Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR at Home Computer Screens
Tour to California, Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom--Great opera and gourmet food.
By: Maria Nockin May. 01, 2021
Los Angeles Opera's new Signature Recital Series gives vocal music fans exclusive access to astounding performances in intimate settings-filmed in stunning venues across this country and in Europe-streamed directly to home screens. Tenor Russell Thomas, LA Opera's Artist in Residence, partners with pianist Mi-Kyung Kim for a mesmerizing rendition of Schumann's Dichterliebe (Poet's Love), "Total Eclipse" from Handel's Samson, and love songs by Adolphus Hailstork and Robert Owens.
From the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham sings a collection of songs by 20th-century composer Kurt Weill that range from the yearning "Lonely House," to the tantalizing "I'm a Stranger Here Myself," and the nostalgic "September Song." Russell Thomas and Susan Graham's recitals will be available until July. Recitals by Christine Goerke, Julia Bullock and J'Nai Bridges will become available in May and June. Access to all five concerts costs $30 for LAO subscribers and $45 for others.
LINK https://www.laopera.org/performances/upcoming-digital-performances/signature-recitals/
Love & Secrets is Opera San Jose's Domestic Trilogy. Romance often conjures images of affectionate gestures embodied in flowers, chocolates, and initials carved in bark. But what lies hidden in the heart? Love & Secrets: A Domestic Trilogy, explores three tales about couples contending with the tumult, joys, and heartache of love.
In Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna, an innocuous secret threatens a young newly-wed couple's chances at happiness. The opera is a drawing room comedy in the nineteenth-century Italian opera buffa tradition. It features soprano Vanessa Becerra and baritone Efraín Solís, and musicians from the Opera San José Orchestra conducted by Joseph Marcheso.
Photo of Susan Graham in
Irony and whimsy follow in Ned Rorem's Four Dialogues, based on the poetry of Frank O'Hara. In a classic "guy-meets-girl" tale, one couple's journey from love's first blush to the pangs of its bitter end is poignantly portrayed by soprano Marnie Breckenridge and tenor Carlos Enrique Santelli. Piano accompaniment is by Maureen Zoltek and Victoria Lington.
The achingly gorgeous harmonies of Tom Cipullo's The Husbands concludes the intimate triptych. Directed by Tara Branham. it stars mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, baritone Eugene Brancoveanu, and conductor Christopher James Ray. The opera based on William Carpenter's prose poem, "Rain," is a stunning meditation on widows who keep their departed spouses forever present in their hearts. Accompaniment: Piano-Maureen Zoltek, Flute-James Blanchard, Viola-Chad Kaltinger.
Pay-What-You-Can tickets are valid for 30 days of viewing access!
https://www.operasj.org/love-and-secrets/
After the Trilogy, we dry our eyes as we ride the bus back to the Magic Opera Flying Carpet. We are off to London and everyone except Manon-la Chat has an umbrella and rain boots. Manon exclaims she simply will not go out if the weather does not suit her.
How we love to be in London for its fantastic British breakfast! Today's fare consists of fried eggs, buttered toast, pork sausage, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, fried bread, and a slice of a black pudding similar to blood sausage. Although it is more traditional to drink tea, I drink a large mocha latte with my breakfast. Afterwards, we leave for town and a day of shopping.
In the evening, we meet at Covent Garden for Verdi's La Traviata. Soprano Ermonela Jaho stars as Violetta Valery, with Charles Castronovo as her lover Alfredo and Placido Domingo as Alfredo's stern father Giorgio Germont. Tour members know that La Traviata, based on La Dame aux Camellias by Alexandre Dumas fils, is inspired by the life of Parisian courtesan, Marie Duplessis. Richard Eyres' engrossing naturalistic production features designs by Bob Crowley. Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda leads the Royal Opera Orchestra in Verdi's score.
LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrWPGAoOMXg
After the show, we bus back to the Flying Carpet for wine and British cheese. Tour members and I enjoy another complete English breakfast on our vehicle as we begin our flight east to Bulgaria.
It's May and the flowers are abundant as we disembark in Sofia. Manon has no worries, it's warm and dry in Bulgaria. She joins us on a trip into this vibrant city that most of us have never seen. After some shopping, we meet at a the designated restaurant for pre-theater dinner of traditional Eastern European food.
Our gourmet meal begins with tarator soup made with yogurt, water, cucumber, oil, garlic, and dill. Walnuts may be added if desired. Quick to prepare, the soup is served cold. We also order Meshana skara, a combination of grilled meats which includes kyufte (meatballs), kebabche (grilled minced meat), and karnache (Italian sausage). The meat goes well with our side dish, a shopska salata of chopped vegetables and Bulgarian white sirene cheese.
