Opera Chic

A Mighty Mezzo Wins Spring For Music's 2012 Arts Blogger Contest

Everyone is a winner! But on the real, mezzo soprano Jennifer Rivera is today's biggest. The American opera singer just won the 2012 Spring For Music Great Arts Blogger Challenge for her thoughtful essays on the state of arts funding in North America, which she posted on her blog, Trying to Remain Opera-tional, an unedited account and insider's view of opera from around the world. 

The contest was organized by Spring for Music, a classical music festival which brings North American orchestras together for six concerts from May 7 - May 12 at NYC's Carnegie Hall, tickets just $25. Like OC, if you can't be there, 105.9 FM WQXR will be broadcasting/streaming the concerts live.

First prize of the Spring for Music challenge, which goes to Rivera, is $2,500 freedom dollars and two tickets to each contest. The final round included Rivera's blog, Seated Ovation, Operation Opera and Neo Antennae.

If you're still throbbing with contest fever, Spring for Music launches another contest on Monday called Fantasy Program where you can submit your dream version of the festival's set-list. The contest will be open to public voting (just like the arts blogger challenge), and the winner gets two tickets to this year's and next year's festival.

Spring for Music's artistic director Tom Morris will be speaking about the festival on WNYC's Soundcheck (93.9 FM and 820 AM) with host John Schaefer this Tuesday, April 24 at 2pm.

Congrats to all the participants, who got recognition from North America's online arts community.

Spring For Music Blogger Challenge Heats Up for Round III

American Mezzo Jennifer Rivera has made us laugh with her Cherubino/Rosina, has turned us on with her Agrippina's Nerone -- frankly, a Christian Lacroix costume simply does that -- and has made us think (for years) through her personal blog, Trying to Remain Opera-tional.

She's one of the nine bloggers participating in the current Round III of Spring for Music's 2012 Great Arts Blogger Challenge and brought out the big guns for this week's post on arts in North America and the lack of a Secretary of Arts & Culture position in the U.S. 

Four of the nine bloggers will advance to Round IV Finals this Friday and the power of voting the bloggers ahead is in the hands of the public (well, 1/3 public opinion, 2/3 of three guest judges). Anyway, voting for Round III ends at noon on Thursday, April 12.

Forty-two bloggers originally registered to enter the competition. First prize is $2,500 and two tickets for each of the six Spring For Music concerts at Carnegie Hall May 7-12.

Three cheers for the remaining good sports in Round III: Operation Opera, Classical Beaver, Neo Antennae, Seated Ovation, Also Sprach FraKathustra, Proust Eats a Sandwich, ArtBLT and The Glass.

Ish Opera Singers Say

In the spirit of recent youtube sensation, "ish white girls say to black girls", American mezzo soprano Jennifer Rivera (with American tenor Will Ferguson and opera's king of cool Michael Rice) made opera singers all sorts of cool with their own take on the meme. We've been there:musical tables & chairs at restaurants, stolen scarves and enough Rx stashes to bury a horse. We <3 our singers.

 

Jenny From the Block on NYCO on the Chopping Block

This whole New York City Opera demise thing is just so lame. So how about the perspective from a singer who did her time at the New York City Opera while it was thriving? American mezzo Jennifer Rivera, who keeps a blog, wrote an insightful post about the whole situation.

Barbiere in Ten Seconds: Video by mezzo Jennifer Rivera

Mezzo x Mezzo: Jennifer Rivera Chats with Kate Aldrich

 

Jennifer Rivera (below) interviews [friend, neighbor, colleague, and fellow mezzo] Kate Aldrich (above).

Can You Handle Händel? Jennifer Rivera Certainly Can.

