ARIA SERIOUS?

A bit of business: San Diego Opera's Administrative office will be closed starting Thursday, December 23rd at 2 PM and will not reopen until 8:30 AM on Monday, December 27 th . We will also be closed December 31 and will reopen at 8:30 AM on Monday, January 3, 2011. As always, our website http://www.sdopera.com/ is on for you 24/7. The Aria Serious crew will be gone beginning tomorrow and will return January 3, 2011. We need a final hurrah up in the mountains before the season starts in force. Happy holidays and a safe and wonderful New Year. Stay thirsty my friends!

A wonderful heartwarming story about our dear friend, the singer Zheng Cao , who is fighting stage 4 lung cancer, winning, and fell in love along the way...

Thanks for the tunes!

In celebration of her Company debut with us next month, soprano Lise Lindstrom sat down with Opera News to talk about how she became the world's leading ice-princess. You can access the article online here , but we prefer the print version that has a big ' ol San Diego Opera mention in the headline (page 16).

Over the weekend: - A look at how NYCO turned their Company around in a time of economic upheaval. Their mission? Be daring. - Opera is big in China suddenly. A look at the art form's explosion in popularity . - Opera (and classical music) must make a splash to be heard? Does opera need a re-branding to make it "cool?" And here we thought we needed to make good music.

Friday, and thus time to ask: what are you listening to this weekend? To be honest this weekend kind of snuck up on us - and we haven't given our listening plans much thought. We have Ferruccio Furlanetto's new album of Russian lieder unopened on our desk so we'll probably go with that. But we're open to suggestions. So, if there are any "best of 2010 recordings" out there that we should know about, share them in the comment section below. And please, make it a good one!

Sure, he only composed one opera, but man, what an opera it is. Happy birthday Beethoven. May you be imortalized in a bust on Schroeder's piano.

A look at what it takes to make it as a singer here in San Diego in the wonderful Voice of San Diego Arts Blog. Many of you are singers, what is your story?

We really like to picture this guy a Boba Fett , but we know it's not true. Still, a former bounty hunter is making his Met debut later this month . And we imagine some days, the job descriptions read the same.

Once again, Science! and opera have come together - this time in the announcement that Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History In Time" is getting an operatic adaption to premiere at the Met in the near future. Uh, near future in human terms, not in the scope of the cosmological time. We thought we should clarify here. While the article is in French, we'll be following this one closely . One thing is for sure - opening night is sure to be a big bang.

On this week's podcast Dr. Nic explores the scene in Faust that you've probably never seen .

Over the weekend: - A Q&A with Tony Hall, CEO at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. - The political opera surrounding opening night at La Scala .

Happy Friday! What are you listening to this weekend? The Aria Serious crew will break with tradition and watch opera instead of listening to opera this weekend by heading out the movies to see the broadcast of Don Carlo . We know. We've often commented that we're not fans of these movies - and we're not - we find them boring because part of our opera experience joy is deciding for what to look at on stage and not relying on the decisions of a camera director. The movies make us feel... claustrophobic - for lack of a better word. But Don Carlo is one of our favorite operas of all time, and we're really looking to seeing Ferruccio "Ace of Basss" Furlanetto sing King Philip - a role he did for us a few seasons back which we maintain is still one of our finest moments on our stage. Besides, there's nothing like sipping coke through a red vine straw at 9 AM in the morning. After that we'll be taking it easy - it should be hot here so we'll catch up o

Protesters at Milan's La Scala turned violent on the opening night of the opera over the government's proposed budget cuts supporting the arts . Because nothing screams "civil disobedience" like well coiffed opera goers.

Another article about the death of classical music, this one actually filled with some stimulating ideas . But then why would classical music ever think it could complete with pop music which by its very definition is popular music for the masses? No classical music is classical music. It's a niche market. It's exciting. It's very much alive. And it doesn't need to apologize for being what it is. No, it can't compete with bands like U2 or whoever else sells out stadiums these days, but why would it want to?

Ever wonder why Richard Strauss uses the waltz throughout his comic opera Der Rosenkavalier ? Considering that the story takes place in mid-18th century Vienna (a time when the waltz had not quite developed yet) it seems a bit anachronistic. This week's podcast delves into the mystery, and has some good music to boot. You can download the podcast here.

