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The Counter Tenor
Iestyn Davies is one of today’s most in-demand singers. And unusually for a top opera star, he’s a countertenor. We spoke to him about his unusual voice type in a beautiful 18th-century house in Spitalfields First things first: what is a countertenor? One question I’m often asked is “how high do you go?” Because people…
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The Life You Give: Rosalind Elias *1931
Mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias had a long, leading career in opera on the international scene. She was most often heard at the Metropolitan Opera, where she spent more than 40 years as part of its company. There, and elsewhere, she performed in many American and world premieres. Opera, Blood, and Tears presents The Life You Give:…
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“Don Carlo” (Verdi) premiered on this day in 1867
Verdi’s grand opera Don Carlos is a story of love and devotion conflicting with political and religious upheaval. Lost on a hunting expedition, Elisabeth de Valois runs into the young Prince of Spain, Don Carlos. They immediately fall in love, and are delighted to find out that they are actually betrothed. Their happiness is not…
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On a somewhat guacamole way
In given amounts and ratio, ingredients will yield culturally expected results. And yet, they remain their own essence, and a greatness in food and the palate experience is that a culture may dictate on a certain dish, and the individual may be a scientific or creative visionary but each ingredient its independent dimension.
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The Life You Give: Henry Cowell *1897
Of all the early twentieth century American musical revolutionaries, perhaps composer Henry Cowell wielded the most vivid and far-reaching influence. Born in 1897 to a rural California family, Cowell began to study the violin at age five, though his parents’ hopes of creating a prodigy on the instrument remained unfulfilled when the lessons had to…













