Muliculti and Opera Singers

Germans are very fond of opera. We have 84 fully operational opera theaters in Germany, far more than you will find in any other country. It's a large percentage of the worldwide total. In other words: if you are an opera singer, you will sing in Germany rather sooner than later.
I live in the state of Schleswig-Holstein (2.8 million inhabitants); the capital is Kiel (240.000 inhabitants). Kiel, of course, has a full-sized opera that plays everything including "The Ring", notwithstanding the fact that in nearby Hamburg (a City State with 1.7 Mio. inhabitants) we have a really big opera plus a small one. Equally of course, Lübeck (about 200.000 inhabitants), the second biggest city in Schleswig-Holstein and also close to Kiel, has an opera of its own.
In the old times German operas employed mostly German singers and the sopranos came with a certain image: great voices but close your eyes when they sing. Multiculti has changed that
   
Valkyries prototypes
Angela Merkel Janice Baird
Prototype of old and modern Valkyries in "The Ring"
     
On the left we see the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, an accomplished physicist and opera buff. She might also be an accomplished politician but here opinions differ.
I'm a bit unfair here. Angie has done a lot of good and not so good things but never committed the crime of singing Wagner in public. She does love to go to Wagner operas, however, and that quite endears here to me.
On the right is Janice Baird. She was "our" Brünnhilde in Kiel around 2000, and the picture above is from a performance I will never forget. Janice Baird hails from Brooklyn, New York.
"Critically acclaimed as a charismatic singer and actor, Janice Baird enjoyed great successes as Brünnhilde in Opera House Zürich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Seattle Opera, Stockholm, the Opéra de Marseille, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro de la Maestranza Sevilla, at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, in Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Toulon, Théâtre du Capitôle Toulouse, Teatro Bellini Catania and at the Stuttgart State Opera (the best German opera and thus one of the best in the world)"
Yes - and before her international career took off she performed in Kiel!
Our present singers come from all over the world: Canada, Greece, Japan, Korea, Poland and Turkey. And yes, we have a few Germans, too. Isn't that wonderful?
   

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go to Science of Welding Steel

go to 8.4.2 Multiculti in Steel

go to Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung"

go to 6.1.1 It Takes Two to Tango

go to Spring is in the Air

© H. Föll (Iron, Steel and Swords script)