Madame Butterfly

Here are some more information for Madame Butterfly:

Julian Schnabel, one of the most recognized faces of Abstract Art in the modern era, was born on October 26, 1951 in the New York City, to Esta and Jack Schnabel. This multi-faceted American personality is a painter, a filmmaker, a sculptor, a furniture designer, and a property developer. Schnabel grew up in a Russian-Jewish neighborhood near Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn; he though spent most of his formative years in Brownsville, Texas. He was inclined towards art from childhood and went on to study B.F.A. from the University of Houston in 1973. He went back to New York the same year to attend the Whitney Museum's Independent Study program for young artists. He married twice and has three children from his first wife, Jacqueline Beaurang, who is a clothing designer. Julian Schnabel has twin sons from his second wife, Spanish Basque actor and model, Olatz López Garmendia.

In the beginning, the artist lived a bohemian lifestyle and traveled extensively across the globe, funding his jaunts by working as a cook and a cab driver. Julian's maverick lifestyle earned him the reputation of 'the bad boy of the art world.' He was a regular visitor to the Max's Kansas City, a restaurant-nightclub in the New York City, where he practiced his art. This modern age neo-expressionist however, became a force to reckon with, after he exhibited his work at the Mary Boone Gallery in 1979. The following year, Julian participated in Venice Biennale and was an immediate success. Schnabel's ability to market his skills quickly propelled him into the public eye as is evident from the fact that his artworks can be found in the museums all over world. Soon he was recognized among the geniuses of the 20th century art. His paintings consist of vivacious colors and adventurous brush strokes. Julian's unusual painting styles are generally filled with great raw power and emotional energy such as in "The Walk Home (1985)."

Throughout his life, Schnabel has often been surrounded by controversies, most of them cropping up due to his outspoken and brash behavior. Several critics blamed him for commercializing his art and derided his work. To the admirers however, who love his eccentric personality, Julian Schnabel is a modern day hero who is credited for reviving 'painting' as a noble art form. In the year 1987, Schnabel published his autobiography, "CVJ: Nicknames of Maitre D's & Other Excerpts from Life."

Schnabel has also written and directed three movies, which were artistic biographies, including "Basquiat" in 1996, a biopic on the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, and "Before Night Falls," based on the memoir of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in the year 2000. He was also the producer of these movies. In addition, Schnabel won the award for best director at 2007 Cannes Film Festival for his third movie, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," which was an adaptation of a French memoir.

Annette Labedzki received her BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She has more than 25 years experience. She is the founder and developer of an online art gallery featuring original art from all over the world. It is a great site for art collectors to buy original art. Is is also a venue for artists to display and sell their art . Artists can join for free and their image upload is unlimited. Please visit the website at http://www.labedzki-art.com

Learn to Sing: Song of the Unsung Heroes

If you're a behind-the-scenes kind of person, the assistant who gets the presentation ready for the uy in marketing but does not get to go in the meeting, then this article is just for you. Are you the PR professional who writes all their speeches and answers all the complaint letters for the chief executive officer; pianist practices; the deputy chief whose job description is doing all the things the chief doesn't like to do or can't do; or the paralegal who prepares all the pleadings, knows all the codes, and does all the licking and stamping.

Temistocle Solear, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Henri Meilhac, Jules Barbier, Michael Carre, Guiseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica, Renato Semoni, and Nicola Haym all know what this is like.

Who on earth are these people??

Well even if you're not an opera fan, I bet you've heard of the composers Verdi, Bizet, Mozart, Strauss, Gounod, Handel, Donizetti and Puccini. And I'm sure you've heard of some of their operas - Aida, Carmen, Cosi fan Tutte, Madame Butterfly, Faust, and Don Giovanni, for instance.

Did you know that these composers wrote the music for their operas but not the lyrics? Solear, Ghislanzoni and the other individuals in the list are what's called "librettists." It is they who wrote the words to the music that tell the story, without which you would be listening to a symphony, not an opera. And we never hear their names! They're called "librettists" because the words to the songs, which basically comprise the script of the opera, is called a "libretto." It's Italian for little book.

Like Gilbert and Sullivan, the pairs worked together. The inimitable Richard Wagner was the only one to compose all his operas entirely by himself, creating both music and lyrics, which may account for why they are so powerful, so "Wagnerian." This is quite a feat because composing music and writing words require different parts of the brain.
Sometimes the composer and librettist met in person, while other times the work was done by correspondence. Strauss worked exclusively with one librettist, after writing his own lyrics for his first opera and finding out he wasn't good at it, but most other composers switched around, finding the right librettist for the job, or one who was available. It's not unlike the way a lot of us work these days - long distance and by contract.

Again, grasp the significance of the work these unsung heroes did. The words are so integral to the opera they are never translated. Subtitles run across the big screen on stage, or the little screen on the chair in front of yours at the opera. We read them in our native tongue while they are sung on stage in the original German, Italian, or French. (For aficionados, anyway. Beginners may enjoy translations, such as The Chandos Opera In English series, which translates the lyrics into English.)

What an incredible collaboration an opera is. It takes costume designers as well, because an opera is as much visual as it is auditory. The Grand Opera is known for its elaborate sets and costumes. In "Turandot," when the mob turns surly and the moon appears, she is personified and costumed in a magnificence dominated the stage for what seems like half an hour, that will keep you transfigured.

One opera I hope to see one day is Verdi's "Aida," excuse me, Verdi and Ghislanzoni's "Aida" at the Bath of Caracalla in Rome, where the Triumphal March of Rhadames features live elephants and horses on stage. Now that's entertainment!

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Madame Butterfly tenor range?

Does anyone know the range of the lead tenor part for Madame Butterfly? I just want to know the top notes he has to hit.

Try turning it around and changing the wheels

Opera Review : Satyagraha @ ENO
Philip Glass, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, radicalism, puppetry, and, er, farming - the English National Opera seems to have it all in their production of Satyagraha , so drawing the crowds in shouldn't be a problem. Keeping them there, however, is another matter... Performing an opera in Sanskrit without subtitles - save for the occasional key phrase projected onto the set - was always going to ...

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