La Bohème! In Vienna!
The long wait is finally over. La Bohème ~the 2008 movie~ has finally exited to the Austrian public today, while the screening party was held earlier this week. Enjoy below three pictures of fashion icon Rolando Villazón and wife Lucia from the premiere in Vienna. O Rolando, we love you so, but your navy velvet smoking jacket is just so Twin Peaks. neways, La Trebs was nowhere to be found, but her management issued a statement graceful excusing her from the festivities. Blanked by Anna!
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(above: The Villazon's with Robert Dornhelm)
Mrs. Villazon is a beauty! What a lucky guy. No wonder he is beaming. Domingo once said that the baritones got all the beauties.(eg: the drop-dead gorgeous Mrs. Hvorostovsky, a very nice lady). Apparently MR.D is wrong. The young tenors do very well.
Posted by: Flying pig | October 10, 2008 at 09:42 PM
twin peaks rualz.
Posted by: missdezember | October 10, 2008 at 10:50 PM
AAHH
But the gods of fashion have been merciful to me today. Mr. Villazon has evidently recalibrated his style up a few notches though his fetish for velvet still dominates. But the occasion does call for something more.
We are thrilled he left the little red lamé number at home for this event.
Posted by: CrewMantle | October 11, 2008 at 01:43 AM
Please, excuse my poor english. Mrs Villazón is a beauty, indeed. But Rolando... I couldn't disagree more! Ugly guy, ugly eyebrows, ugly hair, ugly voice and, more often than not, hysterical overact.
Posted by: Ida Lopes | October 11, 2008 at 03:42 AM
Mrs. Villazon is truly a beautiful woman, and she has every right to be proud to be the wife of such a gifted artist. As far as the previous post that claims him to be ugly of face and voice, well..... there are a lot of jealous people out there who have virtually nothing going for them. Mr. Villazon has an appeal and an artistry that is quite unique and charasmatic. I think he's great and I value his work.
Posted by: Les Mitchell | October 12, 2008 at 02:17 AM
It's not a matter of jealous, Mr. Mitchel. I've been listening to wonderful opera singers since I was wearing diapers and I wonder what is happening to the opera listeners nowadays to consider Villazón a great artist. Maybe it's because of the actual lack of outstanding tenors combined to a very good marketing job made by agents ... but the true is: today, there are people singing leading roles at the Met, ROH, Scalla, etc, who would be very lucky if accepted as a comprimario 20 years ago. Try to compare Villazón to Carreras, Gedda, di Stefano, Gigli, Bergonzi, Araiza; not mentioning Pavarotti, Kraus and del Monaco.... and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Rgds!
Posted by: Ida Lopes | October 12, 2008 at 06:12 AM
Dear: Ida Lopes
Pardon my poor English, I would like to clarify my post. I was merely commenting on the fact that the tenors have very beautiful spouses.(for example Mrs. Villazon here, Mr Florez's wife and the original RV, Sr. Ramon Vargas's lovely wife Amelia). As for Villazon, I agree with you almost on everything. Why some people think he is "handsome" remains a mystery to me. I suppose that beauty is in the eyes of the beholders. As for his voice, should I dare to say that there are many tenors who have much more beautiful voices? The thing I don't like about Villazon the most is the overacting. Well, he is the MR. BEAN of opera for a reason.
We live in a society that people are constantly under the influence of the marketing machines. Most of the very popular things in our society are very different from the really good things.
Just because some people have reservations about Villazon that do not mean they are jealous. Preference of singers are very subjective.
Posted by: Flying pig | October 12, 2008 at 01:56 PM
I think Villazón is a very good singer. Yes, we still have to see -and listen to- if he measures up with some of the legendary voices of the past -by the way, I think that Carreras is not legendary...
as for the fashion thing, I like the jacket, but it wasn't for the occasion, as Ms. Villazon's purse.
Posted by: alejandra | October 13, 2008 at 03:55 AM
Dear Flying Pig
I apologise if you took my post mentioning jealous as a response to yours. It was a response to Les Mitchel who mentioned jealous as the reason for me to consider Villazón an ugly man and a bad singer who has achieved much more than his merits deserve.
Best regards!
Posted by: Ida Lopes | October 13, 2008 at 07:14 AM
Hi guys,
Anyone knows if that movie will remain in the cinemas in Austria and Germany or it might spill over to the other countries as well?
Posted by: val | October 13, 2008 at 01:01 PM
Dear Ida:
My comment about jealousy was a response to Les Mitchell's comment as well.
Best wishes,
Flying pig
Posted by: Flying pig | October 13, 2008 at 04:55 PM
Dear Ida:
Perhaps I over-reacted, and I apologize. Of course the tenors to which you alluded were all magnificent, and I'm the first to admit it, but we simply don't have voices like that anymore, and nor do we have Callas, Tebaldi, Milanov, Nilsson, Sutherland, and Caballe' anymore either. But we must enjoy whose singers we have TODAY , and to judge present singers with the past "greats" is only going to frustrate us and make us enjoy opera much less.
I can understand where you are coming from, and you are right, but if we keep bashing these present stars, who will we left to listen to??? I keep waiting for the next Callas, Domingo, Milanov, Nilsson, Gedda, etc. I have a feeling that we have a very, very long wait.
Posted by: Les Mitchell | October 13, 2008 at 08:43 PM