Thomas Quasthoff, in rehearsal for tonight's opening of the 33rd annual
Oregon Bach Festival with the B Minor Mass, had three TV interviews during
the day, in significant contrast with his first appearance in Eugene in
1995, when he received minimal coverage even locally.

One of the TV reporters asked one of those "TV-interview questions" -
"What does fame mean to you," and TQ actually thought about it for a while
and then said "That I am asked to sing with people like Helmuth Rilling,
Seiji Ozawa, and Simon Rattle!  I don't sing for the money, but gettting
this kind of performance opportunity is wonderful.  Every time I see Daniel
Barenboim, he asks when we could work together.  I sang with the Berlin
Philharmonic 15 times...  15 times!  I will sing opera with them next year
in Salzburg.  You don't get to do that without `fame,' so I am glad it has
come."

Asked (not by a TV reporter) about his cancellation of the Elgar concert
in Europe a couple of weeks ago, he said he caught a cold, but he is OK
now.  He then went on to to prove it, singing a performance-grade rehearsal
of the Quoniam, while rooting for the obbligato player, Guy Few, as if the
Canadian trumpeter were on German team against Brazil in the World Cup
finals.  Few is performing on a festival-commissioned, custom-made corno
di caccia for the first time...  and he scored decisively.

Rilling, who introduces exciting young singers in Stuttgart and Eugene
every year, has come up with another winner for the B Minor Mass - Canadian
soprano Karina Gauvin.

Janos Gereben/SF
In Oregon, to July 8
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