Rod's Blog

Semester winding down

2011-12-08T09:34:00.000-08:00

The Fall 2011 Semester at USC is almost over. The mornings in SoCal have a bit of frost. The damaging winds have abated, and I am LOVING seeing so much of my wonderful wife, Tina. Ive been working on "Prospero" from Thomas Ades' "The Tempest. Definitely one of the most challenging roles to date. Also, Don Alfonso for the NYCO Cosi fan Tutte this Spring. I'm M/C and narrator for the Charles Dickens Dinner at the L.A. Millenium Biltmore tomorrow night. A GREAT way to get into the Christmas mood!

NYC Post-Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T06:33:00.001-08:00

It seems that NYC is just waiting for winter to come. It's mild weather today, but I can already imagine the streets and sidewalks and cars covered in snow, people bundled up in gloves and scarves. We seem to be in a holding pattern...

Check out my son's movie trailer!

2011-03-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

The music in this movie trailer about surfer Jamie O'Brien is my son's band AMERICAN ROYALTY. That's him singing. I really like it. Hope you do too!

Sweeney Todd

2011-03-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

Sweeney Todd is a fantastic role. Following in the footsteps of Len Cariou, George Hearn, Thomas Allen, Bryn Terfel, and Johnny Depp is a distinct honor. Stephen Sondheim: my hat is off and I am bowing deeply to your greatness. This is a masterpiece.

Ouch

2011-02-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

The bikeride was great, but not without incident. I dumped it on a steep, rutted hill and got kinda scratched up. Then came down very hard while jumping a stream, broke a spoke and bent my seat post back about 15%. That one hurt. Bike's in the shop now, and I can't ride til Monday anyway. We have 20 hours of New Student Auditions at USC this weekend.

The Day After

2011-01-29T11:26:00.001-08:00

Now I have a free day, and I'm looking forward to a long mountain bike ride in the hills above Claremont with my beloved brother-in-law, Mark the Mountain Bike Master. Just as soon as I get my Christmas lights down. kind of embarrassing!

Recital last night

2011-01-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

My thanks to everyone involved in my rectal last night on the USC campus: To Mitsuko Morikawa for her excellent piano collaboration. Sorry I didn't have readable music to you sooner! You did great, especially the Messiaen, which is almost unplayable! Thanks to Kevin Kumar for his great solo on "Oif may'n kas'neh" and to Timothy Landauer on the beautiful Elijah excerpt. And to Maia Jasper and Meredith Crawford for completing the quartet for Dover Beach! To Morten Lauridsen, who made a special guest appearance to play the duet version of his "Sure On This Shining Night" with me and Carin. That was really amazing! Of course, I love singing with my daughter Carin, who ALWAYS says "yes" whenever I ask her to perform with me. Thanks Cari!!

World Premiere of Gesualdo in Zürich

2010-10-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

Getting to the end of an arduous rehearsal period here in Zürich. I'm creating the title role in the world premiere of the new opera "GESUALDO" by Marc-André Dalbavie. Carlo Gesualdo was an Italian Renaissance Prince, and he's famous for his amazing madrigals and sacred music, but also because he murdered his first wife and her lover, for reasons that should be obvious from the first part of this sentence! It's been really challenging, mostly because of the density of the French text. But it's pretty exciting. We have had 4 orchestra rehearsals now, and it's really coming together. Preliminary reaction is extremely positive. We open on Oct 9.

2010-05-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

South Pacific on Tourgreat free widgetsWidgetboxMore info

South Pacific, Houston

2010-03-14T18:02:00.001-07:00

The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts is a cavernous, but beautiful and highly functional venue. It's a strange sensation to hear your voice so loudly from so far away (because of the amplification): sometimes it seems like it's louder than my voice in front of my own face! The audiences here are harder to read, due to the distance to the back wall, but they have been extremely receptive and appreciative. We have such a good time when they have a good time!

San Antonio

2010-03-09T12:19:00.001-08:00

Too bad we were only there for a week! The Riverwalk was just great. The people are really friendly. The audiences were wonderful. Now it's on to Houston.

South Pacific Seattle

2010-03-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

We had a terrific time in Seattle. What a tremendous place! No wonder half of California has moved there. It's gorgeous, the food is exceptional, the climate, though rainy, is mild, it's just a very civilized place to live. My wonderful cousin and her family live on this idyllic lake just 15 minutes north of the city, and we watched a bald eagle on a floating log eating something for about 40 minutes! Another cousin lives in Port Townsend, right at the inlet of the Puget Sound, and that's another breathtaking place. Can't wait to go back!

South Pacific in Seattle

2010-02-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

The sun is out in Seattle! Just what we need to get through a 9-show week here!
It's crazy, 9 shows in a week, but I'm interested to see how hard it will actually be. The show is so streamlined now that we are all working very efficiently, so it should be OK. We are still getting standing ovations at every performance, so apparently the quality of the show is remaining high.

Grammys continued

2010-02-02T18:21:00.000-08:00

Well, we didn't get the Grammy for Saint François d'Assise, but I was in good company, as Placido Domingo was also nominated for Marco Polo and he didn't win either! My congratulations go out to Nathan Gunn and the others involved in the Billy Budd recording that DID win. My wife Tina and son Marc and sister-in-law Liz had an amazing time anyway. But I really did want that golden Grammaphone in my hands!

The Grammys

2010-01-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

I am excited about the Grammys this weekend. My recording of Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise, which I performed in Amsterdam in June 2008, is nominated for Best Opera Recording! There are 4 other very strong contenders, so I guess we have a 20% chance of winning. I will not be able to attend :( because we have Press Night for South Pacific in Seattle, and they want the original cast there. (The nerve!) But my wife and son WILL be there!