Merola Has Begun

13. July 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Merola, Opera, Ramble

… well, Merola began a while ago, as you can read at some other sites*, but for me it began yesterday. We had our first orchestra rehearsal for the Schwabacher set. It’s so great to get back to work, and I love seeing music friends after having been out of work for so long (my last job was June 6 … yikes!). I’m playing second oboe and English horn, and it doesn’t appear that I have a lot to do for the set. I’m okay with that; it’s just good to be back! We have a performance this Friday night, and then again the following Sunday. Visit the Merola site for more info.

We have another morning rehearsal today that begins at 10:30 and runs to 1:30. This makes it tough for a person like me; I’m used to eating my breakfast at about 11:00! Everything gets thrown off a bit. I get up there early enough to have a bite to eat before the rehearsal begins, because I won’t eat during the rehearsal and I don’t like to eat in the car on the drive home. I might be reconsidering the eating in the car thing, though; when I get home today I have to teach shortly after. So maybe I’ll get my act together and make a sandwich. (ME? Make a lunch ahead of time? Crazy!)

*Others who have blogged about Merola (you’ll have to look around for the Merola posts):
Not For Fun Only
Opera Tattler
and at least one Merolini has a blog, but I want to ask permission before linking it in an actual post.

Blog entries may start getting sparse around here. When I do the commuting to San Francisco thing I run out of time for a lot of blogging. Such is life. I’m just thankful to have this (somewhat unexpected) work!

Update:
Permission granted! Robin Flynn has granted permission to post to her blog! She is currently in San Francisco, running and singing and acting and doing all the things (plus the running) that singers do. I don’t believe we see and hear the singers today, but I look forward to tomorrow, when I’m sure they’ll be there! So visit Robin’s site to read about her Merola adventures.

Congratulations to Rebecca Davis

24. April 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Merola, Opera

I was so happy to read that Rebecca Davis is a Merola Artist this coming summer. She is an Opera San José artist in residence, and I’ve certainly enjoyed hearing her sing. If I don’t play Merola this year I would love to get there to hear her without an oboe in my hands.

We’ve had a few OSJ singers go to Merola. Names that immediately come to mind are Mel Ulrich and Kirk Eichelberger. It’s really exciting to see these young singers take these steps up the opera ladder!

Merola

28. January 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: Merola, Opera

Merola has launched their own website. While looking around I wondered if they have also cut back the season for this coming summer. Does anyone know? I thought they usually did two operas. I now only see one. I’m probably just confused.

I sometimes get the joy of working with the Merola gang. I love it! But then I love all things opera! (Which means I’m looking forward to getting back to the remainder of

But What Did He Really Think?

13. August 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Merola, Reviews

Janos Gereben didn’t write for a paper, as far as I know, but the opera list provides his thoughts. Just a snippet:

Surely, a “concept-opera” that abandons the concept in the intermission burned up its meager ideas too soon… or came to its senses. Still, consistency is valued by most people.

Just short of the primitive, juvenile carnality of another Mozart-Merola misfit, the 2002 “La finta giardiniera,” this “Cosi” is of the same mold: not trusting either the composer or the audience to make it on their own, without the constant interruption and diversion by the director.

Wouldn’t hiring a couple of audience members to keep coughing through the work be cheaper and more expeditious?

RTWT

Two More Reviews

11. August 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Merola, Opera, Reviews

Joshua Kosman gives us his take, as does Jason Victor Serinus. You will read some differing views on some things, while they agree on others. (Guess that’s sort of typical, right?) Mr. Kosman was at Friday night’s performance, while Mr. Serinus when to Sunday’s. On the whole I liked Sunday’s better, but that’s probably because I base everything on my own performance. I’m just that self-centered!

Reviews

10. August 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Merola, Reviews

Okay, I’ve slept the night now so I can be less emotional about bad reviews. So now I’ll post the links and you can read what I read. In addition, there is one more favorable review up now, so that does help a bit.

  • Opera Tattler didn’t like it much at all
  • SF Mike disliked it so much he left after 30 minutes
  • Axel Feldham (or whoever he really is!) had good things to say (and even mentioned yours truly, which was very nice of him)

    Do I have things to write about the opera that are not quite the positive thing I would like to write? Yeah. Will I? No. I just can’t go there. A reviewer could possibly get more work by trashing performances. I’d just lose work. go figure.

