30-day flu grips music industry!
UPDATE: La Cieca has heard from more than one reliable source that Juan Diego Flórez is yet another victim of whatever it is that's mowing down all the Almavivas. The tenor, she hears, has canceled Barbiere di Siviglia at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Word on the street is that John Osborn will be released from L'elisir d'amore at Palm Beach so he may sing the Rossini in Chicago, with performances beginning February 11 opposite Joyce DiDonato and Nathan Gunn. LOC subscribers (already reeling over having Angela Gheorghiu, Barbara Frittoli, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Peter Mattei, Bernadette Manca di Nissa and Ambrogio Maestri yoinked from this season's roster) should gird themselves for a belated press release sometime today.
From the Met's press office: "José Manuel Zapata will sing the role of Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia on Thursday, February 21 at 8 p.m., Monday, February 25 at 8 p.m., and Friday, February 29 at 8 p.m. He replaces Michael Schade, who is indisposed." [emphasis added]
From the Met's press office: "José Manuel Zapata will sing the role of Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia on Thursday, February 21 at 8 p.m., Monday, February 25 at 8 p.m., and Friday, February 29 at 8 p.m. He replaces Michael Schade, who is indisposed." [emphasis added]
Labels: chicago, florez, met, the subtle art of euphemism
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59 Comments:
See definition number two:
indisposed
adjective
1. Affected or tending to be affected with minor health problems: ailing, low, mean2, off-color, rocky, sickly. Idioms: under the weather. See health/sickness.
2. Not inclined or willing to do or undertake: averse, disinclined, loath, reluctant, unwilling. See willing/unwilling.
As someone who has chronic health issues, I guess it's possible, he would know this far in advance. He might need a procedure or something. But being the world of opera, I suppose that would be too logical.
Mr. Schade has some ways to go to match the months-long indisposition suddenly diagnosed/predicted with astounding accuracy for Susannah Glanville after her Musetta at last season's Met dress rehearsal.
A shattering loss to New York's audience, of course; it hadn't experienced a first-class Musetta since Jo Barstow had a "go" at the role in 1977- a (largely inaudible) event described by one British music critic then active in New York in terms befitting the debut of Welitsch.
That's some impressive thread hijacking, krunoslav. Is there any topic you can't crowbar your obsession into?
Michael Schade had been released from the first Barbers as Vienna wanted him for David in the Meistersinger under Thielemann which was supposed to be taped for a DVD. Similarly Gelb originally wanted Adrian Erod for Figaro (to make up a Viennese Barbiere for Garanca) but Erod chose to do his
first Beckmesser with Thielemann in Vienna and had a sensational success (the best since Kunz said all the old timers). Schade missed the first of the five Meistersingers due to illness as did Botha. Seiffert replaced Botha. Botha also missed the second. Struckmann left the 4th performance after the second act and was replaced by Wolfgang Koch (who had sung Kothner but was excellent as Sachs) and Koch sang the 5th performance as well. Who knows if the performance will be released as only the third of the 5 Meistersingers had the original cast and some were still indisposed. So it is quite likely that Schade may still be under the weather. Thielemann had a fabulous success as did Villazon as Des Grieux in Manon who was absolutely Splendid with 20 minutes of curtain calls after the 2nd and 3rd Manons.
armerjaquino: This is nothing. You should see what he's like in the manhunt.com chatrooms.
Shouldn't that be manhunt.NET?
Oh, no wonder we haven't met before!
Hahaha la cieca... there's probably quite a few British critics in there an'all.
schade has also canceled his recital, with russell braun, scheduled at lincoln center on feb 10th. "due to an injury"
manhunt has chatrooms?? Is that a new feature??
Bill-
Thank you for reporting on Villazon's succes fou in Manon. Haven't heard any comments and it's reassuring to know he's keeping up the pace. How was the rest of the production with Amsellem? Last time I heard her, she should have been indisposed.
Michael Schade has been singing "indispoeed" for about the past 5 years.
As for Ms. Glanville, she was so dreadful at the dress rehearsals at the MET that she just had to be fired.
Oh, due to an injury - He could very well have thrown his back out or something - this is quite common among opera singers, and having a bad back myself, let me tell you, there's NO WAY you can sing when you've thrown the back out. Poor thing. We should all wish him well soon.
sorry - didn't finish that thought- we should wish him well no matter WHAT the matter is. =)
According to the message sent out by Great Performers: "Due to an
injury to his knee, Mr. Schade is unable to travel to New York."
Take that as you will.
Well....if that was Schade I heard in the Met Broadcast last saturday (I just caught part of his final aria on my way to the gym), he needs a permanent break. That singing was FOUL. It sounded like a Shady Pines nursing home production. *GAG*
And as for throwing one's back out...(not to belittle anyone's problems), the last time I knew a tenor that did that it was the general consensus that it happened because he spent too much time on his back with his heels to Jesus...presumably thinking of handbags or shoes....*GRIN*
May I ask what everybody is talking about? I feel as if there is a secret that everyone is in on except me. Are people saying that Schade is faking being ill because he can't sing?
