Podcast 38: Alan Dornak and Countertenor Culture

We are joined by Alan Dornak who tell us about what it means to be a Countertenor, and about the Orfeo Vocal Academy. And in “Noah’s Culture Bits” we have an experimental opera movie “River of fundament” by artist, model, sculptor, Matthew Barney.

Click to Listen
LISTEN TO PODCAST 38

Show Notes

  • Alan Dornak – countertenor, voice teacher and opera director at Wagner College and on faculty at AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy), and the General Director of the Orfeo Vocal Arts Academy, a 3-week summer vocal intensive in Dresden, Germany.
  • Music Credit: Allegra Durante & Alan Dornak
    • Jewels of the Baroque
    • Vertical Player Repertory
  • Frontiers Fort Worth opera Festival  – Frontiers – Fort Worth Opera Festival
    • Very Supportive Audiences
    • New York Snarky Audiences?
    • Sweets by Kate – Griffin Candey libretto by Thom Miller
    • Service Provider – Christopher Weiss and John de los Santos
      • The erosion of Romance by our obsession with mobile technology
      • Microphones, amplified
    • Francois Nouvion – Historica Tenors Website (No longer active)
      • “The tenor of the future, 2 mics and no voice”
  • Countertenors
    • Stereotypes – small and effeminate? Partiers?
  • Der Rosenkavalier – Met LIVE in HD
    • Staged By Robert Carson
    • Inventive Staging
    • Set in 1911
    • Renee Fleming – the Marchellin
      • Will be headlining in “Carousel” on Broadway as Nettie Fowler, Spring 2018
    • Elîna Garança – Octavian
      • looked like Steven Costello
    • Günter Groissböck
      • Final Act set in a Brothel
    • Mohammad as a Name in translation versus “Dem Mohammed” which is slightly racist?
  • Oklahoma at Bard College
  • Cyrano de Bergerac – Metropolitan Opera
    • Composer, Franco Alfano
    • Original story by Alexander Dumas? (Correction: Edmond Rostand)
  • La Campana Sommersa – Ottorino Respighi
    • New York City Opera
    • Set looked like a dune made of sand
  • Hunter Opera Theater
    • Ladybird
      • Composer: Henry Mollicone
        • “Face on the Ballroom Floor”
      • Librettist: Sheldon Harnick
    • Fireworks – Kitty Brazelton
      • Composer: Kitty Brazelton
      • Librettist: Billy Aronson
      • Microphones
      • Sung like Musical Theater
  • The Secret Gardener – Mozart
    • On Site Opera
    • Performed in a public garden
    • Comparison of early Mozart to Music Theater
  • Opera and Musical Theater Microphones – is it definitional
    • Monteverdi were not written for trained singers
    • American vocalism vs. Italian sound
    • Treatises and Singing Technique
    • Neapolitan street singing
    • Do we really know anything about how people sang historically?
    • Leon Botstein “Reading a treatise about how people sang historically, is like reading the bible to learn about how people had sex”
    • Baroque Music in Europe vs. America
  • Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolf
    • Edward Albee
    • A black actor in the role of Nick
  • The Glass Menagerie
    • Sally Field and Joe Mantello
    • Ignoring Stage directions
    • Disabled Actress
      • Cerebral Palsy
  • Anthony and Cleopatra – Johann Adolf Hasse
    • Anthony Played by a Woman – Vittoria Tesi
    • Cleopatra by a Man – Firanelli
  • Women Playing Men (Pants Rolls)
    • What about Men singing Women’s rolls?
    • Tosca with Scarpia played as a Woman “Passing”
    • Men singing Castrati Roles
  • Countertenor Voice vs. Castrati Voice
    • What was the sound?
    • Vocal chords size of a child and lungs of an adult?
    • Size of the face?
    • Alessandro Moreschi (11 November 1858 – 21 April 1922)
    • The Last Castrato
    • Was an Old Man, and Not trained well
    • Tenor character up an octave
    • Using a chest voice sound up high
    • Stephan Zucker – Bel Canto Society
    • Chest Voice idea has changed – has to do with resonance
    • Teaching Countertenor is same as any other voice
    • There are no countertenor-only teachers
  • River of fundament
  • Matthew Barney
    • Filmaker and sculpture
    • Was a Male Model
    • Installation art
    • Dating with Bjørk
    • Rivers of Fundament (Warning this contains very graphic imagery)
    • 6 hour film
    • brain adjusts to long works
    • first hour is excruciating but eventually gives over to it
  • Indie Opera Live!
    • Women in Opera
    • National Opera Center
    • Marc Scorca Hall
    • June 5, 7:30 pm
  • New York Opera Festival

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *