Me at The Rolling Stone for Il Divo!!

IL DIVO performed flawlessly in their concert at Ritz Carlton Jakarta, Saturday (Feb 25). Guess who was the lucky guy  to get a chance writing the concert review for Rolling Stone? *smile* - Photo by ANTARA

Last Saturday night was an awesome night for me...

Rolling Stone had asked me to do a review for Il Divo's Jakarta concert. 

It all happened when the executive editor of rollingstone.co.id, Wendi Putranto, was looking for Il Divo's fans as he posted it via twitter. Didn't think twice, I responded telling him I was a fan of Il Divo - even not a die hard, but fond of hearing this vocal quartet's music. 

At first, I thought mas Wendi was just looking respondents to be asked about their opinion on Il Divo's upcoming concert on Feb 25 in Ritz Carlton which I had no plan to attend to (cause the pricey ticket). 

Turned out, it was not. IN FACT, he asked me to help him to write a review of Il Divo's concert for Rolling Stone! 

Okay, I thought this was way tooo exciting: watching Il Divo's concert for the very first time, experiencing their marvelously magical vocal live, writing about it, then it will be ending up in Rolling Stone Indonesia's web! Unbelievable for me!

The conversation of me and mas Wendi continued in email. He told me that he felt gratitude and believed a fan could do a good writing when talking about his/her idol. (I hope so Mas Wen :p). Via that email, he also informed I got an media ID, namely "Rolling Stone".

Behind the excitement, there was an anxiousness. I was little scared of how capable I was in delivering an idea about (mainly) classical-pop music, Il Divo's genre, to be read by Rolling Stone audience.

It was for Rolling Stone for god's sake! - whose most of the readers' iPod playing Gun N Roses to Bob Marley. Thoughts haunted my mind suddenly: Was it a sin to speak "Adagio For Strings" to them? Did they know who Samuel Barber was? 

Ah, this was a lifetime experience I thought. It would be SINNER if I rejected Rolling Stone's favor. Anxiousness turned back to excitement again! 

February 25 - the day of me being a "contributor" for Rolling Stone Indonesia & the day of me witnessing the multi-national quartet's flawlessly performance - came by. 

So how awesome Urs, Sebastien, David, Carlos' performance was?? and how terrible I was transferring that awesomeness to paragraphs?? 

You should read my review then :) Pay a visit to rollingstone.co.id/review (it's in bahasa Indonesia)

humble to hear your feedback guys :)

The Art of Eating Sushi...

Eating sushi, these days, is really popular among fine cuisine die-hards in Indonesia. We've seen people queuing in a long line in front of Sushi resto. Sushi is like the new 'nasi goreng' here. 

As everyone enjoy eating this Japanese cuisine, not most of them, including me, know how to eat sushi, properly. 

Turns out, Sushi has its own 'art of eating'. Hotel Santika gives us the detail of the sushi etiquette...

As you laugh yourself realizing you broke those rules for a long time, I have to admit: you're not alone. I discovered too much rules I broke like dipping the rice instead of the fish, not eating the ginger pickle between the sushi.

So, don't bother to call yourself a sushi die hard unless you know the etiquette of eating sushi

Musisi Klasik di Sesame Street

Di tengah euforia film "The Muppets" yang baru dirilis di Indonesia Januari lalu, saya jadi teringat akan 'saudara jauh' karakter The Muppets, yaitu Elmo, Big Bird dan kawan-kawan dari serial TV anak-anak "Sesame Street". Untuk kembali mengenang masa kecil saya yang kebetulan dihiasi oleh celotehan geng Sesame Street itu, saya mencoba me-YouTube episode dari acara yang tayang perdana tahun 1969 tersebut. Hasil pencarian lebih banyak merujuk pada para musisi dan aktor kenamaan yang sempat menjadi bintang tamu di acara tersebut.

Menyempil di tengah kerumunan video terpopuler - dengan tag Katy Perry, OK GO, Feist - ada cuplikan episode Sesame Street yang menampilan bintang opera Andrea Bocelli - di episode ini sang tenor asal Itali ini menyanyikan nina bobo untuk Elmo.

Ternyata, bukan Bocelli saja yang sempat tampil bersama Elmo dan kawan-kawan. Nama seperti soprano Renee Fleming dan cellist Yo Yo Ma adalah sebagian dari musisi klasik yang pernah tampil sebagai guest-star Sesame Street. Berikut cuplikan video-nya yang saya ambil, dari mana lagi selain, dari YouTube :)

Sepertinya ini cuplikan Renee Fleming tampil di The Muppet Show, bukan Sesame Street. Tapi, seperti yang saya bilang, kan mereka masih saudara jauh ;) Soprano kenamaan asal Amerika ini membawakan lagu berjudul "12345" ditemani para babi - Jangan tertukar dengan "1234"-nya Feist lho..

Nyanyian Denyce Graves, mezzo soprano Amerika, diinterupsi oleh para penguin. 

Duel - Joshua Bell pada biola dan Telly pada Saxhorn 

"Jam Session" - Yo Yo Ma pada cello dan Hoots pada Saxophone. Siapa bilang cellist gak bisa nge-jam? :p

Bintang opera Marylin Horne menyanyikan "C is for Cookie" . Sudah bisa ditebak lagu ini didedikasikan untuk siapa. Mr Cookie pastinya.

Paling favorit. Time To Say Goodbye, bukan Bocelli-Brightman tapi Bocelli-Elmo. Sweet.

Ini penampilan yang paling lawas. Maestro Gustavo Dudamel menjelaskan Elmo apa arti 'stupendous' (Istilah  musik untuk menggambarkan "paling besar")

Mungkin Jalan Sesama (Sesame Street versi Indonesia) boleh saja terinspirasi: mengundang penyanyi seriosa Anang Katamsi sebagai guest star. Siapa tahu saja. Toh, bukan sekedar 'nyontoh' tapi ada efek positif juga: memperkenalkan musik klasik bagi anak-anak :) 

Finding The Creativity

Dear classically-trained singers, how you ever felt so difficult to find an inspiration?   Perhaps, inspiration for classical singers means  a different 'interpretation' that you want to bring in a song you sing to your audience.  Sometimes, we cannot cope with this issue easily since most of classical songs are bound by many rules - musically, dramatically, interpretatively.

So, last night I read this article from UK's Guardian website, about tips on finding inspiration suggested by top British artists. Names from many art fields - music, poetry, dance - are giving their best self-experienced advice. Among the top names include the promising young opera singer, Kate Royal. These what Kate suggested for you, singers:

• Don't expect inspiration to happen when anyone else is watching. It usually happens when you are on your own, and it's gone in a second.

• Inspiration on stage is a controlled version of what you might experience in the practice room. As opera singers, we are bound by many rules – musically, dramatically, interpretatively. When inspiration strikes, you have to hope that the other 10 people on stage will give you space to wallow in your "moment".

• Try not to analyse other voices and interpretations too much. Of course we gain inspiration from the greats, but it is best found in the the opera's score or in the poetry. If this doesn't inspire you, then you are in the wrong job.

• Mistakes can be inspiring – allow yourself to take risks, and do what scares you. People might remember the colour of your dress and what encore you sang, but no one will remember if you forgot a word or if your phrasing didn't go to plan.

Kate Royal - Photo by EMI Music

• Remember that art is everywhere. It's amazing what you can find inspiring on the No 464 bus from Peckham.

• Alcohol and singing are not a good combination – not in opera, anyway. The more you drink, the uglier you sound.

• Be kind to your voice. If you want it to inspire you, you have to inspire it, with lots of rest, steam, sweets and a good talking to every now and again.

• Don't Google yourself or your reviews. It can only end in misery – you either believe the crap or the good, or none of it at all.

• Let the audience into your world and you are bound to receive inspiration from them. Sometimes even the man asleep at the back has inspired me to sing with a little more "edge".

• Get some perspective. I always thought I had to have music every second of every day, or I wouldn't survive. The truth is that when I step back from it and learn to enjoy the more mundane aspects of life, I appreciate my music so much more.

Breaking: The Queen of Soul Looking for The New Queen of Opera

Aretha Franklin - via Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Aretha Franklin, America's renowned queen of soul, is currently looking for a new singing star, not someone singing pop or soul music of which Aretha's music based on, but  an opera star! According to the NPR's website, the 69-year-old singer has opened an audition, for someone who is 18-40 years old and passionate to classical music, and was looking forward for their demo recorded in CDs or cassettes, adding that the 'Respect' singer is seeking "just the classical aspirants, just the people who are actively studying."

