New York Post Profiles MET Opera Singer Keith Miller

Read the feature about the football player turned opera singer by clicking here.

Opera Chorister Raises Money For Hometown Through Music

David Lowe gives back to the community.
(Photo: Roger Nomer/Globe)

"As a surprise gift for his mother on Mother’s Day, David Lowe put eight of her favorite songs on a compact disc. Lowe didn’t just put the songs on the disc. He sang them and arranged them. For the past 13 years, Lowe, a native of Joplin and graduate of The Juilliard School in New York, has been a singer in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera. 'There were some country and western songs,” he said. 'I did a cover of ‘Route 66’ with four-part harmony, and Willie Nelson’s ‘Always on My Mind.’ These are songs she (Ardy Lowe) would like.' Then the May 22 tornado happened. Then it became: What can I do to try to help? Lowe spent most of the summer in Joplin, helping his mother after the storm. That’s when he penned the original song, 'My Hometown,'’ and added it to the compact disc. He is selling copies of the CD to raise money for the Bright Futures program at Joplin High School. 'It’s especially for the Joplin High School music and theater department,' he said. 'That’s where I got my start. I want to give back to them.' On Tuesday, he spoke to students in the school’s drama class. 'I talked to them about what it is like to come from Joplin and move to the big city,' he said. 'I participated in high school musicals and assemblies — it was Parkwood High School then.' He graduated in 1976. From there he went to Pittsburg (Kan.) State University and then to Juilliard, and has lived in New York ever since. The CD, titled Back to My Roots: A Tribute to Joplin, Mo., is available for $15, which includes shipping and handling. The CD can be purchased at Lowe’s website, davidlowe-singer.com. The song “My Hometown’’ can be downloaded for $1. 'Every little bit helps and even if this raises a small amount, I hope it will help my hometown in some way,' Lowe said. So far, Lowe has sold 150 compact discs and generated $1,000 for the Bright Futures program." [Source]

Watch a performance by David Lowe after the jump.

Tony Bennett to Storm MET Opera House With Famous Pals

"When Tony Bennett makes his debut at his sold out performance at the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday, September 18, he will be joined by Aretha Franklin, Sir Elton John and Alejandro Sanz for special duet appearances. Franklin, John and Sanz all recorded with Bennett for his Duets CD projects: Elton John appeared on the first CD, DUETS in 2006; and Aretha Franklin and Alejandro Sanz recorded with the singer for the forthcoming follow up CD, DUETS II, set for release on Tuesday, September 20. The evening at the Metropolitan Opera will also mark the official celebration of Tony's 85th birthday where he will be honored at a post-concert gala hosted by Alec Baldwin. The gala is a benefit for Exploring the Arts, the non-profit organization started by Bennett and his wife Susan, to support arts education in public schools. Over $2.5M has been raised for the evening thus far. Among the celebrated guests expected to attend the concert and gala are: Richard Gere, Bruce Willis, Katie Couric, Aretha Franklin, Matthew Broderick, Martha Stewart, Joy and Regis Philbin, Jane and Mitch Winehouse, among others. Through underwriting from HBO, the SRO seating at the Met Opera will be

The Evening's Host: Alec Baldwin

distributed to students from around area schools, including the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, a NYC public arts high school founded by Tony Bennett. Charity Buzz will close their bidding tomorrow on their auction of a unique "Breakfast At Tiffany with Tony Bennett" in-store event that also includes tickets to Tony's Metropolitan Opera concert and birthday gala, a personalized Tony Bennett giclee art print, as well as a $10,000 Tiffany private shopping experience and tour of the famed store. The "Breakfast at Tiffany" package was donated by Tiffany & Co. in support of Exploring the Arts, and is available exclusively on charity buzz at www.charitybuzz.com/tonybennett." [Source]

Stars Film Commercial For Metropolitan Opera

The slogan for the 2011-12 season at the Metropolitan Opera is "At any moment, a great moment." A great credit to the marketing department that gathered big names like Katie Couric, Samantha Bee, Patti Smith and Christine Baranski, to talk about their experiences at the opera. "With seven new productions, 19 repertory classics, and a new Ring cycle—anything can happen on the stage of the Met. Don't miss the 2011--12 season!"

