Food Blog

[SobaAddict70]

What to do, what to do?!?!?

I'm a complete and utter opera newbie. Hell, I don't even know what they're singing or what the plot's about in most of them. (Well, except for Don Giovanni.)

Soba

[bergerka]

...she sings the living shit out of the piece...

This description really made me laugh.

Is it common opera-speak?

HEE! Well. It's common ME speak. I've also been known to say "she sang that so well I need a CIGARETTE now."

If you know what I mean.

OH...re the wine with Italian food thing...yeah, normally I do like to drink wine food like that, but neither of us thought of it (I'm not sure we had any that would have gone that well with it, actually). Long day.

Guanciale is cured hog jowl. It's like bacon that is just so BACON flavored, so very PORKY, that you just want to eat it and eat it and eat it and and and...

Raw olive oil = extra virgin, added at the end instead of cooked in the dish. I think. I'll check with his geniusness.

I will get some pix of the baby boys tonight, I promise...you have just GOT to see how much bigger they've grown than in those original pix. Asher, especially...he weighs more than 5 pounds, and Issachar, the little golden boy, is now GIGANTIC and pudgy. We like to poke his little tummy. It annoys him.

Lunch!

The things I do for my blog. I COULD have gone out and gotten a salad and been healthy and felt virtuous, but I PROMISED you guys I was going to introduce you to the places we eat around here, so instead I gathered up Sam, SarahD and Ben and we went to Chipotle at 44th Street between Lexington and Third.

Sarah noticed, which I never had before, that it seems to be a "man" place to eat, which is to say that the men in the (long, as in out the door, but moving quickly) line outnumbered the women by at least 10:1. Are burritos a guy thing?

I had the barbacoa burrito (if you don't know Chipotle, that's braised shredded beef, slightly spicy. YUM), NO RICE (I don't LIKE rice in my burritos!), pinto beans, lettuce, corn salsa, pico de gallo, and a little bit of cheese & sour cream, and a Diet Coke.

I'm REALLY REALLY full now, and it is ALL YOUR FAULT.

K

[slkinsey]

What to do, what to do?!?!? 

I'm a complete and utter opera newbie.  Hell, I don't even know what they're singing or what the plot's about in most of them.  (Well, except for Don Giovanni.)

Little known opera facts for NYers:

1. You can get a seat at the Met for as little as $25 dollars... standing room for as little as 11 or 12.

2. There is a plot synopsis in every program, as well as on the Metropolitan Opera Company's web site (here is a synopsis of tomorrow evening's performance of L'Italiana in Algeri).

3. In front of every seat (usually affixed to the back of every seat in front of it) is a little LED screen which can be turned on and off. This is the Met's proprietary Met Titles system. When activated, the screen displays a real-time translation of the opera.

[bergerka]

What to do, what to do?!?!? 

I'm a complete and utter opera newbie.  Hell, I don't even know what they're singing or what the plot's about in most of them.  (Well, except for Don Giovanni.)

Soba

What to do is come to the opera with Sam and me sometime. It's fun. And we eat before (and sometimes go to Cafe la Fortuna after).

What to do if you want to go on your OWN is to see one of the following (my very favorite "first" opera experiences):

Carmen (great music that you will know! Sex! Violence! Bad breakups! Stalkers! Bullfighting!)

La Boheme (you know, it was just on Broadway. Romance! Bad breakups! Great music! Death from tuberculosis!)

The Barber of Seville (comedy! Great tunes! romance!)

La Traviata (bad girls going good! then going bad again after a bad breakup! Then dying of tuberculosis! Great music! Great party scenes!)

Rigoletto (Naughty men seducing good girls! Fathers trying to get revenge! Sex! Dishonor! Tragedy! Great music!)

And go see them at the Met, if you can. It can be incredibly frustrating if you go a lot because casting can be uneven, but for first experiences with standard repertory shows like the ones I mentioned above they do a bang-up job. And they have supertitles - in fact, the titles are at every seat so you can see what's going on for yourself!

K

[Marlene]

If I'm not mistaken, muscle weighs more than fat.

A pound is a pound is a pound . However, a pound of muscle is smaller in size, so more muscle can be packed into one place. When replacing fat with muscle, that's basically what you are doing, which is why you may not notice a weight loss.

[slkinsey]

Upcoming great first-time productions to see at the Met:

L'Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers). Very funny/accessible Rossini opera. All star cast: Olga Borodina, Juan Diego Flórez (probably the #1 light Rossini tenor today), Ferruccio Furlanetto. Performances on March 11 and 17.

