Operavision

First chance in forever to sit and contemplate the lovely summer I just had…. so much service to music and so much opportunity to help and then the added gift of being able to sing…. I had never hoped to make London one of the glorious cities I had a love affair with the public, but I did get to have this amazing opportunity for just that.

A brand new organization of about maybe two years in London, The London Bel Canto Festival held Master Classes and musical events to further the continues appreciation of the Bel Canto traditions, begun by Kenneth Langley Querns and a program that offers also classes of real detail with many famed opera greats, Bruce Ford one of the first to help form the Festival……..just heaven, and they asked me come to do a Master Class and a Recital….and there it is…. worked with some really good talent and wonderful young people, and musical associates and had a terrific time. There is a lot of talent.

       with Inseon Lee, pianist and with Jeffrey Carl, fabulous friend and baritone.

The Hall itself was gorgeous, and the people who run it are crackerjack spot on with their professional but very gracious way of helping you be your best. To those who work at the Cadogan Hall, my sincerest compliments. There we were in the mid august period, not a lot of publicity, and apart from some well placed interviews before the recital, this young group had its work cut out for them. Proms week in London. Very hard, and most of the PR there are only interested in people who don’t really need much help. Disappointing only their lack of imagination, and real knowledge of those that serve this music….but I must say, after they saw the reaction to some of the interviews they were able to procure, it got their attention and we all learned something….so that is good too. Oh well, flash forward, we had a terrific and enthusiastic crowd and one certainly ready to receive and enjoy and truly fabulous press.

Opera Today Millo Review

I won’t hold back here, I had a ball. My pianist, musical collaborators were extraordinary considering the very limited time we had to rehearse, and i am in their debt for their supreme support and good will.  In Italy by way of Korea, I found a young powerhouse pianist through my academy in Italy, and we just happened to meet in front of La Scala and that was that. Inseon Lee is a treasure to anyone who loves selfless, magnificent orchestral like playing…. she is so open and old time opera savvy…. plays for the Accademia della Scala, and really everywhere they want great playing,

the fabulous John Copley……

This was graciously recorded at the back of the auditorium, and on a zoom…. but it will remain a wonderful memory for me of a dream come true…..never stop dreaming…. it is the stuff of magic….. SO very thrilled and much more to come.

O del mio amato ben

Ideale

Cara Mia Venenzia

Love Went a ‘riding

Ne poi kratsavitza    in loving memory of Dima.

Elegie Massenet

Kerry Dancing

For Verne O Hara, our Princess Verne and her daughter, Leslie O’Hara.

Rose of Traelee and Bendeemer Stream and Danny Boy for my parents.

In Memory of my great friend and teacher, Rita Patane’ and Dr. Simonetta Puccini, both are in my heart every day…..   Cecilia…. full of emotion…..

Non t’amo piu

Insolitaria Stanza   Verdi

Aida  of Verdi      Ciel Mio Padre with Baritone, Jeffrey Carl

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Operavision Brochure 2018A strange and bittersweet end to 2017, with so much emotion and so many friends having crossed, I cannot comprehend the losses.…..

My beloved friend and voice guide, one of the greatest people I will ever have known or will know,  Madame Rita Patanè passed away after a short illness but it was not expected and she was so deeply mourned by her family, Francesca and Paola, and her many many students all over the world…. I will never be able to thank her, and will write even more when I can see better the keyboard….it makes me cry still…. such an honest woman of great integrity and an amazing voice herself….from the very school herself of Maria Carbone.  Rita from my heart, I love and thank you with everything I am…..

The God took Dima, great Russian baritone and dearest friend, Dmitri Hvorostovsky. A giant energy left the world when he ended skyward….you can almost feel a shift in the orbit of the world….. his beloved Florence and children, his parents, his family…. I cannot speak of it still…. love him forever, and then to escort this great voice to Heaven is the beloved granddaughter of Puccini herself, and cherished friend, Dottoressa Simonetta Puccini…. in the course of our friendship I found such solidarity and loyalty and inspiration….. This woman fought to protect her Nono’s legacy….a woman that brilliant in such a man’s world….and she won….!!!  through great wisdom and charm and true grit….after all Puccini’s blood ran in her veins…..Only people who didn’t really know her called her “tosto”…..she never wasted time with fools….but was always generous and open with young people who she knew were curious and genuine about their love for Puccini;s music…. I will never forget the friendship shown to me and the true affection….On Claudia Muzio’s birthday Feb.7th in 2014 I made my debut in the role of Giorgetta, (Muzio was the premiere Giorgetta for Puccini) and she was in the third row or so clapping and smiling and afterwards, gave me such a hug….. at the Teatro Carlo Felice in gorgeous Genoa…

I will write in great detail about these great people in my life….and the loves of all who attended Operavision Academy and especially Maria Vetere who she showered great praise and friendship…..her generosity and care….and that of all who worked steadfastly by her side in Irene Orlandi and Patrizia Mavilla…. and so many more cherished people…..

