| For 3 Kentucky singers, fate now depends on a few arias in January | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 6:59:37 AM by Blog57 Team | | Three Kentucky student singers took different paths to the winners' circle of the Kentucky District round of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions yesterday at the University of Kentucky's Memorial Hall. Now the lives of UK students Brandy Lynn Hawkins and Christopher Conley and the University of Louisville's Brian Tierney are on similar courses. They are all preparing for the regional round of the Met Auditions Jan. 20 in Indianapolis, each with a fresh check for $800 in their pockets. The next stop, for the winner, is the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for the national rounds, where the eyes of the opera world will be focused. • When Conley, 26, began studying at UK as a tenor, no one would have guessed he'd be a Met audition winner.... | |
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| | | Extra Important Role | | Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 1:09:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | Holding a heavy wooden rifle aloft, and with his eyes blazing, Dwight Brazal tried to disperse an angry crowd of female factory workers. The women, who sneered and shook their fists, surrounded him but eventually backed away. The incident, though dramatic, wasn't real - nor was Brazal's gun or antagonistic behavior. But as a supernumerary in the Connecticut Opera's upcoming production of "Carmen," the East Hampton resident says he does his best to create an authentic scenario. .... | |
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| | | Fergie's debut makes for an uneven ride | | Posted Thursday, September 21, 2006 11:10:50 PM by Blog57 Team | | How come every time they come around, singers like Fergie always seem to let us down? Her single "London Bridge" is a thrill, a sassy slice of pop that has a cranky groove so bold it more than makes up for the nonsensical, dirty nursery rhyme lyrics. So what happened to the rest of "The Dutchess" (will.i.am/A&M), the Black Eyed Peas singer's solo debut? "The Dutchess" is like one of those albums from the late '90s that helped bring down the music industry - one with a few extraordinary singles and loads of filler, turning it into a roller-coaster ride of quality highs and embarrassing lows. "Clumsy" is one of those remarkable highs, an updated version of the '60s girl-pop of the Ronettes, right down to the spoken-word break. Fergie's trashy delivery and Ludacris' wild rap cameo contrast nicely with the sleek synths on "Glamorous." And the Pink-ish, Linda Perry-like guitar-driven confessional "Big Girls Don't Cry" works well.... | |
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| | | Non-Profit Group Trains The Opera Singers Of Tomorrow | | Posted Wednesday, August 09, 2006 9:41:33 AM by Blog57 Team | | A non-profit foundation is helping train the opera singers of tomorrow, led by one of the great sopranos of our time. NY1s Roger Clark stopped by on Monday and found that he won't be singing for his supper anytime soon. They are warming up to do a little Don Giovanni - students in an opera workshop learning all the ins and outs of the Mozart classic. The workshop is called Prelude to Performance, presented by the Martina Arroyo Foundation. The now retired soprano and native New Yorker was one of the top opera singers of her era. Now she helps guide young performers with lessons like, when not to sing. "I think we are beginning to learn that now, because you can over-sing. You can get your voice tired," Arroyo says. I've learned more about what it takes to succeed in the professional opera world in this program than I have anywhere else, says opera singer Stephanie McGuire.... | |
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| | | REVIEW / The sun comes out at Stern Grove, and two singers make their shining debuts with S.F. Opera | | Posted Friday, August 04, 2006 3:07:28 AM by Blog57 Team | | During its annual date at the Stern Grove Festival on Sunday afternoon, the San Francisco Opera went crazy with significant company debuts. Two singers of distinction, ably accompanied by members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Robert Wood, bowed under the organization's aegis in a sophisticated program of 18th century and Romantic fare. Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is familiar in the Bay Area, especially to patrons of the San Francisco Symphony, where her participation in the Verdi Requiem in June found most attendees reaching for superlatives. Yet, amazingly, this outdoor concert served as Blythe's initial engagement with an institution that should be aggressively seeking her talents. Still, for many of the approximately 7,000 souls lolling and picnicking under the congenial midsummer sun, the appearances of Lawrence Brownlee were the ones that made them stow the potato salad and listen with the keenest pleasure.... | |
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| | | Why are opera singers fat? | | Posted Friday, June 30, 2006 1:04:54 PM by Blog57 Team | | There are several theories attempting to explain why opera singers are often pleasingly plump. One holds that a large amount of fatty tissue surrounding the voice box (larynx) increases its resonance capability and thus produces a more pleasing sound. The amount of this fatty tissue varies from singer to singer. It is almost impossible to have a great deal of fatty tissue around the voice box without carrying a great deal of fatty tissue elsewhere on the body. A second theory holds that opera singers need a far more powerful diaphragm than normal to be able to project their voice above the sound of a large orchestra in a large opera house. A large chest cavity and good control of the lungs will provide a suitable mass to help drive the diaphragm to some extent. A large body mass and a large body frame to support it help even more, so there is a huge advantage in being huge.... | |
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