Elisabeth SCHWARZKOPF MASTERCLASS. 1980. Edinburgh

Elisabeth SCHWARZKOPF MASTERCLASS. 1980. FILM 5.



Elisabeth SCHWARZKOPF,
Roger Vignoles, piano

遠在我出生前的紀錄片, 當Roger Vignoles 還年輕時. Cool! I like the way she leads the pianist. 聲樂老師沒幾個會教pianist 的.

美好的年代啊! 我們還在學習中, 這些大師卻漸漸凋零了. 先是Soprano Bervely Hill, 再來是Mstislav Rostropóvich, Pavarotti, but we are not ready yet.

和老師聊到, musicianship 的養成. 到了博士班畢業, 只是基本的訓練而已. 而離開學校僅是踏出的第一步. 該知道的學識修養在學校裡多點到為止, 剩下的, 用一生來投入, 終身學習. when you get your doctral degree in your 20's, it's really nothing.

學歷唸的越高, 越覺得自己的渺小. 術業有專攻, 只能努力的汲取知識, 益發覺得時間的可貴了.....

Jackson Hole

Snake River, Jackson Hole,WY

1988 wildfire naturally reseeded

1988 wildfire naturally reseeded, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Midway Geyser

Midway Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Great Collaborative Pianists -- Vocal

-- Gerald Moore British, who really elevated the art of collabrative piano
-- Dalton Baldwin book:
-- Graham Johnson (most recorded)
-- Martin Katz faculty of UM
-- Warren Jones faculty of Manhattan school of Music
-- Malcolm Martineau
-- Roger Vignoles
-- Geoffrey Parssons
Critices

interesting website:
accompanying

a photographer also named Graham Johnson

"O mio babbino caro"

搞笑版親愛的爸爸, from Puccini " Gianni Schicchi "
女高音, 恩,先丟一邊去. 要講的是背後的合音天使. barber shop 這類的vocal ensemble 其實很常見, 他們強在後半段的歌詞. 螢幕上跑過的英文歌詞, 正是這首aria 的英譯. well done! :D

readings...

J.S. Bach, Solo Cantata BWV51.

1. Aria: "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!"
Soprano,Tromba, Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo
2. Recitativo: "Wir beten zu dem Tempel an"
Soprano, Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo
3. Aria: "Höchster, mache deine Güte"
Soprano, Continuo
4. Choral:"Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren"
Soprano, Violino I/II, Continuo
5. Aria:"Alleluja!"
Soprano, Tromba, Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo

Composition date: 17. September 1730
text: unbekannter Dichter; 4. Johann Gramann 1549
orchestration: Solo: S, Tromba, Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo
Libretto: very likely Bach himself


The Bach Cantata

For Good

"But because I knew you
I have been changed for good"

I like it :)
=======
For Good, from musical "Wicked"

GLINDA
I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you:

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

ELPHABA
It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend:
Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you

要記得

是的,認真唸書也要認真玩耍.
------
Life is too short and we have so many things need to learn.
------
The busier you are, more things you can do.
And I start to build up my 'Wall of Books' again.

go!

Things

1. 在極度睡眠不足+頭痛的狀況下, 剛吃飽就坐在教室中間試圖盯著鋼琴上的總譜跟協奏曲是極不健康的. (而且會很好睡.)

2. Busoni: Fantasy. performed by John Ogden. extremly horrified, but i like it. (that's why Mr. B said, if you like it, that means you are sick......xD)

3. vocal performance class:
"hey Bear, take your breath as long as you need. you're pianist is smart, she will be there anyway. " (:)驕傲~~~~~) 哈哈哈，非常開心的聽到這樣的評論.

4.然後慢慢活用: 不回電話/email = 不打算接伴奏的策略. 長這麼大, 才慢慢知道這點. 恩,很遜.

5.灰姑娘又要準備爬去琴房/圖書館 do something. 果真是一天24hrs, 快要28hrs 待在學校了.

