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Nutcracker Continues Successful Collaborations
by Kathryn Bumpass |
Following on from the success of The Carmen Project this past October, Opera San Luis Obispo continues its commitment to arts collaboration with seasonal performances of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet. The Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo will once again join forces with the Opera San Luis Obispo Orchestra, the Los Osos Middle School and Morro Bay High School choruses, both directed by Colleen Wall, to perform this beloved ballet in December. Performances will be directed by Brian Asher Alhadeff, Artistic and General Director of Opera San Luis Obispo. San Luis Obispo performances are scheduled for December 14, at 2:00pm and 7:00pm, and December 15 at 2:00pm, at the Performing Arts Center on the Cal Poly campus.
The Nutcracker will also be performed at the Grenada Theater in Santa Barbara by the State Street Ballet and the OperaSLO Orchestra on December 21, at 2:00pm and 7:30pm, and December 22 at 2:00pm. If you miss the performances in San Luis Obispo, you can catch those in Santa Barbara.
In San Luis Obispo the performances will be held at the Performing Arts Center on the Cal Poly campus. For tickets go online at Opera SLO or call the ticket office at the PAC, 805-756-4849.
Spotlight on Anna Netrebko
Anna Netrebko, one of today's reigning divas, is known for the special color of her voice, her range and the agility required for coloratura that has characterized most of her roles to date. She is now moving into a different kind of role and different kind of vocal personality, as is made manifest by her performance of the role of Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, the Metropolitan's season opener in which she stars.
Netrebko was recently interviewed by Scott Barnes for the magazine Opera News (October 2013) in which she discussed her current and future career in refreshingly unguarded terms. Barnes says of her, "I have met plenty of dazzling people in my time, but Netrebko is more charismatic than any of them; at forty-one she seems lit from within and animated by a charming, benign mania."
Until recently Netrebko has grounded her reputation in the bel canto repertory and established her signature roles as Lucia, Anna Bolena and Manon. Now, at her vocal and personal peak, she looks to weightier roles, such as Onegin's Tatiana. In a recent review of the Met production (Opera News, December 2013), F. Paul Driscoll said, "Netrebko was in glorious form, her soprano gorgeously colored, her phrasing incisive and her command of Tatiana's progression from innocent dreamer to restless aristocrat altogether admirable."
Alexander Pushkin's novel Eugene Onegin is a familiar part of Netrebko's Russian literary heritage. "I know the novel and Russian history since I was very little. I know the opera very well. You must prepare yourself quite good before the character will emerge naturally. Music is the most important thing – you have to be very truthful to the vocal score."
Barnes sounded her out on the challenge of performing "live in HD". She said, "It's hard when we have everything go to HD right away. Do you think that I think I am young, beautiful and perfect? I have to put the worry aside while I'm doing it". She adds with characteristic candor, "I understand that I will never be back to that girl that I was. I was very skinny, I was acrobat and ballerina, and I didn't sing Verdi! I just have to change and adapt my style."
Netrebko is a modern if unassuming celebrity. She has a video blog, "Ask Anna" in which she responds unaffectedly to questions both vocal and personal. Barnes says she "reveals a charming, enthusiastic, generous, honest and simple woman, answering each inquiry with great sincerity and no attitude."
Anna and her partner, baritone Erwin Schrott, have founded the Anna and Erwin Foundation – Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott for Kids, which, according to Barnes, "funds children's service organizations in Russia, Austria and Spain, with more to come". Clearly this is an artist who is not only a servant of her art, but of her social consciousness as well.
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