Opera Chic

The Inextricable Link: Kaija Saariaho & Dawn Upshaw News

As we type, Alex Ross is preparing to ambush American soprano Dawn Upshaw as part of The New Yorker Festival in a tête-à-tête that we're all invited to. But, when I say you are invited, you actually have to buy a ticket first. And be in NYC on Saturday, October 4.

Will they talk about her 4 Grammy Awards? Her experiences at the Metropolitan Opera? Her battle with cancer? Her interpretations of modern works by composers like Esa-Pekka, Henryk Górecki’, John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, or Kaija Saariaho?

Speaking of that foxy Finnish composer, Ms. Saariaho recently released a live concert recording with Finnish-specialty label, Ondine. The CD includes a cello concerto called "Notes on Light", which is sung by our favorite half-naked soprano la signora Karita Mattila, cellist Anssi Karttunen [who the piece was written for], and Christoph Eschenbach conducting the Orchestre de Paris. It's soooo on our playlist rite now. Our lukewarm <3 of Saariaho was set ablaze this summer when we saw Upshaw in the NYC premiere of La Passion de Simone.

Being adrift in Milan, we can only hope that the transcript is released or some intrepid fan y00tubes the whole thing. We can wait...

OC is Down With the Upshaw: La Passion de Simone @ Mostly Mozart 2008

Opera Chic was among one of the kewl kids @ the Wednesday, August 13, 2008 U.S. premiere of Kaija Saariaho's La Passion de Simone, and can report that the 75-minute long oratorio lived up to all of her expectations.

OC digs la Kajia for so many reasons, because she comes highly recommended from Esa-Pekka Salonen…who is still teh mang, and because she was the first girl to crash the Salzburg boy's club and stage one of her operas there.

La Kajia has so many other cool things about her -- she's a close friend of Dawn Upshaw, and anybody's who's friends with Dawn is friends with us, too. She writes -- especially now that she's left electronica more or less behind -- elegant little miniature pieces that are blessedly unafraid to sound not-difficult, not-Boulez, not-Darmstadt. And this elegant approach, this talent for understanding the life of small things is also Saariaho's main limitation -- you have to be Debussy in order to write music with moisture over a spider's web the way Saariaho tries to do -- and she's not exactly Debussy. She writes with great precision, and she's never too easy, and never too New Age-y, but the risk is there -- may the Muses bless her for the humanity that informs her works – a humanity that captures you the way it captured Dawn, for example, who knows about such things -- but Kaija -- unless she's at her very best-- ends up more in the business of creating affecting moods than creating great music.

That said, OC will resume a more succinct review tomorrow when she's had a chance to replay the glittering, twinkling ambiance that la Kaija wove via the orchestra, melted with hair-raising glissandi, the gentlest of pianissimi, and frantic, scrambled climaxes. Saariaho reminded OC how important it is to not harsh on one’s mellow -- and with that, she’s going to turn out the lights, spark a few Annick Goutal rose musquée candles, wrap herself in her black Pratesi cashmere robe, and sip a mug of Fortnum & Mason elderflower infusion. Stay tuned for all the highlights.

"La Passion de Simone": Dawn Upshaw Gives Life To Kaija Saariaho’s NYC Premiere @ Mostly Mozart Festival

La signora Dawn Upshaw -- mystical Unitarian, corageous survivor, proud disciple of the Upshaw Family Singers, radio DJ, polite endurer of dense journalists, friend of the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and soprano assoluto of magical wonders -- with dancer Michael Schumacher will perform the New York premiere of La Passion de Simone at the 2008 Mostly Mozart Festival next Wednesday. Kaija Saariaho’s "musical journey in fifteen stations" (as in "stations of the cross") is directed by Peter Sellars, with text by Amin Maalouf.

NPR has plenty of audio, and other good stuff.

La Passion de Simone

To update a previous post on the sudden cancellation of American soprano Dawn Upshaw's anticipated peformance, this November 26, 2006 marked the premiere of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's new work, "La Passion de Simone" for the New Crowned Hope Festival (running from November 14, 2006 until December 13, 2006) at Vienna's Jugendstiltheater

The opera is directed by Peter Sellars and lead by by Finnish conductor Susanna Maelkki. It is based on Simone Weil's writings, specifically, "Gravity and Grace". It follows the form of a Passion play, and therefore consists of fifteen stations. Each station is a separate interlude from Weil's life, and lead soprano Pia Freund is responsible for narrating the role. The operetta is a bit over one hour, and is an oratorio for soprano, choir, and electronics, as apparently there is some sort of media that is stationed throughout the audience to display Weil's "spoken word".

It was for this new production that the news was made a few weeks ago that American soprano Dawn Upshaw canceled participation after being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, earlier blogged about here.

I created a flickr set of three hi-resolution pictures from the performance, which can be found at the Opera Chic account.

:(

American Soprano Dawn Upshaw has been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, and has pulled-out of upcoming performances through January 2007 to begin chemotherapy. After recovery, she plans to make a full return to singing.

The biggest cancellation of her November preformances is in the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho's new opera, "La Passion de Simone", at the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, Austria. Replacing Upshaw will be Pia Freund.

Scoring really high points is Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen, who was slated to conduct Upshaw in "La Passion de Simone" for the United States premiere on January 12, 2007. Instead of enlisting a new soprano in the part of Upshaw, Salonen has opted to postpone the entire US premiere at least one season until Upshaw has recovered.

Best of luck to our lovely Dawn, and wishing her a quick recovery.