New Recording

Batti, batti, o bel Masetto!

Zerlina's aria from Don Giovanni

2012 is the audition year!!

I've been "diagnosed" to be a Lyric Soprano in the recent years, coming from a habitual Mezzo since elementary school, (my speaking voice is kind of tucked back.) it's been very different and challenging.
Often I am asked: What is a Lyric soprano and how does it differ from soprano / mezzo?
Wikipedia seems to have all the answers, this is what I found: A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre which can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and other sympathetic characters in opera. Lyric sopranos have a range from approximately middle C (C4) to "high D" (D6).^[1] There is a tendency to divide lyric sopranos into two groups, light & full.

 And here is a good example, my hero-- Anna Moffo (She's from PA! So is Tina Fey!)

I'm gathering my repertories and preparing to audition for the NY lyric theater in 2012.  Whether I get in the semi or not, it is important that I try :) So cross fingers for me please!

In the shadow of the stars-An Oscar wining documentary about lives of opera singers

Here it is...The lives of professional opera chorus singers...It's definitely NOT how the public generally percepts it.  While opera stars get all the praises and flowers, the chorus is usually over looked. But you know what?  If you are start you will shine no matter where you are or what you are singing.  People who sing and ultimately pursue singing as a serious career must have the drive, the drive that will push you forward and forward, until you get it.  You might not be the big star, but no one can ever, ever take away your joy of singing, and that is far more important than singing the big stages.(Latter isn't bad, either, although)

Something out of the "Parerre Box"

Michael Fabiano and Renee Fleming in San Francisco Opera's Lucrezia Borgia. Click to see read.
I think it's really great to see Fabiano, coming from AVA now establishing a rising career in the highly comparative opera world.  When we first saw him, it was rather surprising that he had such natural volume... After watching "The Audition", which is an excellent documentary, recording a rare subject of today's young opera singers's life as student, singer and competitor. (Thinking of the ending, just makes me wanna cry...)  Go Philly's Opera singers~!!

Fabiano's AVA era

New art song recordings

Opera by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall cancelled...

over gay reference...:( Basically, Lee Hall, writer of "Billy Elliot" was commissioned an opera by Opera North.  The school that was working along with the production, and were going to lend 300 pupils to the production did not feel comfortable with such line: Of course I'm queer/ That's why I left here / So if you infer / That I prefer / A lad to a lass / And I'm working class / I'd have to concur."  Neither party would budge, so the production is formally "canceled".  Hopefully the production will resume sometime in the future. (Man this would not have happened in Europe :()

Jersey Shore" Gone Wilde"

pt 2

pt 3