That guy Zapata was AWFUL last Saturday... Is Schade worst?... OMG....Sorry for all the people that bought tickets... The Garanca girl was nothing better.
Oh, I beg to differ. I think Garanca was really good and a very original voice. I like her a lot.
armerjaquino said...
"That's some impressive thread hijacking, krunoslav. Is there any topic you can't crowbar your obsession into?"
No, in fact. But thank you for giving me the opportunity to cite a salient text-- a January 2006 OPERA NEWS story on Paul Daniel. brought in to lead MAGIC FLUTE badly-- the orchestra thought him only slightly better than the year's other unnecessary podium import from -- need I continue?? That was Mark Wigglesworth.
(No conductors here in the States know their Mozart!). Anyhow, Mr. Daniel airily tossed off:
“Strangely enough, when I was in New York about six years ago, I went to the Met, where I spoke to Jonathan [Friend] and Sally [Billinghurst] about the young soprano Susannah Glanville. I said, ‘You’ve got to get this girl, she’s really special, she’s going places.’ And now she’s making her Met debut, as the First Lady, on the same night as me! I remember back in Leeds [at Opera North, where Daniel was music director from 1990 to 1997] taking a punt on her first big role, Luisa Miller. When you’re in a company like that, you can make big plans for an artist’s development, but still I never foresaw this coincidence."
So that's the mechanism by which the Met signed up Miss Glanville for the First Lady ( no Americans for that!) and every performance in the following season of BOHEME. If there is one thing America produces *pur troppo* ( see the vast majority of recorded versions of BOHEME) it is Musettas.
Ta!
Schadenfreude, I think the point we're all making is that sometimes "indisposed" is code for "I slept with soprano/baritone/director/conductor but we've broken up and I don't want to see them anymore" or "I woke up today and realized I can no longer hit those particular notes" or "the bridal shop was sold out of that particularly ugly dress I wanted to wear at my next recital so that it could be posted on Youtube for posterity and the bitchy queens at Parterre Box can rip it to shreds". Sometimes, medical issues are real, though. I read today that Ruth Ann Swenson is singing the final scenes in Manon without a wig and without hair due to chemo. I think that's brave.
Often, "indisposed" is code for "arrived unprepared" or "cant' even get through the damn thing" but if he's genuinely got a bum knee, that's a totally legitimate reason for canceling. That SUCKS. It then especially sucks if everyone accuses you of canceling for some other reason.
Is that true about Ruth Ann???? (annE?Ann??) Amazing if so - I can't believe she's got the steam to get through shows with chemo - crazy. Good for her.
Donna Anna
In Vienna Norah Amselem was not in the long line of great Manons there, Marie Renard (the first), Lotte Lehmann, Maria Jeritza, Welitsch, Jurinac, Pilou, Gruberova et. al.
The current production was created last year for Netrebko and is rather modern though visually attractive. Amselem fits in though perhaps is not demure enough in the first act. She is French and knows the style but her voice in the higher register, particularly in the more dramatic moments, spreads a bit. She is not vocally enchanting though she has the notes. She is only able to caress the vocal line in the quieter passages. She received considerable applause but in part as a flopover from the hysteria which greeted Villazon who was quite hyper during the curtain calls, moreso after the second Manon where he seemed to regain his old form which endured throuhout the third. Some Viennese thought Amselem's Violetta to be better than her Manon. In April Manon is re-cast with Netrebko this time partnered with Jonas Kaufmann.
So what exactly has poor old Michael Shade done that he deserves the crap being dished out here? Being identified as the singer last Saturday when it appears it wasn't him; his vocal talents being challenged indiscriminately; and is it possible he has a long term illness such as the one that has led Juan Deigo Florez to cancel his Almaviva's in Chicago in mid-late February. Funny I don't see the jackels circling on that one. Or will that start next?
I just find Schade completely overrated. It's a small, reedy, unpleasant voice to my ears so he always sounds "indisposed" to me.
As for LOC. That company is becoming a joke. So many of the world's leading singers don't sing there and those who do end up canceling because Mason has no pull. The MET under Gelb and SF under Gockley have become THE places to sing in the USA and LOC only cares about the bottom line so they will put any mediocrity on the stage they can find. Sad.
Sanford wrote: "I read today that Ruth Ann Swenson is singing the final scenes in Manon without a wig and without hair due to chemo. I think that's brave."
Me thinks that's milking the self-promotion out of misfortune. And it's a cheap trick. If RAS can't wear the wig, why should Angela Gheorghiu?
"Due to an
injury to his knee, Mr. Schade is unable to travel to New York."
