{"id":14242,"date":"2011-02-06T19:43:46","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T18:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=14242"},"modified":"2019-10-17T11:41:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T09:41:17","slug":"no-make-up-aprile-millo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/no-make-up-aprile-millo\/","title":{"rendered":"“No Make-Up!”… Aprile Millo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Soprano\u00a0Aprile Millo <\/strong>was born in New York from a family of Italian descent. Both her parents, who were appreciated opera singers (tenor and soprano), were her vocal coaches. \u00a0After winning the Busseto competition for Verdi voices and debuting in the title role of Aida <\/em>at Utah Opera in Salt Lake City, she started an international career that brought her to sing in major opera houses because of her consistent\u00a0 and extensive lyric soprano\u00a0 voice with its particulary fine timbre, plus an outstanding personality in performance, that built her reputation as one of the finest Verdi singers of the twentieth century.
\n Which is the main feature of your personality?<\/strong><\/div>\n
Optimism and I love people.
\nYour worst flaw?<\/strong>
\nToo many to count.
\nWhich is your star sign?<\/strong>
\nAries.
\nAre you superstitious?<\/strong>
\nSometimes.
\nAre you a spiritual person?<\/strong>
\nYes. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you ever envied someone?<\/strong>
\nOf course.
\nWhat did you dream to become as an adult when you were a child?<\/strong>
\nExactly what I am. I wanted to be an opera singer, and to serve God with my voice.
\nDid your family influence your choices?<\/strong>
\nYes, both parents had golden voices; Momma soprano come Muzio.\u00a0And my father was a tenor who reminded me of a Caruso\u2010type voice. You\u00a0can find him on Youtube.com singing Canio from Pagliacci and lieder of\u00a0Brahms. I miss their excellence and them everyday.
\nWhich is your most cherished memory?<\/strong>
\nI am a person who cherishes people and friends, deeply. The cherished\u00a0moments for me are memories of loved ones, good times with family and\u00a0friends and pets. I am a little like the Maximus in the Gladiator film, or like\u00a0Cio Cio San, I keep figures of my \u201cancestors\u201d with me and of my family who\u00a0have crossed over.
\nThe moment you felt the proudest?<\/strong>
\nConquering fear and allowing myself to do all that I can. We singers are an\u00a0instrument, like a violin, but we are not vibrating wood, we are flesh and\u00a0bone and full of emotion and joy and fear, and health and sickness. It is a\u00a0miracle that we are able to sing, in front of a glorious chorus, especiallythose in Italy, and before an audience of 4000 or 16,000 people over an\u00a0orchestra of 80 pieces all without a microphone!!! Opera and singing opera\u00a0is the last bastion of human communication without a plug!
\nThe greatest disappointment?<\/strong>
\nWhen people do not realize how great art is, how great music is, how great\u00a0THEY are! A world with just sports and no real art or beauty or poetry or\u00a0dance and music is a dark age. \u201cThe money\u2010changers are in the temple\u201d\u00a0again. Italy has given the world so much and it deserves to know how the\u00a0world is grateful to her for so many masterpieces of great beauty in so many\u00a0areas of life she has given us. I pray every day for those that must make\u00a0these difficult decisions, especially where money is concerned, which is like\u00a0a fog over any lofty thought\u2026 I pray they protect what is uniquely theirs and\u00a0pay no attention to the temporary parasites that try to cloud their vision for\u00a0their own profit. Life is short, Art is long.
\nWhat\u2019s missing in your life today?<\/strong>
\nI am grateful for the whole journey, God has given me so much. But truly\u00a0missing? My Mom and Dad and all my family and friends that aren\u2019t as easy\u00a0to hear anymore, but I can feel them.
\nWhat are you afraid of the most?<\/strong>
\nBeing afraid.
\nDo you have a recurrent dream?<\/strong>
\nYes, some good some bad. All very vivid, and I am still trying to figure them\u00a0out.
