Re-Joyce! Another Master Class

This one is from the Royal Opera House; and it just appeared the other day on the tube. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I wanted to share it right away! I will be tuning in as soon as I post this. Watch, listen, learn, and enjoy!!

Gratuitous Friday – [Fred Plotkin's] Conversation with Luca Pisaroni

Usually these gratuitous posts are videos of a single song or aria. But today, we make an exception for our Luca. Here is an interview he did recently with Fred Plotkin. (Not so much an interview, but more of a lecture with a guest. There's some interesting discussion of Cosi (the blue kool-aid one and the Glyndebourne one), Don Giovanni and a few other operas.)

Opera Fugit (Especially on YewToob)

The fleetingness of opera online is well known—especially on that one video upload website that you and I watch on the tube. However, these selections seem likely to stay around, since they're published by the EuroArts Channel. (They also have a lot of non-opera concert performances as well.) 

Highlights include:

• Alcina from Vienna with Anja Harteros and Vesselina Kassarova
• Carmen directed by Martin Kusej
• Philip Glass' The Perfect American
• Peter Konwitchky's spare Traviata
• The "wild west" L'Elisir with Rolando Villazon and Miah Persson.

Most do not have subtitles, but hey, we're opera fans, we can figure that part out.

So many operas…so little time.

Operas Online (Now and Later) from La Monnaie

This is a quick reminder to myself, as well as to my readers that La Monnaie makes all of its productions available online, for at least a limited period of time—not only on their own website, but on other platforms, too. (For example, Dialogues des Carmelites is no longer on the La Monnaie site, but you can still see it via OperaVision.)

Their productions are always interesting, often provocative, and feature outstanding directors, conductors, and singers.

So many operas...so little time.

Gratuitous Friday – Jakub Józef Orliński, Countertenor

I don't know how this young Polish countertenor snuck onto the scene, but I am glad I stumbled upon him:

I even missed his master class with JDD at Julliard (and oddly, sadly, this video seems to be a trimmed version of his session.)

He's so expressive, even in a casual setting:

Oh, and in his spare time, he like to break dance:

For more about JJO, here's an article/interview with him from about two years ago. Who knows what he's up to these days? Let's Google and find out!

P.S. I just found this interview that's just about a month old. 

P.P.S. A little gratuitous beefcake: