Tenor Alek Shrader at Opera in the Park for girlfriend mezzo Daniela Mack
Sunday in the Park with Nicola and Alek
Nicola Luisotti provided the animated, spirited whirlwind of an afternoon at Sharon Meadows as the new musical director blew onto the stage at Sunday’s Opera in the Park. All Italian, all the time. The soloists sang Ole Sole Mio for an encore with Sondra Radonovsky’s soprano swirling. The audience laughed with delight. Champagne corks popped all the while flying twenty feet into the air, punctuating the songs at opportune moments. “Happy Birthday” one man called out like a spontaneous chorister.
Even the rain held off until after the performance while the roadies contracted the fold up stage as if deflating an air mattress.
Ah Mes Amis!
The afternoon looked full of happy surprises as soon as I entered the park. I had not even put a blanket down when who should be ambling alone up the path toward me but Alek Shrader. Alek Shrader I shrieked! Ah mes amis! He wore a preppy argyle vest and his white cotton shirt tail hanging out over his jeans, shirt collar open. Click here:
Alek Shrader slam dunks the nationals at the Met
Alek Shrader wins big in Cinema Verite
Yes I spoke to him while trying to load 400 film in my little old camera. Film!
It took probably five minutes of me trying over and over while Alek stood there patiently.
I said I had been looking for him for months. Ever since I saw him win the national auditions in the Met broadcast with the song made famous by the king of the high Cs, Ah Mes Amis! That was actually my first phrase to him after shrieking his name. I said I could not get that song out of my head. He said that's great.
I kept chatting while fumbling with my ever lengthening roll of film. He says he is the cover for Juan Diego Florez (Ah Mes Amis!!) in what he calls Girl and also the cover in Abduction.
I am required to go to each rehearsal with Juan Diego Florez
says Alek but Alek is not scheduled to perform in anything this year.
His girlfriend though was performing at Opera in the Park. The mezzo Daniela Mack. She sang Cherubino, the young man confused over his awakening feelings of young love in the Marriage of Figaro. It seems she and Alek share a talent for romantic comedy.
Speaking of which, POTUS (President of the United States), a French bulldog, wore his jester collar to Opera in the Park.
The soloists
Another Adler fellow and American idol of opera Leah Crocetto appeared. Leah sang an example of what a $50,000 first prize winning voice sounds like. She just won in Los Angeles while Heidi Melton won second prize and $25,000. Leah sang from one of the tryptic stories Gianni Schicchi of Il Trittico which opened last night at San Francisco Opera. Schicchi is a shrewd peasant who impersonates a dead man to change the man's will. Schicchi benefits himself and a pair of young lovers.
Quinn Kelsey, the baritone from Hawaii taking the place of Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Il Trovatore for a couple of performances, gave a preview.
Sondra Radvanovsky of Il Trovatore looked ravishing in a form fitting red Spanish style gown that flared below the knee.
Marco Berti of Il Trovatore sounded divine, strong and clear, a classic.
Contralto Ewa Podles sang from La Italiana en Algieri. I know her name from the Ring Cycle in Seattle in 2004 where she sang the goddess of the Earth, warning Wotan of Valhalla about the evils of the gold ring.
Andrea Silvestrelli the bass baritone just arrived in San Franciso from his performance as a giant in Seattle’s Ring Cycle in August. Interesting to see Ewa and Andrea go from Wagnerian to classic Italian.
David Lomeli from last season’s La Traviata and Brandon Jovanovich also performed.
From Burning Man to Opera in the Park 2009
Meanwhile Carter and his friend Matthew (above) and Matthew "Jesus" Elvey (below) spread out the elegant picnic. Carter and Jesus, not his real name, just came home from Burning Man where their camp names were Tesla Motors (Mr. Motors) and Jesus. Does the desert look like the promised land? Jesus brought a little bottle of cure-all, habanero vodka, a gift received from Burning Man. I tried it and today I’m feeling fine as a porcupine. He also shot this picture and a video with his cell phone camera.
This is the writer, Carter and Matthew V..
The menu: figs and tomatoes from the garden of Jesus (Biblical); olive oil; habanero vodka cure-all from Burning Man; organic sulphate free red wine.
From the Farmers’ Market via Carter’s French picnic basket:
Sourdough bread
Bleu cheese (Irish and a second variety)
Pate, duck with no pork
Prosciutto
Old vine Zin red wine
Red grapes and strawberries
Beer
Blueberry and pecan tarts
From my hometown San Leandro where the factory really is, Ghirardelli chocolate
Carter and Jesus (below) each held their cell phones up, here to share the Brindisi sing-along experience with family at home, something you don't see in the opera house. The rear view shows the magic fold-up stage.
For more info: www.SFOpera.com
Alek Shrader wins big in Cinema Verite
Leah Crocetto American idol of opera
Opera in the Park features drinking song from La Traviata, a tradition
SF Opera in the Baseball Park with Il Trovatore, September 19th
Juan Diego Florez to sing La Fille du Regiment in October
The Audtion broadcast from the Met
Met LIVE broadcasts begin October 10, 2009
Natalie Dessay's CD and Jeremy Galyon's debut, believing in the fairy tale
Natalie Dessay CD Part One, ladies do we still want the fairy tale?
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