f.o.w.

its amazing to me how some of the world can still be so disconnected...i can't imagine what it must be like in places more remote than sardinia where i am now (which isn't remote at all actually in the big picture). still...finding internet has been a problem and hence the lack of posts.

i'm in the final throws of finishing a production of rigoletto here. its my first verdi, and i have to admit i've fallen hard for mr joe green. its so strange to me how i can start a production with a certain level of apathy, the head fills with other thoughts of other places and other things, but without fail i am sucked into the work at hand (moral of the lesson....focus always on the work and the rest will be what it is). it is good to have the ol'crew back together here, members of the aot company, and we are doing a good work indeed. we've turned rigoletto a bit on its head...the man that loses his identity and become a clown (rather than the typical opposite reading of the text) through his quest for revenge (how thing that line is between revenge and justice...but yet how wide). and...there is something tremendously special with our little cara nome, but i can't reveal it just yet. i'll post a video when its available.

i'm back to amsterdam on monday and eager to begin work at the opera studio nederland. we have an exciting season planned...don giovanni, figaro, boheme, and more. it is going to be busy and gratifying. i have also started work to do, in ernest, on griselda which will be in baltimore in february. it is a very tricky piece, both historically and dramaturgically, and even musically.

focus onthe work, focus onthe work, focus onthe work....

my how time flies

the problem with a blog is that those times when one has the most to say tend to be the times one has the least amount of free time in which to write.

such with the case with my embarrassing lack of blogging over the last several month. first came "aureliano in palmira" in the festival della valle d'itria in martina franca. it was an overwhelming experience, in both good and bad ways. in the end i think we made it work, but it was the toughest child to deliver, with lots of factors working against it. in the end the piece was extremely powerful, and exploration of the cascading repercussions of the decisions leaders make, particularly those leading to the current crises in syria. the final images were of that very struggle, on a day when hundreds were killed in protests there. that work connected so deeply with why i do opera, and contrasted so sharply with the way the production was made (in a way so deeply unartistic for my tastes, so focused on ego and pride and trivialities) that it caused a real crises for me. i left feeling numb and unsure about a satisfying future in this profession.

that followed by a production of don giovanni with students in milan in six days. and yet, i was more proud of that then anything i've ever done. the students were so willing to give, to work, to try, to open themselves to something truly unconventional. it was a wonderful experience and i was moved my their utter commitment and energy. on the heels of that was dialogues of the carmelites, in what i hope is just the beginning of a long relationship with the piece. it was too much for italian audiences, but we knew it would be. i didn't get the first act quite write (neither did poulenc if i must be honest), but the second half was magical, deeply sad, moving. i was very proud of it and of the bravery of the young singers. now i'm in sardinia where we've just opened "riders to the sea", another very heavy work, but one in which i've found such beauty. it is truly captivating when this woman can finally say that she no longer fears, neither life nor death, and that she has found absolute peace. the production is off next week to the netherlands and i begin work on rigoletto.

in the meantime i'm learning the ropes of the my new position at the studio, where the members for this season will arrive next week. lots to do there, and my thoughts are now turning towards next season's projects, "where the wild things are/l'enfant et les sortileges" and "griselda". peter sellars' production just got an interesting review in the times. i'm sorry i couldn't see it.

i fly back to amsterdam finally tomorrow and look forward to an exciting week...during which i will hopefully write more!

la serenissima

in venice (and after having my computer stolen) i have very little access to the internet world. that's fine, or would be fine, but i have a huge rossini project to start in a week and a half and i'm feeling a bit isolated. its so lovely though to be back in venice. we lived here eight years ago, and now to come back feeling like a really more settled european, and person in general, feels great. to know these streets by heart is heartening, and there is so much to see and breath in. i love it here, i don't think i'd want to return to live, but for a long long visit it would be nice.

in the meantime things are moving ahead with plans for next year's crop at the studio. i'll be instituting monthly performances, feeling strongly that singers learns best by doing. i have some great projects and important collaborations planned. at the same time we are all waiting with baited breath for the new "kunst" plan to come down from the hague. it is going to be scary, but art has a way of always surprising. the kabinet has said they want to stress quality over everything, and for us its important that they new they cannot be supportive of quality in opera if they cut the pool from which young singers spring.

