Friday, May 28, 2010

Musical America profiles Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey!


As a Hawaiian, I am especially proud that Musical America decided to profile 32-year old baritone Quinn Kelsey, quickly taking the opera world by storm, as their newest Artist of the Month. Considering that means they only highlight twelve artists a year spanning the entire range of classical instrumental music, vocal music, and opera, this is indeed a great honor.

Please read their article on this remarkable musician here. We can't wait to see where this Honolulu native takes his career, and we'll be following it with the greatest interest.

Ho'omaika'i 'Ana and Pomaika`i Quinn!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Rest in Peace Anneliese Rothenberger


It is with great sadness that we report the passing of German soprano Anneliese Rothenberger, who died Monday May 24th near her home in Switzerland at the age of 83 (some argue she could have been 85 at the time of her death).

The soprano's hey-day was in the 1950s and 60s, when she appeared at all the leading opera houses of the world. She performed a great deal more in Europe than in the U.S. and kept a long-standing and faithful relationship with the Hamburg State Opera. She was also often seen in recital and appeared numerous times on television, especially in Europe. She will be remembered most especially for her crystalline sound and impressive acting skills on stage.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The entrepreneurial spirit

First of all, that is a very hard word to spell quickly: entrepreneurial.

Many of our members and readers are entrepreneurs already. If you're a singer, a technician, a founder of a company or festival (whether opera-related or not) you are an entrepreneur (yeah, it doesn't get easier the more times you write it!) According to the Freelancer's Union, independent workers make up about 30% of the American workforce. I would go so far as to say that pretty much that entire number is, was, or will at some time be an entrepreneur because, let's face it, working as a contractor in a consulting firm, starting your own cookie business, or working to make it as an opera singer is pretty much all the same: working outside the framework of a company to further your career and make money.

So I decided to learn a bit more about entrepreneurs in today's world, specifically women entrepreneurs. Why women? Not because I'm interested in continuing the conversation about why women have a harder time of it in the world than men, why we should be given a head start or any preferential treatment or any of that, but because as someone starting her own business, I thought it would be useful to get perspectives from other women on how they did it.

I learned one of the most vital lessons of my business career so far last night at an event in New York City entitled, rather drastically, "Numbers, Goals, and Business Plans, OH MY!" Yeah, not the best. This is what I learned:

1) You must have vision, clear and overpowering vision, to bring your ideas to fruition
2) Women are typically scared to death to talk about money
3) Women typically feel guilty for wanting to make money
4) You can not achieve any of the goals set out in your vision if you can not make your business profitable, because without profit it cannot grow.

It's that simple. Companies with no profit cannot grow. Well, that's not true. It money grew on trees (which I'm still waiting for, by the way) or you magically received 25 million dollars from an anonymous donor, it would be possible. But in the real world it's not. SO.....

Do I feel awkward that The Opera Insider will offer some parts of its website for a small fee? Yeah, I do sometimes. Guilty on that count. Do I do any number of singing gigs for free because I think it will lead to something bigger, better, greater? You bet. Can I achieve my vision for TOI, more specifically can I offer real support to small companies, festivals, and up-and-coming artists, enhance the experience of opera for lovers of the art form from both sides of the curtain around the globe, and help to reignite the wonderful concept of arts patronage on my own? Nope. I can't.

My vision for TOI is great, it's huge! And I can't wait to bring it to all of you. So thanks again for your continued support. To all the entrepreneurs out there, good luck and congratulations, and I can't wait to see you at the top!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Stage Director Tomer Zvulun strikes gold in Cleveland

It's a timeless question in opera: do we leave it in the period it was set? Or do we experiment, maybe setting Boheme in the 60s or Handel in the First World War period? People are fiercely divided on the issue. I had a conversation with Conductor Sir Gilbert Levine a few months ago, and he was adamant that (in this case) Mozart should never be messed with. "Why mess with what already works, and has worked for centuries?" he asked rhetorically.

Others would argue that today's audiences want to feel more of a personal connection to what they're seeing on stage. You could easily come back with the question, "well why would anyone feel closer to characters from 1914 than from 1754?" And you might be right... but at least it's a time in history that maybe our grandparents remember, or at least a time of stories that still get told around the Thanksgiving Day dinner table.

Tomer Zvulun did a daring thing recently. He staged Lucia di Lammmermoor, arguably Donizetti's most famous opera, in the 1930s. What's more? He sets it in the mob world of that time! We didn't have a chance to see the production, but it sure is managing to get some rave reviews, this one from ClevelandClassical.com.

Congratulations to Tomer Zvulun, the cast and crew of this wonderful production!

Monday, May 24, 2010

It's been a while

Hello Dear Friends of The Opera Insider!

