Facsimile of Rossini's original score

We've certainly had Rossini on the brain recently and our Music Director David Angus was perusing this facsimile of Rossini's original score. Take a look!

ROSSINIANA #26

HAPPY OPENING NIGHT, ROSSINI!

... and so we come to the end of our tour through the wacky world of Rossini ... now check him out LIVE at the Shubert Theatre ... and you'll see on stage a pretty big version of the portrait above as the Grand Maestro himself quizzically looks out over his witty and melodious masterpiece.

 ... and since we've seen and heard a number of manic and crazed versions of Rossini in the past weeks I thought we might end on a quieter note.

Rossini Roundup

Looking for a little reading about Rossini to prepare for tonight's opening of
The Barber of Seville? Check out a couple of articles about Rossini and Beaumarchais,
the dramatist behind The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville.

The Puzzle of Rossini's Brief Career

How to Stage a Revolution

ROSSINIANA #25

I guess it was inevitable ... you really couldn't in the end celebrate Rossini without the inclusion at least one iteration of this (in)famous duet (to say nothing of two). And just to complete the Rossinian game playing it probably isn't by Rossini  after all.

        

        

But hold on ... we're almost at the end ... BARBER opens tomorrow.

ROSSINIANA #24

A disarmingly crazy and charming Rossini ensemble (from La Cenerentola) strikingly staged by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. 

ROSSINIANA #23

Of course Figaro, the footloose barber, goes on to further life roles ... valet to the Count Almaviva (who has in the mean time married ... and been unfaithful to ... Rosina ...). In the second of Beaumarchais' plays (and Mozart's opera) his suspicions towards his boss and his potentially amorous connections to his bride-to-be Susanna brings out the angry revolutionary in him.

In THE GHOSTS of VERSAILLES (partially based on Beaumarchais' third play LA MERE COUPABLE) Figaro dreams ...

And a few helpful links:
The Ghosts of Versailles
How to Stage a Revolution
Pierre Beaumarchais
La mere coupable

ROSSINIANA #22

Another "Una Voce" ... this one with a true twist. Indeed Joyce DiDonato thought she had only twisted her ankle after a fall during a performance of BARBER at Covent Garden and she gamely finished that evening on crutches. Subsequently, doctors found she had broken her leg. Trouper of the first magnitude she played out the rest of the performances in a cast (pink) ... twisting, twirling in a wheelchair and managing to sing the hell out of the role all at the same time.

For more on the story, check out this interview:

      

First time Figaro, part 2

So many fun and wonderful things have been happening in our rehearsal process since last I wrote.

One of my favorite parts of the rehearsal process is when we first meet up with orchestra. It was such a thrill for me to meet up with the wonderful orchestra twice this week. It is fun to see David Angus be able to bring different colors out of this tremendous orchestra. During our rehearsals we have had the incomparable Allen Perriello at the piano acting as an orchestra. During our final run of the opera in the Tremont Temple rehearsal space on Tuesday, Allen and I had some fun and played the overture in a Piano Duet/4 hand version.

Wednesday John Tessier, Sarah Coburn and myself were on WGBH in honor of Rossini’s birthday. It was fun to sing excerpts from the opera and do some brief interviews. The broadcast is available on the WGBH website.

Thursday was very thrilling at it was our first day in the theater. This is really an exciting time because we get to finally try out all of our staging on the actual set along with props, costumes, and lights. It is pretty magical and really brings a new energy to the process. The theater is really beautiful and it is fun to see it all come together.

It has been a real pleasure to become close with the cast as we have worked together more and more. Everyone is not only talented but really kind and funny. This has been such a pleasure and we are all looking forward to opening night.

This will be a fun debut for me. When I was a composition major in Boston, I saw my first opera ever. It was Don Giovanni at the Boston Lyric Opera during the 00/01 season and now, a decade later, I get to make my debut at the same opera house in a title role! I feel very blessed.

