Caught with her pants down
La Cieca has just heard that Jossie Perez has been canned from the prima of the Met’s new production of Romeo et Juliette. A source at the company says that the mezzo was protested by maestro Bertrand de Billy. The plum of singing the trouser role of Stephano on the opening night goes to Joyce DiDonato, who saved the Met’s bacon earlier this month when she agreed on short notice to stand by for the ailing Olga Borodina in La Cenerentola.
DiDonato reportedly will take home an extra-fat paycheck for learning Stephano on short notice and singing the first two performances. Romeo opens two weeks from Monday, and Perez rejoins the cast on November 21. No word yet who will jump into DiDonato’s Cherubino performances between now and then.
I don’t understand…
Jossie is not good enough to sing the first two performances, but she will be good enough to sing the third performance?
She is still listed as singing the Broadcast too…
This makes no sense… Why relieve her of two performances? To avoid bad reviews? But then, if she is that bad, by not fire her altogether?
I like Jossie; I have seen her give sone uneven performances over the years, but of late, I feel she has become a strong and consistent performer – which is what she lacked before. i remember a performance of Figaro a few years back in which her pitch wavered for the entire opera – however, she seems to be confident and grounded on stage now; I hope this event is not too hard on her!
Di Donato will still be doing all of her Cherubinos.
This is an obvious company issue. The Met adores but the conductor had another type of voice in mind for the role, a lighter voice. Jossies voice is more of a Carmen than anything else. Although she can sure play and sing the pants roles wonderfully.
Jossie is a fantastic singer…The word is that the conductor just wanted a different type of voice for this role (a lighter voice). But the Met loves her. A pitty that we wont get to hear her do that aria, it was the aria she won the Met competition with in ’99.