Comic-Con and Das Rheingold

(Pictured: the Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels team: Foschini, McGuinness, Salicrup, Petranek. Not shown: Nantier)


Comic Con? Wasn't that in July?

Yes, but that's why this is called an occasional blog...Because I only occasionally have time and opportunity to post when I'm not on the road and even only occasionally then, too.

So....I went to Comicon this year--just one day, and my first time at the San Diego mega-event. Although I've been to WonderCon in SF before, Comic-Con is huge in comparison. Actually, it's just huge. Period. While there, I met the wonderful team at Papercutz (Terry Nantier, Jim Salicrup, and Michael Petranek)--the Italian writer behind the Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels, Michele Foschini, and his girlfriend Caterina. Overwhelming, but great fun.

Right after Comic-Con, my Baroque chamber group, the Vinaccesi Ensemble, performed a program of eighteenth century solo cantatas by Benedetto Vinaccesi at Old First Concerts in SF with our new harpsichord player, Susie Fong. We now also have a new Baroque cellist, Hallie Pridham. Welcome, Hallie and Susie!

The Vinaccesi Ensemble will be making our first recording this fall, with a grant from the SF Friends of Chamber Music. We'll be joined by bass Kirk Eichelberger for a CD of Northern Italian solo cantatas from around 1700. We'll be on Centaur Recordings, with Michael Demeyer as the engineer. More news soon...

Somewhat shameless plug: next up for me is the role of Freia in Das Rheingold with Verismo Opera. The first performance will be Oct. 8 in Pacifica, and it runs the rest of the month in Vallejo, ending with a final performance on Nov. 6 at the Hillside Club in Berkeley. Freia is a kick: I'd say "ho-jo-to-ho," except that's the wrong Ring opera. This is my first Wagner opera from the other side of the stage lights, and I'm enjoying it immensely. Do come and see it if you're around.

If you're interested, you can read "The Curse and Glory of the Ring! , Jean Bartlett's article in the Pacifica Tribune for the Pacifica performance.

Happy New Year to those for whom this is the time of the New Year!

Music I'm studying and learning: the roles of Desdemona and Cleopatra for upcoming performances in 2012. I'm also watching videos of Otello (the Verdi), Giulio Cesare, and Othello (the Shakespeare)

What I'm reading: Modern Poems on the Bible, ed. David Curzon; Dragon's Bone by Patricia Briggs (a re-read), and more...

Back from Deutschland

This past spring, I did more than my normal share of crossing the Atlantic pond back and forth and then back again, in too short a time span, with meetings and auditions in Germany, Italy, and Austria. I made some great new friends, enjoyed visiting with some old ones, and got some positive results from the whole effort(more on those when contracts are firmly in hand...)

While I was in D-land, I started studying scores by some wonderful Jewish composers who perished in the Holocaust, in preparation for a program I'm putting together for 2012/13. Looking through these pieces evokes such unspeakable sadness. It's horrible when a life is cut short by human action, be it the life of a talented young artist, a mature composer, or "just" a normal person. The Kaleko/ Garner project, Chanson fuer Morgen--which we premiered in April--addresses this, too.

Now that I'm back, though, it's Vinaccesi time. Is that some kind of rare northern Italian vintage micro-brew? Not one bit, not even a sip.

Besides being devilishly difficult to spell, Benedetto Vinaccesi is the name of an obscure seventeenth century Italian composer, most of whose works didn't survive to the present. He's also the namesake for the Baroque chamber group I'm in, the Vinaccesi Ensemble. We are recording all 8 of his extant solo cantatas later this summer and we'll be performing 6 of them at the end of July in SF. They are quirky, expressive pieces, and well worth investigating.

Shameless plug: the Ensemble has some great players and singers: Jonathan Smucker (tenor), Kindra Scharich (mezzo-soprano), Kirk Eichelberger (bass), Amy Brodo (cello), Sarge Gerbode (archlute), and Jonathan Davis (harpsichord). Check us out at Old First Concerts on July 29! If you mention this blog when you say "hi" afterwards, you'll make me smile.


What I'm reading: I just finished Alyson Noel's fabulous Evermore YA series--a coming of age sextet that deals with transformation and spiritual growth. Noel takes the issues, characters, and voices she first began developing in Faking 19 and hones them to a high level.

What I'm listening to: The Ring, Das Rheingold! The SF Ring was all-around fab. Now it's my turn to learn Das Rheingold from the inside out, as I prepare to sing Freia this fall. Plus a fun jazz CD by a new friend from Berlin, Bettina Pohle.