Celine Dion y la Opera

[Wunderkind]

Hace tiempo encontré esta noticia que me ha generado bastante curiosidad. Este es el link para que la visiten directamente

 

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...1a-4f8412845542

 

Aqui esta el texto para que lo revisen sin ir al link. ME COMPROMETO A IRLO TRADUCIENDO A LA BREVEDAD, POR ALGO ESTA ES LA SECCIÓN EN ESPAÑOL. Adjunto MI COMENTARIO

 

 

 

Céline is Taking Chances on opera

Quebec's international pop diva has been diagnosed a soprano by Montreal Symphony Orchestra's Kent Nagano

ARTHUR KAPTAINIS, The Gazette

Published: Saturday, August 30

Céline, happily, rhymes with Christine. Which leaves Kent Nagano in the role of Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, who transforms a hapless songbird, through a regime of relentless training, into an acclaimed operatic soprano.

 

Not that the Montreal Symphony Orchestra is likely to revive the

 

Andrew Lloyd Webber hit with its own music director, masked and caped, in the title role. Not that Céline Dion will ever sing Marguerite in Gounod's Faust on the stage of the Paris Opera. But it is known that Nagano and the MSO will collaborate with the Quebec icon. And the repertoire, according to a report this week in La Presse, will be operatic.

 

 

However this prospect might baffle opera lovers - and Dion fans who are happy with ballads belted out from the middle of the road - it is the logical outcome of recent Dion developments. Nagano flew to Las Vegas last December with MSO administrative boss Madeleine Careau and pop lyricist Luc Plamondon to see the high-tech spectacle A New Day and confer with the star and her manager-husband, René Angélil.

 

Around the same time, Dion was claiming that one of her recurring dreams was to win an Academy Award as an actress for a film portrayal of Maria Callas. Dion's 2007 tribute-to-womanhood album, D'Elles, includes La Diva, a reflection on the late soprano with words by the Quebec novelist and cultural critic Denise Bombardier, who noticed a resemblance when she visited Dion backstage in Las Vegas.

 

Add to this what we might call the Taking Chances motif: the conviction Dion often expresses, whether sincerely or strategically, that she is a restless artist who seeks new challenges. "What's next?" she asked rhetorically at the end of a television profile that aired this week. "Opera" is the implicit answer.

 

Is a classical conversion viable? Many North American opera singers started out in gospel choirs or high-school productions of musicals. But once their voices are recognized as opera-worthy, a rigorous

 

period of training follows. No one jumps directly from Annie Get Your Gun to Lohengrin.

 

And while many opera singers have cut credible Broadway albums, few established pop stars migrate in the other direction. Classical Barbra, an album by Streisand, is long forgotten. Nobody was heard calling out for Nessun Dorma from Aretha Franklin at the Montreal International Jazz Festival last June.

 

Opera and classical song require sustained tone, exact rhythm and keen attention to articulatory details that have no parallel in the pop field. No microphones allowed. Pop singers are seldom comfortable with these house rules. And those who do cross over - like Sarah Brightman, the sweet-toned original Christine - remain firmly encamped on the pop side of the divide.

 

Still, Dion might be in a better

 

position than most to carry a classical tune. Even her detractors generally credit her with a strong, radiant voice, a reliable technique and a wide range. She moves from language to language effortlessly and shows awareness of the source when she does covers. That parrot gene will surely come in handy

 

Yet at an audition for Nagano in June in Berlin the singer admitted that she knew no operas (apart from a few numbers from Bizet's Carmen) and could not read music. Nagano is said to have reassured her with the information that Luciano Pavarotti was musically illiterate. (Not quite, but it is true that some opera singers of the past learned intuitively.)

 

Nagano reportedly diagnosed Dion as a soprano and recommended classes with the ex-diva Renata Scotto (who once spoke harshly about Maria Callas, but never mind). The anecdote is an extraordinary testament to the prestige of orchestra conductors. Who else could listen to one of the most famous and successful singers in the world and tell her she needed lessons? Could Nicolas Sarkozy get away with it? Condoleeza Rice? Queen Elizabeth II?

 

At any rate, Nagano has clearly impressed Dion and Angélil as a conductor they can do business with. And whatever the conductor's private feelings about the collaboration, he is enough of a pragmatist to follow through.

 

 

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Font:****What can we expect of the artistic results? Maybe Scotto can do what Berlitz did in 1989 - turn a unilingual singer into a bilingual one. Maybe.

 

This is uncautious optimism. I predict that Classical Céline will be a well-miked pastiche of well-loved tunes with a backup of lush strings in the manner of Nelson Riddle. Classical types will hear it with

 

horror and pop types will listen with indifference. Tickets will be sold, money will be made and no one will be hurt. Then everyone will get back to work.

 

Nagano and the orchestra have

 

already announced a tour of Europe in April. More detail is available from Van Walsum Management,

 

a European organizer of such ventures.

 

The trip will be styled as a 75th anniversary event - the first MSO

 

concert having taken place in January 1935. (Your math is fine. Just start counting from the 1934-35 season.)

 

"This will be Kent Nagano's first major European tour with his new orchestra," reads the Van Walsum website, "and will attract substantial international publicity." Cities listed as "participating so far" are Baden-Baden, Barcelona, Brussels, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Valencia and Vienna.

 

Repertoire includes Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with Viviane Hagner, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (with Klaus Florian Vogt and Christian Gerhaher), Strauss's Ein Alpensinfonie and Bartók's Suite from the Miraculous Mandarin and works by Debussy, Tan Dun, and Unsuk Chin.

 

Both the Berlioz and Strauss works were standbys of the Japanese-Korean tour of last spring. Other similarities to the Asian program: no Canadian soloists and no Canadian music.

 

Of Course, Céline Dion will be available to provide national content. She concludes her Taking Chances world tour in February.

 

akaptainis@sympatico.ca

 

 

 

 

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DICE MÀS O MENOS LO SIGUIENTE...

[celínico_sin_remedio]

Gracias por la información y el nuevo enlace Wunderkind!

 

Este tema de Celine cantando ópera (que de momento es sólo un proyecto que no se sabe si se va a hacer, aparte de la película de Callas que sí se hará) se está tratando en este topic ...

 

http://www.celinedionforum.com/Futuros-Pro...ano-t36859.html

 

Si quieres puedes traducirlo ahí, ya un moderador moverá estos posts también a ese topic... gracias por tomarte tu tiempo para traducirlo