Reneé Fleming (right) and Susan Graham — two "cheerful Americans" often mistaken for each other — are planning an intimate evening of French song.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Between sets the two divas told stories — often humorous — of the composers of La Belle Époque, the "Beautiful Era" spanning from the last couple decades of the 19th century up until World War I.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Fleming said they wanted to create a show about the singers of the period, like Mary Garden and Sibyl Sanderson, who were muses for composers such as Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Soprano Reneé Fleming (right) and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (with pianist Bradley Moore) turned Carnegie Hall into cozy Parisian salon by singing an evening of French songs and opera duets.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
With pianist Bradley Moore, Graham and Fleming sang songs that would have been heard in Parisian musical salons, important meeting places for musicians, artists and intellectuals to discuss and try out their latest work.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Each singer also sang a set of songs by herself. Fleming chose a pair of songs by Claude Debussy, ending with "Beau Soir," one of the highlights of the evening.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
What does an opera diva do at intermission? Change gowns, of course. Susan Graham (left) told the Carnegie Hall audience: "Two Divas, four gowns. Come on."
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
Graham and Fleming ended the evening with two gorgeous — and popular — opera duets: the "Barcarolle" from Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffman, and a rapturous rendition of the "Flower Duet" from Delibes' Lakmé, made famous in the British Airways TV commercial.
Credit Melanie Burford / NPR
This concert of music from La Belle Époque was part of Reneé Fleming's "Perspective Series" at Carnegie Hall, where she is curating a set of four concerts over this season.
No one would mistake Carnegie Hall's grand 2,800-seat Isaac Stern Auditorium for a cozy Parisian salon. But soprano Reneé Fleming and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham will do their best to conjure such an intimate space Sunday at 8 p.m. ET as they present an evening of French songs, webcast live on this page and at WQXR.
Originally published on Wed January 23, 2013 3:10 pm
"Location, location, location" is the mantra of real estate, but for centuries geographical locales have also been a boon to the imagination of many a composer. Think of Tchaikovsky, who mimicked the bugle calls he heard each morning while visiting Rome in the opening brass fanfare of his Capriccio Italien.
Originally published on Thu January 24, 2013 12:51 pm
On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the first African-American president of the United States. And Monday, President Obama will be sworn in again — this time on a most auspicious day, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
In King's most famous speech, he said, "In spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream."
Originally published on Thu January 24, 2013 12:54 pm
When he was a boy, Andras Schiff labored over the tedious, repetitive finger studies that are universally loathed by aspiring pianists. He thought they were like spinach: yucky, but good for you if you want to grow up to be big and strong ... on the piano keyboard.
Except perhaps for dedicated Russophiles, composer Vissarion Shebalin will most likely be a welcome new discovery. He was a student of Nikolay Myaskovsky, highly respected by Prokofiev and a close friend of Shostakovich.
This past year was a good one for Naxos Records. In fact, it's been a great quarter century for the company, which has grown from a budget-label punch line to a leading force in classical music recording.
Got an idea for a classical cartoon, or a reaction to this one? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Pablo Helguera is a New York-based artist working with sculpture, drawing, photography and performance. His new book isHelguera's Artunes. You can see more of his work at Artworld Salon and on his own site.
Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 9:13 am
Are you the type to make New Year's resolutions? They're easy to make, but tough to keep — at least when it comes to your own. So how about brainstorming a few resolutions that are a little less personal?
Originally published on Thu January 10, 2013 11:50 am
While the new year is still fresh, let's take a look in the rearview mirror at some of the noteworthy happenings in the classical music world. Were you listening last year? See if you remember the big, and not-so-big, stories from 2012 in our quiz.
Copyright 2013 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 9:55 am
Got an idea for a classical cartoon, or a reaction to this one? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Pablo Helguera is a New York-based artist working with sculpture, drawing, photography and performance. His new book isHelguera's Artunes. You can see more of his work at Artworld Salon and on his own site.
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