Nannerl (the Schnapps?)

I took this picture during our holiday in Vienna, in one of the many souvenir shops the city has. I used to say that Mozart is everywhere there, but it's also true of his whole family. And it is true of his sister Maria Anna Mozart, better known to the world as Nannerl, her pet name. So she has a schnapps named after her. I guess they were running out of chocolate flavours. Anyway, I tried plenty of beers during our time there, no local wine (to my great shame) and no schnapps. Maybe I should have tried this one, given my love for her brother's music. And side note: I'm wondering what she would think of having her face and name used to brand a drink. And next to an Empress, no less.

"L'Objet du délit"

Bon, ben il y a un film français que je veux voir. C'est une chose qui m'arrive assez rarement, mais celui-ci m'intéresse. Vous devinerez facilement pourquoi. DOnc, le film a pour titre L'Objet du délit. Réalisé par Agnès Jaoui, il raconte une production troublée de l'opéra Les Noces de Figaro, de Mozart, alors que des allégations d'agression sexuelle éclatent. Une comédie dramatique inspirée du mouvement #MeToo, avec comme myse-en-abyme un opéra qui justement parle en des termes à peine couverts (sinon pas du tout couverts) de harcèlement sexuel. Vous pouvez voir la bande annonce plus bas.

Question existentielle (406)

Cela faisait un bon bout de temps que je n'avais pas posé de question existentielle. Et il m'est venu en tête une question existentielle aussi brillante qu'érudite. Alors voici donc:

-Dans Don Giovanni de Mozart, en prenant en considération les chiffres donnés par Leporello lors de l'aria du Catalogue, de quelle grandeur et de quel format devrait être ledit catalogue donnant les conquêtes amoureuses de Don Giovanni?

 Pour les amateurs d'opéra et les mozartiens parmi vous.

Mozart for Easter (Et incarnatus est)

 Happy Easter everyone! As usual, I share some music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I shared his Et incarnatus est from his Great Mass in C Minor more than once, but it's just so fitting for today. Performed here by French soprano Julie Fuchs (Wolfie's favourite, because he finds her cute). And to accompany this post, a picture I took in Vienna. If you think it's not Easter-y enough, well, I think Mozart is always Easter-y enough, because it's his music I listen to at Easter and because he was the Christ of music.

Tamino and Pamina

First and foremost: happy Valentine's Day everyone! I am not the biggest fan, to be honest, because when you are single today, it is depressing and when you are in a couple, it is stressful. All the same, let's celebrate, with first  picture I took in Vienna. You may recognise Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. AKA The Magic Flute. We stumbled upon this monument at complete random. I thought it captured beautifully their relationship. Of course, I could not celebrate today without Mozart's music. There's another reason why I wanted to share the picture: for me, their relationship perfectly embodies what true, lasting love should be. So here is their duet, or a part of their one duet in the opera, sung by my favourite Mozartian soprano Golda Schultz (don't tell the others) and tenor Ben Bliss. Mozart can be cynical about relationships, but not here. Yet he remains I think truthful: for love to work, it has to be teamwork.

Majestic Mozart

Well, it is still Mozart Week, so I am sharing more of his music. And a statue of Mozart himself: the one you can find in Vienna. It is often surrrounded by tourists, who just take pictures of it because, well, Mozart is a huge part of Vienna and Austria, maybe its most famous composers. And I was there as a pilgrim, a proper worshipper in fact. That said, like many other portraits and monuments to the man, I find this one strange at many levels. He looks atypically regal and Greco-Roman godly here. Maybe a tad Messianic too. As much as I'm a sucker for the monuments paying homage to him, I can't help but find them incomplete. There's a lot of Amadeus in this statue, but very little of Wolfgang, even less of Wolferl. There's no mischief. Anyway, this post would not be complete without a bit of music, here an aria from from Le Nozze di Figaro. Sung by Rod Gilfry. Tell me what you think of the music and the statue.

Mozart, music and chocolate

Yes, yes, Mozart's birthday was yesterday, I know it came and it's gone. However, as it is still Mozart Week, this household will spend it listening to Wolferl's music and we will stuff ourselves with Mozartkugeln. We made stocks during our time in Austria and we are still getting through them. I tookthis picture in Salzburg, where Mozart as born 270 years ago and one day. They sell the stuff everywhere, in all sorts of varieties. But more on that in another post. I thought it would be fitting to share a bit of Cosi fan tutte. One of my operatic obsessions. It's about love and, yes, sometimes it is also about chocolate.

The Birthday of Amadeus

As you probably know by now, today is the birthday of of Wolfgang Johannes Chrysostome Amadeus Mozart, the heart of Mozart Week. I commemorate it a picture with his most famous (although not his most accurate) portrait, which I took in Vienna. I am also sharing a bit of his music, the Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra. I thought I would give you a break from opera. And that a birthday needed something joyful and youthful.

Don Giovanni for Mozart Week

Because it is Mozart Week, I think it is proper to share more of Mozart's music. I took this picture in Salzburg, the city of his birth. As you can read beneath, it is a drawing of a stage design Don Giovanni, my favourite opera of Wolfgang. My favourite opera, period, in fact. I haven't shared an aria from DG for a long while, not since 2022, so it was about time. This is Mi tradi wuell alma ingrata, sung by Alexandra Lowe (a soprano I don't know all that much) and I hope you enjoy.

Cherubs and Cherubino

As you know if you are following this blog, we are during Mozart Week, a festival held in his native Salzburg to celebrate his birth and his life. As I am a big fan of Mozart, I'm celebrating it here too. I took this picture in Salzburg, during our last holiday in Austria. Which was, to me, a pilgrimage. It is a ridiculously allegorical portrait of Amadeus, but I thought it would be fitting for the aria I am sharing today. As there are cherubs visiting him from heaven (maybe to make sure he doesn't get naughty with the lady he is playing to?), I thought it would be fitting to put an aria from Le Nozze di Figaro. Sang of course by Cherubino, who here takes the voice and face of Israeli mezzosoprano Rinat Shaham. There are subtitles for your convenience.

Queens of the Night

Today is the start of Mozart Week, a music festival celebrating his work held in his native city of Salzburg. And I thought, what better way to show this blogger's love for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart than to share a picture of our last holiday in Austria and sharing an aria for good measure. So yeah, I took this photo in his birthday house, now a museum. These are two mannequins dressed like the Queen of the Night, one of the many emblematic characters in Die Zauberflöte. I also share her most famous aria, sung by Diana Damrau. One of its most iconic interpretations. Side note: which costume do you prefer?

Papagena

January is the birthday month of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and it struck me that I haven't blogged about it yet this year. A shameful oversight, especially since I have so many great pictures from our holiday in Austria. I took this picture in a park in Salzburg. Because Mozart was born there, the whole city is very much haunted by Mozart's ghost, his loved ones, as well as the many characters of his operas. So yeah, there was a statue of Papagena from Die Zauberflöte. Of course, I had to accompany this post with the famous duet where she is featured, here sung by Elisabeth Boudreault (she is from Saguenay like me)and her fiancé Huw Montague Rendall. Aren't they cute together?

Grieving for Mozart

Sad anniversary which I commemorate every year: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on the fifth of December 1791. His Requiem is  played all around the world to commemorate, I am doing the same here on this blog. It's been centuries, but the grief is still fresh: Wolferl died young, he died with an unfinished masterpiece. And I also thought this is a good opportunity to share a picture from our last trip to Austria. His statue in Salzburg. Sadly we didn'y visit his grave, even though he does not rest in it. Be that as it may, Requiem Aeternam, Amadeus. Dead, but truly immortal.