Over the weekend: - Our dear friends Stephen Costello (who made his Company debut with us last season as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet ) and Elizabeth Futral (who was here last season as Violetta in La traviata ) will be taking over The Kennedy Center stage tomorrow evening . It should be good. Any Aria Serious readers going? - We found this bit of news exciting not because it features pop-opera ( popera ?) star Katherine Jenkins, but because there actually is a Dr. Who Christmas Special . - Although purist often scoff at his name, major points for Andrea Bocelli and a story about the healing power of music.

It's Friday! You made it! What are you listening to this weekend? The Aria Serious crew will be listening to The Elixir of Love . We're also catching up with Sufjan Stevens new LP The Age of Adz and The Radio Dept.'s Clinging to a Scheme . After that we'll be out and about - for our San Diego readers there is a lot going on this weekend including the North Park Toyland Parade , December Nights , The South Park Walkabout and the SoNo Park Holiday Fest Chili Cookoff and Beer Garden . We make a mean chili in case you were wondering as we have a liberal hand with "the Merciless Peppers of Quetzalacatenango, grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum..." Share your listening plans down below and please, make it a good one!

If you can get by the odd robotic voices, a sad, funny and true conversation every opera singer has had in the past 24 hours...

It's only four weeks and 2 days late but our newest podcast is now up online. We apologize for the delay - but with vacations, technical difficulties and a few other factors, we've had quite a bit of a delay. But don't worry, we'll be back to our regular schedule soon. We think this one is worth the wait however since it covers one of our personal favorite operas - Turandot - and the grand choruses that run throughout it. You can download the podcast here . We hope you enjoy it. And thanks for waiting!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. - English National Opera is under fire for their staging of Don Giovanni over graphic rape scenes . What's your take on stagings such as this one? - Closer to home, Rigoletto opened up in Los Angeles . - It's called the "Opera" watch and it's incredibly sexy , reminding us of The Nautilus from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea . But for $1.2 million I expected it to give us mastery over time.

Over the weekend: - Lohengrin opened up in Los Angeles . - Pop star Rufus Wainwright begins a residency at Royal Opera House. - A bit of business: the San Diego Opera offices will be closed beginning Thursday, November 25, 2010 and will reopen on Monday, November 29, 2010. Our website is always on at http://www.sdopera.com/ . Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Friday! What are you listening to this weekend? The Aria Serious crew will be getting busy with Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande since we've never listened to this one in its entirety. After that we'll be catching up with the new Belle and Sebastian LP Write About Love among others. Forecast calls for rain this weekend. So it'll be a perfect time to stay in front of the fire, with tunes on the radio while my friends humbly school me in German board games. Stay thirsty my friends!

You already know we love science and music, so we're pretty darn excited with this article about acoustic scientists recording a pre - Incan shell flute. And yes, you can even hear it being played . Which leads us to ask: does anyone know of a culture of civilization that doesn't have music? Seems to be a universal thing that binds us all together.

It's not the first time a mezzo has gone soprano. Joan Sutherland started her career as a mezzo before taking on coloratura roles, even our dear friend Priti Gandhi has made the switch from mezzo to soprano, to name just a few. It's an exciting change and one that opens new career goals but we've never heard it compared to a "sex change operation" until today. Still, here's a fascinating article about the wonderful mezzo - oops - we mean soprano Elza van den Heever on making the change . It's a fascinating article, even if a bit overdramatic, but then again we are talking about opera and we have a flair for the overdramatic. It's part of our charm,

We love it when worlds collide and we especially love it when the comic and opera worlds collide. A quick trip to Santa Barbara this weekend brought us to Metro Comic Saturday morning. We had popped in to pick up X'ed Out by Charles Burns but spent a good hour browsing the store when we discovered P. Craig Russel's Opera Adaptions Vol. 3 . Having never heard of Mr. Russell but totally fans of opera (duh) and comics we jumped up and down like a, well, like a kid in a comic book store. After googling Mr. Russell we were amazed to find that late last week, just days before we discovered the book on the out-of-print shelf in the comic book store, his adaption of Salome (one of the operas included in volume 3) had been re-released as a digital comic. And to celebrate this release, Mr. Russell had done some wonderful promotional segments. And so, here is where you can watch Mr. Russell talk about adapting Salome to comic form . Here are the original thumbnail sketches to the Salom

Over the weekend: - Baroque opera finally returned to Vienna (as did Anja Harteros - she sings her first Marschallin with us in April). - We went comic book shopping this weekend and we're mighty pleased with our find (to the left).

Happy Friday! What are you listening to this weekend? The Aria Serious crew will be listening to Intermezzo by Richard Strauss . We've been in a Strauss kick lately, in anticipation of Der Rosenkavalier and we've yet to give Intermezzo a listen so we figured, hey, why not give something new a try. Share you plans in the comment section below. And please, make it a good one!

Sure, Lise has talked about it before with us , but our friends over at Florida Grand Opera actually sat Lise down in front of a camera to ask her about her sudden Met debut as Turandot last season. See, Lise is currently getting ready to open FGO's season as the icy princess, and then hopefully she can catch some sun and some tasty stone crabs before heading over to us in January to reprise what is clearly one of her signature roles.

We here at Aria Serious are fans of science! in case you haven't noticed, and were even more excited when science! is combined with music. So we were happy to learn about Jazzbot - a robot that can jam with musicians by learning their styles and mimicking them . Can classical music be far behind? (And bonus the programmers who programmed the "head bob" - nice touch).

Or, does the world even need saving? An interesting look at how new vocal works and avant opera can increase attendance and make vocal music interesting again. We obviously didn't get the memo here at Aria Serious; we've always thought vocal music was interesting.

Let's dance! Why? Podcast Monday is back. This week? Dr. Nic explores dance in Bizet's Carmen . Our podcasts are always free and you can download them here .

Over the weekend: - Opera singer Shirley Verrett passed away late last week at 79. Her obituary is a fascinating portrait of passionate artist breaking racial stereotypes . - Is Opera Cleveland the next casualty of the economy? - The Met Opera after four years of Gelb . - Not opera but cool: They recreated the instruments from Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights." How do they sound? Horrible. No word on if they were played as depicted in the painting. Yes, Flue Butt, I'm looking at you.

Happy November, Dear Readers! Opera season is right around the corner! To celebrate, we're holding a contest. A contest where you can win free tickets, go backstage and meet the cast of one of our operas! Since you read us here at Aria Serious, or are a fan on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, we know you love opera. And really, who doesn't love opera once they've heard it? Since opera, like all good art, is an intensely personal experience we want to hear from you about how opera has changed your life and inspires you. And we want you to make a video about it. The rules: - We're looking for a short video on how opera has changed your life. By short we mean no more than three minutes and by video we mean any type of video that you can easily make and upload to Youtube. Your cellphone camera will be fine, your fancy HD camera will be fine as well. This is not the Jean-Luc Godard opera video contest. We'll hold that one next year. - Be creative. Be honest. Be passion

Friday, the best of the weekdays, but only because of what follows it. Time to ask: what are you listening to this weekend? We're ashamed to admit it but we're skipping on the opera this weekend as we have far too much going on. The San Diego Beer Week is on tap , but really, when isn't it beer week in San Diego? There's also a robot expo in Riverside that is beckoning to us. Robots and beer! Boop beep. Closer to home there's a Steampunk Art Show in Oceanside this Friday. Free parking for airships! Our music time will be spent at Sezio's Four Day Weekend at the Sushi Gallery which actually started last night with the wonderful The Tree Ring and ends on Sunday with the equally wonderful Avi Buffalo with a bunch of other great bands in between. Share your listening plans in the comment section and make it a great weekend! Steampunk dog in photo by Stephane Halleux

As we mentioned a few months back, our long time Chorus Master, Timothy Todd Simmons, left us to become General Manager of New Orleans Opera. We now have something new to add - three new things to add in fact - our Acting Chorus Masters for the 2011 season. CHARLES PRESTINARI Acting Chorus Master, Turandot Dr. Charles Prestinari currently serves as Chorus Master of the New York City Opera, a position he has held since 2008; prior to that he was assistant chorus master from 2004-2007. At New York City Opera, he has prepared and assisted in preparation for opera choruses on over 40 different operas. While obtaining graduate degrees in choral conducting from Indiana University, he held the position of Chorus Master of the Indiana University Opera Theatre for seasons 2001 through 2003 and opera coach from 2001-through 2004 with that organization and on the faculty of the IU School of Music. He has also held accompanist positions at the Brevard Summer Music Festival in North Carolina and th

Over the weekend: - Forget comics! Is opera the next big thing at the movies? - A call for salary reductions at Royal Opera House.