    • I’ll Want to See (& Hear) This

    09. August 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Merola, Opera

    Looks like the opera production I just played for was filmed and will appear on a blog. I’ll be watching for that!

    More On Don G

    05. August 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Merola, Ramble

    One thing about this particular Don G I just played (not to go on and on) … it was nice to play the entire opera for a change. Very rarely do i get to play an opera with absolutely no cuts. The group I’m in makes cuts, in order to keep the operas under three hours. I’ve been told it’s because of the orchestra’s contract. I really hope that’s not the case. Sigh.

    Anyway, I’m always bothered by cuts, even while I complain about lengthy productions. (Please keep in mind that I just love to complain. Long. Short. I’m gonna complain!) Whenever I see a cut I wonder what a composer might think. Maybe, “So what? You think this particular part of my work isn’t as good or important as the rest?!”

    Who knows? Maybe composers are used to this sort of thing.

    I wonder if composers working now think about length. (I’m guessing many think about orchestration to keep things “cheaper” for companies. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it!) Do they make sure they keep things under three hours so more groups will perform them without any cuts?

    Yay for Merola doing the entire Mozart opera!

    Goodbye to Don G

    03. August 2008 · 1 comment · Categories: Merola, Ramble

    I’m home … we are finished with Don G. Today felt so much better. It was cooler in the hall, so I wasn’t dying from the heat, and I felt that the intonation was much better.

    I loved hearing these young and talented singers. This group of Merola Folk were wonderful. Maybe someday we’ll see and hear some of them singing with the Big Guys. Time will tell. Here are some names I’ll be watching out for:

    • Adam Cioffari (Masetto)
    • Rena Harms (Donna Elvira)
    • Joélle Harvey (Zerlina)
    • Austin Kness (Don Giovanni)
    • David Lomelí (Don Ottavio)
    • Amanda Mejeski (Donna Anna)
    • Carols Monzón (Leperello)
    • Ben Wager (Commendatore)
    • … and, of course, SF Mike as the human table!

      Now to dinner, whatever that might be!

    Up For Review

    16. February 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Links, Merola, Ramble

    I’m up for review this year at UCSC. This means I have a lot of lookin’ up to do. I have to submit reviews I can find (stupid me; I forgot that the Merc doesn’t keep things up for free after one week!), I submit some programs (needless to say, not ALL of them), and I list anything I deem important enough to list.

    As I was going through my little folder (why, oh why, don’t I save more programs?!) I ran across the two programs from the Merola Grand Finale concerts I played. The first was in 1996. Listed there, among other singers? Anna Netrebko. Gee, not only did I hear her live, I was on stage with her. Go figure! (That was the year the former resident of OSJ—and now no longer performing—Mel Ulrich was there as well.) My 1998 program shows that I also was there for Rolando Villazon. How ’bout that?

    I think I may have played one other year, but if I did I must not have saved a program. Ah well. Typical me. (I love to clear things out, often only to regret it later.) Or maybe it’s just that I’m remembering the other two times I was blessed to play with the Big Guys: I did a Pavarotti arena concert, and I played the last week of Butterfly in 1997. Ah, memories! Very, very faded memories.)

    In my quest—which was a failure—to find more reviews in which I was mentioned, I did run across this:

    Rossini’s “William Tell” Overture began the program aptly enough, as the opening cello serenade — superbly led by assistant principal Cheryl Flippen — promised more cello delights to come. There were also excellent solo turns by flutist Maria Tamburrino and the English horn player, a bearded young man whom the orchestra’s chronically error-ridden program identified as Patricia Emerson Mitchell.

    Heh. I guess I can safely say Mr. Kosman has mentioned me, eh? I just can’t say why. (RTWT) And no, I hadn’t grown a beard back in 2001. I suspect the player was Jason Sudduth, as he was our second oboist then, and I’ll bet I was playing opera.

    Putting together this packet of stuff is difficult for me. But it’s got to be done. And soon.

