Soul sustenance:
Swedish opera singers
make house calls
By Igor
Gedilaghine/Agence France-Presse, April 11, 2012,
Are you lonely? Do
you miss a loved one? Is your marriage on the rocks? Just place a call to a Stockholm opera and a
singer will make a house call with an aria specially chosen to fit your state
of mind.
"I've had the
experience of singing for a couple who had lost touch with each other a
bit," said soprano Henriikka Groendahl.
When she arrived at
their home, it seemed the couple had drifted so far apart they would never find
their way back to each other.
"They were
arguing a lot, they were working in different parts of the country, sometimes
communicating by notes only..." Groendahl said. "Two bars into my
aria, she was crying and holding on to her husband, and he was very moved as
well."
The piece chosen for
the couple, "Donde lieta usci" from Puccini's "La Boheme,"
is about separation. But the singer told them, "It's not about you saying
adieu to each other, but maybe you want to leave the past behind without
regrets?"
The visit was part of
a novel "happening" organized by the Stockholm Folkoperan, an avant garde stage
intent on challenging traditional interpretations like those shown at the
city's royal opera house, Kungliga Operan.
Called "Opera
Aid," the idea was devised by British artist Joshua Sofaer, who insists it
"is not music therapy."
"We are not
offering therapy of any kind. We are simply offering opera," he said. But
he acknowledged that he believes "passionately in the power of art to
change lives and to offer people the opportunity to see things differently, or
to be given permission to behave in a new way."
"Opera Aid"
was part of a larger Folkoperan project called Opera Showroom, which it hopes
will become an annual happening. Run by artistic director Mellika Melouani
Melani, it aims to bring opera, widely considered elitist, out of the confines
of the traditional concert hall.
The event filled the
Folkoperan with alternative and free performances for two days in late March,
though the "Opera Aid" visits were spread over two weeks.
Given their private
nature, Folkoperan refused to allow journalists to tag along and observe any of
the 30 or so half-hour performances, which were free of charge.
Four singers, two
sopranos, one mezzo and a baritone, took part, working with Sofaer to choose
the arias proposed to people in need. They limited themselves to classic 18th
and 19th century works.
"Those classics
of Italian and German opera are the ones that I suppose most people immediately
have an emotional response to," he said. "They cut through you
somehow and get straight to your emotional core."
More than the music,
the singers had to prepare for the psychological side of the visit: how to act,
listen, ask certain questions and avoid others.
"We give them
the possibility to verbalize their feelings and once you've done that you open
up a room to their innermost feelings," Groendahl said.
"I think the
contrast for them is so big. First, we're just an ordinary person talking with
an ordinary voice and then you get ... a singer who invades your room and your
heart because you've already opened up," she added.
"The sound
changes the room," according to Sofaer who insists the effect is
long-lasting.
"There is a kind
of 'haunting'... The sound somehow lingers. If you go out of the room and return,
you remember the sound of the singer in that space. The space has
changed," he said.
Groendahl said she
modulates her powerful voice during house calls to fit the private setting and
direct it exclusively at the listener.
"From my
experience, the impact of the voice, the music, the story is huge on the person
who listens," she said. "It's a personal gift... It's the ultimate
contact with the audience."
While it may sound
like an opera fan's dream-come-true, loving music is not enough to get a specially
tailored aria delivered to your home.
Anyone interested
must formally apply and explain the problem they hope the music will help fix,
said Folkoperan's director Pia Kronqvist.
If you don't have a
problem, you don't get a house call, she said.
Henriikka Gröndahl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qMPDztmoPE
Henriika Gröndahl was
born in Finland and received
her training at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London
and the Royal Scottish
Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
She had her debut in
2004 as Mimì in La Bohème at the Scottish Opera in Glasgow, followed by Pamina
in The Magic Flute at the Brittish Youth Opera and Papagena in The Magic Flute
at Glyndebourne Touring Opera. Her Swedish debut took place in 2005 at the Royal
Opera in Stockholm
as the Princess in Ravel´s lyric fantasy The Child and the Spells. Since then
she has sung Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte at Sage in Gateshead, directed by Sir
Thomas Allen, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for the Scottish Opera during the
Edinburgh Festival in 2006 and The Fifth Maid Servant in Electra at Gran Teator
Liceu in Barcelona.
Roles she has
performed at The Göteborg Opera are Nanetta in Falstaff, Pamina in a short
version of The Magic Flute on Göta
Square, soloist in Jultrad-i-ton and most
recently, Musetta in La Bohème. Henrikka Gröndahl is a frequently engaged
concert singer both in Sweden
and in other countries.
Juntunen - Bezduz -
Gröndahl - Zetterström sing "Dunque è proprio finita! quartet" La
Boheme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keQjEwmHlPQ
Bülent Bezdüz, born
in Ankara, Turkey, is a Grammy Award winning Turkish tenor.
Bezdüz graduated from
Gazi University’s Department of Music and
started his vocal studies with Polish tenor Roman Werlinski. He was helped by
Hüseyin Akbulut, director-general of the Turkish State
Opera and Ballet. He decided to take the exam at the Mersin State
Opera and Ballet and made his debut there as Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata.
In 1997, he attended
the European Opera Centre in Manchester and made
his European debut in Mozart´s Lucio Silla which went on tour in England, Ireland
and Denmark.
Since then, he has
sung in London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Cologne, Marseille, Rennes, Nancy, Lausanne,
at the Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Regio di Torino, Portland, Oregon, Teatro
Colón de Buenos Aires, with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, the Istanbul
State Opera as well as in several other cities in Europe.
His repertoire
includes Fenton in Verdi's Falstaff and Hellenus in Berlioz's Les Troyens, both
of which he has recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin
Davis, Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Rodolfo in La Bohème, and the title
role in Gounod's Faust. He is ideally suited to the operas of Donizetti and has
sung the following roles: Alamiro in Belisario, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia, Leicester in Maria Stuarda and the title role in Roberto
Devereux, Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor. He
will sing this last role in May–June 2007 for Scottish Opera.
Bulent Bezduz
participated in two opera recordings conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Berlioz Les
Troyens (role of Hellenus) and Verdi Falstaff (role of Fenton) and naturally
shared the honor of the three Grammy Awards in 2002 and 2006.
Fotosi,štivo
http://www.google.com/search?q=Bulent+Bezduz&hl=en&client=opera&hs=wqN&rls=en&channel=suggest&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=36qhT9_eF6rZ4QTD8-mbCQ&ved=0CFEQsAQ&biw=991&bih=637
La Boheme "Che
gelida manina" Bülent Bezdüz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYnLGCIVzCA
La Traviata - Bulent
Bezduz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ziPToLO3_M