mezzo

In the first episode of musicmakers by medici.tv, Gramophone editor-in-chief James Jolly sits down with superstar mezzo Joyce DiDonato, who opens up about her love for Berlioz and Frederica von Stade, the magic and community of performing onstage, the privilege of a strong audience-performer rapport, the excitement of stepping into a brand-new role, what's coming next in her brilliant career, and much more…

Presented with the generous support of Madame Aline Foriel-Destezet.

Dans ce podcast, je vous explique d'où viennent les catégories vocales et leurs autres qualificatif.  Voir l'image. 

Coaching - Bilan de ma voix

Back from Covid and stronger than ever! (?)

This week’s guest is mezzo soprano and fellow denizen of the South Bronx Linda Collazo. I was super happy to catch her in between engagements because she is busy as hell. We talk about her background and development as a singer, the never ending struggle for motivation, and take a lengthy detour to talk about the difficulty of balancing outreach in tough neighborhoods like the ones we hail from. Linda is great and to check out some of her past work and her upcoming performances, hit up lindacollazo.com.

As a special holiday edition of the podcast, and the final episode of this current series, I’m joined by Internationally acclaimed Mezzo-Soprano Deborah Humble.

She is highly regarded for her Wagner roles and has performed in opera houses around the world including Paris, London, Sydney and Hamburg.

She’s also been a friend of mine for over 35 years.

Born in Bangor, Wales, Deborah grew up in Adelaide, Australia.  She received her musical and vocal training first at the Elder Conservatory of the University of Adelaide and later at the University of Melbourne.

Deborah was a member of the Young Artist Program of the Victoria State Opera, and in 2002 became a principal artist with Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House. She was also the winner at the beginning of her career of the prestigious Dame Joan Sutherland Scholarship in 2004, and the following year, she became a Principal Mezzo with the State Opera of Hamburg.

In 2008 she was a finalist of the International Wagner Competition of the Seattle Opera.

In 2009 she was included in the Who’s Who of Australian Women.

Since 2010 she has been a freelance artist and she has performed over 60 operatic roles worldwide.

In 2016, after 25 years living in Europe, Deborah returned to live in Sydney, and today she's coming to us from Brycefield estate in the Hunter Valley where she lives with her Partner Dr Bruce Caldwell.

Like many performers, Deborah has had to adapt to multiple cancellations and changes brought about by the global pandemic.

In this podcast, Deborah looks back on her 25-year career as a Mezzo-Soprano and also looks at how she has adapted by becoming a winemaker, created a show channelling Julia Child and a look behind the scenes at how Operas are made and what can go wrong, alongside a look at how different cultures respond to Opera.

In this fascinating chat, we covered literally Wagner to Wine: 

• Deborah’s journey from Wales to Australia
• When did you decide to become an Opera singer?
• Why pick Opera as the genre to focus on?
• How Opera singers project their voice
• The preparation required for a huge Opera
• The experience of living in Hamburg
• Being an Australian in Hamburg
• Why did you return to Australia?
• The need for resilience
• The Brycefield Music Festival
• The Hunter Valley region
• Becoming a winemaker
• The need to change direction during the pandemic
• Becoming Julia Child
• Performing at the Bennelong Restaurant at the Sydney Opera House
• Stories from the life on the road
• The story behind Opera costumes
• Performing for different audiences
• Dealing with negative feedback
• German vs English vs Australian audiences
• What’s next?
• Career highlights

More on Deborah

LinkedIn
Twitter
Instagram
Brycefield Estate Website
Deborah's Professional Website

Your Host: Actionable Futurist® & Chief Futurist Andrew Grill
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Paula grew up with traditional Irish Music in County Kerry, but despite immersing herself in music and performance at the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, she didn’t yet think of it as a viable career choice. But one day, looking after her younger sisters while her parents were away, Paula sent off the ‘change of mind’ form, changing her option from Primary School Teaching to Music Performance. Paula went on to train in Dublin, then onto the New England Conservatory in Boston, and onto a whole series of Young Artist and Apprenticeship Programmes from Britten Pears to the Merola Opera Programme among others, building the stamina and experience that would stand her in good stead in the future. When she felt she was probably done with Young Artist programmes, she was noticed by Bernd Loebe at the Neue Stimmen, and was offered a place in the newly-formed Studio at Oper Frankfurt. This led to her being a full time soloist at Oper Frankfurt, where she was able to explore a huge variety of roles, and take risks in a way she hadn’t been able to before. Now, Paula graces some of the world’s most fabulous stages, from her iconic performance in Barry Kosky’s Carmen in Frankfurt to the Bolshoi in Moscow where she is currently singing the title role in Ariodante, to the Salzburg Festival, to the Met and Santa Fe Opera among many brilliant others.

Read more about Paula on her agent’s website here and follow her on Instagram here