more later about rossini, but now to each some tiramisu and to enjoy a bike ride!

artistic director opera studio nederlands

this past week i was appointed the new artistic director of the netherlands opera studio, this country's premier training institution for young emerging opera singers. it is a huge leap for me that still allows me to work freelance as a director, but to also have a real impact on the future of the art form and those that make it. i start officially in september, but will start the planning for full and exciting season now. it is very exciting and very big news!!!! yipee...

and some big big news...

which i can in any way reveal yet...sorry! but by this time next week, watch out!

a date with nikos

these past three days i've been in brainstorming sessions for "aureliano in palmira" with choreographer nikos lagousakos. the concept for this production deals with the repercussions choices, choices of power over personal, love over greater good. in particular it will deal with the modern socio-political crisis in the mid-east, especially syria, and how the areas colonial and native past led and continues to lead to its present. we're doing this with the addition of a danced character, the older version of our central zenobia, looking back and judging her own most pivotal choice. the chorus then, which already has an enhanced role in this opera compared to rossini's other operas, become a greek chorus, the tool of zenobia's own self-trial. nikos will be working with both the dancer luis frank and our chorus to develope a physical language. our sessions have been intense, mapping out the entire production, and exciting.

my great love is movement in space, the body in motion. i'm not trained in any way as a dancer, but i see the physical body on stage as an instrument of expression. my style of directing has long incorporated a stylized use of gesture, rejecting naturalism at moments to opt for physical expression. i'm over the moon to now have a dancer to work with to refine this language and find new ways to connect it with narrative.

yipee a triumph

dido and aeneas opened this past weekend in rotterdam. it was great fun with a wonderful group of artists. i have to say that the show looked beautiful, much because of my incredible lighting designer marc heinz. we were really able to create something that felt simple, sparse, empty, and yet was very full in sensitivity and beauty. also my incredible assistant alison wong allowed for a level of detail the production has never had before. i was very proud. and we got a wonderful review in the volkskrant today! here it is:

The Rotterdam Operadagen Festival began with an exceptionally successful Dido and Aeneas. On the Theater Square, a giant apple refers to the forbidden fruit - and with a small jump - paradise lost, the theme of the festival. Within the confines of the theater the motto is shaped of Henry Purcell's opera about heroes who conquer the world but ultimately prove to be only men, in all their vulnerability.

In the room of the royal widow, Dido sits under a single light. Anonymous men and women walk mechanically back and forth across the stage, putting chairs down and picking them up again as an infinite repetition of a liveliness which has lost all meaning in light of Dido's sorrow. A dead tree stump is the only decoration in the sober image. Subtly, it is featured alongside Dido, as a finished companion. The queen has her mantle exchanged for a robe. At a kitchen table, she sits quietly suffering.

The American designer and director Timothy Nelson brings the show close to the public. From the audience you can see the musicians of the Flemish ensemble Scherzi Musicali, the gamba, recorder and theorbo, playing. You can almost touch Rosanne van Sandwijk (Dido) and Olivier Berten (Aeneas). Nelson's merit is that he does not let the drama choke on one dimensional grief. Anno 2011 Dido swigs her antidepressants like Russians their vodka. After use, she throws the bottle over her shoulder. As Aeneas, her adored hero, enters in a dull gray suit, the contrast between Dido's text and his appearance works to be somewhat laughable.

The 17th-century Purcell, as a psychologist avant la lettre, meticulously recorded the various voices in the head of a woman who, after losing her loved one, sinks into her grief, which also has a dark side. Musical director Nicolas Achten has enough shades with a chorus of four voices and a small ensemble to provide warm weathered colors.

Rosanne van Sandwijk sets Dido's suffering subtly, with small gestures and nuances in a voice that seeks out her role nicely. Her dark side is a bit under emphasized, but the end is crushingly beautiful. Dido lets her robe slip from her shoulders and vulnerably sings her lamentation barefoot in a white shirt. Slowly she steps off the stage and walks into the hall. Down the aisle she disappears and dissolves into nothingness.