Happy Spooktacular Friday! Time to ask what we always ask: vhat are you going to listen to this veekend , mwahahaha ? OK, fine, we've been dipping into the candy corn a little early. We're starting Saturday morning with Britten's Turn of the Screw for a little Gothic horror this Halloween weekend. Then we'll turn up the Bauhaus on Sunday and pass candy out to the kids in our neighborhood. Then we're locking the doors and turning off the lights - The Walking Dead premieres on AMC at 10 PM and we've been big fans of the comic. We're keeping our undead fingers crossed the tv show will live up to our expectations. Share your plans down below and please, make it a great one!

We're firm believers that it should be correct to include an exclamation point after science! We just love science! so much. We love it even more when opera is involved. Like in this story here of an opera singer who received a double lung transplant and continued to sing .

A message from our dear friends, the opera singers Patricia Racette and her partner Beth Clayton.

As one who grew up in the 80's and spent Saturday nights watching the " WWF's Main Event" with religious devotion this one really speaks to us here at Aria Serious. New York's Performance Lab 115 has taken the first two operas of Wagner's Ring Cycle and moved them to the world of 1980's professional wrestling and replaced Wagner's sublime music with 80's metal. Now, if only they sold Hot-Pockets at the concession stand would my childhood be complete. You can read about "The Ring Cycle Part 1 +2" here . In the meantime, we're looking for cheap flights and our old Poison concert t-shirts...

But it would be cool if we were. Joking aside, interesting to see how this story is still relevant to today's audience... I mean if you add a renegade sub, nukes and a very angry whale. And classic lines such as "I'd strike the sun if it insulted me." Epic. Coming straight to DVD we imagine in the very near future.

We here at Aria Serious love stories like these - when soprano Stephanie Weiss returns to San Diego for Der Rosenkavalier she'll also be making a homecoming. Stephanie attended La Jolla Country Day School when she was younger and started singing as part of the on-campus Madrigals. This eventually blossomed into a professional singing career. Our friends at the Torrey Times have a short interview they conducted with Stephanie which you can read here . Expect to hear more about this in the coming months!

Ah, the Walkman, responsible for headphone hair all through the 80's. Sony has announced the retirement of the Walkman today. It seems it was no match for the MP3 player. But did you know that we have opera to thank for the Walkman? Indeed, it was originally an in-house invention so a Sony chairman could listen to opera on his frequent flights overseas . Just another way opera makes living life better.

The movies Back to the Future came out 25 years ago today and we wouldn't be doing our jobs properly if we didn't mark this occassion with a Pepsi commercial featuring a young Michael J. Fox AND opera. Thanks to our friends over at Opera Colorado for the tip.

- Live in San Diego and have nothing planned tonight? Our first Community Conversation of the season is happening tonight at 7 PM at the Neurosciences Institute. The conversation will be about myth and Puccini's opera Turando t. The conversation will feature our very own Dr. Nic Reveles and the founding curator of the Joseph Campbell Archive, Dr. Jonathan Young. A few seats are still available and must be RSVP'd here . Oh, and it's free. - Did you attend Dr. Nic's cooking class at Great News! on Friday? Let us know what you thought. And thanks for coming! While the first one sold-out there are three more cooking classes inspired by the other three operas of the season.

Friday, the best day of the work week, and time to ask: what are you listening to this weekend? With Halloween around the corner we're going to give Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle a listen for a little gothic horror. We're also going to hit Amoeba's second annual Classical Music sale this weekend as we'll be in LA. Is there anything we should be looking for? Let us know. We're also going to give the French pop band Revolver a careful close listen. We heard a webcast of them from CMJ and really liked what we heard. It was only after reading a bit more about them that we learned that they're classically trained and cite Benjamin Britten as one of their influences. They're debut LP "Music for a While" also shares the name of one of Henry Purcell's greatest works. This just might be our favorite music discovery of the year. Uh, so far... Have a great weekend!

