OperaNow! #229: Room & Board...and FOOD

Deborah Voigt bares all in new book...Conductor backs out of performance when they won't play Hatikva...The Hymens are back!...Flordia Grand Opera receives donation to save Ft. Lauderdale performances...Can you procreate and create?...Craigslist.

Oliver says farewell Boheme with a broes before hoes dedication.

Guess Who Died?

This week features Michael, The OC, Doug Dodson, Jenny Rivera and Matt Boresi of the hit Podbean podcast, White Dad Problems.

Check out Matt's upcoming show with Urban Arias here.

Comments

[Timothy]

I really, really love Sondra, but agree that her diction is not always spot on, but then Joan and Leontyne sounded like they shot up Novocaine before they sang, but you can't really argue with their results. I don't know that Radvanovsky is on the same level as those two, but maybe some day. Her Leonora is pretty stellar.

[i 'mel] I saw the broadcast of Les Troyens a few years ago and he was pretty stellar. He sounds great and I hear he isn't a total douchebag, which is refreshing. (Alagna...)

I listen to pre-weight loss Debbie sing "Dich teure Halle" and weep sometimes. I'm glad she's finally dealing with everything and getting healthy, but that VOICE. It was so gorgeous. I heard her last year in a recital and a lot of the voice is getting better, but there are parts where she doesn't seem to have any damn idea what she's doing. She did, however, do an encore where she sat down and played the piano, which was one of the best things I've ever seen. Girl can play.

Anita Rachvelishvili. I heard her when I studied in Berlin. I wasn't terribly impressed, but it might have been an off night for her. Also, she was singing Carmen and I really only want to hear highlights. I've never been to a production I particularly enjoyed. Maybe I'm broken.

I'm really hoping FGO keeps up the fundraising and doesn't fold. Todd Thomas sings most of their Verdi baritone stuff and I think he's one of the best damn baritones singing currently. He was the one who came out of the audience to sing the second half of Otello for an ailing Iago at the Chicago Lyric.

Holy shit, young Bastianini. You are not wrong Oliver. He's no Mariusz Kwiecień, but he's still a babe.

I'm currently working on Vecchia and really not enjoying it, so I'm glad you played those recordings. I hadn't listened to them for a while and now I'm feeling more inspired to work on it. Matt's comments about how the text is actually decent helped; I was kind of stuck thinking that he was just singing to his stupid coat and that I didn't want to sing a stupid aria about a stupid coat.

I agree with Doug. People question my decision to study music all the damn time and my response is always "Screw you, I'm going to kill myself trying to do this." I fully intend to make a serious go of this for as long as I can. I'll reassess every few years, but I don't care if I'm waiting tables at 35. I want to sing and if I have to supplement by teaching tone-deaf 5th graders, by God that's what I'll do. Hear that Mom? I'M NOT GOING TO MEDICAL SCHOOL.

I don't think I'd ever listened to Obraztsova. Holy shit. That's some full-throated singing.

It is absolutely rich parents for a kid. The kid is probably 12 and the parents are tiger parents who read someone's memoir and decided a live in teacher was the only way their kid could be a star.

Great episode. Keep up the good work.

(Oliver, I'm singing Bottom this summer in Chicago. I remember that you did Midsummer a while back, but did you discuss his aria?)

[zach]

I didn't love Sondra until very recently when I saw her in recital in Los Angeles. Sondra Radvanovsky's voice is what I would call gigantic. Her voice can really fill the house and when she wants to, she can really let out some colossal high notes. However, she had a surgery for a node in one of her vocal cords so she is more reluctant to sing high notes around E flat. I think that what Oliver must have heard in Bolena was a high D. Anyway, I wish Oliver didn't feel like he had to be careful in his critique.

I also have pre-ordered Debbie's autobiography for my Kindle. I didn't listen to Voigt very much before her surgery. I know her mostly because of the little black dress incident at the ROH and as a Met HD host where she just seems so relatable and fun. I have only been following her career in her current vocal state but I have heard some recording of her from her prime and I do feel that she once had an incredible voice. She can still be entertaining now for various reasons, but her prime has passed.

Voigt is in her mid 50s so I think her surgery came at a time when her voice was changing anyway, so you can't attribute her vocal decline to just the surgery. A soprano who is still in her prime well into her 50s is an exception, not the rule.

I did not study music in college, but I don't think that going into academia some well kept secret. A lot of the A-list American stars at the Met went to college to study voice to become teachers but they got lucky enough to have a singing career. But I don't think you should push it until 35 years old just waiting tables and hoping something will happen because 35 should be the prime of any singer. If you are not getting anywhere by around your late 20s you need to start thinking of backup plans.

[zach]

Doug's Counter Tenor Cabaret is on ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/57922144.