ARIA SERIOUS?

Friday! I'm celebrating with another performance of Tosca tonight. Then on Saturday I'm listening to Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio mostly because it is one of those operas I've heard only in parts. I'm also going to spend a good hour with Bon Iver's new release for For Emma, Forever Ago despite not being opera related at all. Sunday, I might forgo a fourth performance of Tosca and opt for the Super Bowl (read "beer nap") on the couch with the dogs. What are you listening plans this weekend? Whatever they might be, enjoy! -- Edward

It is not often you get to sit down with an opera god, even rarer to have them sing Bugs Bunny cartoons for you. Earlier this week the ever delightful Keli Dailey of Sign on San Diego did just that and the fruits of her labors are below. As one co-worker of mine just said "Drool! Pant! Thanks!" Hey, don't mention it, we here at Aria Serious are givers. -- Edward

Ferruccio "Ace of Bass" Furlanetto, general director Ian Campbell and all around nice guy Richard "Big Bertha" Helmsetter played a round of golf yesterday with Peter "Brewery" Rowe from the San Diego Union Tribune . Arriving to the course Ferruccio commented how hot and dry it was (80 degrees in mid-winter, take that rest of the world) and asked if this was what we called a Santa Ana . I commented it must be hard to sing with the air so dry and Ferruccio responded in his bone vibrating basso , "who cares about singing. I'm here to play some golf." And played golf he did. With a handicap of 5, if this singing thing doesn't pan out, Ferruccio can always fall back on professional golf. You can read Peter Rowe's profile on Ferruccio Furlanetto on Sunday, February 8 in the Union Tribune or a few days later here. -- Edward

Tosca is onstage and the cast of Don Quixote has arrived including Ferruccio "Ace of Bass" Furlanetto, the beautiful Denyce Graves and Eduardo Chama who sings Sancho Panza. Last time Eduardo was in town we spent an afternoon listening to Don Quixote in my office and he told me one of his favorite roles was Sancho Panza. At the time he was quite sad because the role of Sancho Panza had been cast to someone else. But all things happen for a reason and Eduardo is now in town rehearsing the role he dreamed about many years ago. To celebrate, below are two clips of Eduardo as Sancho from the Teatro Colon in Argentina. You can catch Eduardo in the flesh when we open Don Quixote on Valentine's Day. -- Edward

San Diego Opera had their gala, " Palazzo Promenade ", that past Saturday in conjunction with the opening night of Tosca . It was a beautiful evening, and the gala chairs this year, the Dow Divas, really brought their A Game to the event in planning the decor, the menu, the entire magical evening. The Del Mar Times has posted some pictures of the event. As more coverage of this event comes in we'll post it here . -- Edward

Sign on San Diego's Street Blog is clearly smitten with Greer "Opera God" Grimsley who is currently on our stage as Scarpia in Tosca . Click this link to see why they think Greer "projects a jet of fire throughout the Civic Theatre." Sign on San Diego will be sitting down to bask in the warm operatic glow of Greer later today and once they have his interview online, we'll link to it here so you to can gaze upon the luscious locks of bad cop Greer Grimsley from the comfort of your computer. -- Edward

These past few days have seen more belt tightening by our friends and neighbors up north. San Francisco Opera has announced a scaled back 2009-2010 season, filled with many classic operas with incredibly strong casts. "There's no question that this season represents a huge belt-tightening for us," SFO General Director David Gockley told the Chronicle . "We're scaling our budget back from $70 million last season to $64 million, and we'd already planned to make sure there were a lot of popular productions and ones for which we could do a lot of performances." You can read the entire article here . Closer to home, Los Angeles Opera announced staff and pay cuts this morning as well as a reduction in performances and the delay of the world premiere of Daniel Catán ’s Il Postino . The economy and the financial drain of mounting their first Ring Cycle is to blame. You can read the article here . With this news falling like bombs around us, many of you must b...