Fabio Luisi Talents Being Rewarded at Highest Level

According to the New York Times, musical director James Levine will be bowing out of all scheduled conducting performances at the Metropolitan Opera this fall. Duties were immediately handed over to principal guest conductor Fabio Luisi. Watch this video from 1987 of Maestro Luisi conducting the radiant Kallen Esperian in an exquisite reading of Boito's "L'altra notte in fondo al mare" from Mefistofele at the Komische Oper Berlin. [Source]

Will There Be Opera at the Peabody Opera House of St. Louis?

The Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, Missouri, was originally opened in 1934 as the Kiel Opera House and hosted performances by The Rat Pack, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles and Bruce Springsteen. The 3,100-seat theater closed in 1991. It was only three years ago that planners began work on a $78.8 million renovation project to revive the space. On October 1, the historic auditorium (minted with a new name compliments of Peabody Energy) will hold its re-opening night event called "An Encore 77 Years in the Making" featuring Aretha Franklin and Jay Leno. But will there be any opera performances taking place at the Peabody Opera House? According to John Urban (executive vice president for events and new business at Sport Capital Partners Worldwide), "We've met with quite a few including the St. Louis Symphony, Dance St. Louis, Opera Theatre, Shakespeare Festival, St. Louis Actors Studio," he said, and "already have some tentative plans and dates on hold." Looking at the calendar of events for the 2011-12 season one can see Roger Daltry performing Tommy, concerts by Widespread Panic and Wilco, family events with themes of Dr. Seuss and Sesame Street, a touring production of Green Day's American Idiot and a "Homecoming Comedy Jam" featuring Cedric the Entertainer on New Year's Eve. Read a full article about the detailed craftsmanship that went into restoring this historical venue by clicking here. Once upon a time, the Metropolitan Opera toured the United States and the original Kiel Opera House was the venue for a series of

The new Peabody Opera House lobby.

performances in May 1952 that included Aida (Zinka Milanov, Mario del Monaco, Blanche Thebom, Jerome Hines, Lucine Amara; Fausto Cleva), Carmen (Risë Stevens, Ramon Vinay, Nadine Conner, Frank Guarrera; Fritz Reiner), La Bohème (Eleanor Steber, Richard Tucker, Anne Bollinger, Frank Valentino; Alberto Erede) and La Traviata (Dorothy Kirsten, Jan Peerce, Leonard Warren; Fausto Cleva). The company returned to perform Samson and Dalila (Risë Stevens, Mario del Monaco, Martial Singher; Fausto Cleva) in May 1958, Aida (Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Irene Dalis, Robert Merrill, Ezio Flagello; Nino Verchi) and La Bohème (Dorothy Kirsten, Jan Peerce, Laurel Hurley, Lorenzo Testi; Thomas Schippers) both in May 1961. But who knows, maybe one day Phantom of the Opera will be the closest thing Peabody Opera House gets to hosting anything operatic and don't worry about the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis because it seems they are just fine in their home. [Source, Source, Source, Source]

Watch a local news channel discuss the renovation, during its beginning stages, after the jump.

