Stunning. What a beautifully haunting performance. Thank you so much for sharing this, Yakko.

Okay I have too much fun on here. I thought for this post I would focus on Victoria De Los Angles. I just am in love with her voice. She really captures the right emotions for each aria she sings, but not only that but she has a crystal clear tone, as well as have the right amount of vibrato that she just needed. Its kinda sad a lot of people do not talk much about her. She really is a soprano to really take inspration from. Oh and also just a stupid thing to mention. Whenever I read Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera, Victoria's voice is what I imagine as what Christine would've sounded like.

I heard Victoria De Los Angeles sing the Habanera on the radio this morning, but they didn't say it was her until afterwards. I was a little shocked -- normally I love her, but I didn't care for her version of this aria much. The character is there, no question, but her French is kind of dodgy in places ... and also, I personally really don't like soprano Carmens.

Anyway. Opera Australia's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado was on TV last night and I watched a bit. This is hands down the best "As Some Day It May Happen / I've Got a Little List" I've ever heard. I absolutely lost it. Hysterical! Lyrics are on the YouTube page. (Admittedly, a lot of the jokes are written for Aussies -- he references a politician who who is known for wearing speedos, impersonates our Prime Minister, etc -- but there are some great digs at opera and MT as well ) Random point of interest: this Ko-Ko (Mitchell Butel) also played Princeton/Rod in the Australian production of Avenue Q.

This thread's great! I'm actually a music performance major at my college. I think that maybe some of you already know this by my name, but my primary instrument is the flute. I actually had to perform for Performance Class for the first time this past Tuesday, and I played Georg Phillip Telemann's Fatasie VI in d. It's a fun three-movement piece that goes from dolce to allegro, and then it goes to spirituoso. First movement is in 3/4, the second movement's in common time (or 4/4 time), and the third movement is in the very interesting 3/2 time signature. It's a Baroque piece, so I can play around with dynamics and articulation however I want. It's probably some of the most fun flute pieces I've played. Since it's so early here (I was planning on taking a one-hour nap, but that didn't happen), I'm not gonna post a video quite yet. I'll edit one in later

There's another piece that's an ensemble piece that my college's Symphonic Band played and that I had a solo in. It's by Georges Bizet, and it's called Farandole. I don't know any details of the composer or of the song itself other than the fact that it's very fun for the flutes and picks up pace near the end. The end is probably my favorite part of the piece next to the solo I got. I'll be sure to put a video in at a later date.

Guess whose recital I have front row tickets for??

Another soprano I thought should be mentioned. Mady Mesple is sadly one of the most underrated sopranos ever heard. Her tone is just out of this world and her virbrato is just perfect. There is just no flaws to this woman.