    A Concert, Double Reed Days, and Merola

    16. July 2007 · Comments Off · Categories: Merola, Ramble

    I just found this information at the IDRS site:

    Saturday July 28, 2007
    Joseph Robinson will be the featured soloist for Richard Strauss’ Oboe Concerto at the second annual Quartz Mountain Music Festival, July 26-28, 2007 in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma. The July 28 concert will take place at the Robert M. Kerr Performing Arts Center at 8:00 p.m. In addition to the Strauss, the concert will include Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5”” and the world-premiere of a new orchestral work by Oklahoma composer Jerry Neil Smith. For more information about the Quartz Mountain Music Festival, visit www.quartzmountainmusicfestival.org/.

    Wish I could attend!

    Oh, if you visit the music festival’s site, and visit the concert page be sure to read that second paragraph. Did you think, as I did, that Piazzolla had written a tango version of Appalachian Spring for a moment? It’s amazing what a comma can do (and what a missing one will do as well). ;-)

    Other dates that might interest reeders:
    I’ve finally put up the Double Reed Days and Master Classes page. I don’t have much there. Yet. But do check it out on occasion.

    I’ve been negligent … I’ve not mentioned much about the singers who were in Cenerentola. I’m not going to write an essay, but I do have to say they were wonderful! Strong voices. In tune voices. And some very nice acting as well. Paul La Rosa, as Dandini, was probably my fave, but that role is just too good so he was at an advantage. He has a great voice and just had the timing down perfectly for the comic stuff. Daniela Mack, as Cinderella, was wonderful. Hmmm … but if I mention them I should really mention Sam Handley (Magnifico), who sang so well and was hysterically funny, Daveda Karanas as Tisbe, the slightly nicer and nuttier of the step-sisters, along with her much nastier sister Ani Maldjian (what a wonderful bad girl she is) playing and singing Clorinda (who wouldn’t be nasty with a name like Clorinda?), Alek Shrader … with all those high notes, woo hoo! … as Ramiro, and Matthew Moore as Alidoro. Bravi Tutti! It was such a pleasure to hear them. And see them too!

    It’s been three years since that’s happened; as many of you know when Opera San José moved into the California Theatre the orchestra lost all contact with the stage. So this was truly a delight!

    I’m still yearning — and sometimes begging — for sound monitors in the pit. And I’m still told, “We can’t afford it.” Sigh. Cost over quality always troubles me.

    One question about Cenerentola: Why does Cinderella not wonder about that prince? He falls in love with her. Love at first sight. Love while she is in “rags” (I thought the rags looked awfully un-rag-like), and then falls in love with her look-alike (which is, of course, really Cinderella herself). Does he not seem a bit … well … fickle? Granted, they are one and the same girl. Bug still …?

    Side Note: I played Merola many years ago, when the were still doing an opera at Montalvo. I was hired to play principal, and we did Barber of Seville. (It included a favorite Opera San José baritone, Mel Ulrich, in the lead role. **See Side Note #2.) I had mentioned it to some friends, but couldn’t remember just when it was. Thanks to Bob Shomler’s pictures from the production I now know it was back in 1996. It’s fun to see those pictures and remember “back in the day”. If you go to this page you can see pictures of the last Cenerentola they did, with Joyce DiDonato playing Cinderella.

    Side Note #2: I just read that Mel Ulrich has retired from singing. This comes as quite the surprise to me; he really was my all time favorite at Opera San José. At the same time, I say “Bravo!” as it sounds like he has very strong reasons that include his family and his priorities. I would love to know what he is up to now.

    And Now I’m Done

    15. July 2007 · Comments Off · Categories: Merola, Ramble

    Today was the second, and final, Merola performance of Cenerentola. Sigh. Such a brief run! (When I played Merola years ago we had more performances.) It was fun, and playing second oboe was a refreshing change; I honestly had no stress!

    I’ll miss the job and certainly miss the friendly colleagues, but I won’t miss the commute.

    And do you know what today is? No, I think not. Today is “Send $10 to the blogger you are reading at the moment” day.

    Okay. Not really. I am just extremely witty. And currently “gigless”.

    50

    10. July 2007 · Comments Off · Categories: Merola, Ramble

    Merola turns 50. I am 50.

    Coincidence?

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