\nHow important is money to you?<\/strong>
\nI want the peace it gives to know you can help others. Have enough to be safe, and enough to keep your friends and family safe. I would love to have\u00a0the wealth of a Microsoft Bill Gates, or Carlos Slim. I would so invest it in\u00a0the elderly, they are deserving of better than they get in a youth obsessed\u00a0world; in giving everyone the access to medicine always if you need it.\u00a0Money for the poor and those dying for lack of medicine all over the world.\u00a0Money for education, protecting the innocent, the children in the world, and\u00a0protection of the animals. Last but not least money to help those who\u00a0worked years and may have no pensions, and money most surely for music\u00a0and to protect Opera.
\nWhich is the item you like spending money on the most?<\/strong>
\nIf I must for myself, it would be buying the newest computers, or something\u00a0lovely and unique. I love jewelry.
\nDo you collect anything?<\/strong>
\nLeather books, diaries, elegant travel antique bags, amazing stamps, and\u00a0gorgeous picture frames.
\nWhich are your favorite readings?<\/strong>
\nBiographies, poetry and philosophy, and books explaining how things are\u00a0done. Old magazines from the early 1900\u2019s.
\nWhich is your favorite perfume?<\/strong>
\nTrussardi and Paris. For me, when I am not singing as it is dangerous for the\u00a0breathing, I love Musk.
\nFavorite city?<\/strong>
\nSo many. But, if I had to name one\u2010 New York, Rome, Vienna. I also really\u00a0loved Moscow and Barcelona.
\nFavorite color?<\/strong>
\nGreen, dark green. Or anything art deco in inspiration and detail.
\nFavorite flower?<\/strong>
\nThe Rose, red preferably, and Girasole. Unforgettable for me.
\nYour favourite singers?<\/strong>
\nThis could go on for pages! Claudia Muzio, Rosa Ponselle, Renata Tebaldi,\u00a0Magda Olivero, Zinka Milanov, Maria Caniglia, and Maria Callas, Flagstad\u00a0and Sutherland. My Mom and Dad, De Stefano, Del Monaco, Corelli, Gigli,\u00a0Caruso, Schipa, Pavarotti,Bergonzi and Tucker.\u2026 Bastianini, Ruffo, Apolo\u00a0Granforte, Ebe Stignani, Simoniato, Cesare Siepi, Bonaldo Giaotti, Favero,\u00a0the list goes on and on.
\nWhich is the first record you ever bought?<\/strong>
\nAida with Tebaldi, Il Trovatore with Callas, and a mix of great duets and\u00a0ensembles of opera with great singers. Strangely enough though, every\u00a0morning before I went to school I would listen to the Emperor Concerto by\u00a0Beethoven with Rubinstein. Started my day off quite well.
\nThe film you love the most?<\/strong>
\nGone With the Wind<\/em> and The Sound of Music <\/em>and Zeffirelli\u2019s beautiful\u00a0Romeo and Juliet.<\/em>
\nYour favorite season and why?<\/strong>
\nDoesn\u2019t matter, as long as I am cool enough. LOVE Winter and Fall.
\nHow is your relationship with technology and which is the electronic gadget\u00a0you can\u2019t do without?<\/strong>
\nThe phone and radio or TV. This is not a world to be out of touch in, too\u00a0much happens too quickly and sometimes it is dangerous not to know.
\nHow\u2019s your attitude towards TV ?<\/strong>
\nWith caution about how it is used to manipulate, I still love to watch and\u00a0hear about people. It can be a great tool to educate and entertain people.
\nHow is your relationship with politics?<\/strong>
\nI fight for the little guy, so whoever fights for them has my hope.
\nDo you have causes that are very important for you?<\/strong>
\nThe elderly getting help and respect. Stamping out abuse women, and really\u00a0of anyone or any animal; ending bigotry in any form. Letting people live\u00a0their own lives to the fullest.
\nDay or night?<\/strong>
\nDepends.
\nWhich is the situation you consider the most relaxing?<\/strong>
\nAnywhere I can hear rain falling or hear the ocean.
\nTell us your ideal day.<\/strong>
\nI love the vigil leading to a performance. The concentration to create, to\u00a0excite and give emotion. The rush of doing it, feeling the great mass of humanity\u00a0in front of you breathing with many eyes and hearts, eventually\u00a0joined as one all in the embrace of the music. Then the finish and the sense\u00a0of accomplishment and honor. We bring to life, we speak for those great\u00a0minds who are no longer with us except in the pages of the manuscript, or\u00a0the orchestral score is the blueprint of a soul\u2026.and we bring them to life in\u00a0time and century they never lived to see. Performing it for people who may\u00a0never have seen it. That is a day to remember. Being able to and then doing\u00a0the very great gift of singing .
