USA- Tour 2014.

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La plus grande loge de toute ma vie a Berkeley !
Biggest dressingroom ever in Berkeley!

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Don't all dressing rooms in Europe have a basketball hoop? So the musicians can relax with a little bit of slam dunking or a pickup match between sets!!!

Saw him yesterday at Sonoma State. It was an amazing concert. It is hard to imagine his voice being better than it was when I saw him in LA in 2011 but his voice seems richer and more luxuriant than I remembered. It was stunning and the audience was totally mesmerized by it. Thunderous applause after every number and a standing ovation after. My daughter was totally captivated. Plus the venue was equally stunning, brand new, all wooden interior, perfect acoustics. A great day even though it had rained 4 days straight and you felt like you needed an ark to get there!

nannosec52

Many thanks for your live- review!   
How old is your daughter? Was it her first "countertenor- experience" or even baroque one?   

My daughter is in her early 30's, not much younger than PJ. She has grown up listening to classical and baroque music but is her first live CT experience. She was very moved. And ,of course,thought he was as gorgeous as the music!

Nanosec52 tahnks a lot for your review! I completely agree it's amazing how shinner and richer is his voice, it's getting even better!!

No wonder why your daughter was captivated   

Did you see this one? "SEXY BEAST" I like it!   

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Some pics from Sonoma:

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This meet and great was apparently limited to those who participate in a special program the Green Music center has for people who use a certain credit card that is one of their sponsors so us lowly folk who don't use MasterCard weren't invited. I had even asked if would be singing session and was told no. Now I know why. Music programs here struggle or funds corporate sponsors are a big deal.

Looks like an event for their private donors.

Dear Lullamy

Many thanks for sharing !  

Very interesting view at the privilege of " private donors".
Philippe doesn't look really happy ....  

...but this one is unmatchable!   

( I just hope, this was not his " Birthday- party")

Spoiler:

Tibi quoque, Sonoma?
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Oh yeah ! An extra bis for Chicago, Philippe! They wrote "a little over 30", soooo nice.
And I am really looking forward to the Dalbavie Sonnets, performed by Jerôme and Philippe.....thank you, worldwide web and Wikipedia, of course. Simply use copy and paste, and the preview is done.   

Greetings from snowy NY!

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mon1650

Thank you!   
Wow! How did you find these funny photos?  
I like this one in particular ! Is there the third position?   

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Jana:

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Thanks to Tanya for sharing!   

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Thanks to Morten Sletten for sharing!   

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Fin de la tournée américaine, un grand merci a tous les musiciens du VBO et a vous tous pour votre enthousiasme!
End of the american tour , thanks to all the musiciens of VBO and to the audience for your enthusiasm!

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Thanks to tuffy942 for sharing!    

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Here is the recording oh this interview.

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Thanks to Tanya for sharing!   

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US tour: NY and Chicago.

I would like to share my impressions from recent live concert of Jaroussky. Many of you met him well before I did and have your own perceptions of this incredible artist and, no doubt, very interesting and exciting human being. I discovered Jaroussky sometime last summer. I can’t believe I did not come across his work much earlier, since I was listening to and learning about baroque music for years. I live in Toronto, Canada, and we have a very active baroque scene of our own (Tafelmusik and Opera Atelier often bring outstanding soloists pretty much from everywhere). It just tells me about quite a huge disconnect between baroque music scene in Europe and North America. Needless to say, once I  “discovered’ him and started to collect his CDs and went through the You Tube videos of his performances, just like many others, I quickly  fall in love with his extraordinarily beautiful voice and wanted to hear him performing live. Unfortunately, Toronto was not on Jaroussky’s  tour list, but knowing that he is not coming anywhere nearby I decided that I should go and see him performing live during his US tour. The most easily reachable locations  were NY and Chicago (based on frequent and relatively short direct flights). I love music, passionately, but I must admit that this is the first time I decided to fly that far to attend a live concert of a particular singer, and I can say now that it was certainly worth the trouble.

