The esteemed German tenor, Fritz Wunderlich, who was born to a violinist mother and choir director father, was no doubt enveloped in music at an early age. Urged to pursue classical voice training by theater people who heard him singing as they passed the bakery where he worked, the young Wunderlich was granted a scholarship to the Freiburg Music Academy in Breisgau by the town fathers. He studied there from 1950 to 1955, also studying the classical horn which explains his almost supernatural breath control.

After playing Tamino in a 1955 student production of Die Zauberflöte, Fritz Wunderlich was engaged by the Wurttemberg State Opera in Stuttgart. His first professional role was as Ulrich Eislinger in Die Meistersinger. When he was called to play Tamino for an ailing Josef Traxel, Stuttgart had a new star and Fritz Wunderlich’s short but amazing career had begun.

~(bach-cantatas.com)

German Käsespätzle – from “My San Francisco Kitchen”

http://mysanfranciscokitchen.com/german-kasespatzle/

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 3 cups flour
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• pinch salt
• pinch pepper
• 2 qt water
• 1 tbsp butter
• ½ cup swiss cheese, shredded

Instructions

1. Beat eggs and milk together with a fork.
2. Add nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
3. Slowly add flour a little at a time and mix with a fork.
4. Once all flour is added, dough should be elastic.Let stand for 5 minutes while bringing a 3 qt pot filled with water to boil.
5. Add dough to spätzle maker and press through.
6. Let the dough hang into the water (be patient, it will fall off by itself, no need to cut it off).
7. When noodles rise to the top, they are done.
8. Strain well with a straining spoon and drop into a bowl
9. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a large skillet.Add chopped onions and simmer for 7 minutes.
10. Add spätzle and sprinkle swiss cheese on top.
11. Stir until all cheese is melted.

This is a great interview with “Here’s the Thing” host Alec Baldwin interviewing Soprano Renée Fleming.

Fleming speaks about her early life and being born into a musical family, her love of jazz singing and her journey into classical music.

Click on the Link Below to listen:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/heresthething/2012/may/21/

Elīna Garanča was born in Riga in 1976 into a musical family. In 1996 she entered the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga. One of her most formative experiences came in 1998 while she was still a student: with only ten days’ notice, she performed the role of Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena and uncovered a deep affinity with the bel canto repertoire. After graduation she joined the Meiningen Staatstheater in Germany where she appeared in roles including Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. In 1999 she also sang the role of Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Savonlinna Opera Festival and won the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in Finland. She has since appeared at the world’s major opera houses and concert venues and established herself as one of the music world’s newest stars thanks to her beautiful voice, musicianship and compelling stage portrayals. In 2006 she received the European Culture Prize during a gala at the Semper Opera in Dresden which was broadcast on German television.

~ (elinagaranča.com)

Latvian Gingerbread Biscuits

This recipe comes from Martin Blunos of the Good Food Network

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/latvian-gingerbread-biscuits-444979?oc=linkback

INGREDIENTS

450 g all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1 pinch salt

125 g unsalted butter, cubed

400 g caster sugar

4 1/2 tablespoons golden syrup (Corn syrup is a good substitute)

2 eggs, beaten

DIRECTIONS

Sift the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne and salt into a large mixing bowl.

Acclaimed as the “leading coloratura soprano in the world” (New York Sun), Diana Damrau continues to amaze audiences with her brillant voice and arresting stage presence. A regular guest to the most renowned opera houses and concert halls, she was awarded the title Bayerische Kammersängerin in 2007 and, in 2008, named “Singer of the Year” by Opernwelt magazine. A documentary on her life, directed by Beatrix Conrad entitled Diana Damrau – divine diva was first aired on the French-German TV channel arte in February 2011.