Rigoletto. Very famous tragic opera. Lots of familiar hit tunes. Very good cast featuring Ruth Ann Swenson as Gilda and Ramón Vargas as the Duke. Performances March 18, 22, 26 and April 1, 6, 9.

Salome. The music might be a little freaky and advanced for first-time attendees, but it is a very powerful, dramatic and sexy opera. Chances to see super-hot soprano Karita Mattila dancing around in practically nothing do not come along all that often. Superstar cast featuring Mattila in the title role along with Matthew Polenzani, Siegfried Jerusalem and, starting on March 31, Bryn Terfel. Performances on March 15, 19, 23, 27, 31 and April 3, 7, 10.

[lamb]

If I'm not mistaken, muscle weighs more than fat.

A pound is a pound is a pound . However, a pound of muscle is smaller in size, so more muscle can be packed into one place. When replacing fat with muscle, that's basically what you are doing, which is why you may not notice a weight loss.

And muscle doesn't jiggle like fat does.

[SobaAddict70]

Oh, wow.

I've never been to the Met. (I've been to Carnegie Hall like once.)

I'm like a kid in a candy store, can you tell?

Thx Sam and Kathleen,

Soba

[mags]

The ferrets are ADORABLE!!

With reference to the "last bastion of acceptable prejudice" quote, I suspect that what Ms. Voigt meant is that while urbane intellectual types would not dream, these days, of displaying racism or homophobia in public -- would not, say, make a snotty comment to friends about a black man's eating watermelon or a gay man's doing something stereotypically swish -- the same constraint doesn't seem to apply with reference to fat people. It's still acceptable, in "polite" society, to make fun of them or put them down in a way it's no longer acceptable to make fun or or put down blacks, Jews, gays, whatever.

[bergerka]

The ferrets are ADORABLE!!

With reference to the "last bastion of acceptable prejudice" quote, I suspect that what Ms. Voigt meant is that while urbane intellectual types would not dream, these days, of displaying racism or homophobia in public -- would not, say, make a snotty comment to friends about a black man's eating watermelon or a gay man's doing something stereotypically swish -- the same constraint doesn't seem to apply with reference to fat people. It's still acceptable, in "polite" society, to make fun of them or put them down in a way it's no longer acceptable to make fun or or put down blacks, Jews, gays, whatever.

Yes, I think you're right.

I probably mostly cringed because it was the type of comment that struck me as just adding to the idea perpetrated in part by the spokesman for Covent Garden (the one where he said that singers tell him they HAVE to eat a lot to sing), that singers are utterly self-involved, self-indulgent, self-important spoiled babies.

Granted, some of us ARE.

I mean...what the hell were you people thinking, giving me a forum to talk about MYSELF FOR A WEEK??? I'm a SOPRANO, here.

K

P.S. Soba, if you want to go to Salome, pm me and let's all go together. It'll be fun!

[SobaAddict70]

Hm, not to take this too far off-topic, but what are the formal requirements (if any) for becoming an opera singer? (Not that I want to become one, mind you. Just curious, is all. ) I think I asked you this once but I'm asking you again so that everyone else can see, if someone else was curious.

How long before your big break? When do you become recognized? etc. etc.

And is it true that the gourmet correlation scale for opera singers is high off the scale?

Soba

[slkinsey]

K will respond, I'm sure... but there are no formal requirements for being an opera singer, per se. You just have to have the right mix of vocal talent, looks, dramatic ability, interpersonal/networking skills, political savvy, luck and in some cases, the willingness to have sex with certain highly connected people in the business. Some people are stronger in some categories than others... but most successful singers have a pretty high aggregate score.

[Lady T]

Contralto, here.

Soba, do definitely go see Salome. Among its varied virtues (in addition to its glorious-sounding vices) is the fact that it's a shortie -- only an hour or so, if I recall correctly (and correct me if I'm wrong!).

If I might contribute: talk to as many opera singers as you want, Soba, and that's how many stories you'll hear about how to support yourself and/or make it big. Here in the States, it's common to do at least one degree in music; where I work, you can throw a paper clip into the Chicago Symphony Chorus' ranks and hit three M.A.'s and a doctorate before the clip hits the floor (and the manager kills you with her bare hands for disrupting the rehearsal). 'Tain't required, however. If you can 'sing the shit out of' a role the way Ms. Voigt does, you're going places whether you have formal credentials or not. Guaranteed.

