We’ll spend the first three days at Maggie’s parents house, just north of Duesseldorf. This is, in my opinion, getting the worst part of the trip over with first. I only wanted to stay two days, but Maggie convinced me we’d be short-changing her parents, and so I agreed to a third day.

Then we’ll be training over to Paris for five nights – the extra night for the in-laws came from Paris. I am really looking forward to this as it has been nine years since I’ve been to Paris. We’ve been in France a couple of times, most notably three years ago when we rented a 40 foot canal boat and toured the Alsace region of Paris, including a delightful stay in Strasburg.

While in Paris, we are going to the Louvre, taking a night bicycle tour, seeing a concert at the Theatre Gaitie in Montparnass, and spending a day at the French Open tennis tournament. The rest of the time is planned for people watching at various cafes around Paris and, hopefully, a jazz club or two.

We are then going to take the fast train – 325 kph – to Frankfurt and spend three days with Maggie’s sister. We then return to Maggie’s parents for two days and a meeting of the cousins, ehich we haven’t done for about five years.

Five years ago, I met many of Maggie’s cousins, many of whom I had never met. Many came out of the former eastern sector of Germany. As is tradition, they all brought their favorite home-made schnapps and, of course, I had to drink with each of them separately. Man, that’s a lot of schnapps and a lot of cousins.

Then we spend one last day with Maggie’s parents – you see what I mean about too much – and then fly back to the USA where I am scheduled to have orthroscopic surgery on my knee. After two weeks in Europe, I will need the rest.

That said, I was really taken into this production and impressed with the thought and work that went into it. All of the principles played various instruments and, though it made for a very thin orchestral sound, the effect was quite chilling.

Judy Kaye was excellent as Mrs. Lovett and David Hess was okay as Sweeney. Hess had a very thin top and actually broke a couple of times.

The show was stolen, however, by Edmund Bagnell, as Tobias, and Diana DiMarzio as the Beggar Woman.

My only complaint was, with the sound system in a 2500 seat theater, I could only understand about half of what was being sung.

Still, very enjoyable and, I guess, hard to sell since the movie came out. Prices were so low, I was able to sit in the first row of the loge. Excellent seats where I generally only sit when I want to treat myself. Even so, the house was half empty.

Shame. It was a good show. I love Sweeney Todd and only regret that I never had the opportunity to play Sweeney. If ever there was a character right up my alley, it’s the demon barber of Fleet Street.

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.

Ciao,
Heldentenor

Everything started out okay, but half way through the second set, my heart went into Atrial Fibrillation. I have been having A-Fib episodes for eight years, ever since my quintuple by-pass operation in May of 2000. Then they were three or four times a year, and only lasted a few hours. But, as I’ve gotten older, they have come more frequently and last longer. But this is the only the third time they have come while I was playing tennis, or doing any kind of exercising. It went on until this afternoon, maybe two-three hours ago, when it finally stopped.

A-Fib is not, in and of itself, dangerous. But it raises the odds of having a stroke. That is why I take Coumadin, an anti-coagulant, to help prevent a stroke. But, the thing I hate the worst, is that it completely drains me of all energy. My legs suddenly feel like I ran the marathon. My eyes glaze over and I have trouble thinking. I couldn’t write this post until it all went away, because I could not concentrate enough to put down one word after the other. When the heart becomes irregular, as it does with A-Fib, the extremeties and the brain do not get enough blood, and their functions are reduced.

This is the reason I am going to have a cardiac ablation. It will be done September 4. I almost wish it was sooner, but the doctor doing the procedure wants to wait until after my trip to Europe later this month and after my trip to Michigan in August. I’ll talk about the procedure in my next post. Right now, it just couldn’t come too soon.

I’m scheduled to play tennis tomorrow. I am also thinking about skipping it. Yesterday’s episode certainly puts a new light on my tennis game. I love tennis. I will hate to have to give it up. More later.

Ciao,

Heldentenor

Have fun and ciao,

Heldentenor

In late 1983, I was in Munich for a series of performances, mostly as Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen, but also a production of Cav & Pag where I was scheduled to sing both tenor roles. Although by 1983, many tenors were beginning to sing both roles in the opera twins – Turriddu in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Canio in Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci – I believe that I had been a trailblazer in this regard. I first sang both roles in the same evening as early as 1976. Not that it hadn’t been done before, but most of the time it was done because of an emergency created by one of the singers being forced by illness to cancel at the last moment. However, I sang both roles in the same evening at my own request, though I had to fight management tooth and nail to get the assignment.

One of the reasons theater managers were against it was that it would make them look cheap. Another version of the same excuse is that it would make it look as if the theater did not have enough money to pay two tenors. However, when I pointed out that I would sing both roles for only a fee and half instead of two fees, the theaters started coming around and, before long, I was singing both roles as often as I was singing only one.