In case you forgot how much joy music can bring (I know, we're preaching to the choir since you're reading this blog) take a look at this video below. So next time you're having a bad day, close the blinds, grab a pencil, turn it up and get into it!

The Aria Serious crew has just discovered a delightful interview featuring our dear friend Ferruccio Furlanetto conducted by the equally wonderful Eduardo Chama . Those of you who are regular readers here will recall Ferruccio and Eduardo performed together as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Don Quixote with us a few years back. Their chemistry onstage was magical. It seems the chemistry has continued, evident in the following audio interview. No need to adjust your bass. You can listen to the audio file here .

On this week's podcast, Dr. Nic takes a listen to Valentin's aria in Faust, "Avant de quitter ces lieux", and compares three different baritones from three different generations. You can find the podcast here .

Over the weekend: It seems people went to a pub. At the pub they drank alcohol. They also saw some opera. Apparently they had fun. Drinking in public - 1. Drinking alone - 0.

Friday. A grey Friday at that. Which means we should probably listen to something cheery this weekend. Alas, this weekend we're breaking with tradition and watching an opera as opposed to listening to one. Mrs. Aria Serious is out of town this weekend thus freeing up the TV for some opera DVDs. We're going to watch The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams . We started this DVD many years ago and never got around to finishing it. It's not that we didn't enjoy it, I seem to recall the cat threw up in the other room and we never went back in to finish it after cleaning up. Share your listening plans in the comment section below. And please, make it a good one.

Two things we like: opera and all things technologically wondrous . So we're very excited about our upcoming production of Moby -Dick in 2012 which uses large format projections to create a variety of environments in a finite space. Moby -Dick will use a curved wall and projections to create the inside of the Pequod , the exterior of the Pequod , the ocean, whaling boats on a whale hunt and many more environments that can't realistically fit on stage. It's exciting cutting edge stuff, which, truth be told, one doesn't see very often in American opera houses. Is projection mapping the future of opera? We'll surely see more of it we imagine. And as the technology becomes cheaper and widely available a Company could essentially create a season of opera productions digitally and project them onto a plain modular set. In fact, it's already starting to happen. Vancouver Opera is using the technology for the world premiere of Lilian Alling to create a variety of bac

A bit more on our production of Moby-Dick in 2012, this time in a wonderful profile from the North County Times . Although it's over a year away, we're very excited. We hope you are too.

Vienna State Opera has pardoned a ballerina they recently fired for appearing in nude photos for the Austrian men's magazine "Wiener." *snicker* In related news: opera subscriptions by men have increased 800% Since we know you're now going to spend the next few minutes searching for above mentioned photo, we here at Aria Serious are here to help you out .

Some patrons you can do without. Bedbugs have been discovered at Lincoln Center in its David H. Koch Theater which is home of the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera. I'm sure someone can come up with a funny political statement right now, as Koch, an incredibly generous arts philanthropist, is also a major supporter of the tea party movement. But we're not going to be that person. Updated: It seems the Met Opera House is now experiencing their own bedbug problem. In related news, officials at Carnegie Hall panic.

We're a day late, sorry. But this week's podcast is worth it. Promise! This week Dr. Nic takes a look at The Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier and talks about how Strauss parodies the Italian style. You can download the podcast here .

While we're certain there is plenty of opera news out there to report, today it seems the only news on our mind is the passing of Dame Joan Sutherland this morning, at the age of 83. Cause of death was not officially announced only that she passed peacefully. The New York Times has a very comprehensive obituary they just posted which you can find here . All of us here wish Maestro Bonynge and their companion Chester our deepest heartfelt sympathies - both Dame Joan and the Maestro were close friends to the Company - Joan performed here seven times: three of her appearances were concerts, four of them operas - Lucia di Lammermoor (1974), Die Fledermaus (1980), Adriana Lecouvreur (1983) and I Masnadieri (1984). The Maestro accompanied her in each performance (he also continued to conduct nearly a dozen other productions for us without her). Our General and Artistic Director, Ian Campbell, had this to add: "Joan's death ends, at least for now, an era of full-voiced col

Friday is here and so it's time to ask: what are you listening to this weekend? Share it in the comment section below. The Aria Serious crew will be listening to Billy Budd . We're craving something ocean like - must have been all the talk of Moby -Dick this week. Then we'll catch up on some pop music - NPR has both the new Belle and Sebastian and Sufjan Stevens streaming on their site . For those of you who still collect physical media, and you know who you are, Amoeba Hollywood is getting ready for a huge classical music sale the weekend of 10/22 - 10/24 which is great as we'll actually be in LA that weekend. They'll be offering 20% off on their classical music inventory excluding DVDs but they have some great deals on their classical used LPs as well. You can read all about it here . And oh, one more thing, make it a great weekend!

