Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Exciting Concerts to Come!

Hello there world! Was that stadium turned into a slaughter house or what? But I don't really wanna talk about it because quite frankly I don't give a shit about football. I didn't even watch any of the games! I have no patience to watch those games, I feel I could be doing something much more productive with my time. 

Anyways this last Thursday was my birthday and I can safely say that I was able to do everything I love and be with all the people that I love. I had a fabulous voice lesson with my fabulous teacher. Sang Mozart who is one of my favorite composers. Went to the book store and bought the other 2 books from the Fifty Shades trilogy (holy shit it’s so good!). Had a great lunch with a complete stranger who turned out to be super nice. Then I went to the MAC store because I got a free makeup for my birthday. It was kinda terrifying during the process of the make up because at some point I did think I was gonna look ridiculous but once it was finished it looked AMAZING! I'll post a picture bellow.Then I went to a nearby Starbucks to start reading Fifty Shades Darker (I got the pretty hard cover one because they had run out of paperbacks). And can you actually believe that the guy who sat next to me all smiles and nice manners actually scolded at me when he saw the title of my book. Fucking jerk. Then I went to my aunt’s house where we had popcorn, salame, cheese and chips while we drank Lemoncello and then red wine and laughed and chatted and laughed some more. My friend Caio was to pick me up but he was late because Prince Harry was visiting the building he works in, how awesome is that, hun? When I got into his car I was extremely tipsy and holding a bag of popcorn which I handed to him, a gift from my aunt. I got to meet his new boyfriend who is really nice and very friendly and since traffic was chaotic we had a lot of time to chat. I arrived at the bar I had told my friends to meet me in 45 minutes late, they were all already there though. Then I drank several mojitos and had a blast of a good time! We even read bits of Fifty Shades Darker out loud for some laughs. Thankfully the book is in English so the amount of people who actually had the capacity of understanding what we were laughing at was small. Bottom line, GREAT BIRTHDAY.

that's me in the cool make up and with my happy drink!
I’m real excited because even though Brazil lost, what a humiliating game, I’ve started prepping today for the two most important concerts of my year in Brazil, so fuck football. First in the beginning of next month we will receive the lovely Natalie Dessay and her husband. And I know, I know I might have bad-mouthed her a little bit here for walking out of opera as if they were a worn out pair unwanted Louboutins. But that was over a year ago so sod it.


She’s doing this lovely, lovely, lovely chanson repertoire and I couldn’t help with cheer and giggle as I saw the great list of Faure chansons I adore listed out! The other ones I must admit I do not know but that’s the great thing about YouTube and that great little program I have in my pc that downloads audios from Youtube. I have over a month to become acquainted with these songs so I can fully appreciate them when Natalie sings them. 

I find that to most rewarding because, for instance, even though I loved Jonas’ concert I didn’t know any of the songs he sang, not even one. And even though it was Jonas Kaufmann and he’s like a God, I know I would have enjoyed myself much more had I known the music. Like I enjoyed myself watching Gerry Finley sing Schubert’s Winterreisse. Gosh I can remember like it was yeterday how Gute Nacht just pierced my heart and literally made me cry, he drew freaking tears from me. And I want that experience repeated because I ADORE chanson with an almost scary force, they just speak to me. I’m not a very lieder person but chansons just hit the right spot. It's taste I guess, but they get to me, and to have an actual French person (and not just any person, it’s freaking Natalie Dessay) sing them it’s really something, so I’m super excited. I’m probably going on both days, haven’t decided yet but probably going to both performances.

And then towards the end of next month one of the inspirations of my life nicest people I’ve ever met is coming back. Joyce, the coolest opera singer EVER! I got the news that she was scheduled to sing in São Paulo in August of this year a little bit before going to NYC in October of last year and actually meeting her in person. So I actually got to ask her about that engagement and she told me she was super excited about coming back to Brazil and that the audience was simply superb! But I must say I was expecting a repertoire of opera favorites for this concert and when I saw it I was a bit shocked. Because I’m one of those fans that knows basically everything she sings and then I felt at loss looking through the rep and recognizing very few pieces. 

