-=- Intense Melody -=-

Japan’s first opera house (Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo) is sold out with some tickets as high as 500 euros for the 97th Vienna State opera’s Japanese performance. The 100th performance will be celebrated with Fidelio conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Next to the Austrian flag in the foyer hangs an enormous photo of the Vienna State [...]

No my blog isn’t becoming political all of a sudden.  But this article struck a chord.
“I talk a bit too much about politics, right?” – No, of course not. But it’s a bit unusual, on the occasion of an operetta premier interview, more than half of the time to talk about politics. “Yeah I am [...]

Every season the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) house changes its stage curtain to a new abstract artistic rendition.
When I first moved here in 2006 we had a curtain designed by the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija with the saying “Angst essen Seele auf” (“Fear eats away at the soul”) over the familiar television SMPTE [...]

Opera as bloodsport? The Viennese opera singer Alejandro Gallo (age 38) was stabbed in the face by a dagger during a Romeo and Juliet production staging rehearsal in Malta (National Theater Teatru Manoel). The dagger had travelled through his nose into his brain. The injuries were life threatening, and after a risky surgery, his career [...]

I received the following strange email a day ago:
Mr. Apostolov
BRAVISSIMO
Your voice is magnificent. You are realy a great and wonderful singer. I´m your fan. and.I would like to get an autographed photo from you and i will be very gratefull if you send me one. My postal adress is:
Ricardo Correia
AV. DO ULTRAMAR
18 – 3º – [...]

It all started when my Italian girlfriend introduced me to “La Bella Figura – A Field Guide to the Italian Mind” by Beppe Severgnini. A comical book written by an Italian journalist who’s lived outside of Italy long enough to view his own people from an outsider’s perspective, and explain the differences. Such as, why [...]

As a traveling singer it can be very frustrating not being able to watch DVD’s you buy or rent in Europe on your American laptop.
The DVD technology is the same regardless what country in the world you are in. What is different is an artificial limitation created by Hollywood. The DVD has a zone number [...]