 

Jonas Kaufmann To Honor Post-Surgery MET "Faust" Dates

"Jonas Kaufmann, a major international tenor who has become an increasingly important presence at the Metropolitan Opera, plans to go ahead with an Oct. 30 recital at the house just two months after undergoing chest surgery, the Met said on Monday. He also remains committed to a run as the title character in a new production of Gounod’s Faust, which opens on Nov. 29, and to appearances in the Ring cycle in the spring, the Met said. 'Jonas Kaufmann has assured the Met through his management that he plans to sing all of his scheduled performances here this season,' according to a company statement. Mr. Kaufmann said on his Web site that he needed to have an operation to remove a node from his chest. 'I do not wish anyone to become alarmed reading this, but my physicians have ordered me to have the surgery done as soon as possible, and it will take place after my appearance in Stockholm on Sept. 2,' he said. He is scheduled to sing in the Jussi Björling gala that day at the Royal Opera. Mr. Kaufmann’s Web site lists five other performances in October, starting on Oct. 10." [Source]

Anna Netrebko Gets MET Release for the Autumn

On September 16, Deutsche Grammophon will release Anna Netrebko - Live at the Metropolitan Opera. According to the Anna Netrebko blog:

"The CD...includes works by Prokofiev, Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Gounod, Offenbach and Puccini. Anna Netrebko sings with top opera singers such as Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Juan Diego Florez, Roberto Alagna, Joseph Calleja and Piotr Beczala. Valery Gerviev, Sylvain Cambreling, Placido Domingo and James Levine conduct the Metroplitan Opera Orchestra." [Source]

Tale of Two Metropolitans: Where Opera Meets Art

Could this be Violetta Valéry?

Irina Shifrin, Assistant Chief HR Officer at Metropolitan Museum of Art, discusses her love of opera and connects it to several of her favorite art pieces through a wonderful multimedia presentation. Click here to launch the feature.

"There is a whole branch of psychology that studies the psychology of happiness. One of the theories is that the only time when we are happy is when we are 'in the flow.' When you lose track of time, when you forget about the problems of your life. Being in the opera, listening to the human operatic voice gets me into the flow and that's when I am happy."

Sony Classics Releases Live MET Operas, 3.0

The third round of Metropolitan Opera broadcasts featured on Sony Classical will be released domestically in the United States on August 16 and internationally in the United Kingdom on August 15, as well as France and Germany on August 29.

While NYCO Runs Amok, the MET Performs in Central Park

"It has been four years since the Metropolitan Opera decided to stop presenting full operas in its summertime concerts in New York City’s parks, a decision that was difficult to understand, given the popularity of these free performances, and the likelihood that they were winning the company new listeners. Now, presumably, the Met’s high-definition opera screenings are expected to be its audience builders: It is presenting free screenings of 10 of them in its Met Summer HD Festival, at Lincoln Center from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. But the Met also recognizes that it should maintain a presence in the parks with live music, and on Monday evening it opened this year’s installment of its Summer Recital Series with a program of arias and duets, with three young singers — Angela Meade, soprano; Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano; and Atalla Ayan, tenor — as part of Central Park SummerStage. The bass-baritone Eric Owens was on hand to introduce the program (and to sing Marcello’s offstage line in “O soave fanciulla,” from Puccini’s Bohème, from his seat in the audience)." [Source]

(Images left to right: Meade, Ayan, Cano. Photos by Hiroyuki Ito/New York Times)

MET Opera Event Producer David Stark Lists His Favorite Things

Magic Man: David Stark
(Photo: Anna Rose)

"Many hope to freewheel through summer, but for New York event producer David Stark, business is just heating up. Fall gala season is fast approaching, which means Stark is busy crafting otherworldly environments for events that include a black-tie fundraiser for the Metropolitan Opera and a dinner for the Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Awards. The designer has risen to the top of the industry by building parties that feel like art installations. 'It's about creating something event-specific, site-specific, and client-specific,' says Stark, who lists MoMA, Louis Vuitton, and Beyoncé among his clients. 'Flowers are only one tool in the toolbox. Many instances require different kinds of thinking and materials to bring the occasion to life.'" Check out the list of his eight essentials for Fast Company magazine that will make any party special. [Source]

Mr. Stark's previous work at the Metropolitan Opera includes parties for the 125th Anniversary Gala (left) and Opening Night of Das Rheingold (right).

