Opera Bubbles

Hey, opera lovers! New Year is coming! And it's a good time to think about the future or make plans for the next year. As for me, I'm very much looking forward to winter holidays and to 2015 in general cause there will be so much interesting operatic stuff which I'm very excited about, including new CD/DVD releases! And this is what I'd like to tell you about today - upcoming January recordings 2015! CD RELEASES January 5 – Tchaikovsky «Iolanta» by Deutsche Grammophon Anna Netrebko Sergey Skorokhodov · Alexey Markov · Vitalij Kowaljow Slovenian Chamber Choir Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra Emmanuel Villaume

Hey, opera lovers!!! Today is the second annual Opera Bubbles Awards!!! YEAH!!!! Briefly, this year’s been very tough for me, mostly emotionally, and watching/listening to great artists or live concerts helped me to get through the difficulties. But enough about bad things! Let’s focus on a bright side!:) I enjoy doing Opera Bubbles Awards for the second time (Opera Bubbles Awards 2013 is posted here ). I like remembering the most exciting art things that happened to me during last year. Thinking of who could be presented in each nomination, I realized that there were not many candidates. This made me ponder and ask myself: «Why?». Reviewing all the past «operatic adventures» in my mind, I came to conclusion that I just hadn’t watched a huge number of opera productions, but… instead, I’d got new experience from lots of CD recordings. So defining winners was very quick and easy for me. Here they are!

Hey, opera lovers!!! December is already here! That means «holidays are coming, holidays are coming…»:). All buildings are being decorated; famous songs are being played in the streets, at bars and restaurants! And we’re all waiting for a little bit of magic in our life at this time of the year. So the atmosphere is very specific and hopeful, so to speak. What can be better than good festive music for maintaining such an advent mood:)? I have a list of tracks which I keep listening to again and again during December. These songs are about such important things like love, family, friends, piece – things that we all begin to appreciate even more on Christmas and New Year Days. So I wanna share with you my favorite albums and songs which make me happy and charge me with festivity!!! 

Hey, opera lovers! How are you? I’m fine, by the way. Though I was not writing for a while cause I had a lack of inspiration for it and didn’t want to force myself but…it doesn’t mean that nothing operatic has happened to me! On the contrary, I’ve watched and listened a lot in October and in the beginning of November so I’d like to tell you about this experience in a sort of a messy post:). I decided to call it «Tea with Cinnamon» as I love this drink very much and imagine myself sitting in an armchair with a hot mug and talking with you about everything! (Oh! That sounds a little bit weird:)). Join me and maybe such posts will come out regularly:).

Hey, opera lovers!!!  How r u doin'? A huge bunch of new recordings is coming out in November! And it would be foolish of me not to share this information with you:). Check them out! CD RELEASES November 17 – Roberto Alagna «Ma vie est un opera» by Deutsche Grammophon Having had a 30-year career on stage, on this new CD Alagna retraces the significant moments of his life,  singing his most successful arias! This recording also includes two duets with Aleksandra Kurzak.

Hey, opera lovers! I’ve been spending a lot of time reading books recently. And I missed it very much as I had not been reading for about a year! Yeah…that’s a bad thing. There was always a lot of stuff I needed or wanted to do that books turned out to be at the bottom of the wish list! And my book comeback gave an idea to write a post about «opera books». We know that maybe a half of operas is based on this or that novel. But I’d like to tell you about, so to say, unknown books which inspired famous composers to create their masterpieces. And they are «Carmen» by Prosper Mérimée , «Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre» («Don Juan or The Feast with the Statue») by Jean-Baptiste Molière and «Scènes de la vie de bohème» (« Scenes from the life of Bohemia ») by Henri Murger. (Oh! I’ve just noticed that they are all French!:)). 

Hey opera lovers! Today I really wanna talk about a very new album of Joyce DiDonato which is called «Stella di Napoli» . I know I’m not a pioneer in reviewing this CD cause a lot of influential journals, newspapers, internet sources have done it before. But I just wanna share my emotions and thoughts with you as a usual opera listener, not as a critic. And I think this recording deserves to have many reviews because of its amazingness! Photo: Pari Dukovic

Hey, operalovers! As you may know each season I write about upcoming CD/DVD releases which in my opinion, should get your attention but... sometimes, some of the great recordings suddenly show up after my posts and today it's a case like this! It's such awesome news for me, so I have to tell you about them to have a good sleep tonight:) We'll be able to see two amazing DVDs with awesome casts and they are Bellini's "I Capuleti e I Montecchi" and Boito's "Mefistofele"!!! These productions belong to San Francisco Opera. I absolutely adore Bellini's opera and have been dreaming to watch the staging version (cause I've listened to only audio version). I'm not familiar with Boito's work but I know one Mefistofele's aria with whistling which is very unusual and funny so I'm looking forward to see it as a whole thing! But the main reason of my emotional post is two casts that these operas have! I'll leave all informa...

