HAHA! Happy valentines day, everyone!


http://www.starfiction.com/hcvalentines.html <-- More here!!!!!

Tags: valentines day

Today was so boring D:

Tags: quiz

As everyone here probably knows, the biggest story in opera right now is Roberto Alagna's fleeing the stage at La Scala after he was booed following his rendition of Celeste Aida.

Here's a clip of the booing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whqtu4A9a88

Here's the full aria:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-U1_pDfT1w

Ha!! XD

Tags: opera
Current Mood: bouncy

Hallo all! I'm doing my term paper on opera over the course of the French Revolution and am really interested in hearing what other people think of this plan:

(This is a rough guide, not including all of the operas I'll discuss; I've only just started research)
-intro (thesis: the French Revolution changed opera)
-some opera of the ancien régime
-Mozart (either Le nozze di Figaro, for satire of the aristocracy, or Die Zauberflote, for Enlightenment ideas - also, opera for bourgeois instead of aristocracy)
-revolutionary opera: Cimarosa's Gli Orazi ed i Curiazi, Beethoven's Fidelio, Gossec's La Triomphe de la Republique
-counter-revolutionary opera: Gretry's Richard Coeur-de-Lion, or at least an aria from it, and L'inquisition de Madrid, whichch seems like it could be about the Terror - must find actual info on it), Cherubini's Les deux journées
-Napoleonic: Lesueur's Ossian, Spontini's La vestale
-possibly Rossini? opera of post-revolution, development of bel canto and grand opera
-Giordano's Andrea Chenier (about the French Revolution, uses music of the period)

Also possibly mentioning Jean-Jacques Rousseau's opera Le devin du village, because WTF he wrote opera? Am not sure where to include Le Congrès des rois (which seems to be a collaboration of various composers, or variously attributed, or several different operas), but it should go somewhere once I read more on it. Mehul and Paisiello etc. will probably fit in somewhere when I figure out where to discuss them.

Interestingly enough, I found out that until around the time of the French Revolution, no tenors hit high notes in chest voice. It was then that the "heroic tenor" started showing up in opera. Matteo Babbini, one of the first, was in Paris at the time of the Revolution.

What do you think? Is anything obvious missing? Anything else you suggest I include?

Tags: essay
Current Mood: busy

Omigosh. Today was totally wicked :) First, we got our essays back from that snob of a teacher that hates me, and I got the highest mark in the class! (She seemed pretty pissed. Haha!)

Then it got a bit annoying though. Someone just had to borrow my fourth Harry Potter book during lunch and they crumpeled some of the pages and the cover! Grrr! The Nerve! I was soooo pissed off i almost lost it!

Thank god for Marie. (And you know it, hun ;) )

I'll give you back your CD soon, kay kay?

And thanks sooo sooo much for showing me that Yummy lucius picture, Guys! Its going on my wall, lol!

Sooo Sexy!!!

Current Mood: Excited
Current Music: Ave Maria

So you want to be an opera singer? Or just a classical singer in general? Well, if that's your goal, at some point in time you will probably attend a masterclass or a training program where some professional singer or other will give you this piece of advice:

If you can do anything else besides singing and still be happy, then do it.

Uh-huh. It's like someone telling you not to smoke cigarettes, all the while puffing away. This advice is illogical, ridiculous and stupid and you can tell anyone who feeds you this line that I said so.

I have yet to meet a human being who was so ridiculously one-dimensional that they could only be happy doing one thing. The fact is that a normal person can be content doing any number of things. We don't sing because we have to sing. We don't sing because we have no choice but to sing. Think about what a hellish fate that would be. Even if you make a career in singing, you won't be singing all the time. Here is the truth: We sing because we love singing. We sing because we want to sing. We sing because we choose to sing. If singing ever starts to feel some sick addiction that has been thrust upon you and is outside of your control and your desire, then it is time to stop singing and get some therapy. Never give up your right to have a choice.

Of course, pursuing a singing career is not the easiest choice to justify. It's so much easier to pretend that we are helpless little victims of fate who have no other options. Well, once you start playing the victim, you will never ever stop. It's time for singers to stop falling into that trap. Play dumb if you must but don't be dumb. We are choosing to sing and we are choosing the role that singing will play in our lives.

When I started singing, there was almost no information available for young singers. My teachers had solo careers some twenty years ago when the world was very different from the way it is now. I attended masterclasses that barely brushed the surface or offered us useless information and platitudes like the famous "If you can do anything else and be happy..." I was left to figure everything out through trial and error and I am still learning every single day. I've made every mistake in the book and at some point, in the midst of writing another bunch of checks so that I could have the privilege of applying for a job, I promised myself that if I had any kind of success at all in this biz, I would return the favor by making damn sure that other young singers didn't have to go through the crap that I did. Well, I wouldn't call my career the best career in music but it is a career in music. So, now it's time to make good on the promise I made.

Tags: singing
Current Mood: bitchy

So, I am deciding on the songs I want to use for an audition CD for the summer music camp at University of California Stanislaus. The CD requires two contrasting songs that show the best of my voice and a chramatic scale of my full range. I am already accepted because I got into regional honor choirs back in November. What I am hoping for is scholarships.

I will be auditioning as a baritone and I have a range of a Low F to a High A. I have already decided that I will use my italian arts song, Alma Del Core by Antonia Caldara, it is great for showing my comfort range and my flare for dynamics, now what I need is a song of the musical genre. I would like to go a little bit heavier into my higher register, My arrangement of Alma Del Core only goes up too a D4. I was thinkg Forbidden fruit from The Apple Tree, or perhaps something more classical like Maria from West Side Story. Both of those songs go up to the High G, so it really is the top of my range.

Current Mood: busy

Omigosh!!! I haven't updated in such a long time! Marie's forcing me to do this thing every day and since I owe her I just had to follow through.

A couple of nights ago I went to see the Met digital movie broadcast. I love the concept behind these broadcasts but I have been somewhat disappointed in the sound quality. That aside let me just comment that Anna Netrebko was both thrilling as a singer/actor and was so beautiful! We are doing Norma this week at the Keller Auditorium so by closing night I am gonna be soooo Bellini'd out. Closing dress rehearsal, three performances and a three-hour-plus movie is enough Bellini for me for quite a while.

Our Norma is Brenda Harris. Those of you who are familiar with her from the Met or wherever will know what a wonderful artist she is. Those of you who don't know her...Go see her whenever you get a chance. She has a wonderful voice for bel canto, can act and is a very nice lady!!

In other news I can't wait for the new Harry Potter to come out! I'm rereading all the books again! I just love the series so much!

Luv you guys so much!
*winks at Mikey*

Tags: theatre
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Dawn Upshaw, soprano Molly Morkoski, Piano

Omg! ;P Friends at school (yea you especially Marie!!) forced me to get a LJ so here I am! XD

Now if only you guys can make me post in this thing. We'll see we'll see.

Tags: school
Current Location: school
Current Music: Phantom of the Opera