Racette and Terfel Team Up Again for "Tosca" at Ravinia Festival

Maestro Conlon leads Racette and Licitra
(Photo: Patrick Gipson/Ravinia Festival)

"The trio of leads included two-thirds of the spring Metropolitan Opera cast from the Luc Bondy production that continues to stoke controversy in opera circles. At the core was a gripping, seething portrayal of the loathsome Scarpia by Bryn Terfel. The Welsh bass-baritone assumed a more static stage presence than the other cast members, yet he effortlessly commanded the full attention of a captivated audience with malevolent, coiled-spring intensity. His depiction of the sadistic police chief evolved from calm, confident brutality to wounded, vengeful fury, all evinced without bellowing or bombast. Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra has been well received at the Met and elsewhere for his idiomatic, dulcet-toned Cavaradossi. In this reading there was a hint of grain in a few top notes, as well as scenes in which he seemed needlessly risk-averse. On the whole his warm and ardent portrayal earned hearty and well-deserved kudos from his grateful admirers. Soprano Patricia Racette has also scored triumphs with leading companies in the title role, and her absorbing performance Saturday affirmed her status as a leading Tosca of our time. She wasn’t as vocally dazzling as some who have personified the celebrated singer and jealous lover, but she brought an honest dignity to a role often overwrought by helpless despair." [Source]

Get Thee to a Gift Shop

If you are in New York City, be sure to stop by the Metropolitan Opera Gift Shop today at 2PM EST to meet the stars of Wagner's Die Walküre, Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel!

Bryn Terfel Stunning in Domingo Celebrity Series

(Photo: Deutsche Grammophon)

Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel had a successful evening of arias and show tunes at the Kennedy Center last week: "It is always a pleasure to see a superstar at the top of his game in a relaxed, unbuttoned performance....Terfel is by now perfectly at ease onstage, making frequent eye contact with audience members while singing and between selections...It is in the extremes - high, low, loud, soft - that his natural gifts most clearly set him apart from others; the sound pours out like warm honey without any sense of strain...At this point in Terfel's career, every performance is a master class in singing and stagecraft."

The maestro conducting the performance did not fair so well: "Domingo's conducting continues to unimpress. While his hand was relatively sure in the numbers he knew from his own repertoire, the difficult 'L'onore!' from Verdi's Falstaff was a mess; he repeatedly allowed the orchestra to swamp Terfel in the show tunes; and he could not find the Viennese lilt in Strauss's Die Fledermaus overture. The Opera House Orchestra is playing well these days, but not always well enough to cover for weak conductors." [Source]

Royal Wedding Music, Part 2: Who Would Be Available To Sing?

POTENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR ROYAL WEDDING SOLOIST
In a business where professionals are contracted out five years in advance, what singer could possible be free to sing for the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on April 29, 2011? Checking schedules of the top dozen front-runners for the job discloses that some could be a private jet ride away from the event:

Renée Fleming will have completed her last performance of Strauss's Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera on April 23 and has a Strauss concert of orchestral songs and scenes from Arabella with the Berlin Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann.

Anna Netrebko sings the Pergolesi Stabat Mater on April 28 in Geneva, Switzerland, and again on May 2 in Toulouse, France.

Kate Royal makes her Metropolitan Opera debut the night of April 29 in Orfeo ed Euridice. The second performance of the run is May 4. There are only five performances of the Gluck opera.

Angela Gheorghiu has concerts on April 27 and May 1 at the National Concert Hall in Seoul, Korea.

Marina Poplavskaya is performing The Tsar's Bride of Rimsky-Korsakov at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden during the month of April and her penultimate performance in the run takes place at 7PM on April 29.

Anja Harteros just canceled her appearances at the San Diego Opera as the Marschallin in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, but is to appear in that very role on May 4 in Wiesbaden. She will be singing performances of Mimí in La Bohème at the Hamburg State Opera on April 23 & 30.

Cecilia Bartoli makes her way to Down Under for concerts in Australia on March 15 & 18. Then there is nothing in her schedule until a May 5 concert performance with Orchestra La Scintilla in Berlin.

Elīna Garanča the mezzo-soprano is singing the role of Giovanna Seymour in Donizett's Anna Bolena with a last performance at the Wien Staatsoper in Austria on April 17 and the first performance of the same work at the Opernhaus Zürich in Switzerland on May 21.




What about the possibility of a male performing during the ceremony?

Rolando Villazón will be in rehearsals at the Royal Opera House for Massenet's Werther which will have its opening night on May 5.

Plácido Domingo sings a concert with Ana María Martínez in Puerto Rico on April 17 and then will head to Washington, D.C., for Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride opening on May 6.

Jonas Kaufmann can be found at the Metropolitan Opera in the middle of performing the role of Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre. Performance dates bookend the nuptials date: April 28 and May 2.

Bryn Terfel is also at the Metropolitan Opera taking on the role of Wotan with performances scheduled on April 28 and May 2.