Thanks Salt Lake City!

Metropolitan Opera National Council
2011 Utah District Auditions

Each year these auditions enable the finest young operatic talent to audition for The Metropolitan Opera and compete for awards. The winners of the Utah District auditions will compete in the Rocky Mountain Regional auditions. The winner of the regional auditions will compete with other regional winners on the stage of The Metropolitan Opera in New York City for a national award.

Utah District Preliminary Auditions
Friday, January 7, 2011, 11 AM – 5:30 PM
Utah District Final Auditions
Saturday, January 8, 2011, 3 PM – 5 PM

Both rounds of auditions are free to attend, open to the public and will be held in Libby Gardner Concert Hall, University of Utah campus (1395 Presidents Circle, Salt Lake City).

Judges:
Samuel Ramey, Bass-baritone and 1972 National winner of the MONC Auditions
William Powers, Director of Artistic Administration for Pittsburgh Opera
Brad Trexell, Director of Artistic Planning for Opera Colorado

Official Accompanists:
Carol Anderson, Principal Coach for Utah Opera and Coach for The Santa Fe Opera
Jeremy Frank, Assistant Conductor for L.A. Opera

Additional information may be found at www.utahdistrictauditions.org

Congratulations David!

I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for our victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit. – John F. Kennedy

It was an interesting end.  Last Wednesday, was the opening night of Trilogy at Juilliard.  It was a short evening of rarely performed one-act operas by Modest Mussorgsky, Ernst Krenek, and Benjamin Fleischmann.  Honestly, I had never seen anything composed by the latter two composers.  In his notes, James Conlon (this project was his brainchild), who conducted the evenining wrote about the importance of re-investigating short works that had either short or no history performance.  All in all, the three one-act operas performed back to back without intermission lasted a little over ninety minutes.  I don’t think any of these works (the Krenek piece was literally a little over twenty minutes in length) could stand on its own but combined created a lovely evening.  Beyond this, it gave the Juilliard orchestra an opportunity to shine under one of current day’s finest conductors, James Conlon, and a most interesting experience to the school’s singers.  The standout being a Chinese bass-baritone named Sheng Yang.  I happened to be there on opening night and it was a veritable “who’s who” evening within the industry.  I have a hunch this production will be seen elesewhere.

The next morning, I took the subway to Penn Station and boarded a train to Philadelphia.  I arrived a full 25 minutes before my first appointment due to delays.  Here’s the neat thing.  Philadelphia is one of those cities where it’s possible to get just about anywhere downtown within minutes.  The train station (unlike the airport) is adjacent to downtown so I hopped a cab to my hotel, threw my bags in the room and traveled to my appointment a pied and arrived just in time.  My appointment, was to hear three hours of auditions at the Academy of Vocal Arts (see last post).  What an interesting place.  I hadn’t been before so was surprised that one this country’s most honored opera training programs takes place in an old brownstone house in the middle of the city.  No high tech, modern University structure, but a remodeled house(!).  It’s even complete with one the world’s smallest theater stages.  The whole space for the theater (including stage, orchestra area and seating) is smaller than a high school gym.  Fantastic!  Here young artists are carefully handled over three to four years and allowed to have wonderful operatic performance experiences without feeling the need to make themselves heard in a large hall.  Very healthy.  The result was that all of the singers had healthy techniques, above average language skills and were — on the whole — good communicators of text and drama.  We actually have one of them coming to perform in March.  Her name is Nina Yoshida Nelsen and she’ll be performing the role of Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro.

That evening, I saw Italian Girl in Algiers and there is a high likelihood that you will see that same production here in Salt Lake City soon!  One of the stars was Daniel Belcher as Taddeo whom you have seen recently as Dandini in Cinderella and in the title role of The Barber of Seville.  Yes…he’s already contracted for this as well!

The next day I moved on to Pittsburgh…more on that later…

Christopher

“Music makes better people.”  Plato

Quickly…Santa Fe was another magical experience.  The last night we were there included a dinner hosted by the outgoing General Director, Richard Gaddes (he’s retiring) at “the ranch” and a wonderful performance of Handel’s Radamisto.  I must admit, while baroque opera plots tend to be somewhat convoluted by nature, Radamisto may take the prize.  I won’t go into the story as…really…in baroque opera it doesn’t matter anyway.

