Opera Birmingham in the News!

Production week is here and the media is abuzz with news of the upcoming "Magic Flute!" Check out the Birmingham News article (linked) below, and mark your calendar to tune in to Fox 6 "Good Day Alabama" this upcoming Wednesday, March 13th, beginning at 6 am for an exclusive Opera Birmingham interview! This is going to be a "Flute" you'll never forget!

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/03/opera_birmingham_channeling_th.html?utm_source=Magic+Flute+Fri+3%2F8&utm_campaign=Magic+Flute+3-8-13&utm_medium=email

Jan Cornelius on ABC 33/40's Talk of Alabama!

We are thrilled to have had Jan Cornelius, our Pamina in the upcoming "Magic Flute," represent Opera Birmingham on ABC 33/40's Talk of Alabama this week!
Check out her interview below. Thanks, Jan!

http://www.abc3340.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8554088

Making Magic in Birmingham

Had a few minutes this morning and decided there was no better way to spend it than blogging!  To say it's been an eventful first week back in Birmingham would be an understatement.  After arriving from Philadelphia the first day of rehearsals, I unfortunately totalled my rental car that very same rainy night.  Those confusing one-way streets in downtown B-ham are NO joke!  It was a pretty severe wreck, but thankfully, no one was seriously injured.  Other than a sore neck and some shaken nerves, the process here has gone off with out a hitch.  Everyone here has been VERY accommodating and understanding, and I couldn't be more thankful for all the love and support I've received these past few days.

The show must go on though, as they say, and it certainly has.  We are onto to Act 2 today and I'm pretty sure with our director Marc Astafan's efficiency, we'll be done staging the opera in a total of 5 days.  I like this approach very much.  Get the animal on it's feet, and then teach it to walk!  It really allows the actors to develop the material we've been given.  And in all honestly, it's nice to know that you've tackled the entirety of the piece so early on.

I'm very excited to be back in Birmingham after last year's Carmen.  I always have a blast here.  The people, the food, the Southern hospitality.. makes a Texan gal feel right at home!  Tomorrow is Birmingham Opera's Annual Gala and I couldn't be more excited to sing, eat, and frolic with friends and patrons!  Hope to see you there for what I'm sure with be a MAGICAL night!

What a great first week of rehearsals we've had for THE MAGIC FLUTE here in Birmingham!  The cast is terrific and we've staged the entire first Act in three days.  Having a swell time here making my Opera Birmingham debut directing this production.  More soon!   -Marc

Greetings from your Queen (of the Night, that is)

None of the singers has posted on the opera blog yet, so I thought I would be the first. I'm Erica, and I'm in town to sing Queen of the Night, pretty much my favorite role to sing in all of opera. Short, sweet (well, maybe not too sweet), and memorable! I arrived in Birmingham on Sunday night, and thanks to singing a character who is only on stage for 10 minutes, I've had some free time already to explore. Yesterday, I went to the art museum, which I really enjoyed. It's not overwhelmingly large, so I was able to see everything in about two hours. I especially liked the Hip, Hippo, Hooray! exhibit, with images of hippos painted on dishes. Super cute! Then I went to the botanical garden, which was practically empty since it was so cold yesterday (who am I kidding - I'm from NJ!). I'd love to see it all in bloom, but I definitely had a lovely walk. And last night, I had my first taste of B'ham barbecue at Jim 'n Nick's. They were out of pork!! I look forward to trying all the different bbq joints, and hopefully the pork shortage won't happen again!

Today is my first staging rehearsal with Marc Astafan, the director. He won't remember this, but 13 years ago, he directed me at the Bay View Music Festival in Marriage of Figaro. I was singing Barbarina, and it was my first opera role ever. I'm looking forward to working with him again.