Degree work ain't enough, though. In addition to -- or as a part of -- the degree training, it's a must to work with at least one (and preferably an interesting range of 'em, over time) voice teacher to train in the reflexes (exactly as athletes must do in their particular sports) necessary to produce a flexible, beautiful, healthy, projected singing sound...even and accurate, all the way up and all the way down the range. Along with that, a coach/repetiteur to help you learn new repertoire and/or a language coach to make sure audiences and critics don't laugh at your pronunciation can be helpful.

That STILL ain't enough. Some singers get their major-league breaks by winning competitions. Some win auditions. Some do it by working with teachers who Know Somebody. And yes, the Casting Couch is a factor in some houses. Horizontal coaching, anyone?

Why do I mention the CSO Chorus in a discussion of opera singers? Because just about everybody in paid choral work, whether symphonic or operatic, has the same training: languages, scales, arpeggia, stage skills, dancing, occasional fight choreography, upper-respiratory survival and fitness in a hostile world, you name it. But God didn't kiss our instruments with big enough, or beautiful enough, or distinctive enough, sound to cut it in the world of three-thousand-seat houses. Or maybe our teachers didn't Know Somebody big enough to make sure the managers of the big houses heard us doing repertoire that flattered us. Or maybe we decided the life of the Wandering Minstrel ain't for us and opted for singing as an avocation rather than the source of income (mortgage companies and landlords encourage this kind of thinking).

That should be enough to get a discussion going...as long as we don't forget about food!

(No, Soba, high-test singing isn't an automatic guarantee of gourmandise. But find a group of singers and you'll almost always find a good variety of restaurant recommendations, and good company with whom to eat.)

Edited March 10, 2004 by Lady T (log)

[Suzanne F]

You just have to have the right mix of vocal talent, looks, dramatic ability, interpersonal/networking skills, political savvy, luck and in some cases, the willingness to have sex with certain highly connected people in the business.

I'll have to ask my friends at Juilliard, Boston Conservatory, and NEC who teaches that last subject -- surely not they.

Sam and Kathleen: Didn't Don Giuliani* make it illegal to have ferrets as pets? What happens if you get busted, as just happened to that guy with the monkeys?

*Ever since he left Donna Donna for Donna Judy, the comparison is so much more apt, n'est-ce pas? (Don't worry, Soba, I'll explain it later if no one else does first.)

Back on topic: so Chipotle is worth trying?

[slkinsey]

...God didn't kiss our instruments with big enough, or beautiful enough, or distinctive enough, sound to cut it in the world of three-thousand-seat houses.

I should hasten to mention that there are plenty of opera singers out there with relatively pedestrian voices who are nevertheless having huge careers based on their other strengths (acting, networking, looks, whatever).

Sam and Kathleen: Didn't Don Giuliani* make it illegal to have ferrets as pets? What happens if you get busted, as just happened to that guy with the monkeys? 

Ferrets are likely to be leagalized in NYC sometime soon, actually. There was already a referendum by the City Counsil back in the Guliani days, but the mayor vetoed it and there were not enough votes to overturn him. Bloomberg has indicated that he would sign off on it if it comes up again. Basically it's a political thing involving the Board of Health -- somewhat lengthy and complicated to explain. Anyway, I doubt that the cops are going to walk past the college kids openly smoking marijuana, not to mention the local crack dealers, to knock down our door and arrest our ferrets.

More info at NYCFerrets.com

[Lady T]

Word.

[ophelie]

Back on topic: so Chipotle is worth trying?

I am not sure how to use the quote function, so I am trying. I actually found Chipotle in Washington DC (I travel quite a bit for work and have over the years). At first, I attempted to dismiss it as a "Subway for burritos," but have since seen the error of my ways.

I actually enjoy Chipotle quite a bit. I am partial to the Chicken Fajita Burrito, but can do barbacoa or their Niman Ranch Pork as well. I actually LOVE the rice in the burrito (and it's got a kick of cilantro and lime). I opt for the "hot" sauce. Their ingredients are pretty fresh and the quality is yummy. They are BIG. I can eat a whole one though.

On the subject of burritos and Washington DC, Washington also has another chain Tex-Met/burrito place I like - Baja Fresh. Have any of you been to one. They have NO freezers and everything is very, very fresh.

[balex]

K will respond, I'm sure... but there are no formal requirements for being an opera singer, per se.  You just have to have the right mix of vocal talent, looks, dramatic ability, interpersonal/networking skills, political savvy, luck and in some cases, the willingness to have sex with certain highly connected people in the business. Some people are stronger in some categories than others... but most successful singers have a pretty high aggregate score. 