Coffee Break: Gorgeous Baroque Duet Executed in Glory

"Son nata a lagrimar" Giulio Cesare (Händel)

Live from the Metropolitan Opera, 1999
David Daniels........Sesto
Stephanie Blythe....Cornelia

MET in Japan: Play Ball With Susanna Phillips

The Metropolitan Opera has added yet more pictures from their Japan tour (if you missed segments 1 or 2). There is a great photo of soprano Susanna Phillips playing ball in a fun game arranged between the MET and the Japanese staff. Check out the website for more photos.

Hitting more than high notes: Susanna Phillips off the stage (Photo: Kirt Burcroff/MET Opera)

MET in Japan: More Photos (Yes, Even Cuter)

Did you miss the first images posted of the Metropolitan Opera's tour of Japan? Well, now you can check out the second gallery just launched. This time around more production photos and backstage events are captured. (Photos: Photo: Koichi Miura/Met Opera)

Tenor Rolando Villazón serenades the crowd after a performance in Japan.

Villazón with the adorable Alexander, son of soprano Diana Damrau.

MET in Japan: Photos Posted From the Journey

In what could possibly be the cutest photo ever from the Metropolitan Opera's tour of Japan, here we have Diana Damrau's seven-month old son Alexander visiting an orchestra rehearsal for Lucia di Lammermoor. ADORABLE! See more pics here.

"James Levine: America's Maestro" Documentary Now Online

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.

I arrived at the Revere cinema last Saturday morning at 11:30 am.

And I left a little after 6 pm.

During those six-and-a-half hours I watched the Met broadcast of Wagner's Die Walküre ("The Valkyrie"), in Robert Lepage's controversial new staging. The opera itself only took up a little over four hours. The remaining two and a half were filled with fluff pieces, set malfunctions, and scheduled intermissions, during which, oddly, the movie audience often stared at the actual audience at the Met staring back at us. (There really should be some kind of two-way exchange going on there, methinks; can't they figure that out?)

I confess I'm forging through the whole cycle (and dragging my friend Geoff with me) to some degree because I've never done it before, and because I'm intrigued by Lepage's concept.  I also admit I've long stored Wagner on the same mental shelf where I've kept most of Goethe, as well as Finnegans Wake and Infinite Jest; I appreciate their significance, but minute-to-minute, they're just too long and boring. Vita brevis, and some ars is very longa, as they say. At the same time, I feel tinges of guilt about not knuckling down and getting through these monuments, because often there's a huge pay-off in making it all the way through an enormous masterpiece (Remembrance of Things Past, Don Quixote, Moby-Dick). Then again, sometimes there's only a minor pay-off (The Divine Comedy).  Sometimes there's no pay-off (Thomas Mann, I'm lookin' at you).  It's kind of a crap shoot.

So far, I have my doubts about the Ring cycle, although of course not about Wagner's impact in general.  It's hard to think, in fact, of any genius who has been more artistically influential. In harmonic terms, his music jump-started modernism - and Wagner also fomented revolutions in conducting style and even theatrical design. But beyond these significant innovations his determination to make of opera a "total work of art," or Gesamtkunstwerk, had a profound impact on Western civilization as a whole. It's hard to over-estimate the importance of this central, animating idea; versions of it had long bubbled through Western culture, of course, but Wagner's insistence on opera as a synthesis of all artistic expression, under the guidance and control of a single mind, that the spectator would perceive and "enter" as a kind of living dream (and which would through that experience shape culture, politics, and civilization itself), steadily infiltrated, and eventually dominated, the worlds of art, literature, dance, architecture, and eventually cinema - which probably served as the composer's apotheosis.

So I kept trying to remember all that as I endured the turgid dramaturgy of Die Walküre. Amusingly, Wagner claimed in the first half of the Ring (Rheingold and Walküre) to be tossing aside the long dominion of music over drama in opera for a new synthesis based on leitmotifs. But alas, Wagner was a much weaker dramatist than he was a composer, so the drama lost out anyway; it's true that the old system of recitative and aria often hobbled dramatic action, but it turned out Wagner's matrix of leitmotifs only made things even more static. (Tellingly, the composer largely returned to recitative and aria when he wrapped up the Ring with Siegfried and Götterdämmerung).