Mozart Everywhere

"Oh my God, the dude's everywhere!" This is what my wife said on our first day in Salzburg. She was referring to two things: first, the iconic image of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which was indeed everywhere, albeit mostly in a dignified form, tall, handsome, commanding. Not exactly how I imagined the hot kid from Salzburg to have been in real life. Second, the Mozartkugeln, which are sold everywhere, in every shop, in every form. With Mozart to promote them, of course. They use his image shamelessly. And, I must confess, we bought the chocolates shamelessly. But anyway, what my wife said deserves to be a new great unknown line and I will not end this blog without a bit of Mozart music. So here's the fourth movement of hos Jupiter Symphony, which I think I never shared until now. Enjoy.

Mozart for Easter

Happy Easter everyone! I will celebrate quietly, as I am back from York, but that doesn't mean that there will be no rejoicing in this household. As it is a tradition for me, I do Easter in music, specifically Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Christ of music. I always listen to some of the Great Mass in C Minor . Here's a bit of it, sung by Lisette Oropesa, one of my favourite.

Lorenzo da Ponte (une biographie)

Je reviens sur la production de Don Giovanni de Mozart  par Opéra du Royaume, qui bat son plein en ce moment. Dernière représentation demain, piur ceux qui peuvent. Je voulais aussi dire quue vous pouvez lire sur le site d'Opéra du Royaume une courte biographie de Lorenzo da Ponte, le librettiste de l'opéra. Je savais pas mal tout ça, à part un détail ou deux. Mais dans tous les cas, c'est un bon résumé de la vie du plus grand librettistes (à mon humble avis) de l'histoire de l'opéra. En fait, da Ponte est un grand dramaturge, point.

Don Giovanni au Saguenay

Annonce pour les gens du Saguenay ou ceux qui peuvent s'y rendre: la production de Don Giovanni de Mozart  par Opéra du Royaume, ben c'est maintenant que ça commence. Alors donc, pa première est aujourd'hui et c'est jusqu'au 13 avril.

Don Giovanni à l'Hôtel Chicoutimi

 Je re, re, re-plogue la production de Don Giovanni de Mozart par Opéra du Royaume. Un, si vous pouvez le voir, allez le voir, c'est en avril. Aussi, si vous n'êtes pas du Saguenay (ou vous n'êtes pas proche) vous pouvez obtenir 25% de rabais pour une chambre à l'Hôtel Chicoutimi en présentant votre billet d'opéra. Vous avez les détails dans l'image plus haut, avouez que je vous mâche le travail.

Mozart dans le Royaume

Comme vous le savez si vous suivez ce blogue, Opéra du Royaume va présenter Don Giovanni de Mozart en avril.Je plogue la production de temps en temps, parce que c'est une première régionale et parce que c'est mon opéra préféré de Mozart, qui est mon compositeur préféré. Vous pouvez lire une entrevue avec son directeur artistique ici. Ils font beaucoup de promotion de cette production à L'Opéra du Royaume, ce sera un évènement musical majeur.

Plus sur DG

Comme vous le savez, Opéra du Royaume va présenter Don Giovanni de Mozart en avril. C'est une première régionale (rérionale?) et j'aimerais pouvoir y être, mais hélas... Je suis loin. Cela dit, je me tiens au courant sur la production, en plus d'en faire la promotion sur ce blogue. Parce que j'ai aumoins quelques lecteurs au Saguenay. Bon, alors, j'en ai appris plus: ils ont traduit le libretto original. Alors ce sera chanté en français. Je suis, je l'avoue, un peu dubitatif. Je pense qu'on peu suivre même si l'on ne parle pas italien. Et j'ai peur qu'on y perde au change. Mais bon, c'est quand même Mozart et mon opéra préféré, alors je ne bouderai pas mon plaisir pour autant. Enfin, je ne bouderais pas si je pouvais y être. Et c'est du 9 au 13 avril, pour ceux qui peuvent.