there was a world outside of Youngstown." [Source]

At 76, Jonathan Miller Reveals His Formula For Directing

Jonathan Miller preparing for opening night of Verdi's La Traviata (Photo: Les Bazso/PNG)

The opera legend is directing the Vancouver Opera production of La Traviata, which opens on Saturday, and takes the opportunity to be interviewed by The Vancouver Sun about various aspects of his profession. "'I have a simple formula as a director. It’s nothing more really than reminding singers of what they know already and have forgotten, a re-directing of their attention to Chekhovian detail — the little, negligible actions which are made considerable. This is something I learned as a student working with neurologically damaged patients. After a little while it becomes exactly what I have observed in my children and grandchildren. You don’t direct a child what to do — you put them, for example, into an environment in which English is spoken, and there they are a little later generating perfect English. So the funny thing is that once I start directing the drama, I don’t have to tell them what to do, any more than I have to tell a child to raise its voice at the end of an interrogative sentence. It’s all speech-acts — when we speak, we are in fact performing actions the purpose of which is to persuade, or to apologize. It doesn’t matter whether it is spoken or sung, it is all speech-acts. The intonation of the music takes care of itself, because you already know instinctively what intonation you need to be aggressive, to be apologetic, to be persuasive, and so on.'" He enjoys working the young cast in Vancouver, because as he puts it, 'Some older singers get ossified. They say ‘No, I must stand here, Alfredo would not do that,’ and I always want to reply, ‘When exactly were you last in touch with Alfredo on this subject?’ But if they are young, they will do anything — even act.'" A detailed cast list for the production of La Traviata and video interviews with the director are after the jump. [Source, Source]


April 30, May 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 2011
All performances 7:30 pm
Queen Elizabeth Theatre

Conducted by Jacques Lacombe
Directed by Sir Jonathan Miller

Violetta: Erin Wall
Alfredo: David Pomeroy
Germont: James Westman
Gastone: Sam Chung
Douphol: Benjamin Covey
d'Obigny: Stephen Hegedus
Doctor Grenvil: Giles Tomkins
Flora: Barbara Towell
Annina: Melanie Krueger

This production of La Traviata is a co production of Vancouver Opera and Glimmerglass Opera. Scenery and Costumes designed by Isabella Bywater.

Marina Poplavskaya Enchants Writer and Offends Immigration

Poplavskaya: A tigress on and off the stage?
(Photo: Phil Fisk/The Guardian)

The Guardian's Peter Conrad seems to never run out of superfluous adjectives to describe what seems to be his muse, Marina Poplavskaya: "Poplavskaya's jaw – angular, horizontally extended to give her square face the look of a cubist carving....it stores the breath she releases when sculpting the air as she sings....That sound is cool and silken, stoically controlling the passions it expresses....She does not vivaciously seduce us like her colleague Anna Netrebko, and her air of withdrawn mystery is increased by the waist-length cascade of hair that she wears like a veil. She is the Mona Lisa with a bevelled jaw; it's up to us to intuit what goes behind that alabaster mask...This pining futility could not be further from the determination of Poplavskaya herself....Arriving at the theatre, she told the selectors with precocious self-possession that she had a large repertoire and intended to perform all of it; they of course succumbed."

Worse yet may be having to experience Ms. Poplavskaya at the airport: "'Every time at the airport,' sighs Poplavskaya, 'I am a victim again.' Before each foreign engagement, she has to return to Moscow to join sullen, shuffling queues in quest of a visa. 'I'm trying to bring my mum to London now to visit; she's at the embassy today. On the phone she was hysteric, terrified by it. They are suspicious, they interrogate us, they tell us we must wait weeks for a decision and it is so expensive! Even if you get visa, sometimes you are not allowed into the country where you sing. At Heathrow once I slept a night on the floor because they wanted more information before they admit me. I am in a herd with workers, house cleaners, many people from Araby. Do they think I sell drugs or carry bombs? One man in a blue uniform saw I had a 1A visa to come here, and he said, 'This is only given to persons of extraordinary ability.' I replied, 'But I am person of extraordinary ability!' He asked what my job was and I said, 'I am opera singer.' 'Madam,' he said, 'do you make fun of me?' Finally, I had to threaten that I would report him for his intonation. 'Just put the stamp,' I said, 'and say welcome.' He did it, but with such a look! He expected maybe that I would give him champagne?' Bob Dylan pitied the poor immigrant; I'd rather pity the poor immigration officer who has to match wits with the deplaning Poplavskaya." [Source]