So, a stirring within to sing, to make music, brings me back to Italy…. to be reborn in the happiness of giving and loving…. and being there at any time is such a rare privilege…… so I have many wonderful things to share….. the first will be a collaboration with the fabulous young producer, Raffaella Franci and Theatron, with Paola Colombrosi as they have invited me to do a Master Class in the historic city of Castles and pageantry, Città della Pieve.… one on one, and it seems there is great interest, so how nice is this!!….. with a little visit to Franco Zeffirelli’s magnificent new Fondazione Zeffirelli and a Museo of melodramma that takes your breath away….. so very wonderful and important to see these great displays…..it inflames love for this magical world of opera…..

Please come by  it begins in June, the 23 to July 1, and I am  so very grateful to have working with me to prep the wonderful voices, my stunning colleague from Operavision Academy, Dr. Maria Vetere…..

and then to my beloved city of Verdi, where I won at 20 years old the 18th Edition of the Concorso Voci Verdiane, by unanimos decision the First Prize, a dream that I never imagined would ever gloriously happen and he would shape my life forever…..this year we return by special invitation of the Comune di Busseto, and Fondazione Museo Tebaldi in the great Casa Barezzi….. from July 10th to the 31 of July….. and some further announcements and details are happily being discussed so their is so much to share but for now…..here we are…..  come share this with me….. music…. life….. and the dreams that never die……

Cannot wait to see Richard again….here with a radiant Maria

The Open Eye of God

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This Summer is filled with interesting musical evenings for me, beginning with a recital for the newly launched Amici della Lirica di Città Delle Pieve and its founder, Raffaella Franci, figlia d’arte, because yes she is the granddaughter of Italian great Benvenuto Franci and the daughter of Maestro Carlo Franci. A highly acclaimed photographer with many expositions of her evocative photographs, she has begun this most worthy group and has invited me to the glorious city of Città delle Pieve to give a recital. So my summer begins in recital among the sunflowers with great friends, Vincenzo Scalera who is to be  my “orchestra” and he is without a doubt one of the great piano collaborators in the world today and I am really thrilled to make music with him…… I also am so proud to present two extraordinary young singers, the lush velvet voice of a true Italian beauty by way of Canada, Maria Vetere and the handsome honey-colored tenor of Joel Ricci. They are singing the way I like it, full bodied, involved text and beauty of sound. It promises to be very special….. More announcements coming later about several other lovely evenings, but I heartedly recommend not to miss this one….

The beautiful theater ……Teatro degli Avvaloranti

My favorite flower, with of course, red roses….. so much of my early time in Italy I would speak to these beautiful flowers and absorb their sunny friendship.

the one and only, Vincenzo Scalera, cannot wait to make music with him.

“The ideal Mimi” is what no less than the granddaughter of Maestro Giacomo Puccini, Dottoressa Simonetta Puccini said of this amazing young soprano, Maria Vetere. I have high hopes for her as a superb Desdemona, Mimí, Leonora, and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra among many roles…..the tone has great beauty and projection and a haunting quality… In a recent Opera Gala in Philadelphia, the critics wrote, ” a dead ringer for Elizabeth Taylor, with a voice of stunning quality…. she stole the show!”

Mr. Joel Ricci is the throwback to tenors when they sang with grace and style, a beautiful, honey color…. recently won the Benvenuto Franci Opera Pienza competition with Adua Veroni as president who adored greatly his beautiful tone. One of my favorite young voices…..

And then on the sixth of July…..I celebrate my beloved sister Grace’s birthday, who is coming with me to share in the beauty of this place, our friends and the great music.

Brava Gracie….. 

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To the world evolved….evolving.

Then came November 8th, 2016.

Woke up in some bad Oliver Stone movie of epic horrible nightmare proportions .           How does one equate what is currently unfolding in our world today?  We are told by a manipulated press, “This is all so different…so unprecedented!”                                     …exciting word to use…makes it seem special, wonderful….it’s not in this regard.                            Normalizing racism…Bigotry………Blatant disrespect for rules and regulations…                That same press  created this Frankenstein…. for ratings. And now its walking…..          “it’s ALIVE”

