THE INSPECTOR Has Arrived!

From BLO’s rehearsal hall to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) to the Boston Public Library (BPL), Boston is buzzing with excitement for The Inspector! Sunday afternoon found composer John Musto in conversation with Music Director David Angus at the MFA for BLO’s Signature Series, rehearsals began bright and early Monday morning, and Tuesday evening Stage Director Leon Major joined David Angus at the BPL to talk about this exciting new adaptation of the Wolf Trap premiere production.  

Below, see a video from Sunday’s Signature Series featuring Emerging Artists Meredith Hansen and Neal Ferreira, along with photos taken in the rehearsal hall by Emerging Artist Julius Ahn during the cast’s first days working together. All three will perform in The Inspector; Meredith Hansen and Neal Ferreira as the young lovers Beatrice and Tancredi, and Julius Ahn as Padre Ruffiano.

Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes glimpses at The Inspector, onstage at the Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre April 20 – 29, 2012. 

 Bass-baritone Jake Gardner (The Mayor)

Mezzo-soprano Dorothy Byrne (Malacorpa) 

Music Director and The Inspector Conductor David Angus 

Mezzo-soprano Dorothy Byrne (Malacorpa) 

The Inspector Composer John Musto

Bass-baritone Jake Gardner (The Mayor)

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.

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:

      

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 #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.

ROSSINIANA #9

One piano--six hands

ROSSINIANA #7

Figaro on ice

ROSSINIANA #6

This may, in the end, be the most famous performance of Figaro ever.