Tomorrow Met will start off with its new season!!! And it will be opened with a new production of «Le nozze di Figaro»! I’m SOOO excited about that and…I actually didn’t plan it but I’ve watched two Met productions about Figaro: «The Barber of Seville» (2007) with Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Florez and Peter Mattei and «The marriage of Figaro» (1998) with Cecilia Bartoli, Bryn Terfel, Renee Fleming. These operas form sort of a sequel cause Beaumarchais wrote the trilogy about this amazing character and Rossini and Mozart composed wonderful music for his two hilarious plays. It’s quite an interesting experience to watch them in a chronological order as you can feel this touch of reality…I mean the relationship between Almaviva and Rosina. They are so young and full of love in «The barber» but then we see that in «Le nozze» they are not the same anymore:(. Their passion dies out and Countess tries to return those days of love back. It looks so real and sad….but let’s talk about the pr...

Hey! Today I’m gonna do the famous TMI Tag which almost every person on Earth has already done except me! But I thought that would be fun to answer these questions and I hope this post will be interesting for you too!

Hey, everybody! As I've promised in this post you'll find the information about upcoming CD releases! I'm SO excited about these albums, so I don't want to talk too much about my feelings here, I'm just gonna show you everything straight away!  September 1 – Joyce DiDonato «Stella di Napoli» by Warner Classics On «Stella di Napoli» (Star of Naples) the American mezzo-soprano breathes new life into little-known arias by Mercadante, Michele Carafa, Carlo Valentini and the opera composer Giovanni Pacini, whose «Stella di Napoli» gives the album its title. Also Joyce presents a sumptuous Bel Canto banquet with music by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti, including «Maria Stuarda».

Hi, guys! What's new? Unfortunately, summer is coming to an end but...I hope operafans don't get upset about it!:). As we know autumn is harvest time and the operaworld will also bear us a lot of fruit by releasing a bunch of new recordings!!! So be ready to spend your money, time but mostly ENJOY new music, opera productions and amazing singers! As there will be a huge amount of new different things, I'm gonna tell you about upcoming CDs and DVDs separately. Let's start with DVDs/Blu-Rays! September 1 – R. Strauss «Arabella» by C Major Salzburg Easter Festival, 2014 Renée Fleming ,  Thomas Hampson ,  Albert Dohmen ,  Gabriela Beňačková , Hanna-Elisabeth Müller Staatskapelle Dresden  & Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden,  Christian Thielemann Staged by Florentine Klepper

Hi, everyone! Today I’m gonna do the so-called «30 day opera challenge»! I know, I’m A BIT late to the party but I have a very good excuse - I wasn’t a blogger those days:). Many opera fans took part in it and I’d love to be integrated into this opera community as well! But I’m not gonna do it for 30 days, I’ll make one post with all my answers:). To be honest, it was hard to choose one answer in each category but rules are rules. I’ve got this kind of challenge from the blog « Prima la musica ».

Hello!!! I’ve been away from the opera world for a while cause I’ve had the greatest vacations in Prague!!! Prague is very beautiful, charming and mystical. The more I walked there, the more I fell in love with this place! It was so hard to leave it that I dropped few coins in Vltava to come back someday:). I guess one of the main reasons of my affection is the incredible atmosphere of music that exists there.

Привет всем! Среди моих читателей  неоднократно высказывалось пожелание увидеть мои посты на русском, что ж... теперь у меня появился русскоязычный блог " Оперные посиделки" ! Это не будет точной копией моего англоязычного ресурса, все-таки, я хотела бы сохранить его уникальность, но возможно некоторые статьи будут перекликаться по своей тематике.  Почти год я делюсь с вами моими музыкальными пристрастиями и за все это время моей самой популярной статьей стала "My first bubble or new start for Anna" , поэтому для вас я решила опубликовать свой русский вариант этого поста ,  который был посвящен вышедшему тогда альбому Анны Нетребко с ариями из опер Верди. Заходите, читайте, подписывайтесь! P.S. I'm starting my new blog about opera in Russian! Visit  http://opernyeposidelky.blogspot.ru/ .