Where and why did we commercialize our press?  Fox became a power spouting one side of the story, and only one….conservative tv…. blonde women talking heads…..men spewing against Democrats and LIBERALS, like they were saying a dirty word… and any opposite view. How is that fair and balanced? Screaming self appointed evangelists without anointments, with names like Rush and Stone….frothing at the mouth, screaming at you “obama is the lucifer….smells like sulfur…” They….seized the airwaves to “convert” the unwashed masses. Problem being their line and verse was not truth….they were lies….told as truths….Climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese…. Not so….. Hillary had sex with an alien…. Not so… and screamingly stupid….. Rigged elections by illegals among us voting….the horror!  Not so, and definitely the excuse they would have used the next day if he had lost….all this handwringing about bad behavior and sore losers is projecting how they have been for eight years hounding the president, Trump himself an idiot with the BIRTHER Obama not a citizen debacle that he used to try and humiliate sitting president and play on further crap and sore loser like behavior by saying he was from Kenya…and was a Muslim…..He did not think he would win…. He is better attacking then building, like a true bully….he prefers accusing rather then solving problems ….Mr. Trump….what a mess. This reality show isn’t funny…. he won but is not a leader worth following….

Political points are confused into playbooks, teams that GOT to win or else….my team or no team. Kelly Anne Conway cons away at every turn….leading fake naked cowboys to sing in the lobby of the Trump Tower in a song about Trumps own possible appointee for Secretary of State, Romney… she, SHE doesn’t like him…. and Corey Landowski a pushy hideous little misogynist who LOVES to fight over everything…

and last but not the least, the rats who abandoned the ship of trump when it was sinking…learned how to swim and came dashing back to feed off the carcass of their party the GOP….for all their moral high ground dashing to stand beside a sexual predator and a man that said on tv…to grab a woman’s genitalia without her express wish….THERE they want to stand with him as he helped them get the all important POWER.  So these supposedly christian men, have a 39 pieces of silver that sways them…..

Taking over government in a tantrum against a brand new President….a tantrum played out over eight years where members of the Senate vowed to make the new President a one term president. He hadn’t a way….they would not and will not work with the other side….their way or the highway.  Those who have obstructed the President and his effort to succeed for the American people, why not give back the money you wasted being paid by our tax dollars not to work and strive to help us?  Why not?  What else was done? Your party was more important…

Now some have gone and elected, with the ghastly presence of a foreign nation having influence and a play in our elections, the extent of which would most likely stagger us if revealed, I wish it would be revealed but President Obama seems disinclined…. as much as he seems so about not taking a stand on the North Dakota Pipeline….He says nothing after an initial effort, to our blatant breaking trust with the First Americans…. the Indians signed a Treaty that seemingly is not worth the paper it was written on, which makes us, yet again, not people of honor or commitment. OIL is everything…. he still lets them face attacks and civil liberties thrown in their face.  This is a huge disappointment as well…..

Russia released papers, using a thief, Julian Assange through WikiLeaks, letters, behind the scenes toilet paper ONLY of and about the Democrats…..No one says this enough, the press say it but not convinced they let it drop?  nothing about the Trump Swamp nightmare….the conflicts of interest. No taxes shown. Doing business with countries while president elect, including family members with no clearance….did they ever get clearance?  During the campaign why didn’t Chris Matthews ask him, about his deferments…the night of the Prudential Forum in front of all those military servicemen and women…..Where is the press about asking why he deferred service to the Military he calls such a shambles….a “disgrace” he says, when he never sacrificed a thing…he got his rich daddy to defer him, based on a bad foot…which bares out….it’s always in his mouth…..

Blithering tweets, and nothing sweet about his points of view. Supported by White Supremacy, KKK, and other racists now being given KEY spots in his so called Cabinet….which is a locker room filled with sheets…..Why are we not more outraged?

A sitting President to be copies again, Nazi German Chancellor Hitler….in campaign photos with a Jewish Star used in German concentration camps on Jewish victims unjustly held and murdered there… In racist Pepe Green frog support photos with the meme of the White Supremist movement that this time don’t hide behind sheets but behind a stupid looking green frog….in a thank you tours where he mumbled about lets all get along, let’s united the country….and then loudly and clearly gloats as he still attacks people he supposedly beat, like some smug bully, not a winner. Claims the election was rigged…..yes it was….in his favor. He won, but he still claims he was defrauded… some recounts are a personal attack on him?  Free speech in the press is to be manipulated by calling them out, “dishonest people” this is a trick pulled in Nazi Germany…..”Do not believe anyone but me, I alone can make it right,” Hitler said.Yes, Hitler said a lot that this guy is saying too. Started out a clown no one took seriously….and then six million lives were thrown away because that clown came to power……

A fabulous, cultivated, worker bee of an intellect and a true agent for change in Hillary Clinton is defeated by  not by a 30 year attempt to smear her…. but by the PRESS wanting a better juicier story in a weirdo running for office who couldn’t win….(him) but he always makes chaos…therefore ratings….Not someone who works hard and studies and knows what to do because she has done and been there making the world trust the face of America after the cowboy rough ride of George Bush the Second….she helped the world see US again as a temperate and great country wise and cautious and caring…..

