Rolando Villazón, "La Cucaracha", México City, 06/17/2010

Comments

[Newberry]

That was fun! Where's the harm? I'd rather hear him sing that than Gheorghiu encore "I Could Have Danced All Night".

[Jen]

Vale, maybe you should break into a silly song once in a while. Youd be less of a sad old curmudgeon taking down everyone else with him.

[Nourrit's Number]

@Operaplus, firstly I have a very good idea of popular music in Spanish, ya que naci y vivi en Ecuador casi toda la vida, y orejas tengo! Also, as a singer myself I know that there are certain standards of performance-- and before you or anybody plays the populist card and calls me a snob, I am referring to standards if decorum and dignity. You want to be Shakira? fine, but don't pretend to also be Caruso. Even when people such as Kraus and Gigli tackled popular repertoire, they did so with good taste and class-- this is a gesture of respect to the public. If you roll around like an attention-starved terrier wishing to desperately please his master, I'm sorry but obviously your priority here is not respecting the audience, it's not making music, but it's to make a sorry spectacle of yourself. It us ultimately not a desire to give the audience a good program, but a narcissism insidiously couched inside the Appeal To The Public. Ultimately it's a case similar to the Vain Man in "Le Petit Prince" who jumps around, makes noise and seeks hungrily the attention of everyone in the room crying "Admire me!"

I'm sorry, but I'll keep Kraus singing his Tangos and "Siboney." At least the Maestro respected the audience enough to refrain from being a clown. Villazon? Una simple bataclanera!

[cd]

OC! Is this the most number of comments you have ever generated with one well place video? Is this a record to celebrate?

[Anne]

Man, Kraus this Kraus that, I find Kraus hopelessly boring and pussywhipped-sounding. Surely that's what you mean by respecting his audience, boring them to tears with a 'look what a serious, technique-addicted-cause-that's-all-have Artiste I am!"
But I'm sure there is a happy medium between Kraus the Artiste and Villazon the Terrier, and it's usually the singer who does folk and/or tangos to begin with.

[Nourrit's Number]

@ANNE Kraus had his voice and just about everything at 72. Villazón at 38? Well, he's still got his hair. If you like funnel cakes-- all sugar and air and no substance--- good for you. Me? I'm going to get me some juicy, substantial steak.

[Anne]

You can also get a reading comprehension manual.

[Rara Avis]

This song was indeed an encore, and the reason he chose to sing it had to do with Mexico's team performance during their ill-fated, albeit long-cherished, dream of winning the World Cup. The original text has been in part replaced by lines making direct references to one game's specifics and so on... Unfortunately, besides the vulgar, ill-fitting and silly new lines, the piece is sung in a nervous, almost hyper, manner that robs the original of its (acknowledgedly scant) native, humorous charm.

[jeff]

It seems like he finally found his repertoire and his audience.

[Theresa]

He's done. He cancelled his performance for Elixir.

What happens when you call in sick too often for your job? You eventually get fired! Apparently Covent Garden has now showed him the red card, just like the Met did already.

Villazon should embrace La Cucaracha and make it from now on his signature song. Just like Pavarotti had the "Nessun Dorma" aria and Domingo the zarzuela romanza "No puede ser".

[the phantom]

hi there, is rolando hot or not, hes bloody gorgeous, the hair the eye brows, everything, he's funny, he can sing(even if many say he cannot) he can act, i'm just gutted he's married or i would of gone after him, he may not be as big as domingo or pavarotti, but he has fans, and loyal fans, that will follow him what ever he does, and rolando is not your typical tenor, he has broken the mould on opera, its not just for snobs and people with money, its for everyone, and if people don't like him for doing that, tough