Rolando Villazon sang for the first time on the opera stage since his vocal cord surgery Monday night at the Vienna State Opera. Villazon has been plagued with vocal problems for 2 years which culminated in his diagnosis of a vocal cord cyst. By all accounts he scored a triumph in Vienna on Monday.
From the miracle of you tube, see what you think. His ovation was 15 minutes long. The thought of Opera without Villazon has been very depressing. Opera is looking ever so much brighter today.
Musical Divas
Posted Mar 19th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Divas can be naughty and disappoint some to please others (and usually themselves). After the triumph mezzo Elina Garanca had in the Met’s new production of Carmen, this year, (replacing Angela Gheorghiu, who canceled all Carmen performances with her estranged husband, Roberto Alagna) it’s not that surprising that Garanca will not be making her debut at San Francisco Opera in Werther this Fall.
Garanca is a superstar now, and she calls the shots. The shots are often related to money, and money is more valuable and easier had in Europe than in far off San Francisco. Word has it that David Gockley discovered on Garanca’s website that she was booked for several lucrative recitals in Europe at the same time she was supposed to be in San Francisco, so he fired her… better now than the “indisposed” announcement a week before opening night.
And speaking of cancellations, Gheorghiu recently announced that she “doesn’t want to make so important a debut in a role like Carmen at the Met with just the 2 remaining performances she didn’t cancel( even though they are with her preferred tenor, Jonas Kaufmann), so she canceled those too. (I suspect that Gheorghiu saw Garanca in the HD Carmen Transmission and realized that she wasn’t a mezzo). Replacing Gheorghiu will be the amazing mezzo, Kate Aldrich, who should be a great seductress to Kaufmann’s Don Jose.
And who will replace Garanca in Werther in San Francisco? British mezzo, Alice Coote. Here she is in Handel’s Alcina
And here’s Angela’s replacement at the Met: Kate Aldrich, whoops with Roberto Alagna. From Donizetti’s La Favorita.
A Tragedy of Operatic Proportions
Posted Mar 19th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Dan Tocchini and his Santa Rosa Entertainment Group’s takeover of the Rialto Cinemas is a tragedy of operatic proportions for the people of Sonoma County. The ousters have put bullets through the hearts of thousands of movie goers, opera lovers and theater aficionados who revel in the magic that Ky Boyd and his Rialto staff bring to their patrons. I have never been so mesmerized in a movie theater as in the past 3 years, watching, with a packed audience at the Rialto, live transmissions from the Metropolitan Opera.
Boyd took a huge financial chance on this venture and many others because he believes that the bottom line doesn’t always trump movies and entertainment that don’t attract mass audiences. With that kind of heart and entrepreneurial spirit, the Rialto apparently became a victim of its own success and attractive pickings for large predators.