“They might write it but darling, I don’t read it – I don’t need it”. So says the legendary soprano Jessye Norman in this excerpt from a no-holds-barred interview with Stephen Sackur of BBC’s HARDtalk.
She also gives her views on the selection of singers based on their appearance over their ability to sing a role.
Click here to down load the entire interview.
Of all the figures on stage during a concert, the conductor is perhaps the most enigmatic – commanding a great deal of attention from performers and audience and controlling the sound, whilst not actually making any music – and all the while with his or her back to the audience! This feature by Clemency Burton-Hill…
For the third consecutive year, the city of New York has been dotted with 88 pianos (equalling the number of keys on a piano), offering anyone who is taken by the urge, to sit down and tickle the ivories. An initiative of Sing for Hope, a not for profit organisation, the pianos will be moved…
Sydney audiences are by and large generous in their applause even if they don’t approve of the performer or the production. ‘Boos’ are rarely, if ever heard, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, when the villian of the piece takes his curtain call. The most emphatic expression of audience disapproval is to leave at interval. Other ‘houses’ are different. A new…
Congratulations to British-Australian soprano Jessica Pratt, who has been awarded Italy’s most important award for coloratura sopranos La Siola d’Oro. Previous winners of the prize include Joan Sutherland, Sumi Jo, Pretty Yende, Annik Massis and Luciana Serra. The award ceremony will take place on the 8th of May, 2013, at the Teatro A. Bonci in Cesena, Italy, when Ms….
English director Oliver Mears is to succeed Kasper Holten as Director of Opera at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden from March 2017. It’s an important appointment for fans of Opera Australia given the close collaboration between the two companies. Mears has been Artistic Director of Northern Ireland Opera since it was established in 2010. He…
Curious to know more about Pietari Inkinen? Click here to read his bio.