Showing posts with label opera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opera. Show all posts

Thursday, September 29, 2016

From JD to Opera Star: Sing For Your Life by Daniel Bergner

"He was singing to live," Met coach Ken Noda said about Ryan Speedo Green. There was much Green needed to learn--how to sing in foreign languages, how to place his voice, employing dynamics, reading music--but he had a personal energy and presence, a remarkable range, and an ability to "stir a reaction."

In 2011 Green won the Metropolitan Opera's voice competition, beating 1,200 other singers. Green's potential stood out. Yet, while the other opera hopefuls had studied at prestigious schools, Green had grown up in a shack and spent time in solitary confinement in juvenile detention, and had suffered physical abuse from his older brother and mother. Plus Green was African American, and few black men became opera stars.

Sing For Your Life by Daniel Bergner is Ryan Speedo Green's inspiring story, how an angry youth ended up in 8th Grade chorus, discovered he had a voice, and after hitting rock bottom determined to change his life. It is also the story of being black in America where people of color must prove their humanity and equality, and talented black singers are steered toward musical theater and traditionally African American roles.

Green was lucky to have found adults and teachers who helped him along the way. One teacher had students memorize Rev. Martin Luther King's statement about the "content of their character" which Green never forgot. Green turned away from the street life and befriended a boy whose close family offered him a sanctuary of acceptance and normalcy. Many coaches helped him learn to how to train his remarkable voice.

Green's complicated family dynamics and history makes his endeavor to connect with them as an adult poignant. His revisiting the facility where he spent time, singing and trying to inspire the youth, shows his deep commitment to changing not only his own life but the life of others.

Bergner does a wonderful job of explaining the intricacies of vocal performance. Following Green throughout his training could have become tedious to read, but his keeping Green's emotional journey forefront my interest did not flag.

Green has established a very successful career, performing this year at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and in Vienna, Austria.

I do love reading about how the arts changes lives!

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Read Bergner's article on Green's winning the Met operatic voice competition:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/magazine/an-american-idol-just-for-opera.html?_r=0

"Sing for Your Life is certain to be billed as a book about race. And it is that, and also a book about art and hope and resilience. But this is not a book about abstractions. It's a story that is suspenseful in the deepest sense, and very moving--a story about a fascinating human being. I am grateful to Mr. Bergner for having introduced me to him." Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of a New Machine and Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Sing For Your Life
Daniel Bergner
Little, Brown, and Company
Publication Sept 13, 2016
$28 hard cover
ISBN: 9780316300674

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The Real Traviata and the Men Who Loved and Immortalized Her

Marie DuPlessis at the theater
"...a young woman of exquisite demeanor...chaste, oval features, her gorgeous dark eyes shadowed by long lashes, the purest arching eyebrows, a nose of the most exquisite and delicate curve, her aristocratic shape that marked her out as a duchess for those who did not know her...by a wist of fate she was born a peasant girl in Normandy." from the obituary of Marie Duplessis written by Theophile Gautier

I became a Verdi fan in the 1980s. La Traviata was made into a movie in 1983 starring Placido Domingo and Theresa Stratas and directed by Franco Zeffirelli; the movie was my first encounter with the opera. Then I learned the Verdi Requiem while in the Mastersingers choir, the most exciting music I had ever sung.

I knew that La Traviata was connected to the Alexander Dumas fils book The Lady of the Camellias (La Dame aux camelias) but I didn't know there was a real woman behind the stories, Marie Duplessis, born Alphonse Plessis.

The Real Traviata: The Song of Marie Duplessis by Rene Weis reveals the woman and the men who loved her and presents a history of the transcendent art that has made her immortal. Alexander Dumas fils was one of her lovers; his novel inspired by Marie's short life arrived soon after her death. It became a play, and that play inspired Verdi to throw out his nearly completed project to write La Traviata--all within four years of Marie's death.

The book, play, and opera met with resistance getting past the censors. Marie was a courtesan, one with class and style and regal bearing whose lovers included men from the highest ranks of life. Marie's protector had her educated, paid for her housing, and availed himself of her love even while knowing she had at least one other lover on the side. Some courtesans of the day were quite wild and profane but Marie had the bearing, soul, heart and generosity of a high born lady. Dumas loved her but was too poor and had to give her up. Liszt was on concert tours and couldn't bring her with him; he left the first woman he ever loved behind in Paris.

Impoverished Girls Preyed On by Men

Weis takes us into the disturbing history of prostitution and child abuse in the early 19th c. Marie's childhood was tragic and horrifying. Her drunkard and abusive father forced Marie's mother into hiding for her life, leaving her two daughters with family. Marie's surrogate family could barely feed themselves and when Marie was ten she was told she had to find her own food. At some point she was trading sexual favors for food.

She was a beautiful girl with skin like Camellias, and with dark eyes and hair. Starved for food and love, Marie later confessed that she had enjoyed the attention of the men. After her father found and reclaimed his daughters he himself abused Marie and when she was thirteen sold her favors to a local pedophile. Shortly afterwards she had her first menses. Weis cites an 1857 study by Ambroise Tradieu who first revealed the pervasiveness of sexual child abuse and rape. Men from the highest classes picked up teenaged girls and indulged themselves without thought.

Marie as Pretty Woman

That Marie, like other young girls who were abused and raped, became a prostitute was ordained by such a childhood. She was smart; to avoid the dangers of the streets she sought a protector. At age 16 she found her protector in Morny, a Bonaparte. Just six years before she was starving; now had a home of her own, enough to eat, and lovely clothes to wear. Her lover paid for her education--reading and writing, piano, dancing, everything needed for her to move among the highest classes of society. (Think Pretty Woman or Pygmalion or My Fair Lady.) Her protector even fell in love with her. At age 17 Marie gave birth and was sent to her country hometown to recover; Morny took the baby, who died. Marie didn't learn of her baby's death until a year later.

Queen of the Night

Morny left Paris for a position with the government and his friend took his place keeping Marie. By then she was a real trophy mistress. She had a series of generous lovers, protectors who paid for her upkeep while seeing other men. Marie lived the high life abroad and at home, enjoying the opera and gambling and waltzing through life. Then Marie met Edouard de Perregaux, a serial womanizer, romantic and feckless. He became the man immortalized as Alfredo, Violetta's lover in Verdi's opera. Their affair had ups and downs, marriage and estrangement.

Edouard saw that Marie was a 'pearl lost in vice', a kind and romantic woman. He moved her out of Paris to keep her to himself for a while. He had his own checkered past and was involved with another courtesan and actress. They idyll didn't last.  Back in Paris Marie had to juggle the man paying for her keep and her lovers. She had to think of her future when her older protector would die; any of these lovers could be taking his place. Although Edouard may have loved Marie he was in debt and his family pressured him to give her up.

Marie was an exceptional woman, especially considering her profession and childhood. One day a woman and with her son struck up a conversation with Marie. The ladies hit it off but Marie felt the need to confess she was a courtesan. The woman had seen Marie's soul and remained a lifetime friend. Marie donated money for an orphanage and raised even more from her friends.

Marie eventually became involved with a 'manager' and had men lining up at her door.  She lived in splendor and it took a lot of money to keep up appearances. Her most notorious love affairs at this time included Alexander Dumas fils and Franz Liszt. Dumas was the first to note symptoms of T.B. in Marie.

Death and Transfiguration

Marie's tuberculosis claimed her life in 1847 when she was only 23 years old. She had been estranged from Edouard and wouldn't let him see her. She wouldn't ask for help from friends. She spent her last days sitting at the window in her empty suite. Her possessions were sold at auction. Dumas purchased back a necklace he had given Marie; his daughter wore it to her grave. She was buried in a temporary unsanctified grave until Edouard had her reburied with a tomb. He insisted on opening the coffin to be sure it was Marie. His last image would be her already decaying face.
Alexander Dumas, the son

Almost immediately the low-born courtesan was turned into an angelic soul, starting with her obituary. Dumas wrote The Lady of the Camellias; he revealed the seamy side of Parisian society, an unflinching look at the world of the prostitute and the men who frequented them. After getting past the censors he turned the book into a play. It too was unable to pass the censors until Marie's former lover and protector used his governmental power to approve its performance. And then Verdi attended the play and immediately starting writing the music of La Traviata, even before he had a libretto.Verdi was not married to his companion and understood social prejudice; they too had tried to hide in the country. Verdi had lost a wife and children and understood grief. The opera allowed him to deal with his personal losses.

The story of the abused child who inspired one of our most beloved operas is fascinating and disturbing. While reading the section about the opera's performance history I was able to find clips on YouTube and other online sites. The book is illustrated showing the people and places of Marie's history. It was a fascinating read.
[A] superbly readable and meticulously researched biography...It is hard to think of a more dramatic life, from a horrific childhood to the glamour of high society, and Weis tells it with operatic pathos. The Sunday Times
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Real Traviata: The Song of Marie Duplessis
by Rene Weis
Oxford University Press
Publication November 1, 2015
$39.95 hardcover, 38 B&W photos, 2 maps
ISBN: 9780198708544


Sunday, October 18, 2015

The Magic of Beverly Sills by Nancy Guy

The Magic of Beverly Sills by Nancy Guy

In our lives we can experience definitive moments that electrify our awareness, as if we had been merely sleeping before and were suddenly alive. Like Dorothy's arrive in Oz, our world changes from black and white to color. We are changed and our life's trajectory veers into new frontiers that previously we didn't even now existed.