Georgian (the European Georgia, not the peach) mezzo-soprano Nino Surguladze makes her debut with us in Carmen this coming May. She made another debut last night, this time at The Metropolitan Opera as Maddalena in Rigoletto . One reviewer commented: "In a production marked by great singing and indifferent acting, Nino Surguladze stood out for her feisty physical presence. The Georgian mezzo, who acted in films and sang with pop groups before committing to a classical career, brought a sultry Maddalena to the table – quite literally in a scene that saw the Duke all but devouring her as she sprawled next to his wine glass." Should make for an excellent Carmen . You can read the rest of the review, from The Classical Review, here .

It's called Turandot , but it's Liu who often steals the show. Dr. Nic takes a look at Puccini's masterpiece and looks at how the composer shifted the audiences sympathies from the young slave girl to the title character. Or did he? You can download our podcast here .

Over the weekend? - Is silence really golden? - The Met movie broadcasts result in profit but did you know that also result in donations? - All crossed up over classical crossovers. - Are we wired to hear music the way we do?

What are you listening to this weekend? The Aria Serious crew will be taking in Sextet tonight, a new opera by our very own Director of Education, Dr. Nic Reveles . We're incredibly proud of him and can't wait to hear what he's come up with. On Sunday we'll be catching a performance by Moby -Dick composer Jake Heggie and San Diego Opera friend Suzanna Guzman who will be hosting a concert of arias and songs while talking about their craft at The Neurosciences Institute . All this going out means we'll have very little time to listen to a complete opera, but there is always next week. Share you plans in the comment section below and please, make it a good one.

On this week's Podcast Monday, Dr. Nic takes a look at the spoken-word Opera Comique version of Carmen and compares it to the version modern audiences know and love. You can listen to the podcast here , and then, since you're in the know, buy your Carmen tickets here ahead of everybody else .

Over the weekend: - With The Met's season starting tonight with their first installment of their new Ring Cycle, the wonderful Alex Ross asks if multimillion dollar opera productions have a place in this world . - Did you know we have $99 Orchestra tickets this year. Single tickets go on sale to the general public October 3, but since you read Aria Serious, you don't need to wait . - For the datebook: Interested in hearing a bit of Moby -Dick ? Well on Sunday October 3, 2010 San Diego Opera friend and the composer of Moby -Dick , Jake Heggie , will be holding a recital at the Neuroscience Institute in La Jolla at 2:30 PM. He'll be joined by San Diego Opera friend, the mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzman. Together they'll perform a selection of arias and songs composed by Mr. Heggie including the overture to Moby -Dick . In between pieces they'll provide commentaries on their craft. For more information and tickets you can visit here .

What are you listening to this weekend? The Aria Serious crew will take a rare break from listening to opera this weekend. You see, it's our 20 year high school reunion so we're just simply booked. Although we imagine we'll get our fair share of 80's music this weekend. However if we don't hear Falco's "Der Kommissar " we'll consider the entire weekend a failure. Share your listening plans down below. And make it a good one.

While we mentioned it here awhile back, we now have a bit more information about the real space opera (opera) Kai, Death of Dreams . As we here at Aria Serious are opera loving, sci- fi geeks who stayed up way past our bedtime playing Halo last night, this is something we're interested in. Kai , is literally a space opera opera - an opera taking place in space about one alien's quest to free her people from physical and spiritual bondage at whatever cost. It's told entirely in 3D computer animation, or machinmina , which uses video game engines to create a computer generated story (for an example see Red vs. Blue ). It's an incredibly intriguing concept, and one that excites us as it creates a new production (albeit a virtual one) with very little money using open source programs that are already in millions of homes. Technology aside, opera is about story telling. It's about music. The music for Kai is fitting for the story and quite good, considering we expected