What most interested me about Lepage's new production, however, was the way it seemed to re-formulate that underlying concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, particularly as it related to the dividing line between theatre and film. For Lepage's gargantuan, abstract set - famously nicknamed "The Machine" - is clearly designed to produce cinematic effects on the stage. In Das Rheingold, for instance, the famous arpeggios of the "Rhine Music" rippled away as the planks of "The Machine" rose and fell like waves; and as Wagner's harmonies deepened, they towered like an incoming tide toward the top of the proscenium, and we sank deeper and deeper into the dark. Likewise, during the "Magic Fire Music" at the climax of Walküre, the Machine rotated  as if the entire stage was a kind of camera lens, so that we finally viewed the sleeping Brünnhilde from "above" (at bottom).  Clearly what Lepage is aiming for in these sequences is a fascinating new synthesis of modernism and "physical" cinema.

The trouble is that while the Machine impresses during these musical high points, during much - and perhaps most - of the Ring it feels like a gigantic fifth horse, trotting along pointlessly beside what's really an inflated fairy tale.  And alas, after several minutes, the images projected on its flat planks begin to feel a little flat, too, and that sense of actual presence that distinguishes theatre from film begins, perhaps predictably, to leak out of the proceedings. Thus the nostalgia one often hears voiced for the story-book magic of Otto Schenk's durable, pictorial production (Hunding's cottage from Walküre at left), which served the Met well for something like twenty years. For to be honest, despite all of Wagner's high-falutin' manifestos, he often seems to be reaching not for high concept but rather for traditional forms of scenic magic (only king-sized).  Because deep down the old showman knew that high concept spread over four hours gets boring.

There has been considerable criticism of Lepage's direction as well as his set - and it's pretty clear that many of the long exchanges in Die Walküre have been under-directed.  The more talented actors - Stephanie Blythe, Deborah Voigt - managed well, and both were in great voice on Saturday (there has been a rash of hating on Voigt's vocals, for reasons I can't understand); but Bryn Terfel is clearly still wandering as Wotan - although he was in better voice here than he was in Rheingold.  Meanwhile, as Sigmund, the heart-throb Jonas Kauffman sang powerfully but seemed to be acting in some sort of fog (all the more distracting in the close-ups of the HD simulcast).  His Sieglinde, Eva-Maria Westbroek, also sang beautifully, if with less force, but acted with more conviction - although it must be noted that both were compromised by the staging of their scenes behind the front skirt of the Machine, which gave their incestuous passion an unfortunate sense of forced distance (it was only once Sigmund leapt up onto the skirt itself that things began to catch fire).

These problems indicate a deeper problem with the Machine: the actors - and maybe even Lepage - don't know how to relate to it; indeed, even the props and costumes don't really relate to it (they're basically traditional). So far the Machine's concept has operated at the technical level only - and sometimes not even at that level; the delays in Saturday's simulcast were clearly related to its recalcitrance, and there have been noted mishaps in performance (Voigt took a small tumble on opening night, for instance), although as yet no actual injuries à la Spider-Man. So far you'd have to rate the Machine as at best a mixed blessing, I think - and something tells me that a lot of people are hoping the Met didn't actually throw out those old Otto Schenk sets!


Opera as "physical" cinema - the "Magic Fire Music" from Die Walküre.

MET Sirius XM Radio Tonight: "Ariadne auf Naxos"

Listen to the Metropolitan Opera perform Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos live tonight at 8:00 PM EST on Sirius XM radio. Intermission guests: James Levine.

MET Sirius XM Radio Tonight: "Die Walküre"

Listen to the Metropolitan Opera perform Wagner's Die Walküre live tonight at 6:30 PM EST on Sirius XM radio. Intermission guests: Thomas Allen, Kate Royal and Estelle Parsons.