6.被學生搞的情緒極度不佳. 自己沒來上課, 還給我理所當然的揮說看不懂syllabus上寫什麼 + 拒絕理解. 剛開始重講到第三次時,　我已經滿肚子火都生起來了．俄啊~~輸了輸了. 是怎樣啦吼, 講英文聽不懂，不然是要我用中文嗎？倒是火星話我最會了..... 後來邊考其他人quiz, 一邊整理自己的情緒. 結果是笑笑的再重講一遍，而且把火氣壓下去了．要記得，學生聽得懂，不是理所當然的.　(不過這是除了奪命連環call之外，少數會把我惹毛的狀況.)　好啦好啦我情緒管理不良啦....
　　　

lovely Sat.

今天很開心的知道所有行程通通取消. (樂!)

非常豪邁的睡飽飽, 先去買投影片, 然後準備上工.
灰姑娘預計大鐘敲十二下之前回家, 中間游離在琴房和圖書館中間.
看在明天之前能不能生出新曲子來.

然後

(T)(W)(R) 都是行程大爆炸, 從早上8:00準時上工, 一直轉到晚上, 以後即將要延長至9:30pm. 現在可是過著帶兩個便當, 話講很少, 極度恍神的狀況.
上很多課的結果, 就是上台時已經呈現神智不清恍神狀態. 好好一首Menuett 從圓舞曲變成funeral elegy. well, I just took slower tempo......

new semester

right, here comes another new semester. 通常會來個新學期新計畫之類的, 真是大頭, 不過能維持兩個禮拜就要偷笑了. 很不幸的是, 現在已經是week 3.(笑) As you know, Things are just going crazy. 先來點一下:

-- 教兩堂大班課
-- take 15 個credit. (at least 13 hrs lesson time)
Literature x 2; performance class x 2
-- singers x 3 (lesson/rehearsal/deparmental coming)
-- Violinst x 2 (lesson/rehearsal/deparmental coming)

ppl are really interested & good at mess up my schedule.

* need to be an "active" collaborative pianist in order to pass qualify of related field at the end of this semester.

Humm.... we'll see.
========================================

C 曾經說過, 當看到電影The Devil Wears Prada, 他非常有感觸. 據描述, 我就像是andy的翻版. (齁齁齁, 我也要像女主角那麼漂亮啊啊啊啊....) 不管事情再多, 功課多重, 只要是有興趣, 我都會一樣忙.

常在抱怨的是, 當我專注在手上的事, 會把身邊的人給忽略了. 不管是家人也好, 朋友也好, 就只是一個"忙"來回答而已. 當真的聽到我的schedule, 常是一臉聽到就要昏倒的表情. 剛開始聽到這樣的描述, 我只是笑笑, 因為我還不懂.

但是現在我了解了. 其實C 的comment 並不完全正確. 我的確是某部分有工作狂的傾向.(只有一點而以嘛? =D) 而我的確是個很不黏人的女生. but I didn't lost myself. 對於音樂的執酌,其實除了自己之外, 沒有人會懂得這種莫名奇妙的堅持吧! 從小練琴, 爺爺的評論永遠是女孩子家學什麼音樂, 沒出息. 一路的反對,反對念大學, 念研究所, 到現在會說 "隔壁小孩彈琴怎麼這麼難聽, 以前聽這兩隻練都不會啊......" ......... 真的是無言.(爺啊~當年的小鬼, 現在都在博士班了啊....)不是說真的啥偉大的理想抱負, 也不會成為有名的pianist, 就只是想說點什麼來滿足心裡某部分的, 昂揚伸展的渴望. 不過依舊害羞; 恐懼站上舞台.

you said eventually I'll lost people who I care for and I definitely need to stop and hold it for a while. 我會記得, 但看到現在無敵忙的狀況, how do I say, Isn't it ironic? 若要按照電影完美的結局, 女主角是會回頭重新檢視生活. but we're in real world. 大家也只能各自保重, 繼續在自己的位置上努力奮鬥, 各自朝不同方向走去.

表面上看起來很獨立, 事實上只是死撐著什麼事都自己來. 反正搞砸了, 就學著慢慢善後. 現在這個狀況, 也只能咬咬牙, 深吸一口氣一肩扛起. 還是會莫名其妙情緒一堆. 只能很man 的轉開音響/paper/file/score, 開始上工, 試圖把那個愛哭的自己一拳打昏, 丟到密室去關起來. 學著忽略別人的眼光, 堅持自己的想法, Be strong.

這是個寂寞的城市, 而我興高采烈的和自己玩耍.