Diana’s 2012/13 schedule includes appearances as Gilda in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Rigoletto which is to be broadcast live in movie theatres worldwide. A few weeks later she makes her eagerly anticipated role debut in Verdi’s Traviata with the same company. In Europe, she will premiere the role of Violetta at Zurich Opera whilst still continuing to explore the bel canto repertoire further. This repertoire is set to figure prominently in her schedule during forthcoming seasons and includes the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at Munich’s Philharmonie this Summer. Diana looks forward to future role debuts including Amina (La sonnambula) and Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) as well new productions of Manon, La Traviata, Les Pecheurs des Perles and Lucia di Lammermoor. Complementing her operatic engagements in 2013, concerts and recitals take her to Washington, Paris, Geneva, Lyon, London, Hamburg, Vienna, Bad Kissingen and the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg.

-diana-damrau.com

Oma’s German Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix

1 egg

1 tablespoon unsweetened baking cocoa

1 container (1 lb) Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy coconut pecan frosting

1 oz sweet baking chocolate, grated

METHOD

Heat oven to 375°F.

In large bowl, stir cookie mix, egg, cocoa and 3/4 cup of the frosting until soft dough forms.

Shape dough into 24 (1 1/4-inch) balls. On ungreased cookie sheets, place balls about 2 inches apart. Bake 11 to 13 minutes, or until set. Cool 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Spread remaining frosting evenly over cookies. Sprinkle with chocolate.

Recipe courtesy of Doreen Howarth

Doreen writes: ”My grandmother happened to be German and she had the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I have ever known. She especially loved cookies. Every time I would visit, she always had a German Chocolate cake waiting for my arrival. I came up with this recipe for my love of my Oma and memories of her German Chocolate cake. If she were still with us, I know she would love these cookies!”

For the world’s leading opera houses, Juan Diego Flórez is very much the bel canto tenor of choice. His fluid, expressive singing and dazzling virtuosity make him ideal for the operas of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. His operatic and recital appearances at the most prestigious venues in the world have earned him the acclaim of critics and audiences alike.

His repertoire includes thirty-two operas:

Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, La sonnambula and I puritani; Donizetti’s Alahor in Granata, Don Pasquale, Elisabetta, L’elisir d’amore, La Fille du régiment and Maria Stuarda; Gluck’s Armide and Orfeo; Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe; Martín y Soler’s Il tutore burlato; Meyerbeer’s L’Étoile du nord; Mozart’s Mitridate; Paisiello’s Nina ossia la Pazza per amore; Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi; Rossini’s Adelaide de Borgogna, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, Le Comte Ory, L’italiana in Algeri, Matilde di Shabran, Otello, Semiramide, Il signor Bruschino, Il viaggio a Reims and Zelmira; Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze; J. Strauss’s Fledermaus; and Verdi’s Falstaff and Rigoletto.

-juandiegoflorez.com

Chicken Empanadas – Empanadas de Pollo

Nothing beats a flaky, hot, freshly baked empanada, except maybe eating the next one at room temperature, or having a cold one the next day for lunch. Empanadas are delicious no matter how you serve them, and they can be enjoyed for breakfast, lunch or dinner, appetizer or snack. The key to a great empanada is to have areally delicious dough. Then you can fill it with just about anything you like. This is a traditional chicken filling, with caramelized onions, olives, and pieces of hard boiled egg. For best flavor, make the filling the day before and chill it overnight in the refrigerator.

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• Empanada dough (see link to recipe below)
• 2-3 chicken breasts (or 2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (or to taste)
• 1.5 tablespoons sugar

Internationally acclaimed Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky was born and studied in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. In 1989, he won the prestigious Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. From the start, audiences were bowled over by his cultivated voice, innate sense of musical line and natural legato. After his Western operatic debut at the Nice Opera in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, his career exploded to take in regular engagements at the world’s major opera houses and appearances at renowned international festivals, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Teatro alla Scala Milan, the Vienna State Opera, and the Chicago Lyric Opera.

A celebrated recitalist in demand in every corner of the globe–from the Far East to the Middle East, from Australia to South America– Hvorostovsky has appeared at such venues as Wigmore Hall, London; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh; Carnegie Hall, New York; the Teatro alla Scala, Milan; the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, Moscow; the Liceu, Barcelona; the Suntory Hall, Tokyo; and the Musikverein, Vienna. The singer regularly performs in concert with top orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and conductors, including James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Yuri Termikanov and Valery Gergiev.

