One Great Picture After Another: Gracias, Rolando.
Rolando Villazon is rapidly becoming my favorite opera personality. That’s PERSONALITY. Earlier this morning I posted the picture of him flying off a mechanical bull (scroll down) - now I’ve found another picture of him, screaming for a caption. 
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I received some great caption suggestions! These include: (names hidden to protect the guilty):
- Look at the shine coming off that thing! I can see my tonsils! (LH)
- You used my lotion again? Have you no sense of personal property? (LH)
- Oh my gosh! What kind of moisturizer are you using? I simply must get a bottle for myself! (RR)
- So THIS is what you've been hiding! (Unprintable!) :) (RR)
AND THE WINNER IS:
With one misstep, Anna turns the performance into a soprano duet.
(Scott, from comments)
Thanks for the caption ideas, friends, and keep sending in those entries!
The lovely lady with Rolando here is the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko. In the picture above, they are playing Alfredo and Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata. The two work so well together, any production or recording teaming them is virtually guaranteed success.
If you want to hear Rolando and Anna sing, click here. A clip of them singing the Brindisi will start playing. The performance is from the 2005 Salzburg Festival, and features Eastern Washington’s favorite operatic son, Thomas Hampson.
8 comments:
About bull is great. And specially your comment about dark chokolade and burgundy's color of RV voice. Also about Alagna's ego.
But this picture exists on his Website already for year and a half. I have MANY pictures of RV. Can send some to you.
With one misstep, Anna turns the performance into a soprano duet.
This is certainly not from the "Brindisi" but from the second act of "La Traviata", the production in Salzburg. Just watch the DVD and you will find out.
Dear anonymous,
of course, you're right! The Brindisi is an ensemble number, not a duet. Thanks for the tip, and I shall correct the post.
Dear gammare,
I hate to admit to being so out of touch, but Rolando didn't really catch my attention until a few months ago. So I had never seen this picture until this week - and when I did, it made me laugh uncontrollably. Please DO send me pictures of him! Thanks so much! (Use my e-mail link below "About Me")
Yesterday here was comment sounds something like Calleja is IN and Villazon is OUT. I'd like to respond.
Rolando is very much IN. To get his place - not enough to have fresh voice. You have to have complex at the moment not seen in all our tenor line. You have to be actor on the rang of best drama actors so far unseen on opera stage (except Chalyapin). You have to be THE musician who can perform recital like sophisticated instrumentalist, you have to be a fascinator on stage.
Referring to Calleja I certainly wish him to continue to grow, but for the moment I'd like to bring words of serious reviewer [OPERA NEWS, Review on Traviata, La Opera]. "But Calleja seemed to be a wooden actor who can articulate the emotional life of his character only through the most elementary of means. His wooing of Violetta in Act I lacked any sense of physical urgency, he had none of the volatility that makes Alfredo such a sympathetic and essentially young figure, and, at the end, he really did not seem to care whether Violetta lived or not
Yesterday here was comment sounds something like Calleja IN and Villazon is OUT. I'd like to respond.
Rolando is very much IN. To get his place - not enough to have fresh voice. You have to have complex at the moment not seen in all our tenor line. You have to be actor on the rang of best drama actors and so far unseen on opera stage (except Chalyapin). You have to be THE musician who can perform recital like sophisticated instrumentalist, you have to be a fascinator on stage.
Referring to Calleja I certainly wish him to continue to grow, but for the moment I'd like to bring words of serious reviewer [OPERA NEWS, Review on Traviata, La Opera]. "But Calleja seemed to be a wooden actor who can articulate the emotional life of his character only through the most elementary of means. His wooing of Violetta in Act I lacked any sense of physical urgency, he had none of the volatility that makes Alfredo such a sympathetic and essentially young figure, and, at the end, he really did not seem to care whether Violetta lived or not
Dear gammare,
I don't think the article implied that Villazon was out in the least. You may have formed that impression from the Austrian newspapers gushing praise over him. People were justly impressed, not just by his performance by also because Calleja was singing THREE opera roles in that same week. That is a tough thing to do.
At the same time, many people that night were very frustrated because they paid a lot of money to see Rolando and were very excited about seeing him on stage. So when he didn't show up their disappoinment may have caused them to turn on him. Unfairly, I think. Even superstars get sick sometimes!
But Rolando is a stunningly good singer/actor/personality, and he is here to stay no matter who comes along - just like my beloved Placido Domingo, still gracing the music scene after all these decades.
As I said in the article, I hope Calleja continues to grow, because the more great tenors there are, the better. After all, that's the way more and more people are going to be drawn to opera, and that's got to be good for opera lovers, isn't it?
Rolando, please do get better soon, your fans miss you!
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