Luciano Pavarotti Is Dead at 71

Ruter


CNN: Celebrating Pavarotti's vision

New York time:
Luciano Pavarotti, the Italian singer whose ringing, pristine sound set a standard for operatic tenors of the postwar era, died Thursday at his home near Modena, in northern Italy. He was 71.

His death was announced by his manager, Terri Robson. The cause was pancreatic cancer. In July 2006 he underwent surgery for the cancer in New York, and he had made no public appearances since then. He was hospitalized again this summer and released on Aug. 25.

Like Enrico Caruso and Jenny Lind before him, Mr. Pavarotti extended his presence far beyond the limits of Italian opera. He became a titan of pop culture. Millions saw him on television and found in his expansive personality, childlike charm and generous figure a link to an art form with which many had only a glancing familiarity.

Early in his career and into the 1970s he devoted himself with single-mindedness to his serious opera and recital career, quickly establishing his rich sound as the great male operatic voice of his generation — the “King of the High Cs,” as his popular nickname had it.

By the 1980s he expanded his franchise exponentially with the Three Tenors projects, in which he shared the stage with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, first in concerts associated with the World Cup and later in world tours. Most critics agreed that it was Mr. Pavarotti’s charisma that made the collaboration such a success. The Three Tenors phenomenon only broadened his already huge audience and sold millions of recordings and videos.

And in the early 1990s he began staging Pavarotti and Friends charity concerts, performing with rock stars like Elton John, Sting and Bono and making recordings from the shows.

Throughout these years, despite his busy and vocally demanding schedule, his voice remained in unusually good condition well into middle age.

Even so, as his stadium concerts and pop collaborations brought him fame well beyond what contemporary opera stars have come to expect, Mr. Pavarotti seemed increasingly willing to accept pedestrian musical standards. By the 1980s he found it difficult to learn new opera roles or even new song repertory for his recitals.

And although he planned to spend his final years performing in a grand worldwide farewell tour, he completed only about half the tour, which began in 2004. Physical ailments limited his movement on stage and regularly forced him to cancel performances. By 1995, when he was at the Metropolitan Opera singing one of his favorite roles, Tonio in Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” high notes sometimes failed him, and there were controversies over downward transpositions of a notoriously dangerous and high-flying part.

Yet his wholly natural stage manner and his wonderful way with the Italian language were completely intact. Mr. Pavarotti remained a darling of Met audiences until his retirement from that company’s roster in 2004, an occasion celebrated with a string of “Tosca” performances. At the last of them, on March 13, 2004, he received a 15-minute standing ovation and 10 curtain calls. All told, he sang 379 performances at the Met, of which 357 were in fully staged opera productions.

In the late 1960s and ’70s, when Mr. Pavarotti was at his best, he possessed a sound remarkable for its ability to penetrate large spaces easily. Yet he was able to encase that powerful sound in elegant, brilliant colors. His recordings of the Donizetti repertory are still models of natural grace and pristine sound. The clear Italian diction and his understanding of the emotional power of words in music were exemplary.

Mr. Pavarotti was perhaps the mirror opposite of his great rival among tenors, Mr. Domingo. Five years Mr. Domingo’s senior, Mr. Pavarotti had the natural range of a tenor, exposing him to the stress and wear that ruin so many tenors’ careers before they have barely started. Mr. Pavarotti’s confidence and naturalness in the face of these dangers made his longevity all the more noteworthy.

Mr. Domingo, on the other hand, began his musical life as a baritone and later manufactured a tenor range above it through hard work and scrupulous intelligence. Mr. Pavarotti, although he could find the heart of a character, was not an intellectual presence. His ability to read music in the true sense of the word was in question. Mr. Domingo, in contrast, is an excellent pianist with an analytical mind and the ability to learn and retain scores by quiet reading.

Yet in the late 1980s, when both Mr. Pavarotti and Mr. Domingo were pursuing superstardom, it was Mr. Pavarotti who showed the dominant gift for soliciting adoration from large numbers of people. He joked on talk shows, rode horses on parade and played, improbably, a sex symbol in the movie “Yes, Giorgio.” In a series of concerts, some held in stadiums, Mr. Pavarotti entertained tens of thousands and earned six-figure fees. Presenters, who were able to tie a Pavarotti appearance to a subscription package of less glamorous concerts, found him valuable.

