Welcome to the Saga of Sharlie & Jade

Our journey with “Salomé” has been such an amazing one, that we feel we’d like to share some of the why and how she came to be with our fans and readers. So here goes…

Oh, harken to the Saga of Sharlie & Jade
And how our gal “Sal(omé)” finally got made!
Our story of all the blood, sweat and fun
Began in the year 2001

T’was at Betsy’s birthday in March of that year
That Sharlie, in Hamburg, to Jade did appear…

Uh-oh…um…well, perhaps it’s better all around if I don’t subject you, dear readers, to my poetic shortcomings. Maybe I’ll just get on with the story…

Actually, it began way back around 1968 with this flower child opera student at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. You know – long flowing skirts, silver jewelry, purple eye shadow, love, peace and…other stuff that went along with the time. It was an amazing time to be a music student, surrounded by talented creative, passionate people. One of those was a much loved and revered music history professor, Dr. Fritz Kramer: a lovely old Viennese gentleman whose passion was the music of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. No one made the heart and soul of great music come so vibrantly alive for me the way Dr. Kramer did. And so it was, that in his one of his wonderful, inspiring lectures, I heard Strauss’ darkly fascinating and exotic opera “Salome” for the first time. It was Love at first listen.

Jump ten years to 1978, and I had moved to Germany and was singing lyric soprano at the Stadttheater Trier, an old Roman city on the Moselle River: the capital of the Moselle wine district. In that year, a recording of “Salome” came out that was to change my life forever. Stay tuned for more…

For the opera lovers or the curious among you, here’s a little ‘teaser’: the very first scene of the opera, up to just before Salome’s entrance, in a concert performance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=amKwgP5CYQM
 and a synopsis: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=81 – more next time!