What DOES matter is orchestra and singers; the rest is details.  Yes, cool staging is great and this was a typical David Alden production which means someone is cross-dressing and the major set element is going to be a big, dominating wall.  We were not disappointed (note: while typical elements, David Alden does do some incredibly imaginative stuff in his productions).  David Daniels was the star vehicle for this production…he was great in the slow numbers and almost great in the faster pieces.  The big news is Heidi Stober once again stole the show.  Some of you will remember Heidi Stober from Utah Opera’s Ensemble Program, the young artist training program.  She was also First Lady in our Magic Flute a few years ago.  Heidi has gone on to become a real phenom in the world of opera.  This coming season she has a lovely multi-production contract with the Berlin State Opera.  We’re so PROUD of her!  She even managed to steal the show while dressed in a male, fat-suit with a fez atop a comb-over wig.  No mistaking the voice, however.

So…with a great Handel opera under our belts, we proceeded home…well…almost…we had a little mechanical issue with our vehicle…but…it only delayed us a day and what a place to have to spend it.  For those of you truly interested, ask me THAT story when you see me.  It’s kind of interesting.

Now, here I sit in my hotel in Seattle.  I must admit, I’m a huge fan of this city and this time of year it is even more amazing.  I refer to July and August in the Emerald City as the great lie: no rain, warm and lots of sun.  Not exactly what Seattle is known for.

So…why Seattle in August?  Principally, I’m here to see the second installment of Seattle Opera’s International Wagner Competition (IWC).  The first one was two years ago and it was a wonderful event.  The General Director here, Speight Jenkins, says this year’s talent is even better.   If you are unaware, Seattle is known for its commitment to the works of Richard Wagner which makes it a perfect place to hold the competition.  Speight hears singers in Munich, London and New York and brings the finalists to Seattle.  I can’t wait.  (I’ll write later about Seattle Opera’s dedication to the Ring Cycle, scheduled to happen again next summer.)

In the mean time, I took in Seattle Opera’s production of Aida this evening.  Now, Seattle Opera usually has two casts, especially for the popular operas.  I chose the “Silver Cast” as I know the artists in the “Gold Cast.”  Usually the Silver Cast members are a bit younger and from other countries.  This was the case tonight.  The title role and the Radames especially were interesting.  Watching people new to their role and still developing their talents is always a fun experience; you know the talent is there and to be part of seeing them grow is a whole different type of excitement.  Notable was  Margaret Jane Wray as Amneris and the conductor, Riccardo Frizza who delivered a lovely orchestral experience.  The sets and costumes were simple but evocative of ancient Egypt.  No major statement here, just good old fashioned grand opera.

More tomorrow…

Here are a list of Utah Symphony’s upcoming performances:

September 2008
Ode to Joy (September 12, 13) Classical A
A Waterbird Talk (September 24, 25) Ardean Watts Contemporary Chamber Series
Judy Garland in concert with the Utah Symphony (September 26, 27) Pops
Salute to Youth (September 30) Discovery

October 2008
Land of the Midnight Music (October 10, 11) Classical B, Finishing Touches
Marvin Hamlish with the Utah Symphony (October 17, 18) Pops
Halloween High-Jinks (October 25) Lollipops
Bruckner’s 4th – A Big Brass Show (October 31, November 1) Classical C

November 2008
Elgar’s Cello Concerto (November 7, 8 ) Classical A
An Evening of Film Music (November 14, 15) Pops
Shostakovich’s Response (November 21, 22) Classical C, Finishing Touches
Sing-it-Yourself Messiah (November 29, 30)

Since I’m a brass player (trumpet & French horn), I’m really excited for Bruckner’s 4th and Shostakovich’s 5th symphonies. In fact, I’ve been looking forward to these since I first heard we were performing them earlier this year. Both of them have awesome brass parts – and they’re loud and exciting, two qualities I love in music. Ode to Joy and Elgar’s Cello Concerto (if you’ve seen August Rush, you’ll recognize this song, kind of) are also going to be really fun.

Utah Symphony will perform her orchestral work, Made in America. This 15-minute piece is truly an American work in every sense of the word: through a partnership program between the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet The Composer, this pieces “toured” all 50 states and was featured on programs by some 65 orchestras during the 2005-07 seasons. Over a span of two seasons, this piece saw more performances in more states than the much heralded Police reunion tour! Read Joan Tower’s program notes here. Greg Sandow, a classical music icon himself, writes about this grand undertaking here.