text:
Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro
Inspired by Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais' Le Barbier de Séville and Le Mariage de Figaro
Beaumarchais's three satirical 'Figaro' plays guaranteed him lasting fame – particularly the first two, immortalized in opera by Rossini and Mozart. The irrepressible energy of Le Barbier de Séville (the first and most lighthearted of Beaumarchais's comedies) proved irresistible to Rossini, who in Il barbiere created a comic masterpiece. In Le nozze di Figaro, Mozart focussed primarily on the most human aspects of Beaumarchais' second 'Figaro' drama (while keeping plenty of the original's humour), to create one of the warmest and most life affirming works in Western art.
Donizetti's Maria Stuarda
Inspired by Friedrich von Schiller's Maria Stuart
In his great political drama Maria Stuart, Schiller criticizes monarchical absolutism and highlights the dangers of power, embodied in the character of Elisabeth I, who sends her cousin Maria Stuart to death without a fair trial. Donizetti and his librettist Giuseppe Bardari kept much of the play's essential message in Maria Stuarda; but they also removed the complicated political subplots, and created a love triangle between the Duke of Leicester and the two queens. Schiller's explorations of the dangers of absolute power, the benefits of democracy and the heroism of freedom-fighting also provided inspiration for Rossini (in Guillaume Tell) and Verdi (in Don Carlo).
Verdi's Rigoletto
Inspired by Victor Hugo's Le Roi s'amuse
Hugo's great drama depicting the amorous exploits of King Francis I of France was banned after just one performance in 1832, due to its unflattering depiction of a French monarch. When Verdi came across the play in 1850 he described the subject as 'grand, immense' and the character of the crippled jester Triboulet (who became Rigoletto) as 'one of the greatest creations in theatre'. He and his librettist had to fight energetically with the Italian censors to get permission to use Hugo's play – necessary amends included changing the King into a lower-ranking Duke and moving the action from France to Italy. However, much of the play's plot and dramatic tone remained intact. Rigoletto was a sell-out success and is still one of the most popular of all operas.
Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande
Inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande
Maurice Maeterlinck's fantastical Symbolist plays are rarely performed today, but his Pelléas et Mélisande was hugely popular in the 1890s. Maeterlinck's aesthetic – the exploration of characters' inner feelings through elements of the natural world, often in a fairytale-like setting – was regarded as a welcome contrast to the naturalism prominent in Parisian theatre of the time. Debussy described the effect of seeing the play in 1893 as 'like dynamite' for him. He treated Maeterlinck's text with great respect when he wrote his opera, leaving much of it intact and only omitting a few short scenes. He also ensured that every nuance could be clearly conveyed, with a predominantly syllabic word setting, almost like 'sung speech'.
Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream
Inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare's much-loved comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream inspired one of Benjamin Britten's most popular operas, composed in less than nine months. Britten and his partner Peter Pears (who took the comic role of Flute/Thisby in the opera's premiere) wrote the libretto, skillfully compressing and reorganizing Shakespeare's text while sticking faithfully to the Bard's words – Britten noted that they added only one line of their own. Britten heightened the supernatural strangeness of the fairy scenes by making Oberon a countertenor (a voice rarely used in opera at the time) and Puck a spoken role, and added to the comedy of the rustics' Pyramus and Thisby play by deftly parodying grand and bel canto opera.
Maria Stuarda runs 5–18 July 2014. Tickets are still available. The production is a co-production with Polish National Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, and is given with generous philanthropic support from Lord and Lady Laidlaw, Susan and John Singer and Michael Hartnall.
Rigoletto runs 12 September–6 October 2014. General booking opens on 15 July 2014.
Il barbiere di Siviglia runs 19 September–5 October 2014. General booking opens on 15 July 2014.]]>
Jette Parker Young Artist Dušica Bijelić has always been one for the limelight. She studied singing and piano from the age of eight, competed in poetry recitals and song competitions, and - at just 12 years old - hosted a children's programme on national TV in her native Serbia.
'It was a news channel specifically for kids, and I did it every weekend for about four years – it made me want to get into acting,' she says. 'But a teacher at school suggested I try opera and so I started having lessons. By the time I was 15, I was crazy about it and I knew it was what I wanted to do. Of course, my parents thought I was mad and that it was just a passing phase.'
However, despite her parent's misgivings, Dušica studied singing at the University of Fine Arts in Belgrade with Ljudmila Gross-Popović, achieving a Masters degree with Honours. She then went on to study in Vienna, Rome and New York, and made her operatic debut in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims at Teatro Real in Madrid. She was recently selected by The Independent as one of the top eight Bright Young things in the arts in 2014 (alongside The Royal Ballet's Francesca Hayward).
Dušica joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme in 2012, making her Covent Garden debut in Laurent Pelly's production of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable.
'I realized when I arrived how much I don't know. To be able to deliver a role well you need to have technique, diction and style; you need to know the context of the piece and the background of your character; and to be able to act and move according to the period. To put all this together, requires a huge amount of work,' she says. 'However, we get help in every aspect of this in our classes – whatever we need, the Programme gives us! Perfection doesn't exist, but I love trying to reach it and striving to be a better artist all-round.'
Watch Dušica working with Royal Opera language coach Alexandre Naoumenko on the nuances of performing Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin:
She has since performed on the main stage in Nabucco, Don Carlo, La rondine, Parsifal and Die Frau ohne Schatten.
'It is fantastic to perform work that is so different, and Covent Garden brings the best of everything. In every production, there are a couple of artist whom you aspire to emulate. You are in a really rich environment and so you are learning all the time.'
Dušica is currently performing the role of Barbarina in David McVicar's production of Le nozze di Figaro, which opened on 2 May.
'Le nozze di Figaro is fantastic – a real masterpiece,' she says. 'My character Barbarina is often represented as a free spirit and easygoing, but in this production, she is just a simple girl who has fallen in love. She wants to marry Cherubino and experience the life of a woman, but is very young and innocent. As with all small roles, getting to know her character is hard. I use my imagination a lot, inventing a story about my character to fill in what is missing from the libretto.'
As well as performing small roles on the main stage, the Young Artists perform in recitals and cover larger roles, studying them with the Programme coaches. At the moment, Dušica is covering the role of Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites.
'I had never heard Dialogues des Carmélites before; it's an unusual and tricky piece, but Poulenc's music is so exciting. I've been completely blown away by it,' she says.
'When I was younger, I always dreamed of performing Violetta in La traviata. Now, I'm not so sure. Because the repertory is so wide, I've realised you can go in so many different directions. I have no idea where the road will take me!'
Dušica Bijelić performs Berio's Folk Songs, Meet the Young Artists Week, The Royal Opera ©Catherine Ashmore, 2013
David Butt Philip as Prunier, Dušica Bijelić as Lisette, Susana Gaspar as Magda and Pablo Bemsch as Ruggero in the JPYA Summer Performance © ROH / Clive Barda 2013
Ashley Riches as Onegin and Dušica Bijelić as Tatyana in the JPYA Summer Performance © ROH / Clive Barda 2013
David Butt Philip as Prunier, Dušica Bijelić as Lisette, Susana Gaspar as Magda and Pablo Bemsch as Ruggero in the JPYA Summer Performance © ROH / Clive Barda 2013
Royal Opera Live: Michele Gamba and Dušica Bijelić rehearsing Eugene Onegin with vocal coach Alexandre Naoumenko. © ROH / Sim Canetty-Clarke 2013
Hanna Hipp as Olga, Ashley Riches as Onegin and Dušica Bijelić as Tatyana in the JPYA Summer Performance © ROH / Clive Barda 2013
Dušica is currently performing in Le nozze di Figaro. She will then perform in the JPYA Summer Performance on 20 July. The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme is supported by Oak Foundation. Find out more about the Programme.]]>
Le nozze di Figaro was composed in 1786, and was his first collaboration with the master librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. So how did composer and poet work together to write one of the most dramatically accomplished of all operas? We explore the partnership in two articles for The Royal Opera's programme book.
Jessica Waldoff writes in 'The Composer and the Stage': 'It is a commonplace of both the opera house and of Mozart biography that Mozart was a master dramatist. What is not as well known is the degree to which he concerned himself explicitly with dramatic concerns such as plot and staging. This is revealed in various letters of the late 1770s and early 80s. Most important, as he suggests in a letter of 1781, is the overall plan upon which the entire structure of the opera – including its music – depends: "The best thing of all is when a good composer, who understands the stage and is talented enough to make sound suggestions, meets an able poet, that true phoenix."'
The success of the collaboration between Mozart and his 'able poet' Da Ponte is very much in evidence in Figaro. Waldoff refers to the aria 'La vendetta' to show how Mozart's score wittily reveals the subtext of Da Ponte's libretto:
'Da Ponte has provided an absurd text, which Mozart sends up in a variety of ways. First Bartolo attempts high style (dotted rhythms and strong arrivals on downbeats), but the effect is undercut by his insistence on repeating himself and a rather awkward sense of phrasing. The orchestra, complete with trumpets and drums, punctuates his exclamations with great emphasis, but the musical portrait – including a long descent into patter – suggests that Bartolo is no match for Figaro.'
More than this, Da Ponte's ingenious poetry influences Mozart's music, as Tim Carter explains in our second piece, an examination of the Act III Sextet:
|Alto, alto, signor Conte,mille doppie son quì pronte,a pagar vengo per Figaroed a porlo in libertà.
|(Stop, stop, my lord Count,I have a thousand doubloons here,I come to pay for Figaroand to free him.)
'The third-line verso sdrucciolo (with the accent on the antepenultimate syllable: "Fi-ga-ro") prompted Mozart to produce an achingly beautiful phrase, while the final verso tronco (the accent on the last syllable) provides a poetic and therefore a musical cadence.
By working together in this way, composer and librettist combined words and music in an intricate and dynamic relationship. The result is a beautiful, witty and incisive opera – a razor-sharp commentary on social inequality in which political issues of the day were cleverly addressed in the text and elaborated upon in the score.'
The full articles by Jessica Waldoff and Tim Carter are in the programme book that accompanies Le nozze di Figaro. It is available in the theatre at performance times and from the ROH Shop.
Le nozze di Figaro runs from 2–15 May 2014. Tickets are still available.]]>
As with all the best farces, the events leading to the sextet 'Riconosci in questo amplesso' in Act III of Mozart's opera Le nozze di Figaro are incredibly complicated.
