Shrill the opera girl surfs the net

Back after the bombs

2005-07-13T08:43:00.000-04:00

Okay.....so I haven't updated the blog for a while. I am living in London and until now, really haven't been back to normal, so I apologize.

To see some of my thoughts on the bombings, please visit the London Jobs Blog. Also, please consider signing the pledge against attacks on Muslims.

How to be annoying at a concert

2005-06-28T13:16:00.000-04:00

A tongue in cheek guide to really really bad concert etiquette. If you want to actually be a good audience member, just do pretty much the opposite and you'll be off to a good start.

Opera Today

2005-06-27T11:36:00.000-04:00

Opera Today has reviews, other articles (various languages).

I need to sound English

2005-06-27T03:16:00.000-04:00

Okay. So remember how I was auditioning for Mabel? Well, got it. So now I have to figure out how to sound English. Like Madonna. Question is, which fake English accent should I go for? London? Cornwall? Jordie?

Places to win stuff

2005-06-22T04:31:00.000-04:00

Today the postman showed up and in his hands was a package for me.....I had won a Proms CD from the BBC. Woohoo! I'm very excited. Anyway, obviously I am now going to apply for any contest/ competition going so I thought I'd make a list. Again, I'm in the U.K. but I'll list a bunch of Canadian stuff too if I can find it.

United Kingdom

More later

CNET Artist Upload Help Center

2005-06-20T11:05:00.000-04:00

If you want to promote yourself by posting your mp3 files, you can do it on CNET for free. Each artist gets up to 50mb of space.

Promoting performances

2005-06-16T04:19:00.000-04:00

Places where you can post a free concert listing/ promo. I'm Canadian, in U.K. so these are a bit biased....

Cadenza
CanadianArtsNet (Canadians)
New Forum for Classical Singers
Musi-Cal
Toronto.com (events in Toronto)
Eye (Toronto)
Now Magazine (Toronto)
CitySearch (cities across North America)
Concert-Diary
Opus1 Classical
Classical Concert Diary (United Kingdom)
MusicNotes.ca (Canada)
Your local newspaper(s)
La Scena Musicale (Canada)
The Whole Note (Toronto and area)
MoJam
BlahBlah (United Kingdom)
TorontoWide.com (er...Toronto)
Bravo! (Canada)
Canada.com (Canada: choose your city first)
CityTV (Toronto/ Vancouver: Community ->Community Calendar)

That's all for now...

GMN.com - News

2005-06-16T04:00:00.000-04:00

GMN.com - News: "Eileen Farrell dies
The great American Soprano, Eileen Farrell died Saturday 24 March at the age of 82 in a nursing home in Park Ridge, New Jersey."

Premiere for a lost Vivaldi opera - Arts & Leisure - International Herald Tribune

2005-06-15T14:12:00.000-04:00

Lost Vivaldi opera found:
Premiere for a lost Vivaldi opera - Arts & Leisure - International Herald Tribune: "How the work, 'Motezuma,' was received at its premiere at the Teatro di Sant'Angelo in Venice in the fall of 1733 is not known. But it can be assumed that it did not revive Vivaldi's fortunes. He wrote at least two more operas in Venice before moving to Vienna in March 1740 to seek the patronage of the Hapsburg Empire. And it was there, reportedly in a state of penury, that he died on July 28, 1741.
"

This Day in Classical Music History: June 15

2005-06-15T12:42:00.000-04:00

This Day in Classical Music History: June 15 - The Classical Buffet: "1843: Edvard (Hagerup) Grieg (originally Greig), composer, born."

Other days

The Stage (London, U.K.)

2005-06-15T11:29:00.000-04:00

The Stage Online :: Recruitment :: Auditions: once in a very blue moon they advertise here for opera singers. Usually it's just for "glamour" models and pole dancers. But sometimes.

Opera Blogs

2005-06-15T07:37:00.000-04:00

Just went looking to see how many of us there are. Liked these:

Yahoo! Groups : coloratura

2005-06-15T07:29:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! Groups : coloratura is a very active discussion group about coloratura sopranos.

This Day in Classical Music History: June 14

2005-06-14T10:09:00.000-04:00

This Day in Classical Music History: June 14: Orlande de Lassus died in 1594.

What I'll be singing....

2005-06-14T10:01:00.000-04:00

I have an audition for an amateur music society's production of Pirates this Thursday. No biggie but hopefully a chance to get on a stage here in London. Guess I'd better break out the Mabel.

Time for a new search engine

2005-06-14T09:46:00.000-04:00

Well, according to the folks over there at Webmasterworld, Google is undergoing a huge update. And if my searches today have been any indication, things don't look good. Absolutely littered with spam.

Ah well, there's always MSN's new search which seems to be quite good now.

Today's Opera News -- AllAboutOpera.com

2005-06-14T04:18:00.000-04:00

Very cool...just found this. All opera news, all the time. They summarize major news sources, although I notice they've somehow missed Shrill the Opera Girl.

Classic Cat - the free classical music directory

2005-06-13T13:23:00.000-04:00

Classic Cat is another place to find out where free mp3's are...particularly good if you need to hear the accompaniment for that aria you're learning. Also a good way to promote your own mp3's on your website.

