it takes a villars
Heldentenordiva Jon Villars (center, in mohawk) “basically fired himself by walking off the stage” at a public dress rehearsal for the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Fidelio. According to a report in The Globe and Mail, Villars stormed off stage immediately after conductor Gregor Buhl “loudly sang out a few phrases of the tenor’s part” during the second act. Jumping in as Florestan will be Icelandic tenor Jon Ketilsson and later Richard Margison.
Thanks Feldmarschallin (Commnet 76) for clearing up that point about Jon Fredrick West.
Slightly off topic but it concerns a tenor so…
Going to see Peter Grimes at San Carlo on Friday with a young American tenor Brandon Jovanovvich singing the Peter. I’m not familiar with him. Any thoughts or opinions?
Also looking at pictures he seems a bit young – and I might add too good looking – for the role. But that could give the opera with so many levels, one more dimension.
In regards to comment # 82, sometimes we get locked into a certain look and age for certain roles, when neither has really been indicated by the libretto. As long as the ages and looks are believable in the plot, why not go for something different? Old people have sex lives, people fall in love with fat people, an old witch can be timelessly beautiful and the town drunk can be a young man.
Sometimes a certain look becomes a tradition because it was defined that way by a particular artist and people come to expect it. If the portrayl is honest and well executed, the audience is usually very accepting of such changes. It’s when the changes aren’t logical with plot, and the effect the composer was trying to convey is warped beyond recognition that the audience in general feels annoyed and cheated.
Ortrud—were there two productions of “Fidelio” in Seville?
In 2007, Robert Dean Smith sang Florestan there, not Griffey. RDS indeed sang the role of Florestan very well