Servant Figaro has been pursued from the start of opera by the old housekeeper Marcellina, whom he has agreed to marry if he can't repay a longstanding debt. Marcellina has chosen the day of Figaro's wedding to his fiancée Susanna to stake her claim, encouraged by Figaro's old enemy, Bartolo, and Figaro's master, Count Almaviva, who wants to claim Susanna as his mistress. Judge Don Curzio has been summoned to settle the matter. During the course of the trial, a discussion about Figaro's lineage has unearthed an astonishing truth – that Figaro is in fact the long lost son of Marcellina and Bartolo.
In the hilariously implausible reunion that ensues, Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte deploy their consummate skills to the full in a devilish display of musical and poetic wit.
The beginning of the sextet is infused with happiness as the reunited Marcellina, Figaro and Bartolo embrace. They each sing a simple, lyrical melodic phrase with gentle accompaniment in the second violins and violas and the occasional jubilant interjection from the first violins. This joyous opening is briefly interrupted by interweaving exclamations of surprise and confusion from the Count and Don Curzio, but the re-entry of Marcellina, Figaro and Bartolo with a soaring theme 'Figlio amato! Parenti amati!' ('Beloved son! Beloved parents!') recaptures our attention and drowns out their disgruntled prattling.
Susanna's arrival prompts a dainty appoggiatura figure in the violins and a move from the opening (tonic) key of F major to a less harmonically stable passage, hinting at unrest to come. Seeing Marcellina and Figaro embrace, Susanna mistakenly surmises that Figaro has agreed to marry Marcellina, and a sudden move to C minor expresses her fury. Figaro tries to intercede with the words 'Senti, oh cara!' ('Hear me, my dear!'), set to a rocking accompaniment in the violins that recalls the opening, but Susanna is unconvinced. 'Senti questa' ('Hear this'), she shoots back, followed by a slap – Da Ponte's text puns on the double meaning of 'sentire' as both 'to hear' and 'to feel'. A comical passage follows in which all sing in entangling melodic lines. Mozart evokes their confusion and mixed emotions – the Count sings an angry theme made up of marching dotted rhythms, adopted by Don Curzio and the distressed Susanna, while Marcellina, Bartolo and Figaro sing in soothing melodic lines in an attempt to smooth over the situation.
Finally, Marcellina explains things to Susanna. Da Ponte's poetry here drops from 8-syllable lines down to 6-syllable lines. Such a shift could have triggered a new section of music, but Mozart instead brings back the opening theme in the tonic key. This not only marks a change in the action, but cunningly links this final section to the opening; the unrest generated by Susanna's entrance has been dispelled, and we can return to more static reflections from the characters. The music stays in the tonic key until the end of the sextet, following the conventions of sonata form (a method of structuring a piece of music common in Mozart's time) – which Mozart uses to reflect and enhance the drama. In spite of humorously melodramatic outbursts in F minor from the Count and Don Curzio, F major prevails, showing that their protests are in vain. The reunited family has a happy ending.
Le nozze di Figaro runs from 2–15 May 2014. Tickets are still available.]]>
The finale of Mozart's Don Giovanni is terrifying. But the preceding scenes, for the most part, are highly enjoyable silliness. Act II opens with Giovanni boisterously chiding his hapless servant Leporello (a brilliantly rendered stock buffo character, recognizable for his rapid patter and continual complaining). There follows vintage farce in which Giovanni uses Leporello as bait for former girlfriend Elvira, gives the slip to hordes of vengeful peasants and still finds time to attempt some seducing.
A momentary chill note slips in when Giovanni and Leporello reconnoitre in a graveyard (Leporello has just escaped from furious nobles thinking he's Giovanni; Giovanni is fresh from an encounter with Leporello's girlfriend). Their bantering recitative receives an alarming interruption from the statue of the murdered Commendatore. The audience at the premiere would have received a double shock from the use of trombones in the Commendatore's accompaniment; at Mozart's time trombones were almost exclusively played in church, and thus had connotations of serious ritual and authority (see Mozart's later use in the 'Tuba mirum' of his Requiem). They still have an impact for a modern audience today, if only because Mozart has waited so late in the opera to use them.
But the trombones and the Commendatore disappear soon enough, and the following duet, where Leporello cringingly invites the statue to dinner on his master's orders, is back in the lively comic vernacular. A few scenes later the finale also opens in upbeat mood, with Giovanni guzzling his dinner to Leporello's envious groans. He's arranged some light entertainment from an onstage wind band, who play a few popular tunes. Mozart pops in a little in-joke for his Prague premiere audience by including his own 'Non più andrai'; the fantastic success of Le nozze di Figaro in Prague had directly led to Don Giovanni's commission.
The sense of playfulness continues even as an incoherent Elvira runs in to make a last-ditch attempt to save Giovanni, and even as Leporello tremulously describes the arrival of the stone Commendatore ('ta-ta-ta-ta!' he emphatically exclaims, describing the statue's dreadful tread). The orchestra mimics Leporello as under Giovanni's orders he shrinkingly approaches the door to let the ghost in. There's silence, then a short minor chord, then another silence.
Then the Commendatore enters to a massive diminished 7th, a dissonant, eerie chord built of consecutive minor 3rds. It's played fortissimo across the whole orchestra, with those dread-laden trombones and a drum roll from the timpani. The structure of the music, with a pulsing in the violins, immediately recalls the dramatic opening of the overture – but so much more so. It is a massive, furious gesture, as the drama veers into horror.
The Commendatore delivers his dire message of doom to music that quotes much from the first part of the overture – a steady long-short-long pulse; rising and falling scales in the violins and flutes; a mournful offbeat figure in the violins, underpinned by seething semiquavers – but here they are heightened through chromatically rising elongated phrases that build unbearably. By the time Don Giovanni defiantly grasps the Commendatore's hand and gasps at its coldness, Mozart only needs mark it with a piano tremolando, and our hearts freeze with Giovanni's.
Given the musical horrors around him, Giovanni's continued refusal to repent is agonizing: with Leporello we urge him 'say yes, say yes!'. It's too late, and after librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte's brazenly laconic stage directions, 'Fire on all sides; earthquake', Don Giovanni finally meets his end in a blistering major cadence. And then…
Out of a black sky – blue! The rest of the cast denounce the rotten behaviour of the happily vanished Giovanni, in a wonderfully chirpy final ensemble rich in imitation and melodic invention. It's a quicksilver change of mood, but with the same pulse as the preceding music and a consistent sense of dramatic richness. Mozart denies us a tragic end and instead gives us a whole lot more: he sends us out moved, joyous and wonderfully entertained.
Don Giovanni runs 1–24 February 2014. A small number of tickets are still available. The production will be broadcast live around the world on 12 February. Find your nearest cinema.
The production is staged with the generous philanthropic support of David Hancock, Richard and Ginny Salter and the Royal Opera House Endowment Fund.]]>
It's hard to sum up a whole year in a few words. Not only were there both successes and disappointments, but for those of us lucky enough to work at the Royal Opera House, there was also all the work backstage to put the productions together. In a way, this is the biggest highlight of all: being allowed to work at the Royal Opera House means working with talented and passionate colleagues, and constantly meeting a flux of some of the world's leading artists coming to work with us.
That said, I've picked out a few of my highlights of 2013:
Les Vêpres siciliennes
Introducing Norwegian director Stefan Herheim to UK audiences was something I was hugely looking forward to, and with him and Antonio Pappano getting on like a house on fire for Les Vêpres siciliennes, it was every bit as exciting as I'd hoped for. I was also the very first ever live presenter for a Royal Opera live cinema relay when Vêpres went out to audiences around the world – a wonderful way of sharing our work with tens of thousands around the world.
Directing Eugene Onegin
Directing Eugene Onegin was very special. Getting to work with all the people on the stage, in the chorus and orchestra, I felt like I had finally really arrived at the ROH. Although many audiences and critics did not like the production, I was also lucky to get a large number of very positive and passionate responses. Dividing opinion is not necessarily bad, when we talk about artistic work. I enjoy engaging and discussing with our audiences, both when I agree and when I don't.
Written on Skin
Maybe the highlight of the whole 2012–13 Season for me was the overwhelming success of the UK premiere of George Benjamin and Martin Crimp's Written on Skin, which we co-commissioned. I have a passion for new music and it is always fascinating to watch a new work come to the stage, but it is rare for it to immediately capture the imagination of an audience in the way Written on Skin did.
Intense moments
During the autumn Wozzeck, Parsifal, Le nozze di Figaro and Elektra made for some very intense moments – and full houses! Simon Keenlyside's troubled Wozzeck and Mark Elder's impressive reading of Berg's score were wonderful, while Christine Goerke, Adrianne Pieczonka and Andris Nelsons's performances in Elektra are still ringing in my ears. Andris, Mark and Tony Pappano drew incredible performances from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, who seems to be on better form than ever before, and the Royal Opera Chorus made us all so proud in Parsifal.
Outreach work making a difference
Some of the things that make ROH very special do not necessarily get noticed by the general public. The Learning and Participation team at ROH are fantastic, and although some of their projects make a very visible impact, they do great work 'under the radar' too. Following the work of the Youth Opera Company, and seeing older people from community centres and housing schemes coming to ROH for the first time to sing together were just two examples of how it feels like ROH can make a difference.
Taking on the Linbury
During 2013, The Royal Opera took over the programming of all opera work in the Linbury Studio Theatre, which feels like a natural and important thing for us to do. It was wonderful to have as potent a piece as Gerald Barry's Importance of Being Earnest in Ramin Gray's strong production to start off the new era.
Other notable mentions
Some other highlights deserve a mention: the incredible singing in La donna del lago, Richard Jones's brilliant insights in Gloriana and Gerald Finley's deeply moving Amfortas in Parsifal.
Here's hoping that 2014 will offer many more highlights. The first new production of the new year will be my own take on Mozart's Don Giovanni, and I can't wait to get my hands dirty once again!
What were your Royal Opera highlights of 2013?]]>
Opera singers are asked to impersonate animals more often than you might imagine – think of the feisty heroine of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen, the dragon and Woodbird in Wagner's Siegfried or the array of creatures in Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges. But real-life animals sometimes get their chance to star too.
