Renata Tebaldi “Pace, Pace Mio Dio” from La Forza del Destino, Giuseppe Verdi
OPERA
Young Romanian Soprano Adela Zaharia Wins The First Prize of the Operalia
Young Romanian soprano Adela Zaharia has won the first prize of the Operalia opera competition, established by Spanish tenor Placido Domingo. She also won the section dedicated to the zarzuela, a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre similar to the operetta. The two awards total USD 40,000.
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How Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ Is Inspired By Wagner’s ‘Siegfried’
In fact, Tarantino is said to have been inspired, in part, by a visit to the opera alongside actor Christoph Waltz. The work they saw? “Siegfried.”
The opera itself makes an appearance at one point with Waltz’s character Dr. Schultz relating the myth to the protagonist Django.
Django is ultimately Siegfried’s surrogate in the opera, growing from a speechless slave, much like the inexperienced and brutish Siegfried of the opera, into a polished hero that slays his own dragon and saves the love of his life.
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Interview: Jennifer Johnston, Mezzo-Soprano
Who or what inspired you to take up singing, and make it your career?
I’ve always sung, since I was a little girl, and I’ve always loved music. So singing as a job seemed like a natural step. However, I didn’t follow a logical route, as I first became a Barrister, after reading Law at Cambridge University. But the lure of singing was too great in the end, and so I accepted a place at the Royal College of Music and I’ve never looked back.
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Watch A Virtual Opera watch a new production In A Very Different Setting – Inside A Shipping Container.
Magic Butterfly sees two classic operas reimagined by Welsh National Opera
Presented inside the unlikely setting of a shipping container at locations across the country, visitors don headsets which use the Google Daydream technology to present Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Puccini’s Madam Butterfly in animated form.
Thought to be the first production of its kind, WNO commissioned REWIND, an award-winning VR production agency who have worked with Icelandic singing star Bjork, to work with them on Magic Butterfly.
Visitors are invited into the shipping container in groups of four in turn to experience each of the performances – lasting eight minutes in total – while being given simple directions to control the experience.
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[News] Plácido Domingo to Conduct Wagner Opera At Bayreuth in 2018
Domingo is leading a Wagner opera in Bayreuth during the summer of 2018. The work of choice? “Die Walküre,” an opera he has performed previously in his career.
In fact, the role of Siegmund remains his most beloved Wagner interpretation, followed by his take on “Lohengrin” and “Parsifal.” Domingo has recorded other Wagner staples including“Tristan und Isolde,” “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” and “Tannhäuser.”
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Why Mozart’s Opera Is More Relevant Today Than Ever Before
James Blachly is Music Director of Geneva Light Opera.
What is true, and what is real? In Mozart’s music, there is always more than meets the eye, and very little that is black and white. Don Giovanni is, in some sense our hero, since it is his story. But he is also the villain; the original title of the opera was “The Scoundrel Punished.” We come to a performance of this opera knowing that he will get his just reward — that he will be dragged to a fiery punishment at the end. Even so, the story is told in such a way that many people find themselves rooting for him until the end, while also cheering when he is dragged to hell.
Every production of Don Giovanni has to decide how much to portray the title character as a lover or a murderer, as a hero or villain. Ultimately, Don Giovanni is a study in contradictions. He is both a nobleman of high station and a callous brute whose servant complains of his sloppiness while he eats; he is seductive and cruel; rash and cunning; foolish, risking all for seemingly meaningless victories, and also ultimately fearless even in the face of death.
We at the Geneva Light Opera have tried in our production of Don Giovanni to reveal all of the above, and more, in this marvelous work. Under the expert stage direction of Phil Lauriat, our internationally renowned cast and orchestra will entice the audience with superb music-making and dramatic insights.
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