Villazon ain't done yet: Not even close!

Good gravy some people really do enjoy nothing more than jumping to conclusions. Villazon returned to the opera stage a month or so ago singing magnificently two major roles: Lenski and Nemorino . . . and to outstanding reviews, sold out houses and enthusiastic audiences. I've been lucky to hear two of those performances, as well as some of the recent Handel outings which he's currently touring. I heard him as recently as last night and the voice is in fine shape, with a thrilling, pulse-pounding way with difficult florid passagework, his coloratura not always perfectly even, but measured and full of ping and yes, some hypermusical instincts.

He is not singing purely tenor arias, but a number of the most difficult mezzo/castrati arias which find him dipping down into notes more in the bass/baritone range, which he simply does not have. Blessedly, those notes are mostly short - quickly hit, let go and moved away from, but yes, if one is going to do this sort of thing one should also have those notes. Nevertheless, despite this shortcoming what is working are the middle and upper registers and they sound absolutely beautiful. I find it utterly remarkable that anyone would even be stupid enough to think this to be the end of someone's career
when there are plenty of working tenors who would love to have this facility and tone quality.

I simply don't get the twisted logic of the doomsayers who love to express "concern" that he's destroyed himself and believe they know the singer better than he knows himself. Remarkable.

The "Times" article was a hack job, as unrelievedly biased a piece of doomsday journalism, as any ten puff pieces I've read. Paragraph-upon-paragraph piling on as many negative aspersions as possible: the failed "pop star" reality TV show, that "mezzo soprano" pop singer, his resemblance to Mr. Bean, the bushy eyebrows, the crazy hair, the too wide mouth, the more-than-hinted at affair with Netrebko (which I still don't believe) the "Fourth Tenor" nonsense, his weekly psychiatric sessions. Several times, the article
references Hugh Canning's "review" which, like the article itself, spends most of its paragraphs setting up and tearing down its subject before ever critiquing a single note of music.

Canning makes the ridiculous charge that "the concert was clearly rescheduled to cash in" on his recent appearances in the failed (though oddly popular) reality show. Mr. C, seemed not to have noticed (or conveniently forgot) that the London concert was but a single one on the Handel tour with stops in Baden-Baden, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, etc. Or perhaps merely by not mentioning the remainder of the tour he is able to make the tenor look greedy and desperate? Ah, yes, THAT's where he's going, as he ends that particular paragraph making the singer sound "broke" as he explains how "Villazon
cancelled many lucrative engagements. As Brecht wrote: 'First comes food, then morals.'" Yes, Rolando has been starving to death and just out to earn some scratch. Right.

He goes on to criticize the manner in which Villazon sings Handel "as if the past 50 years of scholarship and performing practice had never happened, transforming the music of the baroque era’s greatest opera composer into a sort of genteel, polite verismo." This is, of course, his prerogative, but "genteel" and "polite" do not show up in Villazon's Handel singing - it is wild, passionate (and mostly) accurate singing with an almost crazed,
unleashed energy that has most audiences exploding in cheers. Yes, yes, I know, people are idiots and don't know any better. Not in London, nor in Paris, Munich . . .

Of course Canning spends as much time talking about how he "feels" Villazon looks uncomfortable - but I find he's mistaken the tenor's naturally manic, hyper-animated stage manner for "discomfort" when it's simply not the case. No one (I believe) says the same about Ms. Bartoli and her similar frenetic stage energy, but with Villazon it's a different story.

Here's Rolando as Lenski, singing "Kuda, kuda" only a month ago. It took my breath away. If this is the end of a career than "oops, wrong planet" - black is white, up is down and wrong is right. You decide if, along with Mr. Canning, he is nothing more than a cash cow "alongside the Bocellis, Jenkinses and Pottses of this world," and if it's time to for those who "care passionately about opera will shed a few furtive tears over what might have been."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn_ez9qQywk&feature=related

Like him or not I sense Rolando is on the right track and I, for one, couldn't be happier. Long may he sing!

La Boheme: The Movie

Just when you find yourself wondering “can I take another Boheme?” Puccini’s score proves itself one of the most evergreen in the operatic canon. This film was a fairly faithful representation of a “traditional” Boheme with minimal liberties taken by the director – generally to good effect.

Subtitles seemed a mite wrongheaded and sometimes downright awkward sometimes as much as half the text seemed to go untranslated then at other points so many titles were going one couldn’t both watch the action and read the titles.

This is where I ran into a few problems: Knowing Boheme by heart (I’ve been in a half dozen - in a variety of roles) since my student days – including a touring production) and with no way to turn the titles off – my eyes kept wandering to the bottom of the picture – then looking up and being jarred by middle-aged singers/actors playing at being young with varying degrees of success.

There were other issues, and one can endlessly quibble away picking the thing apart to make it “the worst movie ever” – but I found FAR more here to enjoy than to complain about, particularly the performances of Villazon and Netrebko who made a wonderfully believable pair of lovers. I very much liked Netrebko’s more mature and slightly less innocent approach to Mimi rather than trying to have a go at being 19 or 20, which would have not worked in either voice or body (loved her pulling Rodolfo into her room on their way to Momus. I found ending the act with the camera focusing solely on the candle a stroke of genius – the simplicity of it bursting with multiple symbolisms. Just beautiful.

Momus was fun, and despite the opulence, actually feeling more stripped down and lower key than most live productions (the Met has more people in Act II alone than this entire movie!) The lighting – with a delicious almost golden glow to the scene – was enchanting as was Nicole Caball’s “Thoroughly Modern Musetta.” The director did yeoman’s work here, beautifully balancing the stage picture far more than the score typically allows where the tendency is to focus almost exclusively on Musetta, forgetting there are other people singing throughout the act.