Francesca Zambello's production of Carmen, which opens on 16 December, offers an animal acting bonanza, including parts for a clutch of chickens and the patient donkey Pollyanne (who also starred with Plácido Domingo in Pagliacci, where she tried a little karaoke!). But the best dramatic role goes to Louis, Escamillo's majestic black horse in Act II. Louis created the role in 2006 and has appeared in each revival; with the help of a few polo mints he even seems to enjoy the singing.
There's plenty of horsing around in both ballet and opera at the Royal Opera House, from the cob horses in Trevor Nunn's production of Kát'a Kabanová to the white Shetland pony Peregrine and his dainty cart in La Fille mal gardée. In 2012 a 15-year-old Irish draft horse named Rupert made national news in Robert Carsen's new production of Falstaff. Rupert had instant star quality, offering silent sympathy to Ambrogio Maestri (Falstaff) while munching on hay in Act III scene 1, and letting Maestri ride him round the stage in Act III scene 2. Maestri, a novice rider, described their relationship as 'love at first sight'.
Dogs are also notorious for their love of performing, and several Royal Opera productions have included parts for pooches. The Visconti production of Don Carlo equipped Philip II with two wolfhounds (though they had to be retired after one joined in the singing). Count Almaviva in David McVicar's production of Le nozze di Figaro shows his animal-loving side when he leads on a springer spaniel in Act II. So does Musetta in John Copley's beloved production of La bohème; she makes her striking first entrance with Puffin, a fluffy white German spitz endowed with saint-like patience. Alfie, the village dog in L'elisir d'amore has an even more challenging role, with two massive sprints across the stage in Act I. This young Jack Russell terrier stole the show in 2012, and even elbowed his way onto the website.
Cats are a little less stage-savvy than dogs, and we sometimes have to rely on model moggies – like the sleeping cat in Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's production of Il turco in Italia. However, the real black cat Girlie bravely endured a full five minutes as the witch Ježibaba's cat in Act III of Jossie Wieler and Sergio Morabito's production of Rusalka, curled up on a sofa and seemingly impervious to the noise of several opera singers and a ninety-piece orchestra going at full pelt (as it were).
Birds have also had the odd walk-on part. Sadly, the eagle scheduled to appear in Graham Vick's production of Mitridate, re di Ponto got bored in rehearsals and so his contract had to be terminated, but in David McVicar's Die Zauberflöte Sarastro's majesty is enhanced by a handsome and very well-behaved falcon carried on by an attendant priest.
'Never work with children or animals', the saying goes. But our experiences at the Royal Opera House contradict it. Our animals perform before more than 2,000 people, cope with often very loud music and behave impeccably. They are indisputably stars.
Francesca Zambello's production of Carmen runs from 16 December to 9 January. Tickets are available now.]]>
John Eliot Gardiner has withdrawn from conducting all May 2014 performances of Le nozze di Figaro due to scheduling difficulties. David Syrus, Head of Music for The Royal Opera, will now conduct all performances.
David Syrus conducted David McVicar's production of Le nozze di Figaro for The Royal Opera in 2010, 2008 and 2006. He has also conducted Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, La clemenza di Tito, Der fliegende Holländer, Salome, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, La traviata, Falstaff, Bartered Bride, Jenůfa, Kát'a Kabanová, The Turn of the Screw, Midsummer Marriage, Carmen, Don Pasquale and Fidelio for the Company. Elsewhere he has conducted Die Walküre, Pêcheurs de perles, Eine florentinische Tragödie at Spoleto Festival and the British premiere of Henze's Pollicino. Recent engagements away from The Royal Opera include Billy Budd in Santiago, La clemenza di Tito and Albert Herring in Toulouse, Owen Wingrave at Opéra national du Rhin, Carmen and La Cenerentola in Tokyo and Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème and Carmen at Crested Butte Music Festival, Colorado.
The rest of the cast remains unchanged.]]>
Music Theatre Wales's staging of Salvatore Sciarrino's The Killing Flower on 24 October will be the opera's first UK staging. It's an overdue tribute to a composer widely regarded as one of contemporary music drama's greatest proponents.
The music of this self-taught former wunderkind exists in a shadowy world just on the edge of audibility. Against a fabric of silence interspersed with unmusical knocks, scrapings and shivers, lyrical lines emerge warmly, flaring against the darkness. Sciarrino's incredibly detailed scores notate complex rhythms that draw on birdsong and chaotic natural forms – but he never disrupts the sense of his text, always making innovative use of the Italian operatic voice.
The elliptical narratives of Sciarrino's stage works are the perfect complement to this aural world of shadows. They're stark, spare and elusive, dominated by images that gather a surreal and nightmarish significance. Myth has been a frequent inspiration, from his first opera Amore e Psiche, which had its premiere in 1973. In his second opera, Aspern, Sciarrino began weaving together disparate texts – this adaptation of Henry James's suspenseful novella uses some of Lorenzo da Ponte's libretto for Le nozze di Figaro. 1980's Cailles en sarcophage (Entombed Quails) is a meditation on the cult of fame, which draws on a vast array of texts by authors including Marlene Dietrich and Frank Wedekind.
The surrealist poetry of Jules Laforgue provides the inspiration for two acerbic inversions of Western myth, Lohengrin (1982) and Perseo e Andromeda (1991). 1985's La perfezione di uno spirito sottile (The perfection of a subtle spirit), on the other hand, is a celebration of nature with sparse scoring for flute, soprano and bells providing windows into sounds of the outside world. Sciarrino had explored these bare textures four years earlier in Vanitas, a hauntingly beautiful 'still life' on the fallibility of human life, for a tiny ensemble of mezzo-soprano, cello and piano.
The lyricism of Sciarrino's lines often develops into extensive musical quotations. American songs feature in Cailles en sarcophage, and Aspern coalesces into a simple diatonic hymn tune. Sciarrino's only ballet, Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice, based on Thomas Mann's novella) has Bach's Magnificat at its heart while Macbeth uses fleeting quotations from Verdi's Shakespearean adaptation and from the hellish end of Mozart's Don Giovanni.
Luci mie traditrici ('My betraying eyes', translated by the composer as The Killing Flower) alludes both to the exquisitely complex music of Carlo Gesualdo, whose murder of his wife and her lover is partial inspiration for the opera, and the anachronistic music of Gesualdo's near contemporary Claude Le Jeune.
Increasingly Sciarrino's operas have explored themes of isolation and loneliness. Infinito nero (Infinite blackness) for mezzo-soprano and eight instruments sets the ravings of 16th-century Catholic mystic Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, as transcribed by eight fellow nuns. Da gelo a gelo (From ice to ice) draws from one year of the fictionalized diaries of Izumi Shikibu, an 11th-century Japanese poet who describes her socially transgressive love affairs in the third person. La porta della legge (The gate to the law) adapts Kafka's nightmarish examination of an individual crushed by bureaucracy, and in Sciarrino's hands is a furious indictment of Italy's current cultural policy. Sciarrino's latest stage work, Superflumina, is an unshrinking examination of a homeless woman ignored by the stream of commuters who step over her.
Sciarrino's use of text and silence is unique in opera. But it's also the fragility of his sound world, its claustrophobia, sadness and breathtaking beauty that make him one of the most compelling composers writing today.
The Killing Flower will be staged by Music Theatre Wales on 24 October 2013. Tickets are still available, although some are available only by ringing or visiting the Box Office in person.]]>
As British soprano Sally Matthews will now be singing the role of Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites, Welsh soprano Rebecca Evans will sing the role of Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro.
Rebecca returns to The Royal Opera to sing the role of Countess Almaviva for the first time with the Company. She made her Royal Opera debut in 1997 and also sang Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with the Company in 1998. Since then, she has sung many roles for The Royal Opera including Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Mimì in La bohème and Nella in Gianni Schicchi. She has previously sung Countess Almaviva with Welsh National Opera. Rebecca has sung extensively in Europe, and in America where her roles have included Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Zerlina in Don Giovanni for the Metropolitan Opera, New York; and Adina in L'elisir d'amore for San Francisco Opera.]]>
There may be aliens out there with vastly superior technology and unimaginable knowledge. They haven't got Le nozze di Figaro #rohfigaro
— Neil Fisher (@nfmusic) September 16, 2013
McVicar's own direction for this revival certainly have revitalised the production... Some subtle changes to Act IV worked well. #ROHfigaro — Tom Oxenham (@tomoxenham) September 16, 2013
@lucapisaroni was brilliant tonight on his ROH debut. Great cast, wonderful production and good fun! #ROHfigaro — Ferry Lichtenberg (@flichtenberg) September 17, 2013
Great cast in #ROHFigaro feels freshly minted in this vivacious revival. But Bengtsson hits the sweet spot with her mini drama Dove Sono!
— Attila (@attilalondon) September 17, 2013
Lucy Crowe and Maria Bengstson's duet in the second act was beyond divine. Spiffing #ROHFigaro all around
— sandra heidecker (@sandraheidecker) September 16, 2013
#ROHFigaro put smile on my grumpy face on Monday evening! :D — Yosh M (@yoshkosh10) September 16, 2013
@knittingtastic Still prefer ballet, but #ROHFigaro was very amusing, and I loved the staging.
— Lucy Clare (@rosealare) September 16, 2013
Amazing production of #ROHfigaro Feel so privileged to be here on opening night!
— sakipol (@sakipol) September 16, 2013
ROH Figaro as good as you'll ever see. Eliot Gardiner was doing great things with the orchestra. Overture was like it was written yesterday.
— Peter Stobart (@PeterStobart) September 16, 2013
What did you think of Le nozze di Figaro?
Le nozze di Figaro runs from 16 September 2013 – 15 May 2014. Tickets are still available.
The Story Begins…
Figaro is about to marry Susanna, but can he fight off the attempts of his master Count Almaviva to bed her first? And what will the Countess do when she learns of her husband's plans – or is she embroiled in a liaison of her own?
An Inspired Partnership
Mozart had come to Vienna in 1782 intending to write for Joseph II's Singspiel theatre. However, Joseph II disbanded this group and set up a new Italian opera company in 1783. Eager to write an opera buffa, Mozart eventually managed to secure the services of Lorenzo da Ponte, official librettist for Joseph II's opera company. Their first commission, Le nozze di Figaro, had its premiere at the Vienna Court Theatre on 1 May 1786.
