USA UK DE FR

Buy sheet music

EMAIL UPDATE
FREE CD!


STORE

Opera News QUIZ


Rough Guide QUIZ

back to TOP

         ...that started at the MET...
    "I had a lovely time at the MET; I ADORED the MET!"

    "...the voice renders you vulnerable to a point... that
      there's a kind of child-likeness about singers."

She is one of the world's most beloved opera singers, and this series of video clips of excerpts from a FanFaire interview with mezzo-soprano FREDERICA VON STADE (or FLICKA as she prefers to be called) and frequent collaborator, composer JAKE HEGGIE will show why: the consummate artist is also a genuine human being - kind, gracious, warm, spontaneous, big-hearted, and-unlike what one is led to expect of a diva-totally unself-conscious and completely unself-absorbed, AND verrry funny, especially when she's laughing at herself.  JAKE HEGGIE said it best:  "FLICKA makes the world a better place just by being there."  Need it be said that we came away from the interview that afternoon feeling that the world has indeed become a better place.

In this video clip, FLICKA who has performed most all of the mezzo-soprano roles in the repertoire to international acclaim, takes us first to her roots, on to the beginning and then up to the high points of what — contrary to her own expectations — turned out to be a long and glorious career.  She talks quite extensively about her career at the METROPOLITAN OPERA which began in 1969, toward the final years at the MET of its patrician General Manager, SIR RUDOLF BING.  These days Flicka, a Bay Area resident, performs more frequently at West Coast venues such as SAN FRANCISCO OPERA and LOS ANGELES OPERA, and wherever her well-known artistic collaboration with composer JAKE HEGGIE takes her - such as HOUSTON GRAND OPERA which in February 2008 world-premiered Last Acts (later renamed Three Decembers) a chamber opera written by HEGGIE for VON STADE.

This interview was held following rehearsals for a Spring 2008 recital of Lieder, art songs, and Broadway tunes, presented by the LONG BEACH OPERA at the LONG BEACH PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, and very enthusiastically received by the audience. 

                  A LONG, GLORIOUS CAREER         "FLICKA AND JAKE"      EXCITING TIMES AHEAD

         

Design and Original Content: FanFaire LLC © 1997-2008. All rights reserved.