Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Buzzing after Wagner's Walküre in San Diego
One of the best concerts I've experienced in San Diego
Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto was an instant classic from the moment that lyrical first phrase was first intoned on March 13, 1845, by Ferdinand David. On Saturday, May 18, 23-year-old violinist Daniel Lozakovich performed the Mendelssohn with The San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Rafael Payare conducted.
Despite his youth, Lozakovich is a seasoned veteran of the world stage. He signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon when he was 15. His experience was evident in the maturity of his playing. The famous opening movement was nothing short of delightful. The second movement was exquisite and the third movement’s vivace conclusion had a little extra viva in its vace.
Video:
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
The remainder of the concert was given to Act I of Richard Wagner’s * Die Walküre*. I loved every single minute of it, once I resigned myself to the fact that there would be no Wagnerian singing on this evening. The signers, soprano Jennifer Holloway, tenor Viktor Antipenko, and bass Peter Rose, were mic’d far too closely for comfort. I still don’t know what their voices actually sound like.
Viktor Anitpenko had the same habit of coming off his voice that I’ve heard over and over again from tenors in operatic roles. I can give him a pass in this case because of the microphone but had we been in a theater or a concert hall it would have been absolutely unacceptable and doubly so because it was only the first act.
I will say this here and now but I don’t necessarily have Mr. Anitpenko in mind. If a singer cannot sing the entire role on their voice, aka with the air being compressed, they have no business singing the role at all. I’ve heard it at LA Opera, at The Met, and at San Diego Opera. It would appear that opera has become so difficult in the 21st Century that singers find it necessary to only sing sections of a role as opposed to what the composer wrote and how generations of singers have previously performed it.
Video:
Die Walküre (1988 Remastered Version): Act 1
As I said, once I resolved myself to the facts of the singing, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I was moved to tears as Antipenko, in the role of Siegmund, called out in despair for his father Wälse. Likewise, when Jennifer Holloway, as Sieglinde, named him Siegmund.
When you have immersed yourself in Wagner and done the work necessary to understand that the massive holes in the action are being specifically filled in by the orchestra, nothing hits harder. Nothing. Not the Super Bowl, not “The Throne Room” scene from Star Wars, not “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
Video:
Gladiator: My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius
I will admit that I dragged myself to this concert in a state of lethargy. However, when it was over, I was buzzing. I even jogged back to my car which was parked about a mile away because the concert was at The Shell.
All in all, this was one of the best concerts I’ve experienced in San Diego.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Buzzing after Wagner's Walküre in San Diego
One of the best concerts I've experienced in San Diego
Buzzing after Wagner's Walküre in San Diego
One of the best concerts I've experienced in San Diego
Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto was an instant classic from the moment that lyrical first phrase was first intoned on March 13, 1845, by Ferdinand David. On Saturday, May 18, 23-year-old violinist Daniel Lozakovich performed the Mendelssohn with The San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Rafael Payare conducted.
Despite his youth, Lozakovich is a seasoned veteran of the world stage. He signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon when he was 15. His experience was evident in the maturity of his playing. The famous opening movement was nothing short of delightful. The second movement was exquisite and the third movement’s vivace conclusion had a little extra viva in its vace.
Video:
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
The remainder of the concert was given to Act I of Richard Wagner’s * Die Walküre*. I loved every single minute of it, once I resigned myself to the fact that there would be no Wagnerian singing on this evening. The signers, soprano Jennifer Holloway, tenor Viktor Antipenko, and bass Peter Rose, were mic’d far too closely for comfort. I still don’t know what their voices actually sound like.
Viktor Anitpenko had the same habit of coming off his voice that I’ve heard over and over again from tenors in operatic roles. I can give him a pass in this case because of the microphone but had we been in a theater or a concert hall it would have been absolutely unacceptable and doubly so because it was only the first act.
I will say this here and now but I don’t necessarily have Mr. Anitpenko in mind. If a singer cannot sing the entire role on their voice, aka with the air being compressed, they have no business singing the role at all. I’ve heard it at LA Opera, at The Met, and at San Diego Opera. It would appear that opera has become so difficult in the 21st Century that singers find it necessary to only sing sections of a role as opposed to what the composer wrote and how generations of singers have previously performed it.
Video:
Die Walküre (1988 Remastered Version): Act 1
As I said, once I resolved myself to the facts of the singing, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I was moved to tears as Antipenko, in the role of Siegmund, called out in despair for his father Wälse. Likewise, when Jennifer Holloway, as Sieglinde, named him Siegmund.
When you have immersed yourself in Wagner and done the work necessary to understand that the massive holes in the action are being specifically filled in by the orchestra, nothing hits harder. Nothing. Not the Super Bowl, not “The Throne Room” scene from Star Wars, not “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
Video:
Gladiator: My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius
I will admit that I dragged myself to this concert in a state of lethargy. However, when it was over, I was buzzing. I even jogged back to my car which was parked about a mile away because the concert was at The Shell.
All in all, this was one of the best concerts I’ve experienced in San Diego.
Comments