Sofia's Opera and Ballet presents Verdi's Attila. In his attempt to conquer the world, Attila the Hun destroys all that lies in his path. No one seems to be able to halt his advance until a captive woman swears to avenge her father's death. It is hard to imagine a more fitting setting for Verdi's incendiary drama, Attila, than Sofia Opera and Ballet's 2011 production staged in front of the historic fortress of Tsarevets. Sung in Italian, subtitles are available in English. The performance is available until June 19, 2021.
LINK https://operavision.eu/en/library/Óperas Click on Attila.
Back on the Flying Carpet and enroute to Italy, we compare British wine and cheese with that of Bulgaria. We conclude that local wine, not to be found in the UK, is excellent in Bulgaria, but the appeal of Sofia's cheeses is considerably less sophisticated.
The Macerata Music Festival actually began in 1921 with a performance of Verdi's Aida in the Arena Sferisterio. After a disastrous second year due to rain, however, the festival lay dormant until 1967. The open-air stadium or sphaeristerium arena seats approximately 4,000 people, depending upon the specific stage settings. No one objects to the reclining Manon viewing the performance from her Cat-illac on my lap.
In Mozart's The Magic Flute, a handsome prince falls in love with an abducted princess. Armed with musical instruments, he and his companion mount a rescue mission that tests their commitment to truth, love and humanity itself. Staging a mass revolt against the powers that be, British director Graham Vick has enlisted a hundred local people as demonstrators occupying makeshift camps on the flanks of the Sferisterio's impressive open air stage. Sung in modern Italian, Mozart's famous singspiel takes on a vitality that stresses the opera's folk roots and conveys the impression that the action is taking place today. This 2018 performance is sung in Italian and subtitled in English. It is available until July 07, 2021.
LINK https://operavision.eu/en/library/Óperas Click on The Magic Flute.
After the performance, the Magic Opera Flying Carpet takes us to Rome for refueling, both mechanical and human. We spend the night there and wake to Continental breakfast with every imaginable variety of morning coffee. Then we begin the five hour flight to chilly Stockholm. The Swedish sky is blue; the clouds are fluffy and white, but a not-so-gentle breeze warns of an evening storm.
In Stockholm, the Royal Swedish Opera presents composer Kaija Saariaho's secular oratorio, La Passion de Simone. The work features mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie Von Otter in a captivating piece about Simone Weil. How many lives can a person live in just 34 years? French-Jewish philosopher and mystic Simone Weil, who took part in the Spanish Civil War, was forever on the move in search of new truths. La Passion de Simone is the third of four collaborations between Saariaho and French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf. This concert was recorded in 2020 in association with the Jewish Cultural Association of Sweden. Sung in French, subtitles are available in English. The stream is available until July 2021.
LINK: https://operavision.eu/en/library/. Click on Performances and then Operas.
Boarding the Magic Opera Flying Carpet after the show, tour members grab our thick red blankets to keep warm as they cruise over the moonlit ocean, enroute to Switzerland. We offer Swiss recipe hot chocolate during the flight. Geneva cafés use 70% grand cru chocolate and their bubbly top layer is chocolate milk, not plain milk. The brown foam mixes with the rest of the drink all the way to the last sip, making the drink decadent and light at the same time. After parking in Geneva, we head straight for the opera house and Pelléas et Mélisande as time is short and the weather is wet. Manon remains napping on the Flying Carpet.
Lost in a forest, Prince Golaud meets a mysterious woman, Mélisande, and takes her home to his dark castle. There, she grows fonder of her new husband's half-brother, Pelléas, sparking a fatal love triangle between the three of them. In a perfect synergy of the arts, choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, together with the legendary performance artist Marina Abramovic, stage this 2021 Pelléas et Mélisande as a cosmic dream. As with Debussy's impressionistic music, the performers dispense with illustration so as to bring out the hidden emotions of their characters. Sung in French. subtitles are available in English. The stream is available until August 19, 2021.
When we arrive back at the Flying Carpet, we find that Manon has slipped away and we begin to search for her. After the better part of an hour, a wet, bedraggled cat meows at the door. She promises to be "the best cat in the world" if we let let her return to her warm bed. She will stay inside the vehicle for the rest of this trip!
After that, we were off to Bologna, a great city for food as well as opera. Tour members indulge in tortellacci, one of the dishes for which the city is justly famous. It consists of large pasta shapes stuffed with spinach, meat, or onions sautéed in butter. With the pasta, we drink an elegant local white wine. Afterwards, we head for Bologna's Teatro Comunale and its 1986 rendition of Verdi's Macbeth.