A Revolutionary Drama
Da Ponte took the libretto for Le nozze di Figaro from the play La Folle Journée ou Le Mariage de Figaro by the French playwright and diplomat Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. The play was considered scandalous – largely due to Figaro's Act V monologue in which he rails against the aristocracy – and was banned in Vienna. Da Ponte claimed that it was only due to his powers of persuasion that Joseph II allowed his and Mozart's opera to go ahead.
Outwitting the Master
David McVicar's elegant production, set in 1830, places Mozart's opera in the context of Revolutionary Europe, when many conflicts between classes were as yet unresolved. His Figaro is a cunning and intelligent man, very determined to outwit his aristocratic master.
Original Ensembles
The intricacy of the musical ensembles in Le nozze di Figaro has been particularly noted; unusually for the time, they carry the drama's action as much as the recitatives. Particularly complex and fine examples include the end of Act II (a vast ensemble in which more and more characters enter and the drama becomes increasingly complicated) and the Act III sextet, in which Figaro discovers the identity of his parents. The opera also contains many beautiful and characterful arias.
Le nozze di Figaro runs from 16 September 2013 - 15 May 2014. Tickets are still available.]]>
Prior to his Royal Opera House debut in Le nozze di Figaro, Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni spoke to BBC Radio 3's In Tune about the production and his career to date.
Luca has appeared in the UK previously - making his debut in Così fan tutte at Glyndebourne in 2006 - but this revival of David McVicar's acclaimed production is his first performance at Covent Garden: 'It's been incredibly satisfying. It's my first time [working with] David McVicar who is brilliant - I think this production is fantastic - and also with John Eliot Gardiner. Sir John is a musical genius, he has so many musical ideas. You really have to give it your all because he's incredibly demanding but it's incredibly satisfying at the end.'
Luca also spoke of growing up in Busseto, a hometown he shares with Giuseppe Verdi - one of two composers who are the subject of this year's Deloitte Ignite festival: 'My first encounter with opera was hearing Boris Christoff on a recording that my grandfather had. From that moment on I said, "That's it, I want to be an opera singer!"...I haven't performed Verdi that much but I hope that it's something that comes in the future, I would say he's my favourite composer, even though I sing so much Mozart!'
The bass-baritone spoke of his early aim of becoming a tenor, only to switch to a lower register as his voice matured: 'I was a tenor when I was 12 - I know every tenor aria by heart, and when I changed my voice (as every guy does) and at 18 I realized I was a bass-baritone/baritone. I cried for two weeks!
Luca grew up admiring Italian operatic icon Luciano Pavarotti: 'He was my hero. I always loved his voice, there was something unique to the sound. I remember when I was a kid we went to one of his recitals in Parma and when he agreed to take a photo with me I couldn't believe it - it was like being close to God somehow.'
Luca also spoke of being self-critical when listening to his own recordings (something he avoids), the influence of conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, with whom he worked on Don Giovanni (Salzburg, 2002); and his two dogs, named after Lenny Bernstein and Tristan (from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde). The bass-baritone performed an extract from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra on In Tune, as well as Franz Schubert's An die Musik.
Listen to Luca's interview in full.
Le nozze di Figaro runs from 16 September 2013 - 15 May 2014. Tickets are still available.]]>
Six Royal Opera House productions are now available via Digital Theatre, the on-demand platform which already offers performances from the RSC and Royal Court among others.
Four Royal Opera productions (Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème, Eugene Onegin and La traviata) and two Royal Ballet productions (Swan Lake and Sylvia) will be available through Digital Theatre's expanding range of platforms including iPhone, iPad, desktop player, Samsung Smart TV and the on-demand Digital Theatre channel on the YouView Talk Talk Player.
Alastair Roberts, Managing Director of ROH Enterprises, said: 'This is an exciting new partnership for us, making our productions available across the widest possible variety of digital platforms. It adds to the variety of ways in which people can see our work outside of the auditorium itself - such as our BP Big Screens and ROH Live Cinema Season, and our work on TV and DVD - enabling audiences to access our performances wherever they are in the world and whenever they want.'
The Royal Opera House Collection on the platform will continue to grow, creating an online catalogue of opera and ballet productions.
Also announced is a Digital Theatre partnership with Shakespeare's Globe. Four plays will be made available from the Bankside-based theatre.]]>
Parents in opera rarely have an easy time of it. Some end up the victims of elaborate jokes – like Don Buonafede in Haydn's Il mondo della luna, who is persuaded that he has travelled to the moon. He is then tricked into giving permission for both of his daughters to marry. Some parents are disowned by their children – like Fidès in Meyerbeer's Le prophète, whose son Jean refuses to acknowledge her once he has become the leader of the Anabaptists. Others try to act for the good of their children and end up bitterly regretting what they have done: Giorgio Germont in La traviata, or the vengeful Rigoletto. And then there are the problem parents, who cause their children difficulty and heartache.
Misplaced baby
Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro is a spectacularly careless mother. She has an affair with Dr Bartolo, gives birth to his child, and manages to leave the baby near a Spanish castle, from where he is seized by bandits. Years later, the still single Marcellina determines to marry Count Almaviva's handsome barber, Figaro. She stops at nothing (including blackmail) to get her way and finally forces Figaro to agree to marry her in front of a lawyer. Fortunately, Figaro decides to tell the story of his mysterious origins and in one of Mozart's most famous ensembles Marcellina realizes that he must be Raffaello, the son she lost (Sextet: 'Riconosci in questo amplesso'). The reunion persuades Doctor Bartolo to do the decent thing, marry Marcellina and settle a generous amount of money on his former enemy Figaro. Both careless parent and child end up doing rather well.
Abandoned infant
The Marquise de Berkenfeld in La Fille du régiment doesn't lose her illegitimate daughter Marie – she abandons her soon after the birth to avoid a scandal. Many years later, the Marquise meets Sergeant Sulpice, who found Marie and brought her up as the 'daughter of the Regiment'. Although she is shocked by Marie's wild manners, the Marquise longs to get her daughter back. Still afraid of scandal, she pretends that she is Marie's aunt, takes the girl away from the Regiment and her soldier boyfriend Tonio and installs Marie in her château, where she tries in vain to teach her to be 'a lady'. She even comes close to forcing Marie into an aristocratic marriage. Fortunately, Sulpice organizes for Tonio and the Regiment to come to Marie's rescue, and persuades the Marquise to confess her true identity and let Marie marry Tonio.
Sexual offences
Guy de Montfort in Verdi's Les Vêpres sicilliennes is even more flawed, and doesn't escape the consequences of his actions as easily as our previous two examples. As a young man, Montfort raped a Sicilian woman who later bore his child. Years on, lonely and troubled by his past actions, Montfort realizes that the young Sicilian patriot Henri is his son. By now, Montfort regrets bitterly what he did to Henri's mother, and longs to befriend his child. But Henri has been brought up to hate all Frenchmen, particularly his mother's abuser. In Act III of the opera, Montfort reveals his identity to Henri in one of Verdi's great duets ('Quand ma bonté toujours nouvelle'). Henri is horrified, and rejects his father. However, he cares about him enough to stop his assassination in the following scene, and subsequently finds himself horribly torn between his duty to the Sicilians (and his lover Hélène) and his feelings for his father. Montfort finally wins Henri round by pardoning the Sicilian conspirators, and agreeing to Henri and Hélène's marriage. Unfortunately, the Sicilian patriot Jean Procida and his men stage a spectacular attack on the French at Henri and Hélène's wedding, and Montfort and his men are killed.
Le nozze di Figaro runs from 16 September – 7 October 2013 and 2 – 15 May 2013. General booking for all performances opens on 9 July 2013.
Les Vêpres sicilliennes runs from 18 October – 11 November 2013. General booking opens on 9 July 2013.
La Fille du régiment runs from 3 – 18 March 2013. General booking opens on 22 October 2013.]]>
It's a deafening sound - nearly 2,000 young people aged 8-18 years old clapping, cheering and whooping in appreciation of a Taylor Family Foundation Schools' Matinee performance by The Royal Opera or Royal Ballet.
We're pleased to announce six performances special for schools during the 2013/14 Season: Le nozze di Figaro, The Nutcracker, Carmen, The Sleeping Beauty, a Mixed programme of The Dream/Alastair Marriott's new ballet/The Concert, and La bohème. All of these performances cost just £7.50 a ticket, and schools can also apply for a travel grant.
I would give it 10 out of 10
Student at a Schools' Matinee performance
Watch the film for a glimpse into these in-demand events through comments from students and teachers, and hear the thoughts of Director of The Royal Ballet Kevin O'Hare, and Director of Opera Kasper Holten.
Applications for the three Autumn/Winter Taylor Family Foundation Schools' Matinees are now open and close on the 10 July.]]>
Priority Group Booking for Autumn Season productions opens tomorrow (25 June), two weeks ahead of public booking on 9 July.
Groups can save up to 40% on an outstanding line-up of opera and ballet, securing the best seats at the best prices.
Ballet on offer this season includes Kenneth MacMillan's sublimely powerful Romeo and Juliet, Peter Wright's classic The Nutcracker and a Mixed Programme that includes new work, The Human Seasons, by visionary British choreographer David Dawson, Kenneth MacMillan's iconic The Rite of Spring and Wayne McGregor's award-winning Chroma.
Operas available for group booking are Puccini's dark and exotic fairytale Turandot, David McVicar's production of Mozart's classic comedy Le nozze di Figaro, Strauss's gripping Elektra and Keith Warner's production of Berg's masterpiece Wozzeck.
Groups of ten or more are eligible for group booking, making it is the ideal opportunity to introduce family and friends to Royal Opera House productions. Find out full details of autumn offers.
Other benefits for group bookers include a 'book now, pay later' arrangement and a dedicated group booking phone line.
Tickets can be booked through our Group Sales Department by email at email@example.com and by telephone on +44 (0)20 7304 4002.
Find out more about Group Booking.]]>
Lighting designer Paule Constable recently revealed the world of lighting opera and theatre productions as part of an ROH Insights session.
'If you imagine when you're first making a show and a director is [working out] how they want to tell a story, they're obviously going to think very early on about the set and costume designer that they're going to work with,' Paule said. 'How that is seen, how it's perceived, how it's brought to life is what the lighting designer does.'
On working on this key aspect of production design, Paule said: 'There are infinite possibilities with light - it's very far from arbitrary. We consider every decision we make in a huge amount of detail.'