We've decided that as we head into the final push to launch our site, we'd turn this into the space where you can find out more about what The Opera Insider will provide you, where you can read a few "teasers" of our upcoming features, and leave comments and feedback for us as we make the site fun and interactive for all.

As you may know, the ideas for The Opera Insider started bubbling away many moons ago, from the time Carol and I spent at the Les Azuriales Opera Festival in the south of France. Here's a little taste of our feature on Sarah Holford and her remarkable festival, a veritable treat for all five senses!!

Perched majestically atop the peak of the peninsula of St. Jean Cap Ferrat, the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild boasts spectacular vistas and dominates the landscape in rose-colored elegance. Fountains sway to Tchaikovsky and waltz to Strauss as visitors feast upon breathtaking views of the Mediterranean’s azure waters dotted with yachts and rimmed with luxurious homes and inhale the luxurious fragrance of blooming flowers. In an area of almost unrivaled beauty and grace, the villa (which, by the way, was never really inhabited by its original owners) is the home of Les Azuriales Opera Festival, which takes place for two weeks during the month of August. The festival presents three to four operas per season and also boasts the highly selective and ever more well-respected Linda Fenwick Young Artists Program and Young Singers Competition.

The festival's director, Sarah Holford, has been involved in the arts in some way for most of her life. She participated in productions as a young girl, and even seriously considered going to acting school. However, a (some would say wise) decision that she didn’t want to starve made her look for an “insurance policy” and so she went to law school instead. She married Mark, had two sons, and yet felt unfulfilled in her work. “I wasn’t the best,” she said, “so I didn’t want to do it.” Even then acknowledging the absurdity of those feelings, she nevertheless changed gears and attended business school where, during the course of her studies, she discovered that what she really wanted to do was work in the business of the arts. After learning that it was the organizational structure of companies that really fascinated her, it wasn’t long before she began to create and build those structures around a new concept. Any good business starts with a good idea, but to make that idea grow and flourish, she learned in business school, “you have to find the right market for it.”

Anyone who knows Sarah knows that her combination of intelligence, wit, dedication, and good connections (with more than a dash of perseverance) will tend to get good results. Having made countless trips to Glyndebourne and Garsington as a young adult, Sarah notes that she “saw a distinct gap in the market for a festival where you weren’t required to turn up in Wellington boots and evening dress and freeze to death!” While still in business school, she met her co-founder, Jacqueline Jones, a skilled and talented New Zealand soprano and the two women co-founded the festival in 1997 together with Marie-Laure Vigoureux and local resident, Dominique Lelandais, who currently serves as the Festival’s Vice-President.

Les Azuriales is unique in its ability to bridge the gap between those behind and those in front of the proverbial red velvet curtain (though in the Villa it’s more like an enormous marble pillar!) What is so especially wonderful about the space where the operas are performed is its warmth and intimacy. Whether performing or sitting in the audience (it seats a maximum of 200), you can see the faces of everyone else present. Rather than foster any semblance of awkwardness, however, it creates instead a sense of closeness and unity that is only made richer at the end of the evening when patron and performer are encouraged to sit down together, share a meal, and exchange conversation. The post-performance dinners, though originally introduced purely for purposes of convenience (it’s not easy to find restaurants that stay open until 11pm in St. Jean!), have now become a signature feature of the festival.

Patrons also return yearly to be among the first to see and hear opera’s newest talent. Approximately ten young singers (though there is no age limit) from around the globe gather for a week to make music together, take Masterclasses with world-renowned mezzo-soprano Sally Burgess, and hopefully win the First Prize or the prize for the Best Performance of the Evening in the Les Azuriales Opera Young Singers Competition. Launched in 2003, the competition was initially conceived as a festival for young artists, but it soon developed into more of a training program for singers to bridge the gap between being a student and a professional. “They need help during that period,” Sarah explains, “not just financial support, but in terms of contacts, someone to take a genuine interest in them, to get them on the radar and give them a slight advantage.” And what an advantage it can be! Two of their competitors have already gone on to become Young Artists at the Royal Opera House, while others have gone on to attend prestigious Young Artist Programs in the U.S. and the UK. Others have even taken the next step onto the professional stage.

Asked about the future of Les Azuriales, Sarah wholeheartedly declares she plans to keep the festival going, although she acknowledges that doing so without her at the helm would be difficult, since “you have to be able to handle the French, navigate the political waters, and keep the funding up, all at the same time” she explains.

If your find yourself in France in August, or if you are looking for a summer vacation destination with everything you could possibly want, especially including opera, do consider a trip to St. Jean Cap Ferrat to see Les Azuriales. We know you won’t be sorry you did!