The most enduring symbol of Mr. Pavarotti’s Midas touch, as a concert attraction and a recording artist, was the popular and profitable Three Tenors act created with Mr. Domingo and Mr. Carreras. Some praised these concerts and recordings as popularizers of opera for mass audiences. But most classical music critics dismissed them as unworthy of the performers’ talents.

Associated Press
Luciano Pavarotti as Arturo Talbo and Joan Sutherland as Elvira in dress rehearsal for the Metropolitan Opera's production of "I Puritani" in 1976.

Mr. Pavarotti had his uncomfortable moments in recent years. His proclivity for gaining weight became a topic of public discussion. He was caught lip-synching a recorded aria at a concert in Modena, his hometown. He was booed off the stage at La Scala during 1992 appearance. No one characterized his lapses as sinister; they were attributed, rather, to a happy-go-lucky style, a large ego and a certain carelessness.

His frequent withdrawals from prominent events at opera houses like the Met and Covent Garden in London, often from productions created with him in mind, caused administrative consternation in many places. A series of cancellations at Lyric Opera of Chicago — 26 out of 41 scheduled dates — moved Lyric’s general director in 1989, Ardis Krainik, to declare Mr. Pavarotti persona non grata at her company.

A similar banishment nearly happened at the Met in 2002. He was scheduled to sing two performances of “Tosca” — one a gala concert with prices as high as $1,875 a ticket, which led to reports that the performances may be a farewell. Mr. Pavarotti arrived in New York only a few days before the first, barely in time for the dress rehearsal. On the day of the first performance, though, he had developed a cold and withdrew. That was on a Wednesday.

From then until the second scheduled performance, on Saturday, everyone, from the Met’s managers to casual opera fans, debated the probability of his appearing. The New York Post ran the headline “Fat Man Won’t Sing.” The demand to see the performance was so great, however, that the Met set up 3,000 seats for a closed-circuit broadcast on the Lincoln Center Plaza. Still, at the last minute, Mr. Pavarotti stayed in bed.

Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena, Italy, on Oct. 12, 1935. His father was a baker and an amateur tenor; his mother worked at a cigar factory. As a child he listened to opera recordings, singing along with tenor stars of a previous era, like Beniamino Gigli and Tito Schipa. He professed an early weakness for the movies of Mario Lanza, whose image he would imitate before a mirror.

As a teenager he followed studies that led to a teaching position; during these student days he met his future wife. He taught for two years before deciding to become a singer. His first teachers were Arrigo Pola and Ettore Campogalliani, and his first breakthrough came in 1961, when he won an international competition at the Teatro Reggio Emilia. He made his debut as Rodolfo in Puccini’s “Bohème” later that year.

In 1963 Mr. Pavarotti’s international career began: first as Edgardo in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities, and then in Vienna and Zurich. His Covent Garden debut also came in 1963, when he substituted for and Giuseppe di Stefano in “La Bohème.” His reputation in Britain grew even more the next year, when he sang at the Glyndebourne Festival, taking the part of Idamante in Mozart’s “Idomeneo.”

A turning point in Mr. Pavarotti’s career was his association with the soprano Joan Sutherland. In 1965 he joined the Sutherland-Williamson company on an Australian tour during which he sang Edgardo to Ms. Sutherland’s Lucia. He credited Ms. Sutherland’s advice, encouragement and example as a major factor in the development of his technique.

Further career milestones came in 1967, with Mr. Pavarotti’s first appearances at La Scala in Milan and his participation in a performance of the Verdi Requiem under Herbert von Karajan. He came to the Metropolitan Opera a year later, singing with Mirella Freni, a childhood friend, in “La Bohème.”

A series of recordings with London Records had also begun, and these excursions through the Italian repertory remain some of Mr. Pavarotti’s lasting contributions to his generation. The recordings included “L’Elisir d’Amore,” “La Favorita,” “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “La Fille du Régiment” by Donizetti; “Madama Butterfly,” “La Bohème,” “Tosca” and “Turandot” by Puccini; “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” “La Traviata” and the Requiem by Verdi; and scattered operas by Bellini, Rossini and Mascagni. There were also solo albums of arias and songs.