*******
Yeah. I can see how a knee injury could keep him from getting to New York.
Cheers,
Thomas Quasthof
By the by, recently Dawn Upshaw invoked the same chemo/bald head trick on stage, garnering lots of publicity for the wrong reasons. The reviews seldom mentioned anything about the quality of her singing. On the other hand, misfortune or not, hair or no hair, reviewers (sorry, publicists) seldom mention singing/interpretive quality anymore. It's a lost art.
Marshie, that has to be one of the harshest, most unkind thiings I've ever seen anywhere on the web. I have AIDS, my stomach is paralyzed, and I have two tubes hanging out of my stomach, so if I were to go back on stage, with my tubes showing, would I be exploiting my own misfortune? Or would I be triumphing over it? I guess it was also exploitation and a cheap trick when Melissa Etheridge did the same thing a few years back. Ruth Ann could certainly have used it as an excuse to stay off the stage until her hair grew back, or she could have worn the wig. I am quite sure had she not wanted to appear on stage without the wig, no one would have been able to force her. I would be surprised if management even suggested it. I know from experience that it's never a "cheap trick" to explain to people what you're going through in terms of health. I walk around every day, hookoed up to a pump in a backpack, through which I get most of my nutrition. I would die without it. I would die without the tubes. But I still show up to work every day. I do my job, as she was doing hers. Nor would I let anyone tell me I have to hide any of my medical issues, especially since it would violate the Americans With Disabilities Act. Hvaing said all of that, I find it hard to believe that someone with a knee injury can't get on a f***ing plane. SInce the knee ain't connecta to da vocal cords, I guess he can still carry a tune. And heaven knows, plenty of singers have injured themselves during performances and still gone on to finish them. Plenty of people have sung through colds and the flue, and any number of other ailments. I'm not buying the knee story.
The Florez cancellation and replacement by Osborne is old news. It showed up on one of the opera forums yesterday.
Cheap tricks for publicity? Without a doubt, number one, would be Debbie Voigt's fat woman surgery. It's the only thing that got her noticed in the press since her singing never did.
She has "milked" that one for all it's worth and no one ever suggested she just stop shoveling food in her pie hole ....
The others are genuinely ill with life-threatening illnesses. To call them "cheap tricks for publicity" is really reprehensible.
Oh, the Florez cancelaton -- still not announced -- is "old news" because it showed up on an "opera forum" yesterday?
What stupid ass definition of "old news" is that?
Get your head examined, pal.
During a Meistesinger intermission interview with Maggie J, Michael Shade told her that this would be his last time singing Barbiere because his voice was going another direction. A few weeks ago I read (somewhere) that he had asked to be released from these performances and the MET released him. I don't know why they are now calling it an indisposition.
Mark, pal, yesterday's news IS old news.
Press release today, pal.
Something not officially announced until later this afternoon is not "old" news.
Can't we get rid of these "anon" posts?
They're such a waste of time.
what's this manhunt you people keep talking about ?
Why, Lucky Pierre, wherever have you been? Or not been, in this case.
http://www.manhunt.net
It's a hook up site for those of us of the gay persuasion. I checked it out after reading about it here, and realized that I didn't subscribe to the site, because while I have no trouble paying for videos, I'm not about to pay to get full privileges, since I don't really want to hook up that badly.
Well, who knows how bad the knee injury is?? If he's on crutches or something, then he can't bring his own luggage around, and what would be the point ANYWAY if he can't even do the show?
Anyway, I agree about his reedy sound.
Sanford, are you serious?
Instead of getting rid of "anon" posts, I suggest we get rid of obnoxious posters.
Exactly, sugarmezzo. Any staging of Barbieri is presumably going to require the Almaviva to have two working legs. And the Met's staging is pretty busy with alot of doors to walk through, stairs to climb, a ramp going around the pit, etc. It's understandable that Schade would want to stay at home and recover.
And that was definitely not him singing on Saturday. He is first-rate in Mozart and I was looking forward to his Almaviva.
Sugarmezzo, I am dead serious. Well, not dead yet. :-) You know, it sounds horrible, and some of it has been, but I'm having a wonderful life. I'd like a partner, but I'm in college (again..at 47), I'm a NY State certified Substance Abuse Counselor, I have 7 years and 1 month clean and sober, and I have the most wonderfully supportive family and friends. And now I have Parterre Box and all of you guys. I don't have any friends who like opera, except online. I enjoy every minute of this website, even the furious disagreements (see The 2 Queens discussion). I find it all rather stimulating. I may not always agree with people but I always look forward to the discussions.
I'm really tired of people not understanding how hard singing is, and complaining about people canceling.