I actually know quite a few people in the cast, and I'm very excited to get to work with them. I was at the Des Moines Metro Opera Young Artist Program in 2006 with Kori Jennings, the Third Lady. I was a young artist at Chautauqua Opera with Jan Cornelius, the Pamina. Corey McKern was a groomsmen in my wedding. And the person I know the best is the Sarastro, Harold Wilson, whom I have been happily married to since May of 2010. This is our first time in a production together, and I hope that there are more to come!

Well, time to eat some lunch and warm up the voice!

5-Star Review by Birmingham News!!!

5-Star Review by Birmingham News!!! "...Opera Birmingham's production of Puccini's masterpiece is a triumph of drama, music and staging...For anyone who is still shy about attending opera, this will surely be the icebreaker."

 

Be sure and check out the full article: great job everyone!

 

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/01/opera_birminghams_madame_butte_1.html

"Above all, I urge you to concentrate on expressive characterization: consider well the meaning and the energy of the words, put yourself quite seriously into the situation and the emotional state of Andromeda, and imagine yourself to be that very person" Mozart to Aloisia Weber (July 30, 1778). As we approach opening night, I can't help but think about the rehearsal process over the past couple of weeks. The professionalism of the artists and administration has been life-changing for a young artist. As a newcomer to Opera Birmingham and to professional opera theatre, I have been exposed to individuals who spend every minute of every single day as an artist. They wake up and they are artists. They go to sleep and they are artists. Servants to their art and the people who love it. As a past student (though we are always students) of music and theatrical arts, it is enriching to see individuals strive to accurately communicate words through music. I have been changed for the better....focused and ready to work. It is pure joy!

Puccini provides the color palatte. "Butterfly" is an opera that exemplifies honesty both in text setting and musical drama. The colors are so vivid and pure. The words and music touch the depths of human emotions. (You can't help but literally feel love, beauty and pain). Our stage director, Dona D. Vaughan and conductor, Israel Gursky, use their handmade paintbrushes to paint a visual and aural picture on a blank canvas (the bare stage). A picture that is created not only with the original color palatte, but also a mixing of colors (which happens naturally as their paintbrushes collaborate on the canvas and the artists communicate their interpretation of the character). Everyone involved in this production has put themselves "quite seriously into the situation and the emotional state" of the character. Will you join us?

Humming Chorus, Fluttering Hearts

“They say that in your country, if a butterfly is caught by a man, he’ll pierce its heart with a needle and then leave it to perish.” – Cio-Cio-San to B.F. Pinkerton 

Madama Butterfly is an opera by Giacomo Puccini with libretto in Italian by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, both of whom had previously worked with Puccini on the librettos for Tosca (1900) and La bohème (1896). It tells the story of a Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San (“butterfly” in Japanese), who marries an American sailor, B.F. Pinkerton, while he is stationed in Japan.

Originally, geishas were expensively trained dancers and servants paid to entertain in the homes of upper-class samurai. The art form then expanded to include performing at tea houses and bars. Though originally chaste and strictly forbidden to sell sex, many turned to prostitution in the late 1700s and early 1800s. In fact, in the late 1800s, it was not uncommon for a geisha’s virginity to be auctioned off to a wealthy patron as a ceremonial coming of age. (Consider the story told in the novel and film Memoirs of a Geisha.)

With the help of stage director Dona Vaughn, the women of the chorus (locals who are by profession doctors, lawyers, teachers, students, etc.) have trained in the art of walking, standing, and acting as a geisha of the late 1800s/early 1900s. Our walk is more like a glide, our movements like choreography, our makeup traditional, and our demeanor submissive. We hope we are creating an authentic experience for you, the audience! (For more information, consider this piece written by local art critic Michael Huebner, who last week spoke with Dona about her stage direction to find out her secrets for transforming a group of Southerners into Japanese geishas and samurais.)

Madama Butterfly debuted at La Scala in February 1904, but inadequate rehearsal time after rushing to finish the opera contributed to its initially poor receipt by audiences. (Never fear! We have been rehearsing since September and we’ll be ready on opening night!) Puccini ultimately revised the opera, shrinking it from 3 to 2 acts and changing much in the score, and when this version opened in May 1904 it was a huge success!

