Italian Opera Gala by the Students of Sibelius Academy
By Sasha Mäkilä on Sunday 9 March 2008, 08:03 - Permalink
Resting
before the opera concert...
Even in the 126-year old Sibelius Academy there is room for some new
traditions! Last year the Singing Department and the Orchestra Department
decided to co-operate in an Opera Gala Concert for the mutual benefit, and this
year it was done again.
The deal is like this: all the conducting students are assigned a soloist and
an aria (this year the theme was Italian Opera). Then we will have one
rehearsal with piano, and two "rehearsals" with the conducting class orchestra.
I write "rehearsals", since there is barely enough time to run the piece
through. It really is not enough to make a big artistic impression, but
nevertheless it is great fun and a good experience for both the singers and the
young conductors...
It is also really nice that this concert is webcast and available for wider
audience through "SibaTV". You can watch the concert in RealAudio. My
performance of Santuzza's aria with soprano Emriikka Salonen is at 1:18:45.
http://www2.siba.fi/sibatv/index.php?id=131&la=en
You can also check the last year's gala concert from the link below. Now that I watched that again I think as a whole the last year's concert was a bit better... My performance of Mimi's aria with soprano Hedvig Paulig is at 1:03:45.