I think I've shared this particular story here before, but I remember one Pavarotti cancelation at the Met, where people had been paying, like, 10 billion dollars for tickets, and he had the flu. Good old-fashioned influenza - and the TV news was interviewing people coming out of the theater, outraged that he wasn't performing, and I remember this one guy in a super expensive suit who was REALLY steamed that Pavarotti had canceled, and he said to the camera, "It's just the Flu - I went to work last week with the flu, what's the big deal???"
I mean, people don't understand. Knee injuries, back injuries, stomach bug, severe allergies - these are all really good reasons to cancel, and we should all give these people a break. So WHAT you already bought tickets to see them sing!! You would rather they jeopardize their vocal health forever and give a SHITTY performance????????? Be nice.
"Cheap tricks for publicity? Without a doubt, number one, would be Debbie Voigt's fat woman surgery. It's the only thing that got her noticed in the press since her singing never did. She has "milked" that one for all it's worth and no one ever suggested she just stop shoveling food in her pie hole ...."
I agree with Mark on all of the above. By the way, notice that we haven't seen a single comment about her current Met Sieglindes but I hear that Void's voice is in tatters and that she squealed around like a stuck pig the other night. Oh, and her Broadway-coquette act, also the other day, was another recent disaster, we hear. Not that any of it matters because there's absolutely nothing of interest or substance about this woman anyway.
Where is Miss Swenson singing Manon? I can't find out any info on any website.
I could live without Gheorghiu, but not without Dmitri H.
"Barbiere" without Florez is pointless.
They should spare Zapata and the audience the pain of the aria at the end by simply skipping it, as in the preFlorez era.
I can live without Gheorghiu, but not without Juan Diego and Dmitri H.
Barbiere and Onegin are pointless without them.
Opera Chic announced that Florez's recent cancellation was due to throat infection secondary to a puncture wound from a fishbone! Opera singers have legitimate reason for cancelling, especially if the throat is involved. On the other hand, some will go on to the bitter end. I don't recall the name, but a soprano, suffering from cancer of the breast, finished her performance even after she broke her leg on stage due to bone metastasis. She was dead a few months later. I wish somebody came up with her name.
Well, "anon" you would count on both counts.
Sorry. Right singer, wrong opera. I saw it on Opera Chic. Here's the quote:
On Thursday, June 14, an opening night cocktail, gala dinner and auction was organized by the Cincinnati Opera in celebration of this year’s 87th Summer Festival, followed by la prima of Charles Gounod's Faust. (and btw fyi memo to Gelb: We heard that Ruth Ann Swenson has been rawking the house with her performance of Marguerite, bravely appearing in the final act in her post-chemo, shorn hair sans wig.)
This was just this past summer.
Wow Sanford - wishing you all the best.
I have an incredible admiration for people with major scary health issues who are able, in the midst of that, to come to terms with substance abuse issues.
I knew someone who, once diagnosed with lung cancer, quit smoking. And watching him grapple with the UNREAL need to have a fag (wink wink) in the midst of the most stressful time of his life, and succeed in his quest to quit, was a lesson in self-discipline and responsibility.
Congratulations to you, and hoping you are getting the very best in treatment and support and love. MWAH!!
I agree with sugarmezzo. Furthermore, theatres have a cast replacement policy. So buying a ticket does not guarantee the customers that they will actually see the singer scheduled. I understand the disappointment. But that is life. Last year Florez was supposed to do a recital at Carnegie Hall and he cancelled due to illness. I showed up and saw the cancellation notice posted at the entrance. He is a human being on demand to perform a super human feat. I would even go so far as to say when a singer cancels it may be best not to speculate too much about the reasons. I mean when you really think about it, does speculation help at all? But I do agree that it is always fun to gossip gossip gossip.
constantine: it was kathleen ferrier
i saw debbie's sieglinde. Her voice has really lost a lot of its size, even compared to last years helena. I worry for her, especially since she has to sing isolde. It really is best left to brewer at this point.
scifisci,
Thanks for refreshing my memory. Ferrier's was an act of spiritual bravery overcoming physical frailty! May God rest her soul in peace.
I see the fat-phobics are out in force again with Mark and Marshie leading the pack.
One of the less pleasant strains in the gay subculture, isn't it?
what is the harm in speculation? I'm willing to cut singers alot of slack if they are ill or injured, but that is not always the case. A famous early music conductor once told me that a certain very very famous countertenor often cancels one show during a run - because he does not feel like going on! As someone who often travels long distances to hear my favorite singers, I can only resent this attitude.
Just a reminder, folks, that the "new" parterre.com is up and running. Check out the "welcome" posting at the WordPress site.
Sugarmezzo, if you wanna read more about the medical stuff, I have a blog at http://sanfordschimel.blogspot.com/
And actually, recovery came first and then came health issues. Thank God I'm in recovery, though, cuz otherwise...?
Sugar, big kiss back at ya. Feel free to email using the link in my Blogger profile. Same for anyone else who feels like it.
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