La Scala, Milan, Italy 

Japanese opera singer Tamaki Miura gained international acclaim in the early 1900s for her many performances as Cio-Cio-San. A statue of Miura as Cio-Cio-San stands with a statue of Puccini in Nagasaki’s Glover Garden, the design of which reminded visitors of scenes from the opera.

Statue of Puccini with a butterfly on his shoulder, 

a gift from the Italian Province of Lucca to Nagasaki 

Statue of Miura as Cio-Cio-San, 

with son Trouble/Sorrow 

We are thrilled to be performing with soprano Inna Los, who first performed the role of Cio-Cio-San back in 2009 and is quickly making it one of her signature roles. On stage she is graceful and youthful, every bit the Butterfly she is portraying! While playful and sweet in her acting, her voice is strong and powerful. Watching her has been like a master class for those of us in the chorus, and I’m sure she’ll dazzle the audience as much as she has us!

Butterfly is based in part on the short story of the same name by John Luther Long, an American lawyer and writer (like me!) who described himself as “a sentimentalist and a feminist, and proud of it.” Long’s short story, written in 1898, was based on the recollections of his sister, who had been to Japan with her husband as Methodist missionaries. The opera also borrows elements from the novel, also of the same name, by Pierre Loti, a French novelist and naval officer. Loti’s 1887 novel was written in the style of an autobiographical journal detailing the story of a naval officer who married a geisha while stationed in Japan. At least one scholar has concluded that the story is based on events that actually occurred in Nagasaki in the early 1890s.

Like many of the world’s favorite operas, Butterfly and its story have inspired one of the world’s favorite modern musicals – Miss Saigon. The musical is set in Saigon in the 1970s during the Vietnam War and tells the story of an American soldier’s romance with a Vietnamese bar maid.

My favorite part of the show comes in the middle of the second act when the chorus hums a lullaby from backstage while Cio-Cio-San awaits the return of her sailor husband. I think I can speak for the entire chorus when I say that we have fallen in love with the characters and the music in this opera. We hope you, too, will feel its magic!

We’ll see you in Nagasaki on Friday night!

Thoughts of a starstruck newcomer

Hello! My name is Amberlyn. I will be playing Cio-cio-san's mother this weekend. This is my first professional stage role. This is exciting, a little scary, and oh-so-totally cool. I don't know if I'm supposed to admit this, but I almost had a fit after the chorus's first staging rehearsal. I worked hard on learning and memorizing the chorus part and the most amazing two words apart from that (which I will sing with Cio-cio-san's cousin). Then, for some reason, I overlooked that, as the title character's mom, I might actually interact with her. So, I get to staging, and everything is going really well. I'm amazed at the voices of the principles and at the fact that this is real (please, pinch me!). My dream is affirmed; I want to do this forever. And then... Well, then, Inna Los touched my arm and looked at me and I sang right to her, and.... I forgot half my words. Thankfully, it was a part during which the entire chorus is singing and each voice part is singing something different. I had to giggle silently, though, at how silly I felt. Each one of those principles was where I am right now.

This opera is absolutely stunning. I love the music. Ms. Vaughn has been patient and thorough in her direction, and our conductor is (obviously) skilled and insightful. The set is fantastic; I think the audience, especially those who have seen Butterfly before, will enjoy it because it is, apparently, a new thing to have multiple levels in a set for this opera.

Right now, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, when I get to put on my wig and makeup for the first time. This will be a fun transformation. I can't wait for everyone else to get to see it all.

Please forgive me if I'm corny. I hope never to lose the amazement I feel when I experience this culmination of so many types of art!

Enjoy the show!

Opera Birmingham on Al.com!

Check out the fantastic write up by Mike Huebner featured on al.com today about the upcoming performances of "Madame Butterfly!"

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/01/opera_birminghams_madame_butte.html