Opera Small Talk

[Florestan]

Another interesting site:
http://www.operacast.com/

[MAuer]

I'm two days late with this one . . . On Sunday, tenor Francisco Araiza celebrated his 70th birthday. At the beginning of his career, he established an international reputation as an interpreter of roles by Mozart and Rossini; later, he moved into progressively heavier roles, from Faust and Hagenbach (La Wally) to Verdi, Puccini, and German Romantic parts such as Max and Florestan.

[MAuer]

Well, I've purchased my subscription to the Cincinnati Opera's 2021 summer season, and now I'm fervently hoping that by the middle of next June, there will be a COVID-19 vaccine and I will have been vaccinated.

[Nemorino]

I can relate! Santa Fe Opera finally announced their next summer festival, and I'm going to buy season tickets. Even with the uncertainty. (New Mexico currently has a mandatory 2-week quarantine on out-of-state visitors like me, so I'm just going to pray that things are a little more normalized next year.)

[Florestan]

.............................mispost deleted

[MAuer]

By the end of this month, Ohio will have started its program to vaccinate those at highest risk of infection (medical/health care professionals, first responders, employees and residents in congregate care settings) for COVID-19. So I'm cautiously optimistic that by the time the Cincinnati Opera's 2021 summer seasons begins, the general population will have been immunized and life will be back to something approaching normal.

[Nemorino]

If all things go well - vaccines on their way to being approved in record time - I hope to see my first live opera in a year in March. The Dallas Opera is sticking to their schedule, at 30% capacity, with livestreams available as well.

Although I read there will be no intermissions... I thought that was gonna be hard for DON CARLO, so I looked closer and it's gonna be abridged to 90 minutes. LOL, I don't know about that!... But I'll go anyway and count myself lucky to be able to luxuriate in some well-rested voices singing their hearts out.

[MAuer]

This sounds a lot like what a number of opera houses in Europe were doing during the summer/early autumn -- reduced audience sizes, and often abridged arrangements of operas performed with no intermission. Attendees were required to wear masks, yet in many instances were allowed to remove the masks once the performance began. I honestly couldn't see the sense in that; lowering the house lights didn't lower the risk of spreading infection.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

This sounds a lot like what a number of opera houses in Europe were doing during the summer/early autumn -- reduced audience sizes, and often abridged arrangements of operas performed with no intermission. Attendees were required to wear masks, yet in many instances were allowed to remove the masks once the performance began. I honestly couldn't see the sense in that; lowering the house lights didn't lower the risk of spreading infection.

That is absurd.
Even 30% capacity is not good.
A South Korean study showed a case of Covid-19 being caught by a person who was 20 ft from an infected woman who stayed in the room for 5 minutes. A 3+ hour opera? Regardless of decreased capacity, there will be a risk.

I think companies should wait for the first semester to result in all people in the US who want a vaccine, to get one, and have full performance in the second semester.

At that point if someone has unwisely declined the vaccine and catches the virus in an opera house, then that's on the person's boneheaded decision.

[MAuer]

On a happier note . . . A lovely surprise arrived in yesterday’s mail in the form of a holiday CD produced by the Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music. Earlier in his career, the CO’s Artistic Director, Evans Mirageas, had been a record producer with Decca, and he’s the producer for this album. Stephen Baum is the engineer and editor for the disc, recorded in early/mid-November at CCM’s Werner Recital Hall and on the Juget-Sinclair organ. The contents are a mix of vocal and instrumental, classical/traditional and popular pieces associated with the season, including a couple of what I think are Hebrew songs for Hanukkah (“Hanerot Halalu” and “Ma’oz Tzur”). I know at least a couple of the singers have appeared in CO performances.
There are some very imaginative folks at the Cincinnati Opera, including new General Director Chris Milligan. Kudos to them and their associates at CCM for coming up with such a wonderful idea, especially during a time when we can all use some extra cheering-up.

[MAuer]

A couple of items gleaned from interviews in the December issue of Das Opernglas:
- Lawrence Brownlee has another recording in the works, this one an album of 24 Italian songs and arias, among them Giordani’s “Caro mio ben.”
- At the beginning of the 2021-22 season, Jonas Kaufmann will sing the title role of Verdi’s Otello in Naples, with Michele Mariotti on the podium.

[MAuer]

Plácido Domingo celebrates his 80th birthday today, a memorable milestone in the life of this great artist. While one can’t overlook the findings of investigators hired by the Los Angeles Opera that credible evidence exists of his engaging in sexual harassment of women colleagues over an extended period of time, one also can’t deny that he’s made enormous contributions to opera during his long career. As a singer, conductor, opera company executive, and founder of the prestigious Operalia vocal competition, Domingo is a giant.