Not just for midi anymore

2005-06-13T13:19:00.000-04:00

The Classical Archives have full mp3 files which are free to download. I've been considering the pros and cons of submitting my own recording: would love to hear comments from anyone who has done this...

The Classical Music Guide Forums :: Index

2005-06-13T13:17:00.000-04:00

The Classical Music Guide Forums .

These forums are quite active which is unusual for classical forums these days....plus everyone seems to be very friendly which is always a plus!

And here's another one....

2005-06-13T13:14:00.000-04:00

The Classical Buffet will soon have all my old content from when I was an About.com Guide. Currently it has composer info, timeline, music humour, this day in classical history, etc. etc. etc.

I'm back.....

2005-06-13T12:12:00.000-04:00

Okay. So I haven't been blogging for a veeerrrryyyyy long time. I've been a bit busy! Let's see...since I last posted, I've gotten married, moved to a new continent, worked full-time for awhile, and am now trying to get my singing going while working on my various websites to try to get some money since I'm not working....of course, I had to choose websites about the arts and classical music...not all that helpful in the money department. Ah well, the life of an artist...

Here's one of the websites....

CanadianArtsNet:

-Recently redid all of CanadianArtsNet: it's now running on a CMS: Mambo to be exact. So it's got a ton of extra features that weren't there before (artists directory, web forums, web directory, etc.).

IPA Source

2004-01-27T13:16:00.000-05:00

Just discovered this. Full word by word translations and IPA translations of art songs, opera arias etc., in downloadable PDF files. Excellent.

George F. DeVine Music Library

2004-01-08T17:55:00.000-05:00

I was recently trying to figure out where I could find a relatively obscure art song by Debussy. It wasn't in my own anthologies. But library catalogues/ bookstores etc. generally only list anthologies by title: not by song list.

The solution is to use a "song index": a list of where you can find a particular song in an anthology. Many music libraries use song indexesa nd a few even have them online.

The George F. Devine song index is excellent because it inludes the contents of a significant number of books (1500+ anthologies) and is searchable by a number of criteria (composer, work title, accompianment, geographical source etc. etc. etc.).

Needless to say, I found my Debussy song....

About Classical Music - composers, performers, and more for beginners to pros

2003-11-30T14:52:00.000-05:00

Looking for classical music? Go here.

It worked! It worked!

2003-11-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

Well, despite my initial misgivings, I am pleased to announce that my free faxing adventure paid off. Yesterday I received my competition application form by fax in my free J2 account!

I just sent a fax online for free!

2003-11-03T20:37:00.000-05:00

I had no idea this was actually possible but I just did it. I sent away to request an application form for a competition, so I guess I'll find out if it worked.... I also signed up for a free fax-receive number with Jfax. Since I opted for the free service, my number isn't local. I think it is in Idaho.

OperaGlass

2003-11-03T00:36:00.000-05:00

OperaGlass is just plain nifty: librettos (some with translations), info on composers and librettists, links to singers etc. etc.

Karadar - Librettos

2003-11-03T00:35:00.000-05:00

The site also has lots of other goodies (MP3's etc.). No translations for the librettos though.

The Aria Database - Information, translations, and MIDIs of famous opera arias for singers and music lovers

2003-11-03T00:32:00.000-05:00

The Aria Database covers a lot of arias in a lot of operas with background on the aria, voice type, translations, sound files etc.

The Metropolitan Opera

2003-11-03T00:18:00.000-05:00

The Metropolitan Opera. Next week Shrill will be competing in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. As for the Met itself: well, I probably don't have to tell you too much about it :).

New events calendar for Canadians in the arts

2003-10-18T17:05:00.000-04:00

Canada Council for the Arts - Le conseil des arts du Canada

2003-10-15T11:44:00.000-04:00

The Canada Council mainly offers funding to people/ organizations just like me (and you). I'm going to be applying for a grant shortly, as a matter of fact.

Yahoo! Groups : coloratura

2003-10-15T00:28:00.000-04:00

A group all about coloraturas (as in coloratura sopranos).

Recording Website

2003-10-15T00:22:00.000-04:00

A very informative site on recording in general, with a fabulous forum (very helpful members!)

CanadianArtsNet - the online home for the Canadian arts community

2003-10-15T00:14:00.000-04:00

Ah...my home away from home. Did you know Shrillgirl is a Canadian?

Recording a demo of your singing with MiniDisc

2003-10-15T00:11:00.000-04:00

This article walks through the basics of recording classical music with a minidisc player, an option that a lot of singers are taking now since it is so easy and not prohibitively expensive. Definitely worth a look!

Free web hosting for artsies

2003-10-15T00:09:00.000-04:00

I don't know much about this service, except it is free so that's gotta be good!

Review of Anatomy

2003-10-15T00:08:00.000-04:00

Ah....anatomy. Here is info on the head and neck. Perfect for that Tuesday night when you are having difficulty sleeping...

The New Forum for Classical Singers

2003-10-15T00:06:00.000-04:00

Here's a place where all the other opera girls and boys chat and tell each other what to do.

2003-10-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Shrill's little blog on the net! I am an opera girl (read "soprano") and will be posting stuff here that I find useful.