Just saw Angela Gheorghiu in Simone Boccanegra. We are talking a high aggregate score

here.

Now I have to talk about ferrets to make this on topic ?

[JPW]

Back on topic: so Chipotle is worth trying?

I am not sure how to use the quote function, so I am trying. I actually found Chipotle in Washington DC (I travel quite a bit for work and have over the years). At first, I attempted to dismiss it as a "Subway for burritos," but have since seen the error of my ways.

I actually enjoy Chipotle quite a bit. I am partial to the Chicken Fajita Burrito, but can do barbacoa or their Niman Ranch Pork as well. I actually LOVE the rice in the burrito (and it's got a kick of cilantro and lime). I opt for the "hot" sauce. Their ingredients are pretty fresh and the quality is yummy. They are BIG. I can eat a whole one though.

On the subject of burritos and Washington DC, Washington also has another chain Tex-Met/burrito place I like - Baja Fresh. Have any of you been to one. They have NO freezers and everything is very, very fresh.

I generally perferred Chipotle to Baja Fresh.

I use the past tense due to watching sodium attached to moderate hypertension.

A typical Chipotle burrito has about 2500 mg of Sodium (pretty much 100% RDA)

I had to e-mail them for the nutrition info as it was not on web site. However, they were quite nice electronically. The reply (with attached nutritional info) said straight out "We use a lot of sodium. Sorry, Our burritos are not for you"

[ophelie]

I had to e-mail them for the nutrition info as it was not on web site. However, they were quite nice electronically. The reply (with attached nutritional info) said straight out "We use a lot of sodium. Sorry, Our burritos are not for you"

Wow. At least they were nice and forthright. I find that refreshing.

-Ophelie

[slkinsey]

Back on topic: so Chipotle is worth trying?

I guess I am of a similar mind with the others. It's actually quite good in the context of a middlebrow chain place -- similar to Burritoville in that respect. I don't hesitate to eat there during the week. But, part of that has to do with the fact that the choices are limited given a day job in Midtown East and 60 minutes for lunch. I'd certainly pass right by Chipotle to eat at Noche Mexicana, Taqueria Y Fonda or even the W 104th Street taco truck if it were in my neighborhood (that speaks more to the good quality of the three alternatives than it does any deficiencies at Chipotle).

[bergerka]

Hm, not to take this too far off-topic, but what are the formal requirements (if any) for becoming an opera singer?  (Not that I want to become one, mind you.  Just curious, is all.  )  I think I asked you this once but I'm asking you again so that everyone else can see, if someone else was curious.

How long before your big break?  When do you become recognized?  etc. etc.

And is it true that the gourmet correlation scale for opera singers is high off the scale? 

Soba

Oh dear.

Short answer: it takes talent, brains, contacts, hard work and a shitload of dumb luck.

Long answer - this is a REALLY LONG answer, I hope it isn't too OT to stay on the blog. If it is, let me know and I'll delete and PM you with it.

Like being an actor, a musical theater performer, or basically any kind of freelance performing career, I think, there are certain things you (generic you, not "you" per se) have to have in order to be an opera singer...but none of those things guarantee you a full-time (or even part-time) living at it.

You absolutely MUST HAVE:

1. The burning desire to do it. This happens first. You had better REALLY WANT THIS CAREER, because otherwise the first big stumbling block will knock you on your ass and you'll have wasted time, money and opportunity to do something else. This career costs more and takes longer than becoming a brain surgeon, and the chances of making a living - EVER - are much lower than your average neurosurgeon's, too. We are frequently told that if there is anything we can see ourselves being happy doing that ISN'T being an opera singer, we'd better do it. Along with this, it ought to go without saying, should come a real love for classical music and particularly opera (you would be shocked if I told you how many singers I know don't even LIKE opera. WHYYYY would you put yourself through this if you didn't LIKE THE ART FORM??? ). You know the scary part? I'm not even being overdramatic here.

2. The instrument and the technical ability. I put these two together because whether or not you HAVE an operatic voice is frequently determined as you develop singing technique with a teacher. Singing technique is basically the development of the quality of the instrument, the vocal range, the stamina (it's a muscle, yanno), the breath control...all the physical things that go into making a controlled "operatic" sound that carries to the back of a large auditorium without a microphone and that you can sustain for periods of several hours at a time without becoming overly tired or hurting yourself (if you ever want to see what a damaged vocal fold looks like, google "vocal nodes" sometime. Yick).

