Pat Racette: First Review!!! (a rave!)

10 AUGUST 2012 CD Review: Racette’s ‘Diva on Detour’ Over the past few years, Patricia Racette has earned the reputation of one of America’s foremost sopranos. The first time I heard her, as the title character in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline, at New York City Opera, she won my admiration, and I’m always glad to hear more of her. Since then, with her searing theatricality and passionate, clarion singing, she’s gone on racking up triumphs, in repertory ranging from Verdi and Puccini to Janácˇek and Carlisle Floyd, particularly at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and the Met. At the last company, she’s received notable acclaim for her Madama Butterfly and for a Tosca that helped to redeem Luc Bondy’s infamously ill-conceived staging. Strangely enough, however, this Soprano Assoluta boasts a background in cabaret: in her younger years, she enrolled at the University of North Texas to study jazz, but wound up in opera instead. Hearing her at the Met, I simply couldn’t imagine her on a spotlit barstool by a smoky piano. Surely she was making this up. Now GPR Records has released a CD that exuberantly proclaims Racette’s mastery of an altogether different idiom. While she brings to bear certain assets of concert singing — particularly extended range and breath control that permits her to hold notes far longer than the average chantoozy — she gives herself over freely to the demands of the art form, exploiting a gutsy chest voice, alert attention to rhythm, and expressive devotion to language. She manages Billie Holiday’s trademark, singing on consonants, and she belts as if she was born to do nothing else. Doozy of a chantoozy: Soprano Patricia Racette Looking over the playlist of pop standards, almost all of which are associated with legendary stars of the past, you admire not only Racette’s good taste but also her courage. How the hell does any “diva on detour” open her act with a medley of Judy Garland numbers? Well, it takes her about less than two bars to dispel any doubts you may have, and once she’s got you in her grasp, she’s not letting you go. Even in a set of Piaf numbers, she catches exactly the right style. She doesn’t imitate so much as invoke the Little Sparrow’s gargles and growls, her moans and roar, not to mention her flawless French diction. The only time she isn’t completely convincing is, paradoxically, a rendition of “La Vie en rose” delivered in what we will call her Opera Voice: though you can’t deny her emotional connection, the song becomes altogether too plummy. It’s nowhere near as bad as Renata Scotto’s legendary “Over the Rainbow,” but nevertheless it’s a mistake she won’t make twice in the course of this album. So big deal: Patricia Racette is not Eileen Farrell — a unique artist who could use essentially the same voice in both opera and jazz. Racette needs two different voices, and the great marvel here is that her cabaret voice is so persuasive, uninhibited, and stylish. In a sense, Racette’s affinity for this repertory is only natural, since in opera, too, she sings roles that are closely associated with monstres sacrés like Maria Callas, every bit as titanic in her field as Piaf or Garland was in hers. Racette must make those roles her own, just as she must make these songs hers and not Garland’s or Piaf’s — or, for that matter, Jack Gilford’s, when she sings “I’m Calm.” She’s very funny, as it happens, not Jack’s way but her way. Interpretation has become the abandoned child in pop music, where we put an almost exclusive emphasis on innovation. But in jazz as in opera, interpretation is the order of the day, and it’s Racette’s achievement that she finds herself and communicates with us in any music that she sings. She’s a “diva on detour,” perhaps, but she’s not slumming: she’s got integrity. She knows what to do, and she does it — beautifully. The album was recorded before a live audience (invited, audibly appreciative, and pleasingly responsive), and it’s distinguished by Racette’s engaging between-song banter. Has any soprano in such circumstances ever sounded less like a conservatory recitalist? I doubt it. Craig Terry, her longtime collaborator, provides expert accompaniment on piano, exercising a kind of majestic yet unpretentious command that’s a perfect match for her full-throated delivery. Diva on Detour is a priceless souvenir of one more facet of a great artist’s talent, and I look forward to listening to it and learning more from it for many years to come. For more information and to purchase Diva on Detour, click here.