Our encounter can be with natural beauty, an artistic creation, an encounter with our deepest reality, a spiritual transformation. It is a moment of magic. "You must change your life," Rilke wrote about the power of art.

The morning of Beverly Sill's death musicologist Nancy Guy listened to recordings of Sills after a break of two decades. Ms. Guy heard Sills sing for the first time in 1977 at a recital in her small Midwestern hometown; it was a turning point her her life, an experience that remained with her always. As Ms. Guy heard Sill's performances again she became invigorated and discovered a deep admiration, even love. It inspired her to write The Magic of Beverly Sills.

As a doctoral student Ms. Guy turned her academic study to the Peking Opera with a focus on context, not on music and performance. Revisiting Sills inspired Ms. Guy to break from academic tradition and focus on musical performance and the emotional and experienced meaning of the music by the audience.

"Fans" are often marginalized and dismissed. Beverly Sills created a widespread fan base that crossed class lines, inspiring people with no background in the 'finer arts." As Bubbles, Sill's public persona reached people who admired her skill, found her approachable and real, and were inspired by her optimism and determination. She became a cultural icon through her media performances, interviews, and books.

Sills married the love of her life; he was her rock and her protector. Sadly their daughter was born deaf as was their son who was also profoundly handicapped. Operatic roles allowed Sills to escape from her personal sorrows. Sometimes the roles were too close to her personal life.

As a performer Sills excelled at bringing the music alive, eliciting an emotional reaction from the audience. Even in operatic roles that were not best suited to her voice her interpretive performance moved audiences.

The book includes interviews and quotes from Beverly Sills fans. I identified with the people from working class backgrounds, the kind of folk who didn't grow up surrounded by opera and symphonic concerts. Seeing Sills in concert changed their lives.

As I read about her career I turned to Youtube to watch and her performances. The book notes that her voice did not record well, that hearing her live was very different. But seeing Sills performances was wonderful and I could better understand what Ms. Guy was writing about.

Sills was warned by her vocal coach against taking roles that would shorten her career by straining her voice. "But what was I saving it for?" Sills commented, "Better to have ten glorious years than twenty safe and ultimately boring ones."

Sills gave everything she had to her audience, and they knew it.

Opera and Me

My mother and grandmother wanted me to take up the piano. They had both quit lessons and regretted it. I started lessons at eight years old. Because I could read music and liked to sing I found myself singing alto in the elementary school choir. Choir became my first scheduled class throughout high school (along with journalism!) As a young adult I was in masterwork choirs in Philadelphia, performing the Verdi Requiem with The Mastersingers, and on stage with the Philadelphia Orchestra while in The Choral Arts Society.

In junior high my choral teacher Russell Henkle introduced us to Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe . He played an LP recording while an overhead projector showed the words. He also took us to see a movie version of La Boheme. I loved stories, and I loved singing, and I discovered that opera brought both together. In later life I listened to the Metropolitan Opera weekly on Saturday afternoons and was able to see the Met perform at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia and visit Lincoln Center in New York City to see the New York Opera.

I thank the publisher and NetGalley for the free ebook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

from the publisher:
With her superb coloratura soprano, passion for the world of opera, and down-to-earth personality, Beverly Sills made high art accessible to millions from the time of her meteoric rise to stardom in 1966 until her death in 2007. An unlikely pop culture phenomenon, Sills was equally at ease on talk shows, on the stage, and in the role of arts advocate and administrator. 
Merging archival research with her own love of Sills's music, Nancy Guy examines the singer-actress's artistry alongside the ineffable aspects of performance that earned Sills a passionate fandom. Guy mines the memories of colleagues, critics, and aficionados to recover something of the spell Sills wove for people on both sides of the footlights during the hot moments of onstage performance. At the same time, she analyzes essential questions raised by Sills's art and celebrity. How did Sills challenge the divide between elite and mass culture and build a fan base that crossed generations and socio-economic lines? Above all, how did Sills capture the unnameable magic that joins the members of an audience to a performer--and to one-another? 
Intimate and revealing, The Magic of Beverly Sills explores the alchemy of art, magnetism, community, and emotion that produced an American icon.
The Magic of Beverly Sills
by Nancy Guy
University of Illinois Press
Publication October 15, 2015
$29.95 hard cover
ISBN: 978-0-252-03973-7