Not by Sanders who had not real chance once he went thru the vetting Hillary had for 30 years…. not so nice stuff about him never came up….better ratings the supposed revolution without a plan…. Terrific ideas for a socialist America not a popular word right now.  But those same good angry folks that feel let down don’t seem to care about the word, sham, or lies, or racist, or anti-gay….or bigotry…or grabbing a omen by her private parts…. that’s not supposed to be what he means? But getting jobs for you by giving bribes to companies who do not need them….that is how you negotiate?  and one given all the billionaires Trump has picked is he really not more in bed with Wall Street and established SWAMP government than Hillary ever was? Draining the swamp or he IS the swamp….Sanders good ideas had no real chance of seeing any light of day…. Hillary took his lessons and applied it to her learning…put it in the platform….got no credit… Sanders lead a campaign to demolish her… and he was a democrat supposedly or an opportunist Independent using the Democrats for a platform…. Never really trusted this guy…. and he had good ideas, only Hillary could have made them possible….

The bumbling mess of three debates where her opponent came ready for a short sound bite to a ninety minute event….looked like an irrational ass and sounded like one….and the pundits would say he had a good half hour….He had none of that, it was hideous….the second debate he was a desperate man flailing, body blows that looked weak and puny but made frat boys the world over rejoice that he was sticking it to the smart girl that made them look stupid…. sexism?  You bet…..and the bully lost all three.

Not defeated by Orwellian rewrites by those around him, gas lighting the public, media and anyone whiplashed trying to keep up with the ups and downs of opinions…. Managers, blonde like Fox likes them, sinister in their inability to accept the truth without their slant, like a Bagdad Bob with the troops entering his office…..”We are beating the infidels…..” as they rush in to grab him. Clueless doesn’t cover it.

The People’s President is Hillary Clinton. The old fashioned correct way to win an election is by the majority….and she beat this thug by two million and a  half  votes and still counting…. all the polls had her winning. Bannon, the hideous head of Breitbart News, I use the term lightly, smugly stated, she listened only to the New York Times….”we fed them a line”…. He manipulated the rural states with smears and confusion….emails that meant nothing….and when voted into office supposedly, they offer as secretary of defense a man who placed the country at risk by giving away confidential files to his mistress. Are we truly nuts here?  Hillary did nothing that placed the country at risk, and HE did and still gets a pass from those that screamed lock her up for nothing compared to what he has done.Alternate reality….or bad dream…?  Good witch or the bad witch? I for one deeply grieve the loss of this intellect to this country…. but you never know…she doesn’t quit and I hope she does not quit…..

The sky is down, the floor is up, day is night and night is day…..everything is meant to confuse, it is like flooding a person with too much…so they do not notice what is really happening….Russia must love that this man is appointing billionaires to positions most of which have no idea how to do what is asked….some with disastrous effects already hinted…..As of today, the President doe not know an over 40 year protocol that achieved a limited but growing Chinese relationship with America that might be hampered or destroyed by his taking a call from the President of Taiwan….nulling and voiding our supposed position of one China… Incompetence? He is opening or trying to open a new hotel in Taiwan….need I say more about conflict of interests?  The Countries needs before his own?

Sessions is a nominee for Attorney General who is a devout unrepentant Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond disciple….racist is polite a term. Bigot is more accurate. Bannon, chief strategist to the president thinks the less black a world is the better, or words to that effect.  The Senate has gerrymandered for years, redistricting to deprive citizens of representation…. they should think about paying taxes to a country that deprives them of representation….suppressing the vote that gave Obama the white house…. there is something going on in this election which is very very sinister….and I guess we will have to wait to see the truth about it….when it comes out it will be a shame we will long be stained with….  Are we heading for our first racist president ?  Dictator? We shall soon see….and may God have mercy on all of us…..

Stay vigilant, true America, the America of dreams and golden thought, where everyone is considered a brother or a sister regardless of religion, or race…sexual preference or social standing…. the pursuit of happiness….. Fight for Her…. fight for that America….racism is not an option…. Bigotry is not an option….has never been the best angels of our nature…. Nationalism is a manipulation, a device to isolate America…. being aware in these times as they try to take your civil liberties….and those of your neighbors…. Peaceful, thoughtful urgent protest and lots of Prayers…..

Too many great men and women died for the rights we may lose to a madman who cannot resist a twitter war with anyone…..makes announcements in 140 characters….may only think that far….

None of us are free unless ALL of us are free……

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