The cast includes, Macbeth-Leo Nucci, Lady Macbeth-Shirley Verrett, Banco-Samuel Ramey, Macduff-Veriano Luchetti, Malcolm-Antonio Barasorda, Lady-Anna Caterina Antonacci, Doctor-Sergio Fontana, Conductor-Riccardo Chailly, leading the Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=curVq0MBtcc
We have brought portions of zuppa Inglese back to the Flying Carpet for a midnight snack. A type of parfait, zuppa Inglese is made up of custard, chocolate cream, and ladyfingers soaked in alchermes, a bright red aromatic herb liqueur that gives the dessert its brilliant color. Ours is topped with meringue and whipped cream, the only part of the dessert that interests Manon. She later retires washing the cream off her happy face.
On arrival in Berlin, we find the weather cold and wet. Manon refuses an afternoon leashed promenade and curls up in a chair. I realize I should wear something to this evening's gala concert that can take the wet weather. Tiny massed plastic sequins sewn on nylon jersey should solve the problem. We stop at a Berlin quick take-out sandwich shop. I get a Reuben stacked so high with pastrami, sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese that binge eating is not a choice but a responsibility.
The 2007 gala at the Deutsche Oper Berlin was premiered for the benefit of the German AIDS Foundation. Here, opera fans can enjoy some of the most beloved arias by Rossini, Verdi, Massenet, Giordano, Wagner, Puccini, Donizetti, Bellini and Lehár performed by internationally renowned singers including Agnes Baltsa, Piotr Beczala, Pavol Breslik, Franz Grundheber, Štefan Kocán, Nino Machaidze, Angela Marambio, Marina Rebeka, Matti Salminen, and Krassimira Stoyanova. They are accompanied by the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin conducted by Lawrence Foster.
Rossini: Overture from L'Italiana in Algeri.
Rossini: "La calunnia è un venticello" from Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Štefan Kocán, bass)
Verdi: "Sempre libera" from La Traviata (Marina Rebeka, soprano & Pavol Breslik, tenor)
Massenet: "Pourquoi me réveiller" from Werther (Piotr Beczala, tenor)
Giordano: "Nemico della patria" from Andrea Chenier (Franz Grundheber, baritone)
Giordano: "La mamma morta" from Andrea Chenier (Angela Marambio, soprano)
Wagner: "Mannenruf" from Götterdämerung (Matti Salminen, bass & Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin)
Puccini: "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi (Agnes Baltsa, mezzo-soprano)
Rossini: "Cruda sorte" from L'Italiana in Algeri (Agnes Baltsa, mezzo-soprano)
Donizetti: "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'Elisir d'Amore (Pavol Breslik, tenor)
Puccini: "Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì" from La Bohème (Krassimira Stoyanova, soprano)
Bellini: "Ah! Non credea mirarti... Ah! Non giunge" from La Sonnambula (Nino Machaidze, soprano & Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin)
Lehár: "Lippen schweigen" from Die Lustige Witwe (Pavol Breslik, tenor)
Lehár: "Freunde, das Leben ist lebenswert" from Giuditta (Piotr Beczala, tenor)
Lehár: "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" from Das Land des Lächelns (Nino Machaidze, Angela Marambio, Marina Rebeka & Krassimira Stoyanova, soprano; Agnes Baltsa, mezzo-soprano; Piotr Beczala & Pavol Breslik, tenor; Franz Grundheber, baritone; Štefan Kocán & Matti Salminen, bass)
LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSTILEgMDnQ&t=84s
Just before dawn, we takeoff for the icy Alps so we can watch the peaks reflect the bright pinks and oranges of the sunrise. We are heading for Reggio Emilia which is about an hour south of Milan. For a change of pace, we visit the Reggio Emilia Civic Museum to see some of the first man-made copper arrowheads.
LINK https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/YwLSxN5_c2eUKg
After a delightful meal of lasagna al forno, creamy chocolate cake, and demi tasse in Reggio Emilia, we ride our chartered bus to the Valli Municipal Opera Theater. Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia stars César Cortés as the Count of Almaviva, Pablo Ruiz as Don Bartolo, Michela Antenucci as Rosina, Simone del Savio as Figaro, Guido Loconsolo as Don Basilio, and Ana Victoria Pitts as Berta. The director is Fabio Cherstich, the set is by Nicholas Bovey, and costumes are by Arthur Arbesser. Leonardo Sini leads the Orchestra of the Valli Municipal Opera of Reggio Emilia. Subtitles are available in English for this 2021 performance.
LINK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWMBUX1KgCw
By popular request, we order some more of that fabulous Italian zuppa Inglese to celebrate the end of our tour and our return to sunny, if slightly smoggy, Los Angeles.
Photo of Susan Graham in Three Decembers by David Allen courtesy of Opera San Jose. Photo of Susan Graham Signature Recital courtesy of Los Angeles Opera.
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