3. Acting training/good dramatic instincts. You can get away with one or the other, although both are preferable. I know plenty of stage animals who have never taken an acting class, and plenty of singers with lousy instincts who have good training and can take direction extremely well.

4. Good ability with languages, both sung and spoken. Italian, at a minimum. French. German.

5. A professional "team." This is your teacher, your coach(es, I have two/three at any given time. By the way...teachers teach you HOW, physically, to sing. Coaches work with you on how to incorporate the technique into your repertoire), and eventually your agent. These are the people you can trust to tell you both when you're good...and, more importantly, when you suck and how to fix it. These are also people who work on your behalf, ideally, to recommend you to people with influence (or, in the case of your agent, set up auditions and book you when you are offered contracts) who can help you get hired.

So you take all of these basic things and develop a "core" repertoire, which is to say that you figure out which operatic roles suit your voice (can you be heard over the orchestra, are other singers with similar voices being cast in those roles, can you sing every single note in tune and connected to every single other note, every single time, that kind of thing) and your "type" (yes, type counts. Not nearly as much as in straight theater or musical theater, where one can be - and I have been - "typed out" and released from an audition for being too tall, or whatever, but it is increasingly important in the standard repertoire to look as though you could be the character you are portraying), and you learn the important pieces from those roles for auditions (if you're obsessed, like me, you learn the whole damn role even when you're not contracted to sing it), you put out beaucoup bucks for photos (I've considered using my new headshot as an avatar...I own the negatives, would that be a copyright violation?), you design a resume and bio to mail out to companies, you move to a major city (NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, L.A. but not so much), and you throw yourself into this like a fish, swimming upstream.

The first thing you find out is the thing no one tells you: Opera in the US and most of Europe (excluding Germany, different system altogether, I won't go into that here because I'm not going to Germany) is a PURELY FREELANCE BUSINESS. There is NO retirement plan, there is NO health insurance (I still don't have health insurance, because it's not affordable individually either!), there is a union, but it really kind of sucks unless you're a professional chorister (which, interestingly enough, does tend to be with one particular house, and is a "regular" job). Not only that, unless you are one of the 1% of the 1% who happens to be ready for prime-time at a very young age AND happens to get noticed by the "right" people (this happened to my friend Laura, who now sings at basically every big house in the world), you may not be making a full - or even part - time living at this by the time you're 30. Or 35. I know of one singer who was still temping off and on into his early 40's. I'm glad for him that he didn't give it up, though, because finally he caught a break and got enough high-paying gigs to make it his full-time living.

Eventually, depending on the contacts you make, the direction your voice and repertoire go, and your luck, you will either have enough jobs to sing full-time for a living or you will not. All smart singers, whether they admit it or not, set a "target date" by which they want to be able to look down the road and say "by two years from now, I will have enough gigs to make my living at this," and if they can't do that, they quit and do something else.

The above two paragraphs sum up what is SO hard for people to understand about this career - although with the number of freelance writer types we have here, I'd be surprised if egulleteers didn't understand. Frankly, real prime-time for a singer is age 35-50, and most full-time singers are somewhere in that age group, with full-time singers in their twenties much more rare. Although I work at a day job most of the time, I am still a professional opera singer. I have more gigs this year than I had last year, I am making more money at this and I am being noticed by more people, and I'm actively looking for an agent now (you need an agent to have a career, but you need a career to attract an agent!). As long as I continue to actively pursue a full-time career in this, I will be a professonal opera singer. And when I stop actively pursuing it, I will become an agent and make singers' lives hell by telling them all the things they don't want - but do need - to hear.

I do hope this makes sense, I've been alternately typing it and working like crazy for this very sweet but VERY busy lawyer.

On preview: this and everything else that everyone else said about it.

K

[SobaAddict70]

Thanks, Kathleen.

Now returning you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Soba

[suzilightning]

What to do, what to do?!?!?

I'm a complete and utter opera newbie. Hell, I don't even know what they're singing or what the plot's about in most of them. (Well, except for Don Giovanni.)

Soba

i loved this when my favorite bass did the title role:

http://www.samuelramey.com/

[Toliver]

Long answer - this is a REALLY LONG answer, I hope it isn't too OT to stay on the blog.

It's your blog and you can

stray if you want to,

stray if you want to,

stray if you want to...

I am looking forward to hearing about some of your meals out. Sam and your reviews have been great so far.