Paule also spoke about how she got into lighting design: 'I love the technical side of things, which for many [lighting designers] is our way in. I love climbing ladders and changing gels and playing with light but I also found I really loved what you can do with light in a theatre.'
As well as Royal Opera productions such as Die Zauberflöte, Faust and Le nozze di Figaro, Paule has also designed for a host of other opera companies and theatres. She lit the stage show of War Horse for the National Theatre (and subsequent West End transfer and international tour) and recently worked on a new production of Les Misérables.
Paule was recently nominated for an Opera Award in the lighting category.
Find out more about ROH Insights and listen to further audio highlights.
David McVicar's production of Die Zauberflöte runs from 16 April - 9 May. Tickets are still available.
Throughout the history of opera, letters have played a vital part in the plots of many works. Here are a few examples of operas where letters loom large:
Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Letters play a very complicated part in this Mozart masterpiece. In Act II, Figaro decides to distract Count Almaviva from seducing Figaro's fiancée Susanna by sending him an anonymous letter telling him that his wife is unfaithful. The plot backfires when the Count decides to confront the Countess – just after she has hidden the page Cherubino in her cupboard. It takes a great deal of cunning on Susanna's part to convince the Count his suspicions are unfounded. A second letter plays an important role in Susanna and the Countess's plot to shame the Count (letter duet: 'Sull'aria'). When the Count receives the letter they have concocted, he believes Susanna is genuinely planning a tryst with him. Unfortunately, Figaro gets to hear about the letter, and he believes it too. He becomes wildly jealous, and much further confusion follows before Figaro and Susanna, and the Count and Countess, are reconciled.
Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi
Letters whiz about the stage from the start of Verdi's sparkling comedy. The large and lecherous Sir John Falstaff, in need of funds, sends two (identical) letters to the wealthy Windsor wives Alice Ford and Meg Page. Alice and Meg realize what Sir John is up to and determine to teach him a lesson. Letters – delivered to Falstaff by their friend Mistress Quickly – play a key role in their schemes, particularly Falstaff's final humiliation in Windsor Forest.
Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin contains perhaps the most famous letter in all opera. When the literature-loving Tatyana falls in love with the sophisticated Eugene Onegin, she writes him a long and passionate letter explaining her feelings (Letter Aria: 'Puskai pogybnu ja' (I cannot hide my love)). Onegin coolly rejects her and tells her to be more guarded in showing her emotions. However, in Act III the tables are turned when Onegin falls passionately in love with Tatyana, who is now married. To music from her Act I Letter Aria, he declares his intention to write to Tatyana and tell her his feelings.
La rondine by Giacomo Puccini
Letters provide a wake-up call in the final act of La rondine. The courtesan Magda has spent several months pretending to her young lover Ruggero that she is a simple working girl. When Ruggero tells her that he has written to his mother asking permission for them to marry, she realizes that she will not be able to keep deceiving him. A note from her former protector Rambaldo, stating that he will take her back on any terms, shows her that her former life is still an option. A third letter finally makes up Magda's mind for her – Ruggero's mother writes to him of her pleasure that her son has found a good and virtuous fiancée. Unable to keep lying, Magda confesses her past to Ruggero, and leaves him to return to her old life in Paris.
The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten
And finally, the 'letter plot' takes on a supernatural tinge in Britten's take on Henry James's ghost story. A young Governess arrives at the remote Bly House to take care of two young children, Miles and Flora. Soon after her arrival, she receives a letter telling her that Miles is expelled from school for causing 'an injury to his friends'. This makes her uneasy. And things get a lot worse when she encounters the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, the former valet and governess at Bly House. Increasingly frightened of the ghosts, and the effect they are having on Miles and Flora, she writes to the children's guardian to ask for help. Peter Quint threatens and cajoles Miles into stealing the letter. The Governess eventually confronts Miles, and her frantic questions about the letter may be one of the factors that contribute to the boy's death.
Kasper Holten's new production of Eugene Onegin will be on stage from 4 - 20 February 2013 while La rondine returns to The Royal Opera from 5 - 21 July 2013.]]>
Each experts in their own field, the new series will follow Trevor Nelson, Josie Lawrence, Craig Revel Horwood and Professor Marcus du Sautoy as they compete to conduct a complete act of a legendary opera on the main stage of the Royal Opera House.
Each conductor will have a mentor and learn about working with orchestras, soloists, choruses and the complexities of staging an opera. As with the first series of Maestro, the orchestra will have the final say. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House will decide which three competitors make it through to programme two, in which the competitors will have to conduct an operatic scene, specially staged for Maestro.
"Filming last night and seeing Le nozze di Figaro blew my mind," enthused Trevor Nelson, "meeting the conductor afterwards was like meeting a rock star. I'm excitedly nervous!"
The series will also feature interviews with a number of world-renowned opera professionals including Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Lesley Garrett, each of whom will give a personal insight into the world of opera.
Of the new series, Controller of BBC Two Janice Hadlow said: "Having pipped Goldie to the conductor's podium in series one, it's time for Sue Perkins to pass her champion's baton to a brand new set of personalities who face a very different challenge. I look forward to seeing whether their natural musical ability will be enough to help them master the skills needed in the new series, which will take viewers right to the heart of one of the world's greatest opera institutions."
Director of The Royal Opera, Kasper Holten added: "Opera is the most dramatic and powerful of all the art forms bringing together words, music, design and drama – it's the greatest theatrical experience. And standing at the helm on the podium in the orchestra pit is the conductor, the Maestro. This challenge will probably be the most difficult any of the contestants will ever face in their professional lives, but I really hope it will be one of the most fulfilling experiences they ever have."
This new series of Maestro is an example of the partnership between the BBC and The Royal Opera House with both organisations coming together to co-produce new commissions.]]>
When Peter Shaffer's Amadeus was made into a film in 1984, the producers were faced with a major problem. Much of Mozart's Vienna no longer exists. Half a century after the composer's death in 1791, Emperor Franz Josef made sweeping changes to the capital. He knocked down the city walls, and the suburbs (such as the one in which Die Zauberflöte was first performed) doubled in size. What urban planners hadn't changed in the 19th century, Allied bombing destroyed in the 20th. And although some of the centre's medieval streets are still there, unfortunately it was impossible to recreate what Mozart would have seen and known.
The producers of Amadeus eventually went to Prague (where Don Giovanni was first performed in 1787). There, director Miloš Forman gained access to the Estates Theatre where the opera premiered; the whole city, blanketed in snow, looked as close to 18th-century Vienna as you could get. But for those of us wanting the real deal, we can only imagine what the city might have looked like when the 25-year-old composer first arrived in the Austrian capital, which by 1781 had become a fortress.
Le nozze di Figaro
Coming from Munich, where Idomeneo had opened to an enchanted public, Mozart wanted to write a new piece for the Viennese stage. Lorenzo Da Ponte's libretto arrived in the summer and the premiere of Die Entführung aus dem Serail (set in a Turkish harem) took place the following year. Flying high, Mozart rented lavish rooms in the city centre, at the heart of Imperial society. Changing flats every few months, the composer had had no fewer that eight separate residences by the time that he moved into a house on Domgasse (in the shadow of the cathedral where he and Constanze Weber married in 1782).
It was here - with Le nozze di Figaro - that the composer began his first collaboration with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, a former priest turned brothel owner. The house sits snugly in a labyrinth of medieval streets with inner courtyards providing the only open spaces in a network of religious institutions, businesses and, nowadays, the ubiquitous coffee house. There's even one on the ground floor of Mozart's old home, named after the servant hero of his fizzy comedy.
Don Giovanni
Mozart stayed at the address for a full year after the premiere and it still stands, now a museum to one of the city's greatest adopted sons. But Mozart's fortunes took a turn for the worse and, by April 1787, the family had to move to the less impressive surroundings of Landstrasse, south of the centre. Unfortunately, the building in which he lived and wrote Don Giovanni no longer exists, knocked down during the 19th century and replaced by large apartment blocks. Only a small plaque marks the site where Mozart composed the opera.
The Prague premiere brought renewed wealth, but the last years of Mozart's life were dogged by financial problems. He often visited pawnbrokers and wrote to the wealthier members of his Masonic Lodge for help. Determined to save face, he refused to sack the maid and, in order to lessen their woes, he took on pupils as well as shifting the family between pokey flats in the city centre and more spacious but cheaper homes in the suburbs.
Così fan tutte
The Mozarts eventually took a flat on Judenplatz – right in the heart of the medieval Jewish ghetto – where the composer began to plan for a more successful 1789. Unfortunately, his arrangements for a German tour failed and the year proved equally disheartening. It was overlooking this spacious square however – now dominated by Rachel Whiteread's chilling Holocaust memorial – that Mozart wrote Così fan tutte, again with Da Ponte. The first rehearsals took place in the apartment, which became another victim of 19th-century town planning. A plaque now testifies to Mozart's presence.
But by wandering the streets, you glean a hint of the city Mozart would have known, however, by wandering the streets of the area. Buildings, heavy with crests and crosses, lean over the cobbled streets, just as they do on Rauhensteingasse, where Mozart and Contanze finally moved in September 1790. A commission from Prague (La clemenza di Tito) and Die Zauberflöte kept the wolf from the door.
But by the time that inflammatory rheumatic fever took hold in late 1791, Mozart was unable to pay for proper medical attention. Adding insult to injury, the building in which he died was demolished in the 1840s. A department store now stands on the site.
A city of Mozartian imagination
Mozart had entered Vienna a chipper young man, but he was unable to capitalize properly on his achievements. The oddly fleeting success of his operas during his lifetime and a lack of imperial patronage following the death of Josef II in 1790 became his downfall. Today Mozart is celebrated everywhere you go in Vienna. Chocolates, postcards, T-shirts and mugs bear his name. But unfortunately only one of the houses in which he wrote his greatest comedies still stands. Our imagination has to fill in the gaps.]]>
In a triple header to kick off 2012, The Royal Opera presents three operatic masterpieces, all composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte.
A serial seducer gets his just deserts in Don Giovanni, a tale of murder, the supernatural and redemption. The work features a rich mix of humour, drama and thrills as well as some of the most disarming arias ever composed – all framed within a white knuckle ride to the Don's damnation. Erwin Schrott and Gerald Finley share the title role in Francesca Zambello's energetic production.