One Friday afternoon, my agent called me at my hotel in Munich. In those days, when I was in Munich, I always stayed at the Hotel am Markt, near the famous Victualien Markt, and only a ten minute walk to the theater. He told me that Placido Domingo had canceled a performace of Cav & Pag in Bern, Switzerland scheduled for the next day, and because I had the reputation of singing both roles, could I just pop down there and sing in his place. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to sing Don Jose that same evening in Munich.

My agent said that it was important for my career to do this. He also said it paid double my usual fee, which, I think, was his real motivation. Mine, also. He said if I could get the Munich theater to agree, he had a singer who could jump in for me as Don Jose. Another 10 percent for him. I told him I would try.

As I was free for the day, rather than call on the phone, I walked over to the theater and dropped in on Peter Falk, the Generalmusikdirector. He was not the conductor for the Carmen, but as GMD he made decisions as to casting. I knew that if I could convince him to back my plan, I would be able to make the switch.

I told him my agent’s plan and he agreed as long as a singer he knew was available to sing the Jose instead of the singer proposed by my agent. He also wrangled out of me a new commitment to sing more performances of the First Armoured Man in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. This was a role I did not particularly enjoy, even though it was only a small character appearing near the end of the opera. I sang it as a favor to Kurt Pscherer, Intendant of the theater, because it required a heldentenor. I did take a full fee for the role even though I didn’t enjoy singing it.

That sounded fair to me, so I went back to my hotel to await the results. Half an hour later, I was freed from my commitment in Munich and called my agent to firm up the details in Bern. Now I had to scramble to brush up on my Italian.

I had just sung both roles in the Munich house where they sang an old German translation of the Italian. That translation often gave me difficulties as I sang a new translation, one which I had sung the premiere of only two years earlier. When I ran into the older translation, which was often, I usually had text problems. It was really out of date and not very good, and I had to modify the version I sang in order to match up with the other singers. I remember Giesela Ehrensperger, in the Munich house, used to dread singing Nedda with me as Canio, because she was so dependent on word cues instead of music cues. Something very few singers are. Most, as myself, could care less what words the other singers sing as they pay attention only to the music cues. But Giesela was, well, Giesela. But Bern preseted the two opera in Italian.

Bern scheduled a 10 am rehearsal for the next day, so I had the rest of the day to brush up the Italian version of the two roles. It had been at least six months since I had sung either role in Italian. But I had time. It was only a two hour drive to Bern.

As was usual in most European opera houses, the rest of the cast does not show up when a guest needs to be brought up to speed on the production. Bern was not any different. I showed up at the 10 am rehearsal where the assistant director, who was going to show me the blocking, was waiting for me. An accompanist, in case I wanted to sing at all, a costume person to measure me for the costumes and a makeup person to measure me for the wigs, were also present. The conductor did not bother to show up. Altogether, we spent about an hour and a half with the blocking and I then went to meet Maggie at the train station. We went to lunch.

I went back to the hotel to take a nap while she went shopping and returned to the theater at 5:30 to meet with the conductor, try on costumes and warm up for the performance. The performance that evening was fairly routine. I remembered most of the blocking, sang well and received generous applause, including some bravos. If the audience was disappointed they had not seen Placido, it wasn’t apparent in the reception I received.

As well as the evening went, though, I never again sang in Bern.

I liked the doctor. He was honest and forthright and answered 
all my questions, even the onesI already knew the answers to. 
He did thorough reseach of my file and came to the conclusion
I am an outstanding candidate.

Because I am traveling so much this summer – Germany and Paris in May and June;
Michigan for my 50th reunion in August, we are going to do the ablation
in September. I’m glad and I’m ready.
ciao,
heldentenor

ciao

Heldentenor

One reason was that my heart was acting up. I had developed more clogged arteries and Atrial Fibrillation. The A-Fib drained me of all energy. It made it almost impossible to do any thing constructive. It sapped the blood from my brain and I couldn’t think straight enough just to jot down the stories. I tried many times and never succeeded. Now, I’m getting ready to have a cardiac ablation, which should rid me of my A-Fib. I hope. I also decided this was the time to push my way through and get these things down on paper.

I was reading a book – Petite Anglaise – about an ex-pat in Paris and how starting a blog had changed her life. I was so impressed, I just decided I had to do it. So here it is. It’s going to take some time to get it going because I need to organize my thoughts. That is not always easy.

I’m gong to the Mayo Clinic on Friday, May 2, to consult with a cardiologist who does these ablations to see if I am a good candidate. If so, I will probably have the procedure done in mid-June. At the end of May, I am going to visit family and friends in Germany, and then spend a week in Paris. When I get back, I will have the ablation done. I hope it works. I have a lot to say.

I certainly look forward to comments from everyone and anyone, and I want to share your experiences, be they operatic or not. So please don’t hesitate to comment. I’ll have more to write on my background soon, including my work with the local NPR radio station.

Ciao,

Heldentenor

This photo is from a normal production of Otello. I do not have any photos of the Darmstadt production. I didn’t want any. I look terrible in a loin cloth.

That was only the beginning of what was to be a very strange production.