Joyce being her awesome self!
But no worries, I have already downloaded every single one of the songs, including one by Villa Lobos that I simply loved from an opera called Magdalena “”. It’s quite cool, this version bellow is sung by a great Brazilian mezzo soprano called Luciana Bueno. I remember the first time I saw her live on stage I was extremely shocked at how good she was, that was because she was playing the first wife in the musical “The King and I” and all of a sudden there’s this huge gorgeous operatic voice amongst the much shier musical theater ones. She was DA BOMB in that musical. Funnily enough this same musical was conducted by my own voice teacher who is all kinds of awesome herself.

But anyways, back to the topic, Joyce’s concert which I’m super excited about plus I’m taking ton of friends to see it and we will fangirl and it will be awesome. From the stuff I do know she is doing only two Drama Queens arias, “Piangero la sorte mia” which I one of my personal favorites so there’s a big YAY for that and “Morte col fiero aspetto” which is also one of my favorites. But I would just DIIIIIE (and this is the seventeen year old ´die´) if he sang Madre Diletta, it’s my favorite track from the whole CD and it turns me into a puddle of feels. Stuff that I didn’t know includes Haydn’s Ariadne of Naxos (I downloaded a version with Vesselina Kasarova posted by my good friend Mike, thanks hon!) and some Santoliquido (had no idea of his existence until today) canzonettas. But I’m still hopeful for operatic encores, SEVERAL, pretty please!! If I can expeculate, what I would love to hear as encores. Some Rossini awesomeness like “Tanti Affetti”, “Una Voce Poco Fa” and “Non Piu Mesta”. Also some Baroque bliss she does so well, like “Ombra mai Fu” or “Lasciami piangere”. Or Mozart, what I wouldn’t give for “Ecco il Punto oooh Vitelia/ Non piu di fiori” or even a simple “Deh Viene non tardar”. If she sang in French I would quite possibly DIE (that seventeen year old DIE again), like “Je suis gris” or ANY aria from Cendrillon (like THAT’s gonna happen).

Anyhow I’m excited and since I’m SUPER UBER nice I’m posting here the repertoires both are doing followed by links of the pieces in my favorite versions for us all to get acquainted.  My computer i kind of fucked up right now so I'll post the links when I can.

Natalie's and Laurent's Repertoire

Gabriel Faure
Puisqu'Ici Bas Toute Ame (V. Hugo)
Clair de Lune (letra P. Verlaine)
Après un Rêve (R. Bussine)
Mandoline (P. Verlaine)
Les berceaux (S. Prudhomme)
Prison (P. Verlaine)
Fleur jetée (A. Silvestre)
Pleurs d'Or (A.V. Samain)

Henri Duparc
Invitation au Voyage (C. Baudelaire)
Au Pays où se Fait la Guerre (T. Gautier)
Soupir (S. Prudhomme)
La Vague et la Cloche (F. Coppée)
La Fuite (T. Gautier)           

Francis Poulenc
Colloque (P. Valéry)
Calligrammes (7 poèmes de G. Apollinaire)
L'espionne
Mutation
Vers le sud
Il pleut
La grâce exilée
Aussi bien que les cigales
Voyage: Adieu amour nuage qui fuit
Fiançailles pour Rire (6 poèmes de L. de Vilmorin)

Leo Delibes
Les Trois Oiseaux (F. Coppée)

Charles-Marie Widor
Nocturne (A. Dorchain)
Qu'un Songe au Ciel m'Enlève (V. Hugo)

Joyce’s Repertoire

HAYDN - Arianna a Naxos

SANTOLIQUIDO I canti della Sera
1. L’assiolo canta
2. Alba di luna sul bosco
3. Tristezza crepuscolare
4. L’incontro

ROSSINI Beltà crudele
La Danza

HASSE/HANDEL "Drama Queens”
Morte col fiero aspetto (Antonio e Cleopatra)
Piangerò (Giulio Cesare)

AMERICAN SONGS
Beautiful Dreamer (Canção de Stephen Foster / Arr. David Krane)
Lovely Jimmie (Jerome Kern)
Food for Thought (Heitor Villa-Lobos de “Magdalena”)


ROSSINI Riedi al soglio (Zelmira)

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