And The Banned Play On (from the Huff Post)

So far this season at the Met I have seen three sensational shows, The Marriage of Figaro, The Death of Klinghoffer and most recently Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Although one couldn't imagine three more disparate works -- an 18th Century sex farce, an opera about Palestinian terrorists taking over a cruise ship, and the tale of a murderous adulteress in a factory town in Russia -- there is one interesting fact that groups them as a whole: each, when first presented, got into some major hot water with the censors. One was banned outright by a dictator; an ex-mayor of New York City try to ban this production, while the head of the Met canceled the planned live-telecast: and one, they say, flamed the fire of the French Revolution! Not bad for an artistic expression that has been called, "a dinosaur of an art form." The Marriage of Figaro, the season opener, based on Beaumarchais's masterpiece, La Folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (The Crazy Day, or the Marriage of Figaro) was written in 1778, but the Parisian censors controlled by Louis XVI successfully banned performances until 1784. The play, with its call for social equality and its blatant contempt for the indulgences of the upper classes, was clearly something the elitist government would not tolerate, especially during the volatile years before the French Revolution. Plot lines wherein a Count tries to seduce his servant's wife, only to be brought to his knees begging forgiveness from his wife working in tandem with his servant's husband, would not sit well with the omnipotent nobility. As movie fans know from Peter Shaffer's brilliant Amadeus, Emperor Joseph II, Mozart's sometime patron, was shocked that Mozart would even think of musicalizing such a "bad play." As imagined by Shaffer, Joseph said, "Figaro...stirs up hatred between the classes...My own dear sister Antoinette writes me that she is beginning to be frightened of her own people." Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte softened the politics of the original play so the production would indeed be performed, but the audience clearly saw the lowly servant Figaro being insolent to his lord and master and even scheming to thwart him while he sang great, tuneful music; the public understood. An interesting aside: when the opera was finally presented in Paris, after the revolution, the presenters thought da Ponte had eliminated too much of the political punch and restored much of the exorcised dialogue the librettist had eliminated. In the Met production, gorgeously sung by the entire cast, especially Peter Mattei's Count and Isabel Leonard's hormone-charged Cherbino, the class warfare has been softened to a refined Upstairs/Downstairs, Downtown Abbey-style conflict, social issues gentrified into a palatable noblesse oblige collage of the rich and their servants (starting with the staged Overture, meh!) In fact, almost all of the productions of Figaro I've seen concentrate on the glorious music, which is fine with me as there is no more beautiful music written in all of opera, in my opinion, anyway. I do recall, however, a production at the Met directed by Jean-Pierre Ponelle in which every time a door opened, the audience was treated to revolting peasants brandishing farm instruments which seemed pretty heavy handed. Of course what was verboten and cause for censorship in the 18th Century has now morphed into something routinely explored on movies and television, even though the world-wide class system, poor vs. rich, is no less terrifying and important today as it was then. But I would love to see a really political Figaro. The second of the three great evenings I had at the Met was The Death of Klinghoffer. I wrote about it in depth earlier this season, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-roven/art-isnt-easy_b_6030764.html, but seeing Lady M made me again think about all the protests outside and the condemnation by Jewish leaders (who conveniently forgot that the Reichskulturkammer of the Third Reich banned the works of Kurt Weill and other Jewish composers because they thought they were not "German" enough). Ex-mayor Giuliani joined the protests and called for a ban on performing the opera under any circumstances, but Peter Gelb canceled only the broadcast. (I wonder, given the great success of Klinghoffer, if Gelb regrets his decision.) Remember that Giuliani, no stranger to promoting bans on art that violates his delicate sensibility, famously tried to revoke city funding for the Brooklyn Museum, have the museum's board of trustees dismissed, and evict the museum from the city-owned building because of an art exhibit he found "disgusting." Thankfully the court intervened and the offending exhibit continued, with the museum issuing a tongue-in-cheek warning, "The contents of this exhibition may cause shock, vomiting, confusion, panic, euphoria, and anxiety." Even Verdi, who now seems so politically innocent, had his problems with the censors. He had to relocate Un Ballo in Maschera to Boston (where everyone sang in Italian, of course) to avoid government suppression and in Stiffelio was forced to reassign the religion of the main character, changing a Protestant minister to a "sectarian" eviscerating the entire ending so the piece could see the light of day. Dmitri Shostakovich was not as lucky. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk had been a run-away smash for two years before Joseph Stalin saw it and famously walked out in disgust after the second act. Two days later, an anonymous Pravda editorial appeared: (The music was) "fidgety, screaming, neurotic...a grotesquery suited to the perverted tastes of the bourgeois." The Soviets knew what their leader thought and no one could publically or privately question his opinion. Thus Shostakovich's masterpiece was effectively banned, and he never wrote another opera; Lady M was not to be heard in its original form until 1979. Thankfully, Klinghoffer, despite the protests, went on as planned with the cast, score and production almost universally praised, although two of the opera companies that originally commissioned have yet to schedule it in any future season. Amazing. Of the three productions I saw, Lady M was the most completely satisfying for me. During intermission I ran into the brilliant opera composer, Ricky Ian Gordon who could barely speak he was so overwhelmed by the power of the piece. Opera is about the music and the Met orchestra consistently plays at a level almost unheard of in performance today, but this performance was in a class by itself; the tightness, the brilliance, the bombast of the playing, led by the indefatigable James Conlon, rattled the rafters. Directed by English master, Graham Vick, the opera was set in an angular, raked room with seventeen doors leading God-knows-where. This Kafka-esque environment was ironically offset by a jolly-holiday, sky-blue cloud formation painted over the doors and walls. This unit set served as the basis for all the scenes: a huge crane appeared over the top when the scene shifted to the worker's factory, a giant mirror ball came down at the wedding of Katerina and Sergei, the doors were unceremoniously kicked out as the scene shifted to a prisoners' rest-stop. This type of unit set is pretty standard stuff in many European opera houses, but I've seldom seen metaphorical design work as well; too many times, the unit set has nothing to do with the story being told at least the story that the composer and librettist wrote. The claustrophobic world of Katarina's loveless home, complete with the dilapidated refrigerator whose interior light blinds the audience like a searchlight, is a powerful metaphor for her loveless marriage and her perpetual disillusionment. Eva-Maria Westbroek seemed to inhabit poor Katerina, the opera's heroine, down to her marrow. I had previously loved her in Francesca Di Rimini and Ricky Ian Gordon raved about her in Anna Nicole, but surely this is the highlight of her impressive career so far. She sang from an emotional depth I've rarely seen on an opera stage, especially one as large as the Met's. Katerina's vocal range must be one of the most difficult and strenuous in the operatic repertoire but Westbroek's magnificent voice was steely and powerful when it had to be, beautifully nuanced when the score called for it and heart wrenchingly cathartic at the climax of the piece. I also loved the staging of the interludes, some of Shostakovich's most powerful music complete with nightmaresque transvestite brides in blood stained white dresses and shirtless factory workers cavorting around bags of garbage. The emergence of a gigantic flower during the seduction scene was a magnificent coup de théâter as it hovered over the copulating lovers. All the protests outside the Met made me think about the nature of politically engaged art and I drew parallels that I might not have done otherwise. Part of the protests against Klinghoffer and Mtsensk seem to be that these works debase a noble form; but taken together, the three operas offer a vision of opera's breadth and cohesion, rather than its disparities and disconnectedness.

broadway world piece about Corinne Winters

Corinne Winters to Celebrate Release of CANCION AMOROSA: SONGS OF SPAIN, 11/17 November 7 3:35 PM 2014 Print Article Email Link 👤by BWW News Desk ​ Corinne Winters to Celebrate Release of CANCION AMOROSA: SONGS OF SPAIN, 11/17 On Monday, November 17, 2014 at 10:00 p.m., New York Festival of Song presents a special NYFOS After Hours celebrating the record release of CANCIÓN AMOROSA: SONGS OF SPAIN with Corinne Winters and Steven Blier. The album is released the same day on GPR Records, distributed by Naxos. Winters and Blier will perform selections from the CD at HENRY's Restaurant on the Upper West Side. A complimentary Spanish-inspired amuse-bouche from Chef David Ferraro will be served for guests ordering dinner, and tabletop tapas will be served to all drinkers. With this CD, Blier and Winters celebrate the astounding array of cultures and styles of Iberian song. The album reveals an often-neglected repertoire - the glories of Catalan, Basque, Sephardic and Castilian music. Corinne Winters, whose Violetta in La traviata took London-and all of Europe-by storm in 2013, is quickly earning a place among the top sopranos of her generation. Blier, a "national treasure" (The New York Times) in the world of song, has accompanied the likes of Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Jessye Norman, Cecilia Bartoli, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Blier and Winters first collaborated in the NYFOS recital Spanish Gold in March 2011. "Those concerts were revelatory-the music was a perfect fit for my romantic sensibilities, but it helped me find a new palette of colors," says Winters. Following the performance, the pair immediately began talking about recording the unique repertoire. "This CD is a tribute to Spain's astonishing-and ravishing-musical diversity," writes Blier in the accompanying program note. "Gentle impressionism, fiery dance rhythms, soaring, romantic melody, and rough peasant ballad-Spanish song embraces them all. The musical riches of this nation are among the things I hold dearest in my heart." "My work with Steven Blier has opened my eyes to a new world of fine brush-stroke detail," says Winters. "He appreciates my Italianate operatic sound, but also encourages me to experiment with a more intimate approach based around poetry, looking for the individual voice of each composer." THE REPERTOIRE: (excerpts will be performed at the Nov. 17 CD Release Concert) 1. Después que te conocí (4:06) Music by Eduardo Toldrá; poem by Francesco de Quevedo 2. Paño murciano (1:49) Folk song arrangement by Joaquín Nin 3. Si con mis deseos (2:27) Music by Joaquín Turina; poem by Lope de Vega 4. Aldapeko, Mariya (1:11) Music by Felix Lavilla, Traditional Basque poem 5. Maig (3.26) Music by Eduardo Toldrá; Poem by Trinitat Catasús 6. Cançó amorosa (4:02) Music by Xavier Montsalvatge; poem by Tomas Garcés 7. Nik baditut (2.27) Basque folk song, arranged by Graciano Tarragó Oren Fader, guitar 8. La tarara (1:02) Eighteenth century popular song arranged by Federico García Lorca Oren Fader, guitar 9. Si la mar fuera de tinta (6:17) Music by José Melchor Gomis/arr. S. Blier; Anonymous poet 10. Haidé (5:04) Music by Narcís Bonet; poem by Joan Maragall 11. Tres hijas tiene el buen rey (4:03) Music by Alberto Hemsi; Traditional folk poem 12. Cómo quieres que adivine (2:50) Music by Jesús Guridi; folk poem 13. Paisatge del Montseny (3:43) Music by Xavier Montsalvatge; Poem by Pere Ribot 14. Adío querida (3:46) Sephardic melody, arranged by Manuel García Morante 15.Todas las mañanitas, from Don Gil de Alcalà (3:27) Music and libretto by Manuel Penella Moreno Corinne Winters, soprano; Maya Lahyani, mezzo; Oren Fader, guitar CORINNE WINTERS (corinnewinters.com) - Acclaimed by The New York Times as "an outstanding actress, as well as a singer of extraordinary grace and finesse," soprano Corinne Winters is a recent nominee in the International Opera Awards Young Singer category. Corinne's 2014/2015 season includes debuts with Washington National Opera as Mimì in a new production of La bohème and Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. Return engagements include role debuts as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin with Arizona Opera and Magda in La rondine with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In recital, Corinne performs with Steven Blier of the New York Festival of Song at the Tucson Desert Song Festival and Vocal Arts DC, showcasing Spanish song repertoire from her debut album Canción amorosa. In the 2013/14 season, Corinne debuted with the Santa Fe Opera as Soon Ching-ling in the American premiere of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Kentucky Opera as Mimi?, Michigan Opera Theatre as Violetta in La traviata, and Virginia Opera as Micae?la in Carmen. She joined tenor Matthew Polenzani in recital for the George London Foundation and was praised by Opera News as "a striking brunette who manages to be simultaneously gamine and seductress, reveal[ing] an arresting, uniquely plum-colored soprano that could pass for mezzo in the middle but explodes with vibrant color on top." Corinne also recently debuted as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with Arizona Opera and Violetta with Opera Hong Kong, Opera Lyra Ottawa, and English National Opera, which BBC Music Magazine deemed "a performance of white-hot intensity and consummate control." Immediate reengagements included Teresa in Benvenuto Cellini with English National Opera and Mimì with Arizona Opera, along with returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Vendulka in Smetana's The Kiss, the National Symphony Orchestra as Violetta, and the Metropolitan Opera to cover Blanche de la Force in Les Dialogues des Carme?lites. Future seasons include debuts with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opernhaus Zürich, and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Corinne has won prizes from Wolf Trap Opera's Shouse Career Grant, the Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation, Marcello Giordani Foundation (1st prize, Critics Choice Award, Vero Beach Prize), George London Foundation (George London/Leonie Rysanek Award), Sullivan Foundation (Career Grant), Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation (1st Prize), Palm Beach Opera Competition (1st Prize), Gerda Lissner Foundation (2nd Prize), and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (National Semifinalist, 1st place New England Region). Originally from Frederick, MD, Corinne earned a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory and Bachelor of Science degree magna cum laude from Towson University before appearing as a resident artist at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. Currently, she studies with world-renowned soprano Diana Soviero. STEVEN BLIER - Steven Blier is the Artistic Director of the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), which he co-founded in 1988 with Michael Barrett. Since the Festival's inception, he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated more than 140 vocal recitals with repertoire spanning the entire range of American song, art song from Schubert to Szymanowski, and popular song from early vaudeville to Lennon-McCartney. NYFOS has also made in-depth explorations of music from Spain, Latin America, Scandinavia and Russia. New York Magazine gave NYFOS its award for Best Classical Programming, while Opera News proclaimed Blier "the coolest dude in town." Mr. Blier enjoys an eminent career as an accompanist and vocal coach. His recital partners have included Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Samuel Ramey, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham, Jessye Norman, and José van Dam, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to La Scala. He is also on the faculty of The Juilliard School and has been active in encouraging young recitalists at summer programs, including the Wolf Trap Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Center. Many of his former students, including Stephanie Blythe, Joseph Kaiser, Sasha Cooke, Paul Appleby, Dina Kuznetsova, Corinne Winters, and Kate Lindsey, have gone on to be valued recital colleagues and sought-after stars on the opera and concert stage. In keeping the traditions of American music alive, he has brought back to the stage many of the rarely heard songs of George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill and Cole Porter. He has also played ragtime, blues and stride piano evenings with John Musto. A champion of American art song, he has premiered works of John Corigliano, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom, Mark Adamo, John Musto, Richard Danielpour, Tobias Picker, Robert Beaser, Lowell Liebermann, Harold Meltzer, and Lee Hoiby, many of which were commissioned by NYFOS. Mr. Blier's extensive discography includes the premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles (Koch International), which won a Grammy Award. His most recent releases are Spanish Love Songs (Bridge Records), recorded live at the Caramoor International Music Festival with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, and Michael Barrett; the world premiere recording of Bastianello(John Musto) and Lucrezia (William Bolcom), a double bill of one-act comic operas set to librettos by Mark Campbell; and his latest recording, Quiet Please, an album of jazz standards with vocalist Darius de Haas. His writings on opera have been featured in Opera News and the Yale Review. A native New Yorker, he received a Bachelor's Degree with Honors in English Literature at Yale University, where he studied piano with Alexander Farkas. He completed his musical studies in New York with Martin Isepp and Paul Jacobs. ABOUT NYFOS (www.nyfos.org) - Now in its 27th season, New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) is dedicated to creating intimate song concerts of great beauty and originality. Weaving music, poetry, history and humor into evenings of compelling theater, NYFOS fosters community among artists and audiences. Each program entertains and educates in equal measure. Founded by pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier in 1988, NYFOS continues to produce its series of thematic song programs, drawing together rarely-heard songs of all kinds, overriding traditional distinctions between high and low performance genres, exploring the character and language of other cultures, and the personal voices of song composers and lyricists. Since its founding, NYFOS has particularly celebrated American song. Among the many highlights is the double bill of one-act comic operas, Bastianello and Lucrezia, by John Musto and William Bolcom, both with libretti by Mark Campbell, commissioned and premiered by NYFOS in 2008 and recorded on Bridge Records. In addition to Bastianello and Lucrezia and the 2008 Bridge Records release of Spanish Love Songs with Joseph Kaiser and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, NYFOS has produced five recordings on the Koch label, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles, and the Grammy-nominated recording of Ned Rorem's Evidence of Things Not Seen (also a NYFOS commission) on New World Records. Soon to come: a CD of Spanish song-Basque, Catalan, Castilian, and Sephardic-on the GPR label, with soprano Corinne Winters accompanied by Steven Blier. In November 2010, NYFOS debuted NYFOS Next, a mini-series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues. Starting in 2013-2014, the series moved to Opera America's National Opera Center. In 2014, NYFOS introduced its unamplified cabaret series After Hours at HENRY's Restaurant on the Upper West Side, drawing full houses and superlative voices accompanied by Blier at the piano. NYFOS is passionate about nurturing the artistry and careers of young singers, and has developed training residencies around the country, including with The Juilliard School's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts (now in its 9th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 6th year in March 2014); San Francisco Opera Center (over 15 years as of April 2013); Glimmerglass Opera (2008-2010); and its newest project, NYFOS@North Fork in Orient, NY. NYFOS's concert series, touring programs, radio broadcasts, recordings, and educational activities continue to spark new interest in the creative possibilities of the song program, and have inspired the creation of thematic vocal series around the world.?