--Jonathan Beyer

ROSSINIANA #21

Not for the first time Rossini lifted a piece of one opera and put it in another (but then again so did another supreme master of the theater--Handel) when he took the Count's last act aria in BARBER and gave it to heroine of his newer work LA CENERENTOLA--where it has  permanently remained. The BARBER version is sometimes performed but is most often cut (as it is in BLO's upcoming BARBER.) In the video below Juan Diego Flores discusses and performs the aria as first written with his usual panache (albeit with, in my opinion, some lingering unease around the edges)

But the real reason to discuss this is to get a performance by Frederica von Stade onto this blog. She is the best ... a lovely flexible voice, impeccable musicianship ... utterly charming, relaxed, funny but always full of the deepest humanity and feeling.

So here is that BARBER aria now as the more famous "Naque all'fanno" from CENERENTOLA.

As for the vision of Rosina in a wheelchair at the beginning of the Flores video check in tomorrow ... all will be explained.


--John Conklin, Artistic Advisor

ROSSINIANA #20

Gourmet Rossini--a fine slice of echt Italian ham with a side order of tasty pickled herring followed by (and hoping this metaphor doesn't totally collapse under the strain) a nice piece of  NY cheesecake.

Pavarotti

 

Jussi Bjoerling

 

     

John Raitt

ROSSINIANA #19

I don't know ... I just kind of liked these guys ... they were having fun ...
and they seem to be from Boston ... 

ROSSINIANA #18

Some REALLY SERIOUS opera singers (Hotter sang Wagnerian heavies such as Wotan and the Flying Dutchman ... Warren was famous for malevolent operatic villains such as Iago and Scarpia) getting in touch with their inner Rossianian ham. (I think Warren ... here at least ... even looks a little like Rossini).

ROSSINIANA #17

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSSINI 

... why does the fact that your birthday falls on a Leap Year seem so appropriate and fitting? You are probably the MOST FAMOUS Leap Year guy ever (the only other contenders I could dig up were an odd group--Dinah Shore, Jimmy Dorsey, Michele Morgan, Balthus and the coloratura soprano Reri Grist-- incidentally she sang a mean Rosina in her day). 

Well, here's a special serenade delivered by one of the few remaining descendants of that turkey you so tragically dumped into Lake Como many years ago (for those of you to whom this is  a puzzling reference look back at ROSSINIANA #2). BLO wishes you many happy returns and hopes to see you at the BARBER opening in a few days.

ROSSINIANA #16

David Angus ... watch out!

ROSSINIANA #15

hey ... man ... REAL cool ...

ROSSINIANA #14

hey ... man ... cool ...

ROSSINIANA #13

"I know of no more admirable occupation than eating"

                                       Rossini

"Caruso can have his spaghetti with chicken livers, Nellie Melba her toast and peaches. When it comes to Rossini it's all truffles, foie gras and Madeira sauce. Tournedos Rossini, perhaps the most famous of the dishes identified with him, consists of a filet mignon sauteed in butter, then placed on a crouton, also sauteed in butter. This assembly is topped with foie gras and truffles and anointed with a rich Madeira sauce. This recipe was one that Rossini is reputedly said to have suggested to the chef at the Cafe Anglais, the Le Cirque of the Second Empire. The name supposedly came about like this: the maitre d'hotel prepared this dish at tableside but with his back to the other customers so that they would not witness its excesses ... thus the French phrase--"tourner le dos"--became tournedos."

                                        Florence Fabricant (New York Times food editor) 

"We are unwell. It is from eating too much. The Maestro and I live to eat ... I am the fat woman who is occupied from morning to evening in digesting.

                                        Olympe (Rossini's wife writing to a friend)

"Appetite is for the stomach what love is for the heart ... The stomach is the conductor who rules the grand orchestra of our passion ... Eating, loving, singing, and digesting are, in truth, the four acts of the comic opera known as life."

                                         Rossini

Classic Tournedos Rossini

ROSSINIANA #12

OK, now it's the LOOK that's a bit bizarre but ... what singing! Rossini in his grandest opera mode (plus a little visit with one of the famous divas).

ROSSINIANA #11

... and speaking of bizarre ...

 

ROSSINIANA #10

A famously bizarre cartoon by Tex Avery from 1952. After its release, it was sometimes censored--the Chinese and black face bits edited out. But it was also selected in 1993  for preservation in the Library of Congress's National Film registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." Apologies for the poor visual quality of this clip ... but you get the idea.