One of the many reasons why we love Marcelo? Dude has a way with words:
Oh and he also thinks opera blogs are the cancer of the opera world!“I’m very engaged with the production,” Alvarez announces, explaining that this Aïda is no “earthy” Egypt but a mix of evocative ancient traditions: Aztec Mexico, Ancient Greece and samurai warriors. “It looks a little like Stargate [the sci-fi TV series],” he beams.
Here are a few photos from the dress rehearsal of Luc Bondy's new production of Tosca, which will premiere and open the 2009/10 season of The Metropolitan Opera on Monday, September 21, 2009. James Levine conducts Karita Mattila in the title role with Marcelo Álvarez as Cavaradossi, George Gagnidze as Scarpia, and Paul Plishka as Sacristan.
(Above: George Gagnidze as Scarpia)
(Above: Karita Mattila and George Gagnidze)
(Above: Marcelo Álvarez as Cavaradossi)
All photos Mary Altaffer
Béatrice Uria-Monzon as Carmen experienced a tasty nip slip and almost poked out Marcelo Alvarez's eye.
Thankfully, dear Marcelo's a big boy (bigger and bigger actually) and he survived unscathed.
(Above: Olga Borodina as Carmen with Marcelo Álvarez as Don José in Bizet's Carmen @ the NYC Met Opera, February, 2008)
Steve Smith for The New York Times reviews the Metropolitan Opera's current run of Carmen, where a renegade donkey provided a bit of comic relief:
"As Micaëla, the soprano Maija Kovalevska confirmed the promise she showed in Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” last season. She had the requisite sweetness of voice and manner for the role, but demonstrated plenty of backbone in her Act III confrontation with Don José. (Her first few lines of the evening, alas, were covered by audience laughter after a donkey heeded nature’s call onstage — an occupational hazard in a Zeffirelli production.)"
We like that donkey's style. What a jacka$$. I hope some agent scoops up that rising star. One of the cigarette factory girls probably made the donkey smoke a rolled cigarette in an opening night hazing ritual, and he couldn't handle the nicotine. If I was a stagehand I'd be like heyll naw I ain't even tryin to hear that right now.
An encore (E Lucevan Le Stelle) for Marcelo Alvarez; mad props to Franco Zeffirelli's new staging, pleasure at the discovery of Martina Serafin, a surprinsingly good Tosca; polite applause for maestro Renato Bruson's Scarpia -- the great veteran's voice is not always brilliant, obviously, at this point in his career, but you can always appreciate the style and the intensity of the interpretation.
More later today re: the premiere of Tosca at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma last night: the fashion shows of Moda Uomo are going on at full blast in Milan right now, AND tonight OC has to show up at la Scala for the premiere of Devia's and Antonacci's Maria Stuarda.
(All photos courtesy of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma)
As Opera Chic wrote a while ago, the production of Andrea Chenier that was supposed to be directed by Terry Gilliam, in a smart & heavily hyped move, with Marcelo Alvarez as Chenier, has lost director and star. As of now, six months from la prima, four months from the start of ticket sales, they're stuck with Cedolins and Bruson, with no staging and no director (see Scala official website screencaps here, published as fair use). Nicolas Joel was supposed to pick up the responsibility for the staging, but that deal fell apart as well, as la Scala's website indicates.
Now OC hears that Chenier may very well -- in a very VERY unusual move -- be scrapped in favor of another opera.
The question is, which opera would replace Chenier? It may be Butterfly. And the surprises could keep coming. We'll keep ya posted
Not only la Scala is losing tenor Marcelo Alvarez for both their Andrea Chenier next June and their next Prima, Don Carlos on 12/7/2008, as previously reported; they also lost their most exciting choice for director, Terry Gilliam, who was in charge of giving good ole Chenier a patina of provocative genius and whose choice had generated much international attention for the opera house.
In Gilliam's place, French veteran Nicolas Joel, former Monty Python member and famous film director of masterpieces such as Brazil, Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys.
The good news is, maybe the orchestra will strike again, so it doesn't matter who would have directed the opera because nobody will see it!
The Marcelo Alvarez decision to cancel his Scala engagements -- Andrea Chenier next June directed by Terry Gilliam & conducted by Daniel Oren, with Fiorenza Cedolins, and next year's prima, 12/7/2008 in Don Carlos under Daniele Gatti's baton -- opens a big hole in the season's roster, and in next season's too: if Ian Storey got his Tristan part only after Barenboim's first choice -- Burkhard Fritz -- said no, well, losing a big name like Alvarez TWICE opens a huge can of contractual worms.
If we ran la Scala -- and one day we will, oh we will -- we'd hire the best Chenier out there, Fabio Armiliato. But then we'd have hired him from day 1, and Dessì in Cedolin's place. Then, for shock value, we'd hire Alagna for Don Carlos, settling the lawsuit and getting lots of press for it.
And it would all be a lot of fun.
Now, not so much.
In one of the worst weeks ever for singer's tonsils, we've had the catastrophic series of defections for Un Ballo In Maschera at Opéra Bastille where Marcelo Alvarez and THEN his replacement Evan Bowers, "également souffrant", fell ill (hilarity did not ensue: Opera Chic's best get-well-soon wishes to Marcelito and Evan); then the (cancellation-prone) Rolando Villazon controversy, will he or won't he show up for Manon at the Liceu? The latest news, thanks to the detective work of Opera Chic's dear readers, seems to be that he hasn't showed up yet, after a cancellation last Sunday in Vienna (and another cancellation in Berlin in May), and he may show up late, but it's still all up in the air. And Anna Netrebko, who must have caught Rolando's kooties somehow, after all that singing together, will apparently call in sick for la prima of her Don Giovanni at Covent Garden (DG is the Bruce-Weber-model-lookalike Erwin Schrott) but she will available for the rest of her engagement. With thanks to our happy bunch of friends who provided the info, gtl torn t, nonothing, colibri, and the shy ones who e-mailed us.
^^^UPDATE^^^
Voce di Tenore has the ROH e-mail, also on musicomh.com:
"Russian soprano Anna Netrebko is unwell and therefore unable to perform the role of Donna Anna on the opening night of Don Giovanni on Monday 11 June. She has been suffering from an infection for several weeks and has not sufficiently recovered to sing the performance on 11 June. The role of Donna Anna will be sung by Jette Parker Young Artist Marina Poplavskaya on the opening night in addition to the performance she was scheduled to sing on 8 July."
