The Roasted Swan

Last night's performance with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus was a great success. This morning I'll share with you interviews with two of our soloists. Raymond Aceto is the bass soloist in the Prologue to Mefistofele, and Ljubomir Puŝkarić is the bass soloist for Carmina Burana. They are interviewed in Cleveland Classical by Daniel Hathaway.

Aceto and Puŝkarić are joined by soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Christopher Pfund.

Can you imagine having a career basically centered around singing "The Roasted Swan"? Christopher Pfund is fabulous in this role. If you're not familiar with this movement, here's a rough translation:

(Tenor)
Once I lived on lakes,
once I looked beautiful
when I was a swan.

(Male chorus)
Misery me!
Now black
and roasting fiercely!

(Tenor)
The servant is turning me on the spit;
I am burning fiercely on the pyre:
the steward now serves me up.

(Male chorus)
Misery me!
Now black
and roasting fiercely!

(Tenor)
Now I lie on a plate,
and cannot fly anymore,
I see bared teeth:

(Male chorus)
Misery me!
Now black
and roasting fiercely!

When Pfund wanders off the stage as the men of the chorus are finishing singing about his "roasting fiercely", you just want to doff your cap to him, he has sung so brilliantly.

I am enjoying these performances of Carmina more than any I've sung before (I think this is my fifth Carmina), and I'm sure a large part of that has to be the thrill of standing behind the Cleveland Orchestra. And it's a treat for us to be singing under Maestro Porco's baton. Porco regularly prepares us to sing with other conductors, but in this instance we have been prepared by him and are conducted in performance with him. I was tickled last night to see his smiles as we nailed particularly tricky passages. There are many times when we fall short of his expectations in rehearsal; to do exactly what he wants in performance is the reward of hours and hours of practice.

My favorite movement of the evening, by far, is Were diu werlt alle min. I don't know why this movement brings me such joy, but I cannot keep from grinning ear to ear as I sing it. (Well, in my mind I'm grinning from ear to ear. It's impossible to sing while grinning from ear to ear, dontcha know?!)

Were all the world mine
from the sea to the Rhine,
I would starve myself of it
so that the queen of England
might lie in my arms.

Yesterday I posted the information about the live broadcast on Saturday night. If you can't join us in person, tune in online. I think you'll love it!