Hey! I have been writing no CD reviews for a while and I kinda miss it on my blog (yeah…that sounds weird)…anyway I have something to tell you. Recently I’ve listened to solo recordings of the talented mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato. Joyce is a successful American opera singer. She regularly appears on stages like Royal Opera House, Metropolitan Opera etc. It’s very interesting to follow her career and I always look forward to hearing new materials from her! I already posted about her CD «Drama Queens» (which is my favorite!), here I wanna share my impressions of her other recordings: «Furore» and «Rossini: Colbran, the Muse».

What’s new, guys?))) I wanna add an information component to my blog…at least I’ll try:). I always track the latest releases of different artists. And I think, writing this type of posts, I can help other operafans to get to know about them. So I’d like to inform you about upcoming CDs, DVDs of the most interesting singers (in my opinion) every season of the year. Today it's Summer Edition!!! CD RELEASES: June 2 – Verdi «Giovanna d'Arco» by Deutsche Grammophon Anna Netrebko · Plácido Domingo Francesco Meli · Johannes Dunz Roberto Tagliavini Philharmonia Chor Wien Münchner Rundfunkorchester Paolo Carignani

Oh men! In the second post I’d like to share my thoughts with you about male fashion in the opera world. Now I understand why this topic is not so popular for discussing as men’s wear…let’s say… is not as various as women’s. It’s hard for them to stand out. And to be honest, they don’t want to, they appreciate practicality of their clothes, basic colors like white, black. I’ve picked 4 singers to my taste who look great almost every time I see them! Let’s start with low voices:)

Let’s talk about fashion!!! It’s pretty obvious that being a girl I notice not only vocal and artistic skills of opera singers but also their outfits:). I consider that when you are on stage you must look presentable cause, whether you like it or not, we all judge people from their appearance (at least at the beginning). You make a certain impression of yourself just walking into a room.  Reading the posts on the blog «Operafashion» which is one of my favorite, I’ve become very inspired by this whole theme. And I’ve decided to dedicate a double post to the most fashionable persons of the opera world using as basis their everyday style. In this first part I’d like to discuss women’s looks!

I’ve been thinking a lot before writing this post but then I decided: «I’m impressed TOO much to keep it all inside!». So I’m gonna tell you about the gorgeous, exciting, beautiful, amazing ballet «Spartacus» composed by Aram Khachaturian and choreographed by  Yury Grigorovich . At the beginning, I wanna say that I’m not an expert of this entire ballet thing and I can’t call myself a ballet lover. I mean I like this art form but I don’t enjoy it as much as I enjoy opera. I like a particular ballet if I like its music. Usually I watch 2-3 ballets a year at my local theatre of opera and ballet. As a rule they are premieres or with invited famous dancers (from The Bolshoi Theatre, for example). This year I’ve broken a record…I’ve literally attended 7 ballet performances! Wow!!! I’ve rewatched most of them but there were some new ones for me including «Spartacus»! "Spartacus". Photo by ChelOpera

As you might (or might not) have guessed from the title, today I’d like to talk about Mozart’s wonderful opera «Cosi fan tutte» or «Thus Do They All» in English.   Photo by Deutsche Grammophon

Hi there!!! A week ago on my Tumblr page and on Twitter I asked opera bloggers to take part in my sort of a poll which was referred to opera topic! I came up with an idea to ask as many opera bloggers as possible to get to know their opinion about opera and the reasons why they are blogging about it! Doing it, I wanted to open the secret of opera and to find out why it touches so many people around the world! As I know many opera bloggers are young singers and I think they can explain why opera can be interesting for young generation. Photo by Boston Lyric Opera I sent my simple request to some bloggers whose pages I liked and….only one blogger replied (I don’t blame other bloggers in any case)! And this is Isabela Zogaib from the blog «Unexpected Song» . She is «an opera student living in Brazil and striving to have some opera experience here » that’s how she writes about herself on her blog page. I can also add that Isabela has been blogging about 2 years and has the sa...

I really don’t know how it couldn’t have happened earlier….aaahhh….today everything will change!!!!....Just kidding!))))). Actually, not totally kidding, it’s just a little talking drama queen inside me!:). What I’m trying to say in these sentences is that I wanna tell you about my favorite mezzo soprano ELINA GARANČA!!! YEAH!!!! I’m honestly wondering why I haven’t managed to make it before! WHY!?!?!? I think most opera bloggers try to write about their favorite singers/operas/productions asap! And me…I guess I just love too many things and can’t write about everything at once (so I’m working on it!). But back to the main topic! I’ve decided to confess why I love Elina Garanča, how I came across her and give you my recommendations about her CDs and DVDs. 