Classic comedy Così fan tutte tells the story of two young men, testing the faithfulness of their girlfriends for a bet with wily old Don Alfonso. Containing some of Mozart's most romantic and beautiful music, the opera has proved a repertory staple in recent decades. With costume designs by Giorgio Armani, Jonathan Miller's production melds the classic and the contemporary, leading one review to dub it a 'Mozart meets Sex in the City triumph'.
The story of a 'day of madness' atCount Almaviva's palace near Seville, Le nozze di Figaro rounds off the trio of Mozart and Da Ponte operas in comedic fashion. Featuring one of the most infectious overtures in opera, Figaro is also a showcase for most famous arias and sublime characterisation. Director David McVicar sets the action in 1830 – providing the perfect backdrop for the unresolved tensions between the classes of Revolutionary Europe. A stellar cast and creative team is on offer with Ildebrando D'Arcangelo singing the role of Figaro, Simon Keenlyside taking the role of the Count and Sir Antonio Pappano conducting.
Is Da Ponte's contribution to the operas underrated or is the power of the libretti fully recognised?]]>
5. What's Opera, Doc? (1957) Dir. Chuck Jones featuring various Wagner operas
Whilst not a full length film, its influence as one of the first experience youngsters have of opera means that we couldn't avoid including this short masterpiece. A pastiche of various Wagner operas, we're treated to Elmer Fudd hunting 'Wabbits' to pieces from the likes of Die Walküre and Tannhäuser before falling for a rather familiar looking Brünnhilde…
4. Philadelphia (1993) Dir. Jonathan Demme featuring Andrea Chénier
Hailed as one of Tom Hanks's finest performances, Philadelphia was one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to tackle issues around HIV/AIDS and homophobia. Inspired in part by true story of Geoffrey Bowers, the film tells the tale of a lawyer's fight in the courts for wrongful dismissal through discrimination.
In this clip, the severely ill Andrew Beckett (Hanks) waxes lyrical to his attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) about the power of opera and in particular Maria Callas's rendition of La Mamma Morta from Andrea Chénier. Passionately translating the libretto, Miller is clearly moved, afterwards making his excuses to return home and embracing his daughter and wife, realising how fortunate he is…
3. Apocalypse Now (1979) Dir. Francis Ford Coppola featuring Die Walküre
A masterpiece of cinema, Vietnam war classic Apocalypse Now (based on Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness) tells the tale of Captain Willard, sent deep into the jungle to assassinate the deranged renegade Kurtz who has set himself up as a God to the local people.
This clip with the use of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries employed to devastating effect by the twisted Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, who attaches speakers to the helicopters and plays the piece to soundtrack a horrific napalm strike.
2. Pretty Woman (1990) Dir. Garry Marshall Featuring La traviata
No not Pirates of Penzance, it's a performance of La traviata that high flying businessman Richard Gere takes prostitute Julia Roberts to see on her journey from pavement to penthouse.
This scene features one of the most famous opera in pop culture quotes courtesy of Gere: "People's reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic; they either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it. If they don't, they may learn to appreciate it, but it will never become part of their soul."
La traviata is, of course, the story of fallen woman Violetta ends up dying tragically in her lover's arms. Thankfully, Pretty Woman features a rather happier ending…
1. Shawshank Redemption (1993) Dir. Frank Darabont featuring Le nozze di Figaro
Wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife and her lover, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) gives comfort in the face of adversity to his fellow prison inmates by breaking into the warden's office and playing the beautiful Sull'aria...Che soave zeffiretto from The Marriage of Figaro.
Single-handedly stopping everyone the prison in their tracks (exemplified with a stunning crane shot of the yard), Dufresne ended up in solitary for the stunt. Still, it was worth it - friend Red (Morgan Freeman) testifies; "It was like some beautiful bird flew into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments every last man at Shawshank felt free". Ironic, as the duet features duplicitous love letter to expose the infidelity of Count Almaviva…
That concludes our countdown. Did we miss your favourite opera in film moment?
Do you have any thoughts on our top 20? If so, tell us via the comments below]]>
After Daniel Day-Lewis was done gallivanting around the Mid-West as a Mohican, he appeared in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence as respectable lawyer Newland Archer in this tale of high society in 1870s New York. Faced with the dilemma between his attractive but rather dull wife (Winona Ryder) and her more sophisticated and fiery cousin (Michelle Pfeiffer as a Countess no less), will Newland cast off the shackles of society's rules and give into passion or will he opt for a loveless marriage?
Whilst there aren't any diabolic visitors in Scorsese's tale, the choice of Faust for the soundtrack during the opening scene does reflect the torturous dilemma the main character does have to face.
Everyone's favourite pre-revolutionary fan of frivolity was brought to life by Sophia Coppola in this film which received a mixed reaction from the critics. The film was criticised for the stylised modernisation of the life of Marie Antoinette, played by Kirsten Dunst. Still, a trip to the opera for the Queen Consort provides a perfect excuse for the depiction of an extremely lavish operatic experience - a favourite of courtesans until the guillotine was wheeled out in 1793 by Monsieur Robespierre.
This particular clip features Rameau's Platée, although as a bumper prize for opera fans Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro appears later on in the film as well.
This over-the-top science fiction film from French director Luc Besson saw Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich fighting to save humanity from the camped up clutches of Gary Oldman. One of the most memorable scenes (filmed in our very own auditorium no less) featured blue skinned diva (voiced by Albanian soprano Inva Mula-Tchako) belting out 'the mad scene' from Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in a perfect example of blue bel canto.
Before Pavarotti bellowed the crescendo of Nessun Dorma into living rooms around the world, the aria was used in Roland Joffe's The Killing Fields - a film about photographer Sydney Schanberg being trapped in Cambodia during Pol Pot's Year Zero campaign of genocide. It's estimated that Pot's regime in the country claimed the lives of two million Cambodians.
The emotion of the aria perfectly counters the cold stoicism of Richard Nixon's news broadcast speech before it gives way to heart-wrenching footage of victims during the crescendo. As a word of warning, this clip does contain shots some viewers may find disturbing.
Like a filmic Tosca, The Talented Mr Ripley was filmed primarily in Rome and Venice, using many landmarks of the cities as backdrops for a murderous thriller. The film tells the story of Tom Ripley and his friendship (increasingly an obsession) with wealthy shipping heir Dickie (played by Jude Law).
In this clip, Ripley is dragged to see Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin by socialite Meredith Logue. The famous duel scene in particular affects Ripley, reminding him of his own murder of Dickie (in a rowing boat with an oar, if you're wondering...)
We'll be counting down the next 15 films over the course of the week. In the meantime, what are your favourite films featuring opera?
View 15-11]]>
CONTEXT: Frustrated marriage is a standard storyline in comic opera. Two people try to come together in a relationship but find it difficult – because of interruption or, perhaps, because they're not yet ready for each other. And that's the situation at the start of The Marriage of Figaro where two servants, Figaro and Susanna, are preparing for what looks like a problematic wedding. The initial problem is that their master, Count Almaviva, has designs of his own on Susanna. Figaro has just found out. And the short Act I cavatina Se vuol ballare is his angry response.
Sung alone onstage, but as though addressing Almaviva, its message is: play games with me and I'll outsmart you. You, dear little Count (note the diminutive Contino), may feel like dancing, but I'll call the tune. With cunning, stealth and mockery, I'll confound your plots.
A seriously threatening if sardonic outburst, this is Figaro's opening aria and it establishes the battle of wits between servant and master that drives the whole opera - making it not just an elegantly crafted comedy but a social document of 18th-century class conflict.
LISTEN: Erwin Schrott sings Se vuol ballare in David McVicar's acclaimed Royal Opera House production of The Marriage of Figaro. Excerpt from a BBC recording.
LYRICS: In the original Italian, as sung on stage, and in their English translation.
|Se vuol ballare, Signor Contino,
Se vuol ballare, Signor Contino,Il chitarrino le suonerò.
Il chitarrino le suonerò.
Si, le suonerò, si, le suonerò.
Se vuol venire nella mia scuola,
Se vuol venire nella mia scuola,
Saprò, saprò, saprò, saprò, saprò...
L'arte schermendo, l'arte adoprando,
L'arte schermendo, l'arte adoprando,
Se vuol ballare, Signor Contino,
Il chitarrino le suonerò.
|If you want to dance, my little count,
If you want to dance, my little count,I'll play the guitar.
I'll play the guitar.
Yes, I'll play it, yes, I'll play it.
If you want to go to my school,
If you want to go to my school,
I'll find out, I'll find out... (repeat)
I'll use all the arts of combat,
I'll use all the arts of combat,
If you want to dance, my little count,
I'll play the guitar.
Composer: Mozart. Libretto: Da Ponte. Discover more about The Marriage of Figaro/ Le nozze di Figaro: synopsis, characters, context text, full details of current production.
Credits: Intro text: Michael White, score by Ricordi, as sung on stage, translations: Emma Beatty/Michele Bona]]>
CONTEXT: Cherubino has an adolescent crush on the Countess – who happens to be his godmother but is nonetheless amused and touched by the attention. He has written her a love song which, with some embarrassment, he's persuaded to sing while she listens. Susanna accompanies on a guitar. And it turns out to be the song of a young boy struggling to deal with powerful, unfamiliar, uncontrollable emotions.
Those of you who know what love is, he says, look into my heart and see what's there – because I don't understand my own feelings. Sometimes pleasurable, sometimes painful, they either burn like fire or freeze like ice. I long for something but I don't know what it is, and the search gives me no peace. Day or night.
A formal song that seems to breaks off into spontaneous asides, Voi che sapete depicts the common enough business of post-pubescent confusion, but with a charm and poignancy peculiar to Mozart. In the hands of someone else, these words could easily be winsome. Here, they're heartfelt, and affecting.
LISTEN: Rinat Shaham sings Voi che sapete from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro/Marriage of Figaro. From David McVicar's acclaimed production for The Royal Opera House.
LYRICS: In the original Italian, as sung on stage, and in their English translation.
|Voi che sapete che cosa è amor,
donne, vedete s'io l'ho nel cor,
donne, vedete s'io l'ho nel cor!
Quello ch'io provo vi ridirò,
è per me nuovo, capir nol so.Sento un affetto pien di desir
ch'ora è diletto,
ch'ora è martir.
