Critique DVD: Thaïs, Massenet

Another Sonnambula

That's settled then. The next CD version of Bellini's La Sonnambula I will buy will not be the live Dessay's performance in Lyon I talked about two days ago...
It will be the Decca studio version recorded this July in Zurich, featuring Cecilia Bartoli, Ildebrando d’Arcangelo and... my dearest Juan Diego Florez. What a promising news...

Virgin Classics doesn't like Europe

Can anyone tell me why the recording of Natalie Dessay's performance in La Sonnambula (Evelino Pido conducting) that I saw, twice, last year here in Lyon (complete review in French here and there) is avalaible only in the United States and in Japan?

Critique disque: Mireille, Gounod

Extrait de la revue Diapason.

New season in Palermo

2008 stagione di opere e balletti al Teatro Massimo, Palermo

Villazon out, Alagna in

So Rolando is really sick... He just pulled out of the first two performances (Sept.25 & 29) of the upcoming MET's production of Gounod's Roméo and Juliette. He will be replaced by Roberto Alagna, whose recent Manrico in Orange was controversial (that I have yet to watch).
Youtube extracts of the Trovatore production in Orange (July 31):
"Ah! sì, ben mio" ; "Di quella pira".

The Netrebko / Villazon summer

It all started with Rolando Villazon cancelling the three gala performance with Netrebko and Elina Garanca in Baden-Baden (July 28 & 31, Aug. 3 broadcast live by the German TV Channel ZDF, that I watched while in Berlin). He was replaced by Ramon Vargas (never been a fan of him). Then, Rolando cancelled all his upcoming performances for the next two months, including the two scheduled Salzburg Festival recitals with Placido Domingo on Aug. 9 & 12 (soprano Ana María Martínez took over).
So Rolando must be back home in Neuilly (the richest Paris suburb) resting from this mysterious illness with no name (bad enough, though, to receive warm expressions of sympathy from the Salzburg Festival officials).
These officials, however, were less forgiving when Anna Netrebko cancelled her performances in Salzburg (Aug. 8 & 10), due to an inflamed larynx. Helga Rabl-Stadler, the head of the Salzburg music festival, called Netrebko's cancellation "an affront to the public. I am quite shocked that she is so unreliable." Then, Netrebko cancelled last minute yesterday's scheduled appearance at the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy. No loss at all there, as the general director Barrett Wissman, the powerful chairman of the IMG Artists management agency, secured Cecilia Bartoli as a last-minute replacement (what a replacement!). Netrebko evidently still intends to proceed as planned with her stadium tour of Germany beginning this Saturday, August 18. So a cancellation Saturday at noon should be expected...

Ode à une époque révolue

Extrait de Télérama, 18 juillet 2007.

Rosa Ponselle
1897-1981

To (re)discover the great voice and singing of this italian-american soprano, I strongly advise you to check this page [complete biography here, in French].

Especially moving is the extract from Spontini's La Vestale, "O Nume tutelar" [direct link to the mp3 here].

Well, let's face it, every extract is sublime.

Hommage à la Reine

Extrait de Télérama, 18 juillet 2007.

More about the Katharina Wagner's debut

From the International Herald Tribune, August 1, 2007.