Travel, PhotographyAugust 26, 2008 9:41 am
I’ve edited down my photos from my Israel trip to this selection (the shots may take a little while to load):
I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that we didn’t leave a four year old child at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Sunday. We did make it back to drizzly London safely and at a reasonable hour.
This week I started rehearsals with BYO, where I’m covering the role of Steward in Jonathan Dove’s opera Flight, which is about a group of people who are stranded in an airport. It’s based on the same true story as the Stephen Spielberg film The Terminal. I have a cover showing on the 11th of September at the Peacock Theatre in the West End.
I also managed to squeeze in a photo-shoot with Ben Roberts, whose work is currently being hung in the Host Gallery in London. Once the shots are all sorted I plan on revamping my website.. until then, here’s a taster of Ben’s great work:
— from bennybedlam - (?)
Last Days in Israel - Little Women and Jerusalem
Thursday night saw the Israeli premiere of Mark Adamo’s opera Little Women. Mark came across and not only gave a session on the background and formation of the piece, but also worked with us on it. It was really a wonderful opportunity, and real pleasure to be able to work with him. The performance went really well. (There’s an article here in Hebrew if anyone can read it… I have read a translation). I really hope to be able to sing the role again somewhere! Larry Edelson did a fantastic job with the staging, and Brian DeMaris was a brilliant conductor!
Brian DeMaris (conductor), Sarah Williams (Jo) and I.
It was wonderful to have Peta come across to see the show, and yesterday we took a day trip to Jerusalem.
I have never experienced anything like it. There is surely no place on the earth like the old city of Jerusalem, with such a clash of religions and cultures. We walked around the Christian Quater and saw the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Via Dolorosa, went to the Jewish Quarter and saw the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, and wandered through the Arab Quarter where we got hassled by some children who wanted to show us around for money or cigarettes. We attempted to go through the Damascus gate, but simply could not go against the tide of people who I can only assume were coming from the mosque on the temple mount (there was a constant stream of people for fifteen minutes as least). We also went up to the top of the Mount of Olives to look over the old city of Jerusalem.
Tonight was the Gala Concert at the Israeli Opera, and I sang the Malatesta - Norina duet from Don Pasqaule with Emily Duncan-Brown.
I’m hoping to have a DVD of this and Little Women sometime.
It has been a fantastic month; busy and intense, but so rewarding and so instructive. But I am looking forward to going “home”.
This is the vista from behind the stage where I performed on Saturday night. We were in old Yafo (Jaffa) for an outdoor concert with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Paul Nadler. I sang Figaro’s cavatina from Barbiere, and not only was it the first time I performed it with orchestra, but also as a duet with a nearby imam singing the evening call to prayer! (well during the sound-check anyway… it’s still a good story!) It was quite possibly the largest crowd I’ve performed in front of, as I’m told there were around two thousand people in the audience. Stay tuned for a video…
Ok, so that title is an obscure reference to Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress” which has nothing to do with Tom Hampson, except his name. Coming up with catchy titles is the hardest part of blogging!
Anyway..
We had a surprise visit from international baritone superstar Thomas Hampson yesterday. He’s in town, doing a tour of Israel, with maestro Zubin Mehta and the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, of Ernest Bloch’s “Sacred Service”. He kindly gave us some tickets to tonight’s performance, which was wonderful! It was great to have him drop in. He observed a little bit of our Little Women rehearsal, and held a very impromptu master-class (and can I just point out that in my head I’m now saying that word with an american accent!) and I got to sing a little bit of “Look! Through the port” from Billy Budd for him. He had some very interesting things to say, particularly about how voices don’t project, but resonate - we shouldn’t be trying to project a performance to people, or sing at them, but sing for us, and let them be drawn into our world and creation on stage.
I’m singing “Largo al factotum” from Barbiere with orchestra in an outdoor concert in Yafo Park this Saturday. Yafo is the old port / town of Jaffa, or Joppa as it was known in biblical times - it was from here that Jonah set off for Ninevah, and also here where the Apostle Peter had his vision regarding the centurion.. that house, Simon the Tanner’s, has had a lighthouse built on it. I shall try to get some photos.
They’ve got wi-fi going at the music school now, so I’m taking a break and thought I’d blog…
I sang in a masterclass with Haken Hagegard the other night, which went very well. He’s fantastic to work with. The main thing I took away from it was to not gesture on the beat - gesture before the phrase.
We’ve had a music run of Little Women, and it’s a fantastic cast! I’m looking forward to being able to do some work with the composer, Mark Adamo, when he gets here.
I still haven’t been to the beach yet… I must rectify that this weekend!
Today was the first day of the International Opera Summer Programme run by IVAI in Tel Aviv-Yafo.
I arrived yesterday and had a chance to walk into the main shopping district and take some photos.
I went for a short run this morning. The hotel is on the beach, so naturally I ran along the promenade. Maybe I’m a bit of wussy Londoner now, but 32 degrees is more than warm.. it’s hot! But it’s not overly humid, so it’s bearable.
Today I had a lesson / coaching with the internationally renowned baritone Håkan Hagegård, who I’ll be singing for in a public masterclass tomorrow night. I also had a small group session with Joan Dornemann, who I’m really looking forward to working with some more. I have my first music call for Little Women tomorrow. Oh, and the food here is great!
Last weekend I was Machynlleth, in Northern Wales, for concert with The Prince Consort, filling in at late notice in Britten’s Canticle IV: Journey of the Magi. (There is recording of that piece on the Consort’s website - not with me though, but still a great piece…)
It was a fantastic weekend. The concert went well, and in attendance was John and Myfanwy Piper’s daughter. The concert coincided with an exhibtion of stage designs from John Piper (not the American Baptist preacher) and so involved pieces that used John’s designs on the cover, such as the Canticles, and also some extracts from Britten operas with libretti by Myfanwy.
We stayed in an amazing house - a country manor, which might easily have passed itself off as Paramore, the country manor in Owen Wingrave - one of Myfanwy Piper’s libretti.
Last week I went to Glyndebourne for the first time. It is such an amazing place, and so very English!
We are “tech-ing” scenes at the moment, with performances at school on Thursday and Friday, and then I’m off to Tel Aviv for a month at the International Vocal Arts Institute, where, amongst other things like masterclasses, I will be performing the role of Mr Brooke in Mark Adamo’s recent opera “Little Women”. The hotel is right on the beach front, and it will actually be hot there, unlike London!
Site Stuff, OperaApril 10, 2008 10:15 pm
To quote Monty Python, “I’m not dead yet!”
It’s has been quite a while since I last blogged.. and just so you know we’re still around, this is a short post to say what’s been happening.
Peta recently made her Royal Albert Hall debut with the All Souls’ Orchestra in Prom Praise.
I had a good run of Opera Scenes in the Bridewell Theatre (you should be able to see some photos from that here), and sang a Faure Requiem in Banbury last week, and, prior to that, had a very rewarding and inspiring week at the BYO Easter Workshops, working with the amazing Will Kerley.
Currently we’re both on holidays, though I’m still quite busily preparing repertoire for a concert I’m doing next week with my wonderful colleague Nicky Spence, which should be good fun, as well as preparing music for next term (a cover in Gounod’s La Colombe plus scenes from Owen Wingrave and Iphegenie en Tauride) and learning a couple of roles which I will talk about in good time.
Oh, and it snowed here in London last weekend! The same day the Olympic Torch battled its way through the streets.