(Above: Jennifer Rivera as Nerone in Agrippina, photo copyright Jennifer Rivera)

Georg Friedrich Händel's Agrippina, a political tale with lots of sexual maniplation thrown in for good measure, all within the background of ancient Rome and a riviting score makes for good opera. One of our favorite young, American mezzo sopranos, Jennifer Rivera (not to be confused with the Mexican pop star who made a steamy secks tape), has freshly arrived in Berlin and is preparing for Agrippina, where she'll be singing the role of Nerone at the Staatsoper in February. In her frank and self-depricating voice that she pulls off so well, Jennifer reflects from the intensive, no mercy, Händel-heavy reshearsals and dares: "Handel's totally gonna be my b1tch by the time this is all over." Awesome. Sounds like something out of a '90s action movie.  

In a new production by Vincent Boussard and costumes by Christian Lacroix, Rivera will share the stage with Maestro René Jacobs, and Alexandrina Pendatchanska as Agrippina, the Bulgarian soprano that takes no prisoners and will steamroll you with her sheer vocal power.

Jennifer Rivera is One Step Ahead of the Game. OR IS SHE?

Wedged between Jay-Z, the Olsen twins, Ted Kennedy and Michael Jackson, The Daily Beast plucked American Mezzo Jennifer Rivera for their Week in Culture round-up, citing her inherent coolness factor, and how she's managed to spice-up opera with good old-fashioned secks appeal. And we're certainly not going to argue with that.

But if one were so inclined to google ~Jennifer Rivera~, what are the chances to discover the down-to-earth, pants-role-singing mezzo's steamier side? 

Well, zero, actually.

Because it's really not her fault that she shares a common name with a certain Mexican pop star that's more famous for her steamy leaked internet spicy video than her talent.

We're not necessarily suggesting that opera stars should resort to such ruthless tactics (*cough* Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson & Kim Kardashian) to get their names in the playbills or top-tier opera houses  -- rather, if that's the game plan, remember the golden rules: matching bras & panties and no barnyard animals.

This is How We Wanna See Il Barbiere: Jennifer Rivera Spices Up Siviglia

(Photo courtesy Rob-Harris Productions)

o hai who's that secksay girl with the razor? Once in a while an opera promotional campaign comes along that just clicks...and leaves you wondering why no one had thought of it before -- nay, why you hadn't yourself. We're sorta getting that vibe from the playful new ads created for Opera Tampa's upcoming Barbiere di Siviglia.

Modeled after that famous 1993 Vanity Fair cover, shot by late/great Herb Ritts, our two young singers pose in homage to the gender-bending vignette of K.D. Lang getting a shave by Cindy Crawford.

In the photo above, American mezzo Jennifer Rivera as Rosina prepares to groom American tenor Greg Schmidt as Count Almaviva, publicizing the December 5th and 7th productions of Barbiere for Opera Tampa. La Rivera explains more on her blog, "Trying to remain opera-tional" (you can also go there for high-res images):

"Here in Tampa, we have a very short rehearsal period before the performances. They scheduled a photo shoot for the second day we were here, and since we didn't have the costumes yet, the PR guy had the very clever idea to copy a former Vanity Fair cover of Cindy Crawford shaving K.D. Lang who was reclining in an old time Barber's chair.[...]"

"[...]I am soooooo not a sexy vixen in real life, so this photo shoot was a big stretch for me, but he finally got some good expressions at the end of the shoot when I just gave up and stopped trying.[...]"

Please, girl...the secksiness has liftoff -- destination: Jennifer Rivera. Frankly, we wish that wardrobe & make-up could have been a bit fiercer (like smokey, sultry eyes/red lips for la Rivera paired with a couture/vintage dress & accessories) but we give it A+++ for effort for rubbing us in all the right places. We understand we're working with a limited budget here.

We hope to find Ms. Rivera in 2011 @ Teatro Communale di Bologna's La Clemenza in the reprisal of Graham Vick's masterful production we saw last May in Torino. We thoroughly lauded Monica Bacelli's Sesto (La Rivera was the secondary cast's Sesto), but are looking forward to sampling her skillz. Maybe like, a sultry Sesto? hmmmm...