Hi, guys! These two months can be marked as «endless-concerts days» for me as I’ve been at three amazing concerts of classical music in my city! I really had that «concert fever» cause I was waiting for these events for a year and I couldn’t hold back my emotions!!! So I wanna tell you today what an awesome experience I’ve got! It’s intriguing, isn’t it?:)

Hi!!! It’s been a while since my last post…yeah…so anyway to cheer you up a little bit (and myself:)) I’m gonna present you a very interesting Russian article which I found a long time ago. Actually, the article is called «50 reasons not to date a musician» but I’ve reduced this list to 25 (some reasons are too specific!).  Maybe some of you, who don’t communicate with musicians (but wouldn’t mind it), consider they are so romantic and dating with them is a dream. I have to say it’s not so easy sometimes (especially if a musician is a world superstar!). But even if you are in love with a singer or a pianist of your town, be ready to face some habits or needs he/she has. But don’t get too scared cause nevertheless, it’s more funny things than a serious research!))). And if you are actually this musician, I’m wondering how all of that relates to you!:) As for me I can agree with a half of the list!

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a long time and finally I’ve made it! I’d like to present you a pretty short list of my favorite operas! Actually, it was hard to pick few of many, many candidates so…in advance I want to clear it out that the chosen ones were just the most striking things that came to my mind! It’s like to choose a favorite movie or a song! Tough!!!! You may ask why I’m doing all of this if it’s so impossible for me! I just hope that my blog will arouse your interest in these masterpieces I’ve picked. Maybe some of them you know but haven’t had time to listen or watch them or you didn’t even think such pieces existed. Well, it seems to me this is gonna be an informative and entertaining post for you, guys!!!

It’s time for a new season of HD broadcasts!!!! YEAAAHHHH!!! Recently Met has presented the schedule for the next year! And I can’t be happier about that!!! (I know you feel the same:)). Photo by Metropolitan Opera Season 2014-15 is full of surprises, interesting casts, beautiful operas (and not only operas!)! One of them is Maestro Levine who is gonna conduct four operas in a new season! I really expect to get new emotions and expand my musical horizon. I’ve written the similar post before about the season 2013-14 and decided to do it again (Why not?). I’ve ranked all the HD broadcasts according to my scale of anticipation! Here it goes!

I’d like to start with «Aaall thaaat JAAAAAZZZ»!!! Today’s post has nothing to do with opera world. Cause honestly now I’m having a sort of… opera break. You may think «What!? How dare you!!!! You must blog about opera!!!». Yeah, yeah…and I still love opera very much but for now I’m mostly listening to Jazz and a capella music! I’ve always liked many types of music (opera is on the top list, of course!). I consider there are a lot of talented singers not only in opera, also in Jazz, in pop or rock music. And I guess some opera stars could support me in this. Some of them even collaborate with famous pop/rock singers to record a song. The most striking example is Montserrat Caballé and Freddie Mercury. There were many haters but my opinion is that it was a cool duet. They both sang in their style and it worked. Anyway my point is if it’s talented it’s good! Jazz is awesome!!! I love it as much as opera music! It’s very different and it’s not easy to play or sing (I mean rea...

Ildar Abdrazakov’s first solo CD has been released on 7 th of January 2014 with the title «Power Players - Russian Arias for Bass» !  Lately, to be honest, I tend to listen to more male vocal than to female one. I don’t know…I guess that’s my must for now!) And Ildar is its essential part! Last year I heard and read a lot of stuff concerned his voice, personality. I’d had no idea about Ildar before (Shame on me!!!). I was waiting for his CD for a long time. I think it’s unfair to have made us wait for so many years!!! He is a very experienced and famous singer and just now he has recorded his first album! But anyway…when I got a chance to hear it, I was no longer angry at people!). So I wanna tell you what you’re gonna find there!

«Oh the weather outside is frightful But the fire is so delightful Since we've no place to go Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…»  Today it’s orthodox Xmas Day!!! Magic is here! Today I was singing Christmas songs with my choir in the White Temple (one of our local temple)! It’s a very special feeling when you sing such songs on this day! You become very happy and cheerful till the rest of the day! And it was snowing during the day, I was catching giant snowflakes with my hands…ooohhh…it was a real magical moment!!! Anyway, I thought it would be cool to write a Xmas post today! I’m sure that one of main elements of any holiday is food on the table, so I’d like to suggest a very good idea for opera-lovers! My very close friend bought a book for me three months ago (Thanks to her again!!!). It is called «The Opera Cooks» .  Who doesn’t know it’s a recipe-book in which you can learn how to cook favourite dishes of many operstars like Roberto Alagna, N...