It's Valentine's Day! We thought about some of our favourite romantic arias or duets for the holiday and discovered that picking romantic music isn't always so easy in opera!
Gianna Wichelow, Senior Communications Manager, Creative - My choice is less about sentiment, more about seduction: I’m a sucker for a bass-baritone voice. Ruggero Raimondi as Don Giovanni sings the serenade, “Deh vieni alla finestra” with that unique voice of his, redolent of dark, spiced chocolate. His “non esser gioa mia con me crudele” (Do not, my joy, be cruel to me) has a slight hint of menace. Of all the versions I’ve heard of this, he brings to it the greatest sense of the Don as a seducer. Watch it here.
Bearitone Bear, Social Media Engagement Officer - Anything from Walton's The Bear.
Claire Morley, Communications Assistant - For me, it’s a tie. The final duet in Der Rosenkavalier, “Ist ein Traum / Spür nur dich” when Sophie and Octavian are finally able to be together (and for me, nothing beats Barbara Bonney and Anne Sofie von Otter’s rendition here) is heavenly. And “Che farò senza Euridice” from Orfeo ed Euridice, especially when sung by countertenor Andreas Scholl, is heartbreaking in its simple longing for one’s beloved. Listen to it here.
Cameron McPhail, baritone, Ensemble Studio member - That's easy. My choice would be "Within this frail crucible of light" from The Rape of Lucretia, because when you're an opera singer and away from your wife on Valentine's Day, you're bitter, lonely and wish everyone was feeling like you! ;) Hypothetically!
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For Episode 8, “State of the Nations”, we welcome back Opera Canada magazine’s editor, Wayne Gooding; opera blogger and journalist John Gilks as well as Claire Morley, the COC’s Communications Assistant. Gianmarco Segato, the COC’s Adult Programs Manager, is your host.
Our panel looks at the COC’s recently announced 2013-2014 season, and opinions are fired up by Sir Peter Jonas’s recent survey of the current German opera scene in the January issue of Opera. Spurred on by a recent conversation on operaramblings, we tackle the often polarizing views of opera sung in translation and then lighten things up with our favourite seat-jumping tales, inspired by an interesting Twitter conversation.
To end the podcast, we offer up our monthly list of favourite historic recordings, DVDs, and YouTube clips.
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Sara Fulgoni in the COC production of Bluebeard's Castle. Photo: Michael Cooper © 2001