Gelo e poi sento l'alma avvampar,
Ricerco un bene fuori di me,
Sospiro e gemo, senza voler,
Non trovo pace notte né dì,
Voi che sapete che cosa è amor,
|Ladies, you who know what love is,
look to see if it is in my heart,
look to see if it is in my heart!
Let me tell you how I feel,
it's so new to me; I don't understand it.I feel so full of desire
that sometimes it is a pleasure,
then it is agony.
I'm freezing cold, then on fire;
I seek something beautiful outside myself,
I sigh and I groan without control,
I cannot find any peace night or day,
You, ladies, who know what love is,
Composer: Mozart. libretto: Da Ponte. Discover more about Le nozze di Figaro: synopsis, characters, context text, full details of current production.
Credits: Intro text: Michael White, score by Ricordi, as sung on stage, translations: Emma Beatty/Michele Bona]]>
CONTEXT: The Countess and Susanna are plotting to catch out the Count in his extra-marital pursuits: a plot that involves the complications of switching clothes and identities in a garden under cover of night. In a moment by herself, the Countess reflects on what her life has come to – humiliated by a cheating husband and forced to take these desperate measures, with the help of her own servants, to expose him.
These bitter considerations fill the introductory recitative that sets the scene. Then comes the aria proper in which the Countess asks: Where are (dove sono) the moments of joy and pleasure I used to know in marriage? And now they're gone, why do I cling to the memory of them? If only my constant love could win my husband back.
The second of two celebrated arias for the Countess in this opera, Dove sono is the complaint of a woman who finds herself alone in a broken relationship and at risk of losing her dignity. Except that Mozart intervenes by giving her this most dignified of laments: a song of tender but controlled beauty that maintains its self-possession. And, however vague, the possibility of hope.
LISTEN: Dorothea Röschmann sings 'Dove sono i bei momenti' from Le nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro. Excerpt from a BBC recording of David McVicar's recent Royal Opera House production
THE LYRICS: In the original Italian, as sung on stage, and in their English translation.
|Dove sono
i bei momenti
di dolcezza e di piacer?
Dove andaro i giuramenti
di quel labbro menzogner,
di quel labbro menzogner?Perché mai se
in pianti e in pene
per me tutto si cangiò,
per me tutto si cangiò,
la memoria di quel bene
dal mio sen non trapassò?
la memoria di quel bene
non trapassò?
Dove sono
Ah! se almen
|Where have they gone,
my beautiful moments
of sweetness and of pleasure?
Where did all the sweet promises go,
uttered by those lying lips?
uttered by those lying lips?Why should it be that
if to tears and pain
now everything has changed
now everything has changed
that the memory of that
golden moment will not fade?
the memory of that golden moment
will not fade?
Where have they gone,
Ah! At least
Composer: Mozart. Libretto: Da Ponte. Discover more about Le nozze di Figaro: synopsis, characters, context text, full details of current production.
Credits: Intro text: Michael White, score by Ricordi, as sung on stage, translations: Emma Beatty/Michele Bona]]>


text:
November 26, 2014
Stay up-to-date with KAKE News:
Thursday, September 16, 2010
During Wednesday night's hail storm a viewer sent a picture of a Bundt cake hail stone. Other viewers want to know more about what forms a hail stone shaped bundt cake? Good question.
We received several pictures of hail from Wednesday night's storm. Some were shaped like golf balls, baseballs, and all kinds of shapes and sizes, but only one came shaped like a Bundt cake.
So what caused the Bundt cake stone to form? Usually updrafts within thunderstorms push rain high into the sky, where it freezes, falls, and then gets caught in the updraft again.
The stronger the updraft, the more potential for larger hail because the process can repeat itself several times. This produces the typical spherical or conical shaped hail., but because hail can form in other ways not simply in an updraft, several irregular shapes may be created like last night's Bundt cake hail.
If you have a good question, send it to Jeff Herndon at KAKE.com. He'll do his best to answer your good question every Thursday on KAKE News at 6.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or email@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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You are in... Forums > Discuss This > General news > You ask/you answer: Does cold weather affect your concentration?
MCN says:
"How much does cold weather riding affect your concentration? When I go out in the freezing cold on my long commutes all I seem to think about is getting home quickly and I feel like my concentration starts to slide.
I wrap us as warm as my budget allows but after an hour the cold just seeps in anyway. I'd...
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Apr 12
Posts: 320
DazLoczy says:
You should already have some riding kit so spend as much as you can on good quality base layers that wick away moisture and keep heat in. A good balaclaver that has a thermal inner layer and waterproof outer works wonders. I've just installed heated grips and they work wonders.
Mar 08
Posts: 31
mrp192 says:
As everyone seems to agree, pre-planning for the cold is the way to go. However if caught out when the temp dips unexpectedly the chap who mentioned a newspaper inside your jacket and trousers, plastic bags inside boots etc is spot on, these sort of things have helped me several times.
The last few years I've only used my bike on the not so bad days of winter but shortly a house move will see me riding everyday regardless of the weather. I'm thinking heated grips or heated gloves as due to circulation problems I need to keep my hands as warm as possible. Which is the best to go for?
Sep 12
Posts: 212
domster says:
Grips With muffs & either sheepskin gloves or unlined leather mitts with thin damart type gloves.
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The Mini Compressor
By Kurt Wilde
I'd like to take the credit for this one, but actually I got the idea from an issue of Motorcycle Consumer News. However, before I got around to building it, I'd lost the issue and had to start from scratch.
The Mini Compressor is a small tire inflator that runs on the 12 volts available on any modern day motorcycle. What sets it apart from most products available is it's size. A typical automotive inflator is very bulky. There are some inflators available commercially for motorcycles, however, they are relatively expensive. Consider that the total cost of this project ran me $22.91. Compare this to the Cycle Pump advertised in the Rider Warehouse catalog for $77.00. Sure their pump looks better, but works the same.
Parts List
- Compressor - Campbell Hausfeld RP1200 - US$9.96
- Box - Radio Shack 6X4X2 - US$4.99
- BMW Connector - BMW - US$7.96
- Disassemble the inflator. Everything but the compressor, hose and wires can be disposed of.
- Remove the switch and solder the wire directly to the motor.
- Modify the box to accept the air hose and wire. I used a 'hot knife' to cut a slot in the box.
- Drill some air holes in the box.
- Drill a couple of holes for wire ties. These will be used to hold the compressor in place.
- Fasten the compressor to the box with wire ties.
- Optional: Replace the cigarette lighter connector with one that works on the bike of your choice. I used a BMW-style connector since that will fit both my bikes. I also cut off most of the wire, leaving only enough to reach either tire. This makes packing it up easier.
How does it work?
Fantastic. Not only does it give the added security of having a reliable way to inflate a tire in case of a flat. It also makes it possible to keep tire pressures at their optimal levels. This of course increases tire life and contributes to rider safety. And all for less than twenty-five bucks!
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8699A Arenzville RoadBeardstown, IL 62618ph: 217-323-4548fax: 217-323-9468alt: firstname.lastname@example.com
Welcome to KGM Equipment Solutions!
Come visit our lot and take a look at our wide selection of Bradford Built Flatbeds. We are now specializing in customized for Alum-Line truck beds. If we don't have what you are looking for we can order what you need.
Copyright 2013 KGM Equipment Solutions, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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text:
Professional platform to showcase adhesive raw materials, adhesive products, equipments and machinery, PSA tape and Label
CHINAADHESIVE 2013 welcomed many famous multinational companies, such as Henkel, Evonik, Bayer, ITW, Wacker, Eastman, EFD, PPG, Polyclip, CVC and 15 companies from Taiwan area. We also have many companies who exhibit for the first time. These new exhibitors featured more new technologies and new products, bringing us more news.
In 2014, CHINAADHESIVE will move to Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center on Sep.25-27. It will welcome over 18,000 professional visitors from more than 40 countries and regions.
6. Packaging raw materials, application techniques, machinery and equipment, containers and all kinds of products in packaging industry.


text:
Exodus Baptist Church »
Black lawmakers target poverty
Share (pictured above: Panelists (from left): John Gladman, Margaret Elliott, Minister Alvin Carlisle and Karen McNeil-Miller.) Five decades after President Lyndon Johnson declared War on Poverty, the issue still plagues Winston-Salem and communities across theRead More »
Clean-Up Crew
Share Volunteers help tidy city Volunteers came out in force in support of the Great American Cleanup effort in Winston-Salem on Saturday. Nearly 700 residents took part in the annual event, part of aRead More »


text:
It's Jobs, Stupid.
While newspapers, internet, and television fill their columns and airwaves with reports of Herman Cain's alleged harassment of women 12 years ago, or gasp, (had he been drinking?) at an over-enthusiastic Rick Perry speech, or puzzle over what the radical mob group called Occupy Wall Street really is, the issue is JOBS. Not the Apple guy. It's jobs, stupid, to paraphrase the old political war cry "It's the economy, stupid".
Jobs are there. Good jobs. Long term jobs. Jobs just awaiting approval of the Obama administration. Big problem, though. The jobs are oil jobs. No, not the off-shore oil drilling jobs. Those are just restarting after a too-long moratorium. I'm talking about pipe-line jobs for a 1200 mile pipe that will carry oil from the tar sands areas of Alberta, Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. A three-fer, if you will. Jobs here, help your allies, and decrease Middle East oil dependence.
The State Department has to approve it and Obama said he's making the final call. Environmentalists don't like it, of course, and Obama's no friend of fossil fuels. That means an estimated nearly 150,000 jobs are likely to be held up and are already being held up. There is a natural gas boom, and potentially an oil boom, in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York. This is generating high paying jobs and could create more. The feds main interest has been to slow the process down.
Ask yourself, do you recall one speech in which Obama has discussed the boom going on there? Has he talked about converting gasoline vehicles over to natural gas? I don't recall any mention. Yet, it's being done as you read this. What has been mentioned is electric vehicles and solar and wind projects. How have those gone? Have you heard much from the administration about the oil boom in North Dakota? Well, there was one story about birds dying because of it. Not much about then 200,000 birds killed by windmills, of course.
There could be jobs in South Carolina, too. Boeing wants to build a plant there. Can't says the administration. It hurts the union in Washington even though the net number of jobs would increase. Got a job idea? Check out the regulations from raising capital to hiring and operating and paying taxes. "I'm from the government. I'm here to help" Yeah, right.
