Nick Cave at Stanford

Dana Cafe, Mountain View

Self Portrait

An Opera Lover's Happy Moment

With opera's mega star, French soprano Natalie Dessay. As an opera lover, this is a moment to remember.

Serendipity from the Angela Hewitt's Recital

The Angela Hewitt recital turned out to be such a treat! (Chinchih exchanged the ticket for me so I had no idea what program I was attending till tonight.) The best part, to me, was Miss Hewitt's 10 minute pre-performance lecture on how to listen to "the Art of Fugue". (I confess without that I would definitely fall asleep during the recital.)

While listening to Miss Hewitt explaining how Bach used mirroring and inversion in each piece (she even did a little demo), I suddenly had an epiphany. Not on Bach, but on Bishop's poetry. There are a lot of mirroring and inversion in Bishop's poetry (from her early work "The Gentleman of Shalott" to the love poem "Insomnia") through her unique way of using images. In her villanelle "One Art", repeating sounds (words like master/disaster) appear like recurring musical subjects. I suddenly remembered when Bishop went to Vassar, she was to study music (then changed to English Literature due to her terrible stage fright). She actually studied Baroque music and counterpoint for a year. All that knowledge, she carried into her poetry. (After all, poetry can be considered a form of music.)

With that insight, I felt like Columbus discovering the new world. 2014 is really a breakthrough year for me as a reader. Life is really "awful but cheerful", and full of serendipities.

Looks like I am not the only one who identifies the relationship of music and Bishop's work.

Opera Houses I Want to Visit (Just for Keeps)

After being an opera fan, I now compile a list of must visited opera houses. They may not be the most famous, but I want to visit them for various personal reasons:

1. Glyndebourne - after watching two fabulous productions (2005's "Giulio Cesare" and 2008's "Coronation of Poppea"), this English country opera house is now on top of my list. It is the perfect size for Baroque operas and has probably the best production and set designers in the world.

2. ROH (aka Covent Garden) - many Handel operas premiered here. I did a back stage tour in 2010 but had never watched any performance. I would definitely like to visit it again.

3. La Fenice - Verdi's many operas premiered here, but that's not why I want to visit it. Venice is the city where one of my favorite Baroque opera, Monteverdi's "Coronation of Poppea", premiered. A Monteverdi or a Vividi opera will be ideal.

4. Sydney Opera House - not for opera, but to see the building. I get interested in architecture recently and the story of Sydney Opera House is fascinating.

An Italian Illiterate's Guide to Operas

OK, I confess. I don't know Italian, so I have to rely on subtitles and translations when I listen to operas (I mostly listen to Baroque operas, so Italian is the lingua franca). After listening to enough heart wrenching arias, I realized I could pretty much get by by just knowing a few Italian words, because, alas, operas are all based on a few universal themes. So those key words show up again and again. (Don't get me wrong, I still want to learn Italian so I can appreciate operas, especially the diction, even more.) Sometimes when I was driving and listening to opera CDs, I couldn't make out the scene of an aria, but those words would always orient me and take me home. 

Love - ok, probably the most important word in any language, let alone in opera. It's also extremely easy to recognize the word since its incarnation in Italian, French, and Spanish all share the Latin root "amor". I don't really have to spell it, do I?

Heart - what is love without a heart? (Wait, it exists in simplified Chinese!) It has the Latin root "core" and you will notice it sometimes spelled as "cor". How could I forget this word since I learned it from Renee Fleming's heart wrenching performance of Alcina, in the aria "Ah, Mio Cor" (Ah, My Heart). Now that's a heartbroken woman!

Life - probably one of the first Italian words I learned, interestingly, from someone's name. Vita it is. I recently reencountered this word while watching the 2008 Glyndebourne performance of "L'incoronazione di Poppea", in the final duet, "Pur ti miro, pur ti godo"(I gaze at you, I possess you). The haunting beauty (and irony) of this duet left me totally speechless for a very long time. (I love this duet so much, I will probably write a separate post on it later.)

Yes, he calls her his life now, but he will kick her to death one year later. (This, you will not see in the opera.)

Death - what can life be without it's counterpart? It is morte, very easy to remember since the word immortal shares the same Latin root.

Farewell - can anyone imagine an opera where two lovers never separate? Whether it's addio, or adieu, you will recognize it in no time. Lately I was quite moved by the aria "Addio, Roma" (sung by the ill fated empress Ottavia, who was banished by Nero to leave Rome on a raft without water and die).

Anne Sofie von Otter sang Ottavia. Wow, what a performance!!!

Dear - Not a very important word, but I noticed it recently in two Handel arias I like, "Cara Speme"(dear hope), and "Cara Spoza"(dear wife), just in case you were wondering why there are so many "cara"s there.

Yes/No - Si, si, si (a no is also no even in Italian, I like "No!" in German the best, "Nein!", so strong and determinant!)

Beauty - I lost count how many of my coworkers from Europe (regardless of nationalities) were named "Bella" and it was even before the Twilight saga.

Unfaithful/Treacherous

Really a major theme in opera (as in life, love and betrayal are never out of fashions), I learned that from one of my favorite Handel arias, "Scherza Infida".

You don't need to know Italian to hear the pain of betrayal, do you?

Opera High

Noticing that I had been in a kind of super euphoric state for more than two weeks, my best friend started to worry I would crash land from my opera "high" after the holiday season end.

"How about doing something to deflate it a little bit", my best friend sheepishly suggested.
"Like what?" I said. "Cara Speme" was humming in my head.
"How about doing something you used to do before the holidays? What did you do at work then?"
"Well, I was doing Scala programming", I said.
"OK, how about reviewing some Scala stuff?"
"But I don't want to review Scala, I want to go to La Scala, to listen to operas!!!" I protested.

My best friend sighed, "yeah, we all do".

Sta nell’Ircana

Three different versions of one of my favorite Handel arias: Sta Nell'lrcana. My personal favorite is Coote's interpretation. (Though I think Handel's personal pick would be DiDonato. Her embellishment would definitely be approved by the composer.) Her slower tempo shows a more ambivalent Ruggiero, who is mustering all the courage he can to help him making the decision to pursue his duty, knowing he may die soon. I also like the syncopation. It's almost like you are hearing his heart beats. I can hardly wait to hear Coote in person in January.

The young Alice Coote. This was her breakthrough role. The comments on youtube are so much fun to read.

My Two Favorite Mezzo-Sopranos

Alice Coote and Joyce DiDonato are my two favorite mezzo-sopranos (how lucky we Handel junkies are to live in a time of Handel revival, with so many great mezzo-sopranos singing the trouser roles). Interestingly, I noticed both because of their great performances in Handel's Alcina (with DiDonato singing Alcina and Coote singing Ruggiero in a totally different production). I once jokingly thought if I would ever see them in the same Alcina production. Well, that hasn't happened yet, but I was more than happy to discover that they did perform one opera together, that is Massenet's Cendrillon (with Coote singing Prince Charming and DiDonato singing Cinderella). And their youtube videos are all very fun to watch.

P.S. Two performances of Coote and DiDonato singing of "Cara Speme" below. Each sang to their own strength and each gave a wonderful performance. 

Here is Coote's recent Met performance of Cara Speme. Coote dark timbre makes her a perfect mezzo-soprano for Mahler's work. Her BBC Prom performance totally changed my thinking about Mahler's vocal work.

Joyce DiDonato plays Francesca Cuzzoni

I can't stop laughing when I watch this video, just too hilarious.

Joyce DiDonato's "Drama Queens - Larger than Life"

Joyce DiDonato speaks to Classic FM