Placido Domingo, world?s most famous opera singer, showed up for a press conference at War Memorial Opera House yesterday in a quality gray suit, and with a pale blue scarf draped around his neck. He is an elegant man and a good storyteller, with (not a surprise) a mellifluous speaking voice. He was there to talk about his starring role in San Francisco Opera?s ?Cyrano de Bergerac,? which opens Sunday. It?s the tenor?s first stage role with the company since 1994, so there is much excitement, and Domingo floated some interesting theories about the opera?s composer, Franco Alfano, and why Alfano?s reputation isn?t of the first order.
Let?s come back to that. First, though, did you know that Domingo ? whose wife of 48 years, soprano and stage director Marta Ornelas Domingo, was in the audience ? has a grandson studying to be a tenor at San Francisco Conservatory? This, Domingo said, has been his advice to the young man: ?Think it over. It?s very hard. You always have to be thinking, `Am I going to reach the high note?? ?
During the course of the conversation, moderated by SFO general director David Gockley, Domingo mentioned that he and Marta enjoy unwinding by watching soap operas. He said that he planned Tuesday evening to watch the football match between Real Madrid, his favorite team, and Milan, which he had taped that morning. And he expressed regret that he won?t be able to attend a Giants-Phillies game: Risking the chilly weather in the days before a big stage performance isn?t a good idea. ?This is one of the great sacrifices,? joked Domingo, who kept dropping baseball references into the conversation. Asked about his warm-up and practice routine, he said, ?If you?ve sung a performance, and you?ve sung it well, don?t do anything until the next performance. Let the voice rest,? he suggested, likening his routine to that of a pitcher who rests for three days after an outing.
Domingo, who turns 70 in January, has been in and out of the news all year. He is stepping down as general director of Washington National Opera, though he recently extended his contract with Los Angeles Opera (which he also runs) by two years. He continues to expand his repertory (?I always have the itch of looking for new pieces,? he said Tuesday) and lately has been taking on baritone roles, for instance singing the title role in Verdi?s ?Simon Boccanegra? at the Met.
During Tuesday?s conversation at War Memorial, Gockley asked Domingo if perhaps he was simply returning to his ?natural voice,? as some listeners have always considered him to be a quasi-baritone. In fact, in 1959, Domingo auditioned for the National Opera in Mexico City as a baritone. But Tuesday, Domingo, said, no, no! His voice is that of a tenor: ?I really have to color it differently? to sing baritone roles, he said, elucidating some of the technical considerations. ?I don?t pretend to be a baritone.?
Given the logistics of his day-to-day schedule, bringing Domingo to San Francisco Opera this month hasn?t been easy. Saturday, he finished his run singing the role of poet Pablo Neruda in composer Daniel Catan?s ?Il Postino? at Los Angeles Opera. Sunday, he finished conducting ?Figaro? at Los Angeles Opera. Flying to San Francisco for ?Cyrano? rehearsals amid this whirlwind has been exhausting, to be sure. How, Gockley asked Domingo, does he maintain this sort of schedule? To be a singer, a conductor, a general director and a restaurateur, as well: How does he do it? ?You re-charge,? Domingo said, ?by the results of what you are doing ? when you see the public being happy.? And while he was widely quoted a few years ago as saying that he hoped not to be singing at age 70, he said Tuesday that retirement is not quite yet on the horizon: ?I?m not going to retire one day earlier than I can still sing, but I also will not stay there one day more.? You get the idea.
One of the more interesting exchanges between Gockley and Domingo focused on the difficulties of bringing the world?s top singers to the West Coast. Gockley spoke about the ascendence of Spanish opera houses and Eastern European opera houses, about the continued cache of the houses in Paris and Berlin, all of this making it very easy for the best singers to never set foot outside Europe. He lauded Domingo (who said SFO had been ?going down? for a few years before Gockley?s appointment in 2006) for having ?fast-tracked? Los Angeles Opera ?to prominence.? (There was no conversation about the LA company?s serious financial difficulties). And Gockley said that with LA and SFO able to piggyback singers for productions, the challenge of attracting talent is made a bit more manageable: ?If we can get a singer to LA,? Gockley said, ?we can get ?em to San Francisco.?
Finally, back to ?Cyrano,? which premiered in Rome in 1936, and to its composer, Alfano. He was prominent in his time. But he is most often, and sometimes only, now remembered as the man who completed Puccini?s unfinished ?Turandot.? That turned Alfano into a historical footnote, Domingo said. It blotted out his other achievements, like ?Cyrano,? which has always charmed Domingo: ?I was absolutely crazy for it,? he said, from the first time he heard it. It has ?some of the most interesting and tough harmonies,? he said, pointing out that Alfano was in some ways a part of the same milieu that created Berg?s ?Wozzeck? and ?Lulu.? ?And then he comes out with some of the most UNBELIEVABLE melodic lines,? Domingo said of Alfano, obviously excited by the mere thought of them.
Can?t wait for Sunday.
Powered by WizardRSS | Work At Home Jobs
twillight eclipse
twillight bella
hanna montana
laday gaga
