Before I get the music related stuff going, just wanted to include this picture I took of my beautiful 10 year old cousin Megan 'singing opera'...would you look at that relaxed jaw!
I love this CD. It's the type of thing that you can listen to over and over again and not get bored of it :) I'm in a group on Facebook who claim that 'you either love or hate Renée Fleming's voice' - however, as a definite lover, I'm really in the dark as to how you could hate it. Even my mother has said (I quote), 'Oh she has a nice voice...she makes those high screechy bits sound not so high and screechy'. That, folks, is praise indeed.
The recording of "Nel suo amore rianimata", from Giordano's Siberia, didn't initially grab me. The CD's full of hidden treasures (amongst the old war horses like "Si, mi chiamano Mimi") and for the time being I was far more preoccupied with the other tracks. It took a two minute performance slot on the Craig Ferguson show for Ms. Fleming to really sell this piece for me - and boy did she!
The simplistic piano reduction of the orchestral score, is present enough to hold the piece together, but sparse enough for the vocal line to really ring out...I've never heard a studio audience so at peace! It's not a 'rangey' aria by anyone's books; and it's the sustained melody and then sparkling climactic high notes that Renée does so well - and she's really allowed to shine with this arrangement. The music and the text are so deeply poetic that I simply fell in love with the entire thing. I've spent more time than I should trying to find a copy of the music, orchestral or otherwise, but to no avail!
As Siberia is not the best known opera in the world, it's sad that pieces like this never really come to light. In my opinion, it's fantastic that Renée Fleming is confident enough to perform such a rare piece with such conviction and poeticism on national television; a format where opera is not used to such exposure. Sure, we have Nessun dorma, and the Habanera - but just how many people have heard of Turandot? Carmen?
So you can imagine how excited I was when I heard that a new show about opera was coming to British television screens. This feeling ceased very quickly when I heard the name of said TV show; 'Popstar to Operastar'. Now, I'm all for opera exposure but here are my main problems with this concept: (prepare yourself for my inner grumpy old woman...)
1) Popstars will be coached how to sing in the operatic style; not only does this take years and years to develop, it's actually very dangerous if done incorrectly - these guys surely have careers to maintain after doing this show?!
2) If the aim of the program is opera exposure, they may be going about it the wrong way - taking the arias out of the exciting and dramatic context. If we want people to be interested in opera, surely we could broadcast more live productions; not just stand and sing the same old tunes.
3) Host Katherine Jenkins has never been in an opera during her professional career, and co-host Andrea Bocelli is only slightly better for having been involved in a handful - surely the competitors are setting off on the back foot anyway, and deserve input from people actually involved in the opera industry (not to mention the fact that this'll give a false impression to the TV viewers)
Rolando Villazon is the only saving grace of this new show, and I really hope that he kicks some butt and brings everyone down to earth a little bit - in a way that only a 'primo uomo' could.
Massive rant. BUT - I want to connect the two subjects by saying that if we want to get opera into the public eye, we need to take a leaf out of Renée Fleming's book (and if you haven't read the ACTUAL book, I suggest you do!). We need real, technically secure artists, acting and interpreting new extracts. We need live broadcasts of new productions, to bring the story and the context alive; to give people a real idea of what opera is all about - not simply a commercial TV show capitalising on renewed interest in classical music thanks to the winners of other reality TV shows...
Rant over. The End.
Tomorrow: "Priveghiati si va rugati" from the Romanian Orthodox Church repertory
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