If one of you, my American friends, is interested for the audition, consider to sing Nessun Dorma, as NPR reports that the piece taken from Puccini's Turandot is one of her favorite classical aria which once sung by her during the 1998 Grammy Awards performance in her soul style obviously.

So, will you guys sign up for it?

Why can't we call Jackie a Classical Prodigy that early>

One of my last posts was talking about the emerging of young classical musician. I mentioned Jackie Evancho, the runner up of America's Got Talent, as one of them.  My idea written in that post was like I treat the 11-year-old Pittsburgh native as a final-made Diva. But I was wrong. I've should not consider Jackie in that way. She was just the product of a talent show who needed to explore more her vocal technic then she deserved the Diva label - thinking of Renee Fleming or other pro opera/classical singer who got the label without not having a musical learning academically.

That whole eye-opening idea coming after I read this Washington Post article, posted online Dec 30 by Tim Page. Entitled "Talented Young Musician Run The Risk of Burning Out Early", the article emphasizes on how we sometimes are confused on the label 'prodigy'. We mistreat a star, apparently a product of talent show, as a professional performer. Sometimes we say, in the case of child singing sensation like Jackie: "Wow, she sings like an opera star. Superstar! Praise the Lord for her!". Too premature to say so. Page says:

'By certain standards, Evancho may now be a "superstar", as Andy Warhol* would have understood the term. But she has many years of work ahead of her before she becomes any sort of musician - and I fear that this premature and unwarranted exposure will ruin a genuine and valuable talent'.

Agree. By his saying of the premature labeling 'will ruin a genuine and valuable talent' means that we must aware of the way we value the talent of a singer. We cannot 'value' Jackie who had been only months in the competition the way we value Renee who's been dedicated her whole life to study and perform classical music for almost three decades, or vice-versa.

On how Jackie sings an aria, in this case the Puccini's great work of "O Mio Babbino Caro", Page considers her as if 'she is trying hard to fill gigantic shoes that may well fit her someday but could easily wreck the way she walks if she persists in wearing them now.'  

No need to rush for a girl like Jackie to sing the grant aria like that Puccini's work. She's talented indeed, but we prefer to see hear her singing like that, maybe, ten years later, after she matures her singing technic. Instead, as Tim suggests, Jackie should sing something that fits for 11-year-old girl. He adds: 'Why not folk songs and smart pop music and maybe some of the simpler Schubert lieder* instead of grand opera?' 

(This case reminds me of Hayley Westenra. She was dubbed as classical singer when her first world-wide released album Pure came out as she was just sixteen years old but she denied it by filling most of her albums with simple traditional or folk songs. I think Jackie can learn from Hayley, singing songs that appropriate to her age)

The main issue here as Page wants us to consider lies on the way we label 'prodigy'. 

'the cult of the prodigy has always struck me as one of the most debased aspects of the music world. If I were king, I think I would put some kind of ultra-restrictive law on the books that would permit the best and the brightest of our children to flower to ripeness, follow their curiosities, study their art, learn about joy and heartbreak and, ultimately, to turn into people before they are trotted out as the latest phenomenon.'

Page sums someone is eligible enough to be called 'prodigy' after s/he has learned tons of ups and downs of something s/he works on. Jackie, you got many homeworks to do. 

Well, if you think this article is trying to discredit Ms. Evancho's talent, you are obviously wrong. Instead, it helps us to fix and re-shape the way we think of how to label someone properly, with a detail outlook of what and how she's done something. 

So, the old saying is always true : don't judge a book by its cover

*avant-garde director who is inventing the famous term "15 minutes of fame"

*song performed by one singer accompanied by a pianist

Renee does Jazz

Renee Fleming must be very well-known for her capability in singing all kinds of arias from many Operas. But few people know this: she sings jazz songs too. Her wide range of musicality not only limited by her classical background, but turns out she can sing a song which is really different from what she's always doing. 

Actually, Renee and Jazz is a long time friend. Before decided to take a classical music professionally, young Renee spent most of her time singing in a jazz band in a New York cafe. 

This following video, Renee shows off her flawless vocal while singing the famous Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood", which is one of my favorites. Real diva!