It's been a while

Hello Dear Friends of The Opera Insider!

We've decided that as we head into the final push to launch our site, we'd turn this into the space where you can find out more about what The Opera Insider will provide you, where you can read a few "teasers" of our upcoming features, and leave comments and feedback for us as we make the site fun and interactive for all.

As you may know, the ideas for The Opera Insider started bubbling away many moons ago... from the time Carol and I spent at the Les Azuriales Opera Festival in the south of France. Here's a little taste of our feature on Sarah Holford and her remarkable festival, a veritable treat for all five senses!!

"Perched majestically atop the peak of the peninsula of St. Jean Cap Ferrat, the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild boasts spectacular vistas and dominates the landscape in rose-colored elegance. Fountains sway to Tchaikovsky and waltz to Strauss as visitors feast upon breathtaking views of the Mediterranean’s azure waters dotted with yachts and rimmed with luxurious homes and inhale the luxurious fragrance of blooming flowers. In an area of almost unrivaled beauty and grace, the villa (which, by the way, was never really inhabited by its original owners) is the home of Les Azuriales Opera Festival, which takes place for two weeks during the month of August. The festival presents three to four operas per season and also boasts the highly selective and ever more well-respected Linda Fenwick Young Artists Program and Young Singers Competition.

The festival's director, Sarah Holford, has been involved in the arts in some way for most of her life. She participated in productions as a young girl, and even seriously considered going to acting school. However, a (some would say wise) decision that she didn’t want to starve made her look for an “insurance policy” and so she went to law school instead. She married Mark, had two sons, and yet felt unfulfilled in her work. “I wasn’t the best,” she said, “so I didn’t want to do it.” Even then acknowledging the absurdity of those feelings, she nevertheless changed gears and attended business school where, during the course of her studies, she discovered that what she really wanted to do was work in the business of the arts. After learning that it was the organizational structure of companies that really fascinated her, it wasn’t long before she began to create and build those structures around a new concept. Any good business starts with a good idea, but to make that idea grow and flourish, she learned in business school, “you have to find the right market for it.”

Anyone who knows Sarah knows that her combination of intelligence, wit, dedication, and good connections (with more than a dash of perseverance) will tend to get good results. Having made countless trips to Glyndebourne and Garsington as a young adult, Sarah notes that she “saw a distinct gap in the market for a festival where you weren’t required to turn up in Wellington boots and evening dress and freeze to death!” While still in business school, she met her co-founder, Jacqueline Jones, a skilled and talented New Zealand soprano and the two women co-founded the festival in 1997 together with Marie-Laure Vigoureux and local resident, Dominique Lelandais, who currently serves as the Festival’s Vice-President.

Les Azuriales is unique in its ability to bridge the gap between those behind and those in front of the proverbial red velvet curtain (though in the Villa it’s more like an enormous marble pillar!) What is so especially wonderful about the space where the operas are performed is its warmth and intimacy. Whether performing or sitting in the audience (it seats a maximum of 200), you can see the faces of everyone else present. Rather than foster any semblance of awkwardness, however, it creates instead a sense of closeness and unity that is only made richer at the end of the evening when patron and performer are encouraged to sit down together, share a meal, and exchange conversation. The post-performance dinners, though originally introduced purely for purposes of convenience (it’s not easy to find restaurants that stay open until 11pm in St. Jean!), have now become a signature feature of the festival.

Patrons also return yearly to be among the first to see and hear opera’s newest talent. Approximately ten young singers (though there is no age limit) from around the globe gather for a week to make music together, take Masterclasses with world-renowned mezzo-soprano Sally Burgess, and hopefully win the First Prize or the prize for the Best Performance of the Evening in the Les Azuriales Opera Young Singers Competition. Launched in 2003, the competition was initially conceived as a festival for young artists, but it soon developed into more of a training program for singers to bridge the gap between being a student and a professional. “They need help during that period,” Sarah explains, “not just financial support, but in terms of contacts, someone to take a genuine interest in them, to get them on the radar and give them a slight advantage.” And what an advantage it can be! Two of their competitors have already gone on to become Young Artists at the Royal Opera House, while others have gone on to attend prestigious Young Artist Programs in the U.S. and the UK. Others have even taken the next step onto the professional stage.

Asked about the future of Les Azuriales, Sarah wholeheartedly declares she plans to keep the festival going, although she acknowledges that doing so without her at the helm would be difficult, since “you have to be able to handle the French, navigate the political waters, and keep the funding up, all at the same time” she explains.

If your find yourself in France in August, or if you are looking for a summer vacation destination with everything you could possibly want, especially including opera, do consider a trip to St. Jean Cap Ferrat to see Les Azuriales. We know you won’t be sorry you did!"