It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

For Christmas, my sister got me a ticket to Ballet West's production of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. The world's best known ballet. I loved it! The first act had a lot more children, especially little boys, than I am used to. Fighting the Rat King was an army of little soldiers and the Rat King's death scene was hilariously over-the-top.The costumes were magnificent. When the Snow Queen made her appearance I was stunned at the brilliance of her costume. And as the first "real" ballerina on the program, after almost the entire first act, it was the performance I had been waiting for. Other highlights for me included Mother Ginger, the Chinese Tea dancers (which in this instance included a Chinese Parade Dragon), and the Russian Candy Cane dancers (5 men dressed in traditional Russian garb dancing traditional Russian folk dance).

    Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier

Snow Queen and Prince 

   Sugar Plum Cavalier

Snowflakes and Snow Queen

  The Rat King

Rat/Soldier Battle

Mother Ginger and Polichinelles

ChineseParadeDragon 

Arabian Coffee Dancers

The Greatest Chord in Music History

Last weekend I went to see Ballet West for the first time. I could hardly stay away since they were performing one of my favorite ballets by one of my favorite composers. Stravinsky's Firebird. I thought their production was fabulous. The Firebird was beautiful and elegant. I loved every moment.

 I was a nervous going into this. I had rented a version and was disappointed in the ending. The choreographer had the dancers just processing in during the wedding and some of my favorite music of all time. So when we got to the ending and the wedding I was surprised to recognize what must be the standard choreography by Michel Fokine. Instead of being disappointed by the wedding procession, I realized that perhaps the lack of dance at this moment showcases the music more than anything else could. This point is emphasized by the moment and what I consider to be the greatest chord in music history. (No, not  the Neapolitan second chord in Beethoven's Ninth.) All that happens is the music switches back to C major, but the way that Stravinsky approaches it makes that one chord breathtaking. On stage all movement came to a halt for that chord making it the focus of the entire ballet at that moment. Brilliant!

The second act was Petite Mort. I didn't know what to expect. I've never seen much modern dance but I loved it! It started with the men doing sabre work. The women later came out with Baroque ball gowns that flowed a little too smoothly even for ballerinas. Ah, they were set on casters... hilarious. Then, there was amazing partner work. All set to Mozart piano concertos. What's there not to love?

The third act was Who Cares? Dances set to Gershwin tunes. I didn't care for this set. The women wore standard looking dresses and the choreography was a bit cheesy and nothing surprising. I found it a bit repetitive.

My first experience with Ballet West was definitely a wonderful experience and I can't wait for future performances.

The Barber of Seville

Rossini's Barber of Seville is hilarious! This production at the Utah Opera was so much fun. My favorite scene was when Lindoro pretends to be the music teacher to fool Rosina's guardian, so he can woo fair Rosina. The gestures Lindoro used, as he gave Rosina her voice lesson, were recognizable to any voice student, and therefore, hilarious.

Something else I realized is that the role of Figaro is sung by a baritone. His entrance aria, "Largo al factotum della città", is on every best of opera CD there is and is in numerous movies and cartoons. It's a great aria, and who likes great arias? Tenors! So I'm used to hearing it performed by tenors. It's very different to hear the same aria, notes and everything, but sung by a baritone. Here is one of the best tenors ever, Placido Domingo.

Sei vendicata, o madre!

I moved to Utah in October of 2012. The first opera I was able to go to was Utah Opera's production of Verdi's Il Trovatore.

This was a great production. However, there were moments when the staging felt forced. As if the singers were moving just for the purpose of getting to their mark where they could "park and bark". And I wanted Azucena to be the greatest villain of all time but she just wasn't quite crazy enough. I mean, come on, at the end of the opera (spoiler alert) she kills the man she raised as her own son to get vengeance on her enemies! In this production the chorus really shines. They get to sing the famous Anvil song right before Azucena's aria. I love this opera and Azucena as a character.





Here's the Anvil Chorus followed by Azucena's aria in a MET production.

La Vie en Rose

I was preparing to blog about the ballet I went to last night when I saw how far behind I was. I was skipping a major, musical event in my life... The UCSB Chamber Choir Tour of Paris, Tours, and Nanclars, France!

