California jaunt

opera, singers, travel

I went to San Francisco with very few preconceptions. I’ve seen the Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt” a couple of times and various other films set in the city. So I knew it was hilly, that it had cable cars, the Golden Gate bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf, but that was about it.
I took the BART train from the airport, as it seemed the sensible thing to do, and it wasn’t at all bad. It’s a subway train really, though who thought it a good idea to put carpet in a subway train is clearly someone who doesn’t travel by public transport very much. I was downtown in about half an hour. …

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A cheeky condition

opera, singers

I think I’ve discovered a psychological condition.
Nessun Dorma Syndrome, or NDS for short: the state-of-mind on realising the gaping chasm between singing a popular aria from an opera and the ability to sing the entire role from that opera in an opera house. Also known as the Habanera Delusion and the Brindisi Complex. …

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Caped Crusader

opera, singers, writings on music

I’ve had it with Norman Lebrecht. I enjoyed his book The Maestro Myth. I enjoyed even more handing it to a well-known French conductor for a gander and watching him dive straight to the index to see if he was mentioned. (He wasn’t.)
I like the idea of a journalist who takes a particular interest in the workings of the classical music trade. Unfortunately Lebrecht seems to think he is the ONLY journalist with this interest and has turned himself, so he imagines, into a sort of caped crusader with super x-ray vision that can see through the veneer of PR. Supernorm and his Sword of Truth can cut through agents’ bullshit with a single stroke! Summoned by the Normphone he will jump into the Normobile to do battle with musical injustices, arrogant divas, people who don’t like Mahler and, er, fees that he thinks are too high! …

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Cons and pros

opera, singers, travel

Life for me in St Louis isn’t all blogging, swimming pools and smokehouses. No siree, no. I am actually squeezing in a bit of singing too. And, oddly, I’ve actually quite enjoyed it.
Now, if you’re not a professional singer, if indeed in singers’ parlance you’re a “civilian”, you possibly won’t get that remark. You would naturally assume that we singers enjoy singing all the time. Well, no, that would be an amateur who does that, in the literal sense of the word. I’m not saying that professionals never enjoy singing. I’m just saying that professionals don’t have the luxury of singing exclusively when we feel like it. We have to do it an awful lot of times when it’s about the last thing we feel like doing. And I’m not saying that professional singers don’t love singing (and I use the word “love” advisedly); it’s just that, like all affairs of the heart, it can be something of a stormy and complex relationship. In fact I’m finding these days that it’s a bit like dealing with a parent that’s going through the onset of dementia.…

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