 Aria of the Week #100: "Dover, giustizia, amor" by G. F. Handel. Performed by Ewa Podleś. Score: IMSLP (pg 105 of score, pg 113 of viewer). Uploaded by jonjon71.
0 Comments
 Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress, and fashion icon. Described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry, she is known for her distinctive contralto singing voice and for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment, as well as adopting a variety of styles and appearances during her five-decades-long career, which has led to her being nicknamed the Goddess of Pop. Cher gained popularity in 1965 as one-half of the folk rock husband–wife duo Sonny & Cher after the release of their song "I Got You Babe". She began her solo career simultaneously, releasing in 1966 her first million-seller song, "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". Goldmine magazine's Phill Marder described her as the leader of an effort in the 1960s to "advance feminine rebellion in the rock world [and] the prototype of the female rock star, setting the standard for appearance [and] attitude". After the duo had lost its young audience owing to their monogamous, anti-drug lifestyle during the period of the sexual revolution and the rise of the drug culture, she returned to stardom in the 1970s as a television personality with her shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, and Cher. She became a fashion trendsetter by wearing elaborate outfits on her television shows. While working on television, she established herself as a solo artist with the number-one singles "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady". After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, Cher's much-publicized personal life led to a decline in her career, although she launched a minor comeback in 1979 with the disco-oriented album Take Me Home and earned $300,000 a week for her 1980–1982 residency show in Las Vegas. In the early 1980s, Cher made her Broadway debut, and then starred in the film Silkwood, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1983. In the ensuing years, she starred in films such as Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1988. She made her directorial debut in the 1996 film If These Walls Could Talk. At the same time, she established herself as a rock singer by releasing platinum albums such as Heart of Stone (1989) and top-ten singles such as "I Found Someone" and "If I Could Turn Back Time". She reached a new commercial peak in 1998 with the song "Believe", which features the pioneering use of Auto-Tune, also known as the "Cher effect". Her 2002–2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour ended up as the highest-grossing music tour by a female artist then. In 2008, she signed a $180 million deal to headline the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for three years. After seven years of absence, she returned to film in the 2010 musical Burlesque. Cher's first studio album in 12 years, Closer to the Truth (2013), became her highest-charting solo album in the U.S. to date. Biographer Mark Bego wrote, "No one in the history of show business has had a career of the magnitude and scope of Cher's." She has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, a special CFDA Fashion Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Cannes Film Festival award, among several other honors. She has sold 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She is the only artist to date to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in each of the past six decades. Outside of her music and acting, she is noted for her political views, philanthropic endeavors and activism for LGBT rights. Wikipedia This summer saw the creation of a wonderful audio/visual tribute to the American Contralto Claramae Turner, by the San Francisco Opera Company.  Claramae Turner, Contralto The soundtrack of the video is a recording of Claramae Turner performing “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,” which was written for her by George Cory and Douglass Cross. In fact, in this recording, George Cory himself was the accompanist. Turner sang the piece as a recital encore many times, though it was Tony Bennett who had a hit with it in 1962 and won two Grammy Awards for it. The tribute, which contains photos and articles relating Turner’s life and career, also features a snippet from an interview with Cory and Cross. The original idea for the tribute came from Claramae’s friend, Joan Perry Ryan. Joan collaborated with Claramae, Matthew Shilvock (who last month was chosen as the next SFO General Director) and Jess Shown-Morgan (SFO Media Coordinator) to produce this amazing video. The video premièred on a huge screen at the Ball Park just before a simulcast of The Marriage of Figaro. Many people in the audience were stunned by the beauty of Claramae’s Contralto voice.  Aria of the Week #99: "Vergnügte Ruh" by J. S. Bach. Performed by Patricia Forbes. Score: IMSLP. Uploaded by Patricia Forbes.  Emma Curtis, Contralto Contralto Emma Curtis will perform Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit and Jean Cocteau’s Le Bel Indifférent in a performance entitled "Of Love and Cake" for the Bloomsbury Festival, on 24th and 25th October.
"Le Bel Indifférent, originally written for and performed by Édith Piaf, tells the story of a singer’s relationship with her younger lover, Émile; first her waiting, and then her futile attempts to engage in conversation. This is a play for two actors, but Émile is only seen, never heard. Distant voices over the phone contrast with the bel indifférent’s silence; they make his infidelities and disregard for her increasingly clear, ultimately turning her hopeless devotion to fatal despair. This double-bill presentation imagines a public life for Cocteau’s characters to counterpoint their private tragedy. Lee Hoiby’s short opera Bon Appétit! (with a libretto drawn verbatim from one of celebrity chef Julia Child’s TV shows) prefaces the Cocteau, so that we see the singer performing her one-woman comedy show, accompanied by Émile on the piano. Every night she caricatures the celebrity chef… but every night Émile disappears as she takes her bow, every night she returns home alone, and every night he comes back without a single word." Tickets can be booked online via the Festival Box Office at Bloomsbury Theatre. Tickets can be purchased at the door on the day, subject to availability.  Aria of the Week #98: "O don fatale" by G. Verdi. Performed by Claramae Turner. Score: IMSLP pg 234. Uploaded by opertutto. Claramae sings this a minor third lower than written. |
Dramatic ContraltosMeredith Arwady
Gwendolyn Brown Dame Clara Butt Patricia Forbes Nicole Mitchell Sharmay Musacchio Angela Christine Smith Contralto ProfondosLinksHere are a few links which may prove useful. Blog RollBarihunks Categories
All
Archives
February 2024
|
RSS Feed