Professor Gervais keeps our tours full of rehearsals. We could hardly complain as we were able to rehearse in beautiful churches and landmarks, including Notre Dame. They even gave us the code to the side gate. We had two performances in Notre Dame. We sang for Mass and a concert with the Notre Dame choral school which Professor Gervias had founded.

Paris is amazing! I loved touring the city and the opportunity to sing in such historic venues.

The opera Paris house is incredible. The location of Phantom of the Opera the most beautiful part was this reception hall.

One of our last days all together I hung out with Angky, Erica and Kristen. We did some shopping along the Champs Elysees, and walked pass the Arc de Triomphe on our way to the Eiffel Tower.

I stayed in Paris a few days on my own in order to see everything on my list. I had the time to see Sacre Coeur, Dome church (where Napoleon is burried) the Louvre, Musee' de l'Orangerie and Versailles.

One of our free days was in Tours. I really wanted to seesome castles so went with Cheryl to Chambord, Azay le Rideau, Chenonceau, and and Villandry.

-Some of my favorite quotes: "Look at all these French trees." "We have the evening free. Basically you can walk home any way you want to."
-Churches visited: Notre Dame, St. Etienne du Mont, St. Chapelle, Eglise Saint-Pierre-Ville, Tours Cathedral, LDS church in Tours, Eglise Saint-Antoine de Loches, Abbatiale Saint-Amant-de-Boixe, Dome Church, Sacre Coeur
-Towers climbed: Pantheon, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower
-Opera houses: Paris,
-Prisons toured: Conciergie
-Chateau visited: Azay le Rideau, Villandry, Chambord, Chenonceau
-Museums visited: Musee d' Louvre, L'Orangerie
-Palaces visited: Versailles
-Other: Arc de Triomphe, Catacombes, Moulin Rouge

The End is the Beginning is the End

I had saved this post but for some reason never published it. (Actual date May 2011)

This has been the quarter of recitals. If you count a major opera role as a major performance you only need to give one recital. Since most of the grad students either had a major role last year or are new this year we had a LOT of recitals. With some being on Sundays I missed some. I was fortunate enough to hear Ashley, Meghan, and Erica's recitals.

Ashley isn't a voice major and so, her recital had a bit more freedom than the rest of us. She included some musical theater, a piece she played on the piano, and she invited her sister up to sing Fleetwood Mac's Landslide. I've loved that song since before we performed a colorguard routine, to the Smashing Pumpkins cover, in high school.

Meghan is a Ph.D. musicology student and has the same teacher Ashley, Erica and I have. My favorite song on her program was a composition by Tchaikovsky. The entire song has one word- ah. It was so beautiful. The song can mean anything you want it to. It's very interesting that Tchaikovsky decided to give this part to the voice and not an instrument. The voice can communicate even without text.

Erica, as a Junior is required to perform a 1/2 hour of music. In this half hour she managed to arrange sets in German, French, Italian, and English. Her choices were original and of course, I loved her Barber set.

May 27th was the Chamber Choir's concert Reincarnation. As we round out the year of American music the excitement for our French tour gains momentum.

Part of the requirements to receive a Master's in Music is to pass a german and

italian reading exam. Both consisted of an hour pre-exam in the library. Where, with the aid of a dictionary we are given a paragraph to translate. If we pass the hour exam we are given the longer take-home exam, where we are still allowed to use a dictionary. I don't know what all the fuss was about. They really tried to scare us into buying texts, taking the alternate course, and tell us of those that studied all year for the exam. Don't tell anyone, but I passed both without studying at all. I mean, we could use our dictionaries! Easy-breazy. Wunderbar!


For my final vocal convocation I decided to sing Azucena's, Stride la Vampa, from Verdi's Il Trovatore. I really wanted to make a great final statement. I tried to remember everything Susana and I had worked on. I also knew I had to raise the level of drama- crazy drama. Azucena is crazy! In this aria, Azucena tells her fellow gypsies about her mother whom the count burned at the stake. To get revenge, Azucena kidnaps the count's son to throw into the fire. She burned a baby all right, but it was the wrong one. She accidently threw her own baby into the fire. Azucena decides to raise the count's son as her own, biding her time until her revenge will do the most damage. Verdi is opera at its finest!