What can I say about the concerts I attended? I thought I was prepared by listening him online so often, and yet, it was very, very intense experience. First of all, when you listen to many recordings, they usually tend to be more perfect than live performances. Not in this case. His live singing was just as good. I loved his singing before listening him live, but now I am his fun forever! The concerts consisted of a mixture of Handel’s and Poprora’s aria, presented in pairs, so that Philippe alternated between presenting Carestini’s and Farinelli’s repertoire respectively. He also alternated fast, vocal firework arias with the slower ones. In between the pairs of arias the Venice Baroque Orchestra performed two Handel concerto, very beautifully. The orchestra was excellent, and it would be a wonderful treat in itself, but at this concert they selflessly and deliberately took a role of supporting Philippe singing allowing him to steal the show. The orchestra played without the conductor, but this is perfectly fine and normal practice for a baroque orchestra. I loved everything, from the beginning to the end. But, not surprisingly, two arias stood out. “Alto Giove” from Porpora’s “Polifemo”  is one of Philippe’s favorites among Porpora’s output, clearly. The love with which he sings it is so obvious.  The voice opening of this aria is such a marvelous demonstration of his incredible voice itself and his perfect command of  it. The aria is very long, but because of so varied ornamentation it does not feel long at all. I could listen it forever, but it ended...  The area is an expression of a joy and gratitude, and probably it has some additional, special meaning for Jaroussky, since it is clear that he brings into it more than it is written in the text or notes. Another masterpiece that was very moving, in addition to the vocal perfection, was Handel’s “Scherza, infida”. Here, Philippe was able to portray grief, pain, desperation like no-one else. As an encore, he performed “Sposa non mi conochi”,  also moving beyond the words. Overall, through the concert, I was trying to pay attention to the technicalities, but very soon I was just swept with a huge range of emotions for the singing and the singer himself.

Not only singing was beautiful and emotional, Philippe himself was a representation of beauty and grace. He was beautifully dressed, rather formally but not too formally. He wore white concert shirt, black bow tie, and dark concert outfit with black silk rim. He was elegance himself. His outfit was not too tight, but not bulky either, just tight enough to see that he is not a muscular-built type. I did not realize before how tall and lean he is, as if he just stepped out from the frame of some mannerism-style painting full of  elongated figures, so beautiful, at least in my eyes. His hands are exquisitely beautiful and expressive, but it something I saw before, from you tube videos and numerous online photos. Then there are things that you do not usually see even on you tube recording. For example, the way he enters and leaves the stage, how he greets the public, how he turns his head to scan the audience while singing, how he interacts with musicians of the orchestra. I was sitting quite far from the first raw, so the facial details were not so easy to see, but at times I could see the sparkles of moisture in his eyes, reflecting the light, so his eyes appeared shiny and bright even from far away. Also, you could feel his energy and his happiness and excitement of being there, on stage and singing.

The reception he got in US, I think, was very, very enthusiastic.   Obviously, he already had many fans who were waiting for his concerts, but even people who did not know much about him or did not know at all, were charmed by his art. At Chicago concert especially, the public seem to go into a collective meditative state, and there were moments I thought  that although we do not know what exactly was happening  at the performances  of Farinelli, this was probably as close as it could get in a modern world.

After the concert in Chicago he emerged as if out of nowhere, wearing in an elegant grey jacket, I think the same he wore for the interview with Chicago radio just the day before. It was quite late already, and the last concert of the tour was next day, not giving him much time to rest, but he still endured a long signing session, and in addition many wanted to take photos with him which he patiently endured as well. I already met with him several day earlier in NY, so I decided not to pester him for another photo with him, just exchanged a few words, took a few pictures of just him and  watched the crowd, excited, happily interacting with them.

Off-stage Jaroussky turned out to be just the way he was described to me by those who encountered him earlier. But again, you do not feel the excitement of meeting him until you experience it yourself. I must say that before meeting him I was somewhat surprised and puzzled but the amount attention and discussions he generates, and the deep affection so many people have for him, which is simply not that typical for the world of classical singing. But now I understand it much better, as I am also under his spell.    Simply put, he is absolutely, irresistibly charming in person.     He kept thanking one person after another for coming to his concert; he looked very friendly and sweet. Last but not the least, you know he is a handsome man, you can’t help but notice it from all those videos, photos, and flawless professionally created photos on CD covers. But again, nothing really prepares for you to realize how stunningly good-looking he is when he is just in front of you, in real life. Not just handsome, he is really beautiful. He has exquisitely shaped nose and lovely lips, but I think it is his eyes that are really amazing.  They are green and shiny. His facial expressions constantly changes,  he smiles and laughs one moment, and the next moment he is totally serious, and the next moment he is listening to someone intensely, and then smiles again.

Then it is you turn to meet him, you get to talk to him, you never saw each other before, you are total strangers, but he looks at you, and  the expression of his eyes – it is so kind, understanding, warm, full of gratitude,  and his smile is almost shy, but so sweet , it makes you want to look at him and never  turn your gaze away from this beautiful and kind face. This  sweet, innocent almost a childlike look on a face of a grown-up man is totally surprising and disarming.

Listening to Philippe live and meeting him was certainly a wonderful, memorable experience, for sure it will remain as one of the highlights of this year. I hope he will tour somewhere nearby again someday.

Wow Baroquepassion, thanks a lot for sharing your experience. It was like being there with you!!   

BaroquePassion

Thank you so much for your great review!!!         

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Baroquepassion, 

BaroquePassion,

really beautiful review!!!
You've found the right words, expressing what we all feel and experience when we see and hear Philippe in a concert and especially when we meet him in the signing session afterwards!
And like Pilarddcc wrote - your review made me feel like being there with you!