Having the camera drop in on Mimi & Rodolfo throughout the scene, we became privy to their “I only have eyes for you” exchanges otherwise impossible live, as these are typically swallowed up by the swirl of activity going on about them. This afforded that tone of sweet oblivion where, when in first flushes of love and passion, the very world disappears. It was in little touches such as these where I felt this Boheme made its strongest mark and made a strong case for its being “La Boheme: The Movie.”

I felt the film worked best in the third act where Netrebko poured on the sound and emotion, looking terrifyingly frail, giving me a little start as when we first see her from behind, she’s lurching forward almost as one already dead. She was also working the Louise Brooks melting eyes to the furthest limits. She broke my heart in the scene with Marcello, followed by my favorite moment of the entire opera; her overhearing Marcello and Rodolfo’s conversation. This is where I judge EVERY Boheme – if it can turn me into a sniveling, teary mess, well then, I’m sold. I was sold.

Villazon’s hyperactive nature seemed to infect his fellow Bohemians – particularly so in the first act where the pacing tended toward the frenetic. But he really did own this Rodolfo and I genuinely LIKED the character he made him out to be (though again, he wasn’t always helped by the poor titling). The singing from all was generally gorgeous and I liked the filmic aspects which were mostly tasteful and allowed for reaction shots.

And can I just say how wonderful it was to see opera (even filmed opera) on Public Television and what a joyous gift I found it to be for this time of year. So, kvetch away ye olde curmudgeons, if this be where thou dost find thy joy.

Rolando Villazon Sings Handel

I've waited until I've had more than just a few opportunities to listen to this recital full through before writing a review. I know we had some discussion on this BEFORE the album's release, but I can't recall seeing a review here yet. So, let the fur fly!

The majority of reviews and comments I've read have not been at all favorable - some even a bit scathing. This is something I can't quite comprehend as the more I listen, the more I've grown to love what Villazon does here. Some have called it a "throwback" to the "bad old days" of full voiced singers singing Handel as though it were Mozart, or worse, Mahler. I disagree and rather strongly. While it certainly sounds as it could be a different approach to Handel singing, , I find it to be more of a a "modern romantic tenor" bringing his own style and deploying it in a decidedly bravura approach that makes most of h is choices in this repertoire exciting and true to the spirit of the baroque.

The strongest criticisms seem to take issue with Villazon's somewhat over-the-top manner in delivering this material. That may be what I enjoy the most. Listen to the second track, the recitative to Grimoaldo's aria "Pastorello dun povero armento" or Serse's aria "Crude furie degl' orridi abissi" When has a tenor gone "there" so willingly, performing baroque music with this kind of abandon, not to mention intensity? This type of excess is oft considered "thrilling" when done by a female performer - indeed, Joyce diDonato in the same aria ("Crude furie") was praised to the rafters (and justly so!) for not only her bravura way with the fiery coloratura, but for the thousand different hues she hurled into the music, sinking her teeth into the meat of the text and almost spitting it out. But a tenor heard primarily in Verdi, Tchaikovsky and Puccini seems not to be able to make those same choices.

What's particularly interesting to me is the way Villazon and McCreesh move through this material in ways that are almost unexpected, but which make perfect sense. After having heard some thrilling - near gasp-inducing leaps and flourishes, something like "Ombra mai fu" feels almost pure and cleansing and the simple addition of a well-executed trill makes the scene "pop"with life that is almost rare in a number like this.

This is not to say everything is perfect on this disc, and sometimes the low tessitura (e.g., the central portion of "Scherza infida") can find our tenor getting a tad growly in music sitting a bit lower (even if only a note or two) than he's usually addressing. Still, we seem to be more forgiving when a soprano (or lyric mezzo) gets a bit gravelly on a low note. But, as heard in Villazon's "Scherza infida" there is a melting musicality thatmakes up (to these ears at least) for any shortcoming in the inability to sound perfect in every range.

Another thing I love about this recital is the freedom of the ornamentation employed. Villazon's trills, runs, appogiatura, grupetti, etc., come off with a natural ease and authoritythat would be the envy of a number of singers who sing almost nothing BUT baroque music!

Above all there is a sense of love and admiration for this music that comes shining through from start to finish. The level of musicmaking between Villazon, Paul McCreesh and the early instruments of the Gabrieli Players is never less than top drawer and all wed to a sense of joyousness and meaning which infuses every bar. Regardless of what one might think of his choices, I dare anyone to listen to, say, "Dopo notte atra e funesta"and not feel the thrilling connection between the performers and the music they're sharing.

Then there is the "dark" theatricality that permeats some numbers - with the tenor taking choices that can understandably be seen as controversial. The strangled whispers with which he ends Bajazet's emotional scene has been much commented upon - but you know what? I like it. Look at the text:

"My sight is already fading . . . death, I feel you! This horror is your punishment."

While I can understand purists cringing here, we can't know for certain such a "device" was not employed in Handel's time and here and now, singer (and maestro) seem to find it a valid way of interpreting this dark moment and pull it off with complete conviction.

If I've any disappointment it is in the way the recital ends - with St. John's two numbers from "La Resurrezione." This is not to say that they are not sung beautifully, or that Villazon is found wanting in the emotional intensity heard throughout the rest of the recital, but for my money they simply don't have the"oomph" to draw a disc like this to its conclusion. This, however is purely grousing on my part.

This disc will ever find its way into a widely accepted Handelian catalog, but I think those willing to go along for a wild ride, fueled by fury, passion, joy and total admiration of one of the greatest composers of any era,will find something very, very special here.