\nWhich is your hideaway?<\/strong>
\nSleep. Perchance to dream!
\nWhat\u2019s the soundtrack to your everyday life?<\/strong>
\nDepends. Sometimes Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Boito, and other times it is\u00a0Wagner, Schubert, Schumann, Mahler or Beethoven. Can be other times\u00a0when it is Michael Jackson, or Rolling Stones, Nirvana or my brother\u2019s group\u00a0the MauMaus, he is a pioneer of the true punk rock music. My sister writes\u00a0as well, haunting and great music. Varies a lot, just like life.
\nWhat do you miss the most when you\u2019re away from home?<\/strong>
\nHome. For someone who has traveled all over the world many times over, I\u00a0miss home. A feeling of being home.
\nThe holiday or the trip you\u2019d like to take?<\/strong>
\nI would like to see St. Petersberg, Russia. Or when it is ever safer,\u00a0The Holy Land. From whence came three immensely powerful and deep\u00a0religions. The people all over the Middle East are amazing people, I would\u00a0like to know them and experience this sacred area.
\nWhat or who makes you feel embarrassed?<\/strong>
\nPeople who hate or speak without thought. I am embarrassed for them.\u00a0For me, it is when I am not prepared. Very rare, but it does happen.
\nHow would you define your relation with food ?<\/strong>
\nI love it. How marvellous and creative people are with the various foods\u00a0available to them, so wonderful. I must love it a little less these days. The\u00a0world of opera wants Stradivarius\u2019 but in the body of a ukelele. So, I must\u00a0adapt and continue.
\nMediterranean diet, microbiotics or fast food?<\/strong>
\nModeration diet\u2026.. the most difficult one!
\nYour favourite dish?<\/strong>
\nPasta. With any topping\u2026 but usually with Parmigiano and oil.\u00a0Before I love prociutto with a little mozzarella and tomato.. too good!
\nRed or white wine?<\/strong>
\nWhite.
\nWhich is the place where cooking is the worst ever?<\/strong>
\nFast food.
\nWas music a vocation?<\/strong>
\nStill is.
\nWhat would you want someone who doesn\u2019t know your voice to listen to?<\/strong>
\nMy recording of Trovatore, or Luisa Miller. Youtube has a performance of\u00a0Otello, where I am so pleased how gorgeous the orchestra, and how very\u00a0quiet the audience. The Ave Maria that night, was one of the best I ever did.\u00a0The last act of the DVD Aida\/ from Triste Canto\u2026. I went to paradise that\u00a0night.
\nIf you were granted the chance to choose a role, which one would it be?<\/strong>
\nOne I have not sung would be what Von Karajan asked me to look at, Elsa.\u00a0And I would be honored and thrilled to Bellini\u2019s Norma.
\nWhat do you do an hour prior to go on stage?<\/strong>
\nPray, vocalize, and salute the stage to feel if the \u201cspirits\u201d are there. They\u00a0usually are if you sing for the right reasons. Every theater has a feeling of\u00a0those who have sung in it. The greats. Hemingway describes it for the bullfighter,\u00a0the audience waits to see if he has the \u201cduende\u201d. The connection to\u00a0something old and mythical, noble and authentic.
\nWhat\u2019s never missing in your dressing room?<\/strong>
\nThe score I am singing! And pictures of my family and favorite voices. Our\u00a0Lady of Fatima, and the Infant of Prague.
\nWhat do you think of when looking at yourself in the mirror?<\/strong>
\nIf I am singing, it isn\u2019t me I see, it is the person I am singing. If it is for vanity\u00a0sake, I am not looking.!!!!
\nYour mood at the moment?<\/strong>
\nHopeful, eager and grateful.
\nWhat\u2019s your motto?<\/strong>
\nWhat I a hope Saint Peter will say if I make it to\u00a0Heaven. \u201cThey are all here\u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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