by Kennedy Blair Miller Photo credits: Ben Reason I’ve always felt an affinity with Ally. We’re both from Southern USA (Ally’s from Nashville, Tennessee, just one state over from my home state of North Carolina); we both studied music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and now, we’re both graduate singers at…
Read MoreInspiring singer: Florence Foster Jenkins
By Jonty Watt If you have ever happened upon a recording of Florence Foster Jenkins’s singing, you might think she makes a remarkably strange choice of inspirational figure. Dubbed the ‘anti-Callas’ and ‘exquisitely bad’, her recordings of difficult operatic repertoire are, indeed, legendarily woeful. Her ‘Queen of the Night’ aria has racked up nearly two…
Read MorePauline Viardot: Inspirational Diva
By Mia Serracino-Inglott When we think of an inspirational woman, do we think of a ‘diva’? Certainly, the term diva has undergone quite the negative rebranding in recent years, often being used to describe women who are over-dramatic, bossy, or rude. But back in the opera houses of the nineteenth century, to be called a…
Read MoreWho Resurrected Carmen?
By Kennedy Blair Miller Artwork by Jess Bull Anderson The doors to the Opéra-Comique theatre opened to a bustling crowd of eager Parisians on 3 March 1875. Well-dressed socialites, composers, and artists presented their tickets to the ushers with an air of superiority. They had been invited to the premiere of a new opera, Carmen,…
Read MoreRAMpage Spotlights: Will Gardner, composer
By Ellen Wilkinson Will’s desire to compose started early on, as he recalls strumming chords and writing basic songs on the guitar at age four. His affinity with vocal music also emerged young, and after singing in the internationally renowned Trinity Boys Choir he had a range of professional opportunities, including performing the role of…
Read More
RAMpage 