Instead what's being pushed are government jobs: teachers, police and fire, bureaucrats. The allegiance to the public union SEIU is no coincidence. There's no unemployment in Washington, D.C. It's booming there and the natural resource there is the U.S. Government. We're sure drilling that. Problem is most citizens are trying to decrease the size of the government. Note that Coloradians voted down new taxes to increase the size of government.
There is an Obama project I favor - sort of. It's a program to address the problems with the infrastructure: roads, highways, airports, ports, public transportation, air traffic control system, parks, forest roads, high speed rail, low speed rail, freight rail, water, storm water, sewage, dams, levees, solid waste, open spaces, pollution reduction, energy transmission, energy efficiency. Pretty comprehensive. That's why I wrote "sort of."
To do this, the legislation, which is part of the jobs bill, creates a huge centralized bureaucracy and the price is in the trillions. Not billions, but trillions. Taxing a few wealthy people won't mean a thing even if the taxes are augmented by user fees (also proposed). Nor are these shovel ready jobs (though they are union jobs, and centralized fed government funding adds as much as 25 per cent in costs). Shovel ready they aren't. Not even close. Review processes, not to mention planning, will take years. This is the bill Obama's pushing the republicans to pass now. Oh, don't the democrats control the Senate? They won't even pass a budget, for goodness sakes.
Let's think big and we do need to maintain our infrastructure. But, the centralized government taking on of every project imaginable and in every corner of the U.S.? The only thing that's going to get big is government, and the prospect of these projects getting done quickly or at all is small.
Hey, by the way, all the unions are backing this. They're also backing Occupy Wall Street. So is the Obama administration. Is this a conspiracy? Is this a coincidence? Is this a new legislative process? Out of chaos we get our way? Oh, I forgot, we can all have jobs if the government runs everything.
112014 Gabber Download


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It wasn't just Depeche Mode that brought their road show to the Phoenix area last night - - though you'd never have known it by the seemingly endless amounts of pictures and videos that were flooding Facebook all night. Downtown's Crescent Ballroom featured another prolific band formed in early '8 ... More >>
Depeche ModeAk-Chin PavilionOctober 8, 2013 Synth-Pop legends Depeche Mode paid a visit to Ak-Chin Pavilion last night to a sea of fans that ranged anywhere from early 20s fans to 40-year-olds who brought their children. While most bands lose steam as they get older, Depeche Mode seems to age like ... More >>
By Catherine Downes With Depeche Mode on tour, we thought it'd be fun to dig through our heaping, and incredibly disorganized, collection of "vintage" press photos. Last time we rummaged through these stacks we found some sweet Jesus and Mary Chain pics (score!) So for our entertainment, and hopef ... More >>
Is it a little surprising to see Keith Urban and Depeche Mode headlining the same venues in the United States in 2013? Well, yes. Is it a pleasant surprise? Well, also yes, even though parking is somewhat less than ideal. (View our complete concert calendar here.)
Unlike many New Wave acts, Depeche Mode has managed to withstand the ravages of time -- more or less. See also: -Depeche Mode Is Coming to Phoenix; Shadowplay to Pay Tribute This Weekend
It's a ways off, but electronic pioneers Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Andy Fletcher -- collectively known as Depeche Mode -- are coming to Phoenix. The band will end its U.S. tour at Desert Sky Pavilion (because, hallelujah, the owners of the venue got as sick of saying "Ashley Furniture HomeStore ... More >>
Laura S. Strickland Strickland is the Principal Flutist for the Arizona Pro Arte Ensemble and a soloist in the upcoming concert, The Winds; Woodwind Masterworks, on Friday, January 25 and Saturday, January 26. For more info, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, wh ... More >>
As Com Truise, east coaster Seth Haley struggles with something resembling a gear fetish, owning close to 15 vintage synthesizers. Naturally, his instrumental monsters stem from some of the most influential '80s New Wave acts, from New Order to Berlin to Depeche Mode, but his grip on EDM, self-descr ... More >>
Where we're going, we don't need roads; just a synthesizer, eyeliner, and a touch of androgyny. Welcome to Flashback Friday. The '80s weren't all bright chords and poppy dance songs. The emergence of new wave also ushered in the era of the slow, ghoulish drones of goth rock. Phoenix's resident d ... More >>
Where we're going, we don't need roads; just a synthesizer, eyeliner, and a touch of androgyny. Welcome to Flashback Friday. See also: An '80s Conversation with Super Stereo I hadn't thought about British synthpop duo Erasure for a long time -- until Super Stereo brought them up during last week's ... More >>
In this week's issue of Phoenix New Times, we profiled 10 new(ish) bands we expect to dominate Phoenix iPods and boomboxes this long, hot summer. We'll be focusing more deeply on those artists over the next couple of days on Up on the Sun. See the entire list: 10 Phoenix Bands You Should Be Listeni ... More >>
Covering Depeche Mode without a synthesizer can be a bit of a challenge, but Fatigo pulls it off with a piano, a trumpet, and some cool bass effects. "We are going to integrate some of Depeche Mode's synthy sounds [while] giving it that Fatigo south of the border sound," says vocalist Mike Montoya ... More >>
Brad SteinkeSteinke is a host and reporter for FOX Sports Arizona. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Sirius XMU. It features great new indie artists -- I've heard Lykke Li, Neon Indian, Chapel Club and Lana Del Rey on this station. W ... More >>
Ellie Elmore: The interior designer and Zumba fitness instructor. Teaches at Diverse Elements Dance Studio in Phoenix Monday nights. For more information on her classes, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Lately, 97.5-FM ha ... More >>
With Pains of Being Pure at Heart's new album Belong garnering buzz, Phoenix record store Revolver Records has locked the band down for an April 14 in-store performance. The show is the band's only Phoenix date --they are playing Tucson's Club Congress with Warpaint the night before ... More >>
Glee loves Britney. A lot.While it may be the opinion of the majority of Up on the Sun writers that Glee represents everything that is awful about the world of popular music, and even popular culture, the show's producers seem to have found yet another way to piss off music critics everywhere. Ac ... More >>
Idolator: Yung Joc's Twitter Tells The Tale Of Why It's Bad To Give Animals CocaineElectric Mustache: Video: New Miniature Tigers SongRolling Stone: The Story of Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique": Free 33 1/3 AudiobookSo Much Silence: The Twilight Sad: Reflection of the TelevisionPitchfork: Sigur Rós ... More >>
Today Dan Gibson, a Phoenix-based contributor to Idolator, e-mailed me about two shows we haven't mentioned here yet, but which are definitely worth telling you about.Leonard Cohen is coming to Dodge Theatre on April 5 (presale tickets Tuesday) and Depeche Mode is coming. We didn't get the Depeche M ... More >>
Play recounts virgin sacrifice and other sexcapades
Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
(Beggars XL Recording)
Return of the non-native
Bottomless dish
Tricky Bizzniss
(EsNtion Silver)
High in the middle
What's inside
So good it's almost Norwegian
Feel-bad pop
Cut a rug with Page from history
Not outmoded
Chart-busters for the week
Catchy, with gloom
'Cuz there's Panic! on the streets of Scottsdale
Ethiopian-born singer Kenna finds himself and battles his demons simultaneously on New Sacred Cow
Paloalto (American)
Blank-wave arcade (Saddle Creek)


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Our most excellent friend in Italy Massimo Polidoro now has a YouTube channel with some of his TV appearances in English at: http://www.youtube.com/MassimoPolidoro. I think you can realize just how effectively I influenced this remarkable skeptic by inviting him to learn at my knee for a couple of years, well before the JREF was brought into existence. Ah, if only I had another dozen like Massimo...!
For a limited time, you can receive a free JREF tote bag with the purchase of any book or DVD from our store. Simply add the tote bag to your cart, and enter coupon "freetote" into the shopping cart as you check out. It's our thank you for helping to support the JREF this holiday season.
These tough, weather-ready bags feature Velcro enclosures, ventilated external pocket, reinforced handles, and JREF logo. It's a $10 value, so claim yours today at the JREF Store.
The San Jose Mercury News reports the following:
A 27-year-old woman who allegedly is from a family of fraudulent psychics has been sentenced to 60 days in jail for tricking a brokenhearted woman out of $108,000 and a Corvette, after she promised to rid her of evil spirits.
The conviction was for "Theft Under a False Pretense," which I think is a fine charge to make against those who claim psychic abilities and ask for money to demonstrate them.
But wait! There's more to this story...
This comment has been circulating about among the woo-woos:
I don't know who suggested using the Benveniste experiment as something which would invalidate or disprove homeopathy, but whoever promoted that concept failed to appreciate or understand what homeopathy is about or what it can do. If it was Mr. Randi himself, I am afraid that he has done a disservice to humanity by sowing confusion in the minds of people whose sufferings could have been alleviated had they not been discouraged from considering homeopathy as a viable and valid alternative when the modality they are presently relying upon is not? [sic] producing the desired results.
John Atkinson, our resident correspondent on the Isle of Man, regales us with news about Dr. Alexander Cannon, who we met in this article. I had asked John to look into the reference I'd found about an amateur magician on the Isle who'd come up with some documentary material about Cannon, who - it turns out - "retired" in 1936 after his woo-woo involvement with King Edward VIII became known to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. He moved to the Isle of Man in 1939. This change of location was - let's say - not voluntary... The MI5 investigation of Cannon came to the conclusion that he was not a spy, though he had several Nazi sympathizers as patients, but only "a quack and compulsive liar." That does not seem sufficient cause to thus isolate him, but it perhaps spared the rest of England from being further bored...


text:
MIAMI (AP) - A woman who fled to Colombia during the middle of a 2006 health care fraud trial in Miami is back in a U.S. jail.
Authorities said Thursday that 55-year-old Magda Luz Lavin was recently arrested in Colombia and extradited to the U.S. Even though she fled during the trial, a jury convicted her of 25 health care fraud and money laundering counts and she was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
Now Luz Lavin is also facing a bond-jumping charge.
Trial evidence showed Luz Lavin used clinics in Key West and Miami to defraud Medicare out of some $5 million between 2000 and 2002. The fraud involved claims for dosages of drugs for HIV-positive patients that were either never administered or were given in much lower dosages than claimed.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)