In 1981 Mr. Pavarotti established a voice competition in Philadelphia and was active in its operation. Young, talented singers from around the world were auditioned in preliminary rounds before the final selections. High among the prizes for winners was an appearance in a staged opera in Philadelphia in which Mr. Pavarotti would also appear.

He also gave master classes, many of which were shown on public television in the United States. Mr. Pavarotti’s forays into teaching became stage appearances in themselves, having more to do with the teacher than the students.

An Outsize Personality

In his later years Mr. Pavarotti became as much an attraction as an opera singer. Hardly a week passed in the 1990s when his name did not surface in at least two gossip columns. He could be found unveiling postage stamps depicting old opera stars or singing in Red Square in Moscow. His outsize personality remained a strong drawing card, and even his lifelong battle with his circumference guaranteed headlines: a Pavarotti diet or a Pavarotti binge provided high-octane fuel for reporters.

In 1997 Mr. Pavarotti joined Sting for the opening of the Pavarotti Music Center in war-torn Mostar, Bosnia, and Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney on a CD tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales. In 2005 he was granted Freedom of the City of London for his fund-raising concerts for the Red Cross. He also was lauded by the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, and he holds two spots in the Guinness Book of World Records: one for the greatest number of curtain calls (165), the other, held jointly with Mr. Domingo and Mr. Carreras, for the best-selling classical album of all time, the first Three Tenors album (“Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti: The Three Tenors in Concert”). But for all that, he knew where his true appeal was centered.

“I’m not a politician, I’m a musician,” he told the BBC Music Magazine in an April 1998 article about his efforts for Bosnia. “I care about giving people a place where they can go to enjoy themselves and to begin to live again. To the man you have to give the spirit, and when you give him the spirit, you have done everything.”

Mr. Pavarotti’s health became an issue in the late 1990s. His mobility onstage was sometimes severely limited because of leg problems, and at a 1997 “Turandot” performance at the Met, extras onstage surrounded him and helped him up and down steps. In January 1998, at a Met gala with two other singers, Mr. Pavarotti became lost in a trio from “Luisa Miller” despite having the music in front of him. He complained of dizziness and withdrew. Rumors flew alleging on one side a serious health problem and, on the other, a smoke screen for his unpreparedness.

The latter was not a new accusation during the 1990s. In a 1997 review for The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini accused Mr. Pavarotti of “shamelessly coasting” through a recital, using music instead of his memory, and still losing his place. Words were always a problem, and he cheerfully admitted to using cue cards as reminders.

A Box-Office Powerhouse

It was a tribute to Mr. Pavarotti’s box-office power that when, in 1997, he announced he could not or would not learn his part for a new “Forza del Destino” at the Met, the house substituted “Un Ballo in Maschera,” a piece he was ready to sing.

Around that time Mr. Pavarotti left his wife of more than three decades, Adua, to live with his 26-year-old assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani, and filing for divorce, which was finalized in October 2002. He married Ms. Mantovani in 2003. She survives him, as do three daughters from his marriage to the former Adua Veroni: Lorenza, Christina and Giuliana; and a daughter with Ms. Mantovani, Alice.

Mr. Pavarotti had a home in Manhattan but also maintained ties to his hometown, living when time permitted in a villa in Santa Maria del Mugnano, outside Modena.

He published two autobiographies, both written with William Wright: “Pavarotti: My Own Story” in 1981 and “Pavarotti: My World” in 1995.

In interviews Mr. Pavarotti could turn on a disarming charm, and if he invariably dismissed concerns about his pop projects, technical problems and even his health, he made a strong case for what his fame could do for opera itself.

“I remember when I began singing, in 1961,” he told Opera News in 1998, “one person said, ‘run quick, because opera is going to have at maximum 10 years of life.’ At the time it was really going down. But then, I was lucky enough to make the first ‘Live From the Met’ telecast. And the day after, people stopped me on the street. So I realized the importance of bringing opera to the masses. I think there were people who didn’t know what opera was before. And they say ‘Bohème,’ and of course ‘Bohème’ is so good.’ ”

About his own drawing power, his analysis was simple and on the mark.

“I think an important quality that I have is that if you turn on the radio and hear somebody sing, you know it’s me.” he said. “You don’t confuse my voice with another voice.”