Talking with singers: Sondra Radvanovsky

Interview

"It took me twenty years to get here," says Radvanovsky of the long game that is the opera singer's career. "Twenty years of cracking on high notes at the Metropolitan Opera, and saying, 'This didn't work tonight, let's try it another way!'" And the work is still not over.

In review: Les contes d'Hoffmann

Review

His Hoffmann was strapping, sexy, and desperate, and his open-throated, silvery sound was utterly thrilling. He sang with an extraordinary range of colour, and he took us through the vocal evolution of Hoffmann, as he accumulates more and more emotional baggage from his failed affairs.

Get curious at FAWN 2016/17

News

FAWN will announce the three composers selected by audiences at last season's Synesthesia IV pt. 1: Sound and Body; plus, they'll reveal details about their new collaboration with Canadian composer Anna Höstman. Throughout the evening, music by Höstman and the three audience-chosen composers will "emerge sporadically" as guests mingle and drink.

What crippling stage fright taught me about money

Op-ed

A money technique is built in the same way, by investing hours of time into building solid fundamentals. Instead of breath, it's cashflow (the daily ins and outs of your money), instead of onsets it's deliberate decision making (learning to stop making default money decisions and make the ones you really want), and instead of working with someone to lift your soft palette, you work with someone to find one of a thousand little ways you can make your money life easier (by building a safety net, learning to save, and eliminating debt).

In review: Glory Denied

Review

The work questions the perspective of emotional trauma, and whose is the most devastating? Is it enduring a prison camp for years only to return to an unrecognizable life? Is it enduring a different kind of prison-like solitude, guilt when one's life's work isn't enough? Nashville Opera's production of Glory Denied, fittingly opened on Veterans' Day, is now one of only five or six full productions of the opera.

In review: Ayre

Review

This wasn't just "Miriam sings beautifully," she brought us in and told us stories of life, danger, heartbreak, violence, and love. Miriam is - and always was - a flawless singer, but her acting in this show was unparalleled. Sensitive, candid, visceral, and dedicated to truth - all the things I crave in a theatrical performance.

In review: Lulu at ENO

Review

We have our own exasperations with the idea of a femme fatale, especially when they're two-dimensional, relying on sex and spineless men. Yet Kentridge's Lulu brings us into a specific world, while seeming to simply reveal the story without bias. Like Berg's score, the production is one we're eager to see again, to notice more details in Kentridge's layered work.

Being a helpful pianist: which is your page-turning hand?

Editorial

Our theory is that there's more nature than nurture in each pianist's preferred page-turning hand. For us, it's our left, because we find ease in a motion across the body, towards the bottom-right corner of the page; in turning the page, our left hand retracts swiftly back into playing position.

Being a helpful pianist: a note on starting notes

How-to

It's hard to describe why (acoustic physicists, please feel free to chime in here), but sometimes a singular note, played on the piano, can be hard to understand. It's not that the singer can't hear it, but the note lacks context.

Erica Iris: singing a "radically revisionist" Carmen

Interview

"Carmen is a passionate woman who lives to fulfill her own desires without compromise. She is strong-minded and determined and doesn't take "no" for an answer. In my opinion, one major misconception about Carmen is that if she's able to get out of any sticky situation, and win things in her favour, then she must have everything under control. She doesn't."