(Hvorostovsky.com/about)

Enjoy a “tri-fecta” of Russian recipes, and create your own Russian 3 course meal!

Chocolate Vodka recipe

Enjoy this as a shot or pour over an ice-cream dessert.

Ingredients:
200g good quality chocolate, finely grated
300ml plain vodka
measures conversion [+]

Method:
1. Fill a bowl with boiling water as deep as the level of the vodka in the bottle. Immerse the bottle in the warm water for a few minutes to warm the alcohol. 2. Spoon the grated chocolate into the neck of the bottle. Shake to dissolve. Repeat the process until the vodka cannot absorb anymore chocolate. Keep at room temparature.

Chicken Anastasia recipe

Born in North Wales in 1965, Bryn Terfel entered London’s Guildhall School of Music in 1984, studying first with Arthur Reckless and later with Rudolf Piernay. In 1988 he won the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship and the following year graduated from the Guildhall, receiving the school’s Gold Medal. Shortly after that he represented Wales in the “Singer of the World” Competition in Cardiff and launched his career by winning the lieder prize.  (Deutsche Grammophon)

Bryn Terfel’s signature roles include Figaro in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and the title role in Verdi’s Falstaff. In 2004 he made his debut as Wotan in Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to rave reviews from the music press, including “In his first Wotan, Bryn Terfel fulfils his destiny as an operatic singer” (Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph).

“A born communicator who loves words as much as music, he has reached out to audiences way beyond the rarefied temples of opera house and recital hall . . .” (Time, London)

Loch Fyne Beer Battered Mussels

This is a quick, easy and great starter, but works equally well as a snack – serve with a cold beer.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• FOR THE DIPPING SAUCES
• 150ml /5 fl.oz mayonnaise – either home-made or good shop bought
• 100ml / 3 1/2 fl.ozcreme fraiche
• 3 tbsp coarse-grained mustard
• 1 tsp runny honey
• 3 tbsp finely chopped cilantro/ coriander
• Juice 1 lime
• 1/2 red chilli, de-seeded and finely minced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• FOR THE MUSSELS
• 1kg/ 2 1/4 lbs mussels, scrubbed & de-bearded
• 300ml/ 10 fl.oz very cold beer or lager
• 225g / 8oz self raising flour
• Sea salt & ground black pepper
• Sunflower or peanut oil for deep frying
• 25g/ 1 oz cornstarch/cornflour

Preparation:

Anna Netrebko has transcended the boundaries typical of classical music stardom to become one of the world’s most widely recognized and highly regarded opera singers. Regularly headlining productions at virtually all of the world’s leading opera houses, the Russian soprano has been hailed as “the reigning new diva of the early 21^stcentury.” In 2007 she became the first classical musician to be named to the Time 100 list, Time magazine’s list of the most influential people in the world. Her beautiful, dark, distinctive voice and her elegant and alluring stage presence have prompted critics to hail her as “Audrey Hepburn with a voice” and “a singer who simply has it all: a voice of astounding purity, precision, and scope, extensive dynamic and tonal range, imagination, insight, and wit – all combined with a dazzling charisma that makes it all but impossible to look away when she is performing.”

Anna and her husband, baritone Erwin Schrott, have started their own foundation to support children. The foundation is called “The Anna and Erwin Foundation for Children,” which provides funding for children’s hospitals in St. Petersburg and across Eastern Europe.

- from annanetrebko.com

Beef stroganoff is a dish consisting of strips of lean beef sauteed and served in a sour-cream sauce with onions and mushrooms. The recipe, which is of Russian origin, has been known since the eighteenth century, but its name appears to come from County Paul Stroganoff, a nineteeth-century Russian diplomat. Legend has it that when he was stationed in deepest Siberia, his chef discovered that the beef was frozen so solid that it could only be coped with by cutting it into very thin strips.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 lb beef (boneless)
4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp ketchup
5 oz sour cream
2 c broth
1 tbsp flour pounded with butter
1 ea onion
salt to taste
pepper
measures conversion [+]

Method:
Chop the meat long wise fibers (fibres) and beat the pieces a little. After that cut the pieces into stripes 2 cm long and 1/2 cm wide. Season and roll them in flour. Fry chopped onion in the pan and when it is gold brown, put the stripes there. Fry on hot heat until the meat is light brown. Make a sauce: fry 1 tb flour pounded with butter for few minutes, add sour cream, ketchup, salt. Pour the sauce over meat and stew on a low heat during 15-20 minutes. Don’t let sauce to boil, overwise the meat will be hard. Beef Stroganoff is served with fried potatoes.

Recipe and Method from “Olga’s Kitchen”

Piotr Beczala is acknowledged as one of the most vocally exciting, impressive, and sought-after lyric tenors of our time. The Polish-born artist is repeatedly acclaimed by audiences and critics alike for not only the beauty of his voice, but also for his ardent commitment to each character he portrays. (Beczala.com)

These Dumplings are made of thinly rolled-out dough filled with a variety of fillings. The most popular fillings are meat, sauerkraut and mushrooms, seasonal fruit (blueberries, strawberries and cherries), buckwheat, sweet cottage cheese or boiled potatoes with fried onions (called Russian dumplings). Pierogi is a Polish food that’s always served for Christmas.

-from Migrationology’s Best Polish Foods.

INGREDIENTS

Sauerkraut Filling:
2 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups sauerkraut, drained and minced.
salt and pepper for taste.

Potato Filling:
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups cold mashed potatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper

Dough:
3 egg
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder

Directions

1. To prepare the sauerkraut filling, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the drained sauerkraut and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then remove to a plate to cool.

2. For the mashed potato filling, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir into the mashed potatoes, and season with salt and white pepper.

3. To make the dough, beat together the eggs and sour cream until smooth. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder; stir into the sour cream mixture until dough comes together. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until firm and smooth. Divide the dough in half, then roll out one half to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 3 inch rounds using a biscuit cutter.

4. Place a small spoonful of the mashed potato filling into the center of each round. Moisten the edges with water, fold over, and press together with a fork to seal. Repeat procedure with the remaining dough and the sauerkraut filling.

5.  Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add perogies and cook for 3 to   5 minutes or until pierogi float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon.

-Recipe from Allrecipes.com 

Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja is one of the most exciting tenors singing today. He is blessed with a golden age voice that routinely inspires on both sides of the Atlantic. At only 33 years of age, he has sung 28 principal roles and performed on most of the world’s leading opera stages, including New York’s Metropolitan Opera, London’s Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and the Vienna Staatsoper. An exclusive recording artist for Decca Classics, his third solo album, The Maltese Tenor, debuted as the best-selling vocal album on the core classical charts in the U.K. and Germany when it was released earlier this year; it has recently been released to rave reviews.

- from Joseph Calleja’s website (www.josephcalleja.com)

Maltese Bragoli

Recipe From “Grazio’s Kitchen”

BRAGOLI (Beef Rolls)

10 thin slices of rump steak

Stuffing:

1/2 lb ground beef

6 bacon strips

2 hard-boiled eggs

2 tbsp chopped parsley

4 tbsp bread crumbs

1 carrot grated

pepper and salt

Sauce:

2 large onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 tsp tomato paste

2 carrots, scraped and sliced

1/2 cup peas

2 potatoes, peeled and quartered

2 bay leaves

1 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1/2 cup red wine

– In a bowl combine all stuffing ingredients.

– Pound and flatten slices of steak.

– Spoon about 2 tbsp of stuffing on each meat slice. Roll up slice.

Use string or toothpicks to secure rolled-up meat.

– In a saucepan cook for a few minutes onion and garlic in enough water

to cover onion. Add beef rolls and brown over medium heat.

– Remove beef rolls from saucepan and set aside.

– Add potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, tomato paste, herbs, and wine to

saucepan. Add pepper and salt to taste. Stir gently and cook for

about 10 minutes.

– Return beef rolls in saucepan, add peas and bring to boil. Reduce

heat and simmer to thicken sauce. Add wine if mixture begins to dry up

before meat is thoroughly cooked.