ARIA SERIOUS?

The San Diego Gay and Lesbian Times has just posted an interview with Patricia Racette who is currently finishing up her final performance of Madama Butterfly ( one performance remains, this coming Wednesday, tickets are still available ). You can read the entire interview here . - Edward

Madama Butterfly opens on Saturday and all week long we've been busy in technical rehearsals. Below you will find a selection of images from the past few nights of rehearsals. I'd forgotten how much I liked this production, the space defined by shoji screens, darkness and light. The balance of Eastern and Western aesthetics and poor Cio - Cio -San caught in the middle of it all. If you've already seen this production I'd still say come see it again. Patricia Racette really brings a new dimension to the opera and the supporting cast all rises to the occasion . But why write when we have pictures. Sweet glorious pictures. All photos are by Ken Howard. - Edward

A pair of articles on Madama Butterfly hit newsstands today. The first, about Patricia Racette , appeared in the North County Times this morning. You can read it here . The second, which appeared in the La Jolla Light is about the production itself and features contributions from Patricia, Carlo Ventre and Garnett Bruce. You can read it here . -Edward

Sure, we still have Don Quixote on stage, but here in the opera world we work many many months ahead. So today, taking a break from writing our 2010 press release, I decided to look a little closer into the future at Madama Butterfly which opens in May. Fine, I'm procrastinating. We'll be presenting the incredible Francesca Zambello production of Butterfly , which, for those of you who have not seen it, has thousands of flower petals fall during the "Flower Duet." I'll let you in on a little secret. They're not real flower petals. They're thousands of pieces of hand torn tissues. And what better way to get these pieces of tissue than to use free labor. Late last year, during our supernumerary auditions , we put these eager beavers to work tearing petals for Butterfly . We even had a little contest to see who could tear a stack of tissue paper into regulation sized petals the fastest. Regulation, because they all need to be uniform in size so they all f...

Carlo Ventre is one of the nicest men I've ever had a chance to work with and it is always a privilege when he performs on our stage. Carlo first joined us in 2005 in Simon Boccanegra and then returned to us last season as Radames in Aida . Since then he's had some important debuts and received some much deserved critical acclaim. It is always nice to read good things about good people. Carlo returns to us later next year to sing the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly , a role he has become known for over the years. I was able to catch up with Carlo and talk about his upcoming appearance with us and a bit about the character of Pinkerton. So, without further ado, the next installment of our ocassional series called "10 Questions With..." which is actually eleven questions this time around for those paying attention. San Diego Opera (SDO): First, welcome back to San Diego Opera! We last saw you last year as Radames in Aida . Before we begin, is there anything ne...

London's The Guardian recently ran a story called "I'm A Rock Chick, Get Me Out of Here" . The article touches on opera houses trying to attract new audiences and sends Guardian rock critic Laura Barton to a variety of operas to see if she can be won over. She cannot. The article, which is linked above, is quite good and worth a read even if you don't personally agree with her. I do not personally agree with her. But my disagreement stems from some glaring flaws with her article. First, she picks some of the worst operas an opera newbie could pick: The Rakes Progress , Dido and Aeneas , Handel's Samson and The Marriage of Figaro . These are operas you graduate to, not begin with (I still have on my training wheels myself when it comes to these). What happened to the ABCs of opera? Aida , Boheme and Carmen ? These are the most popular and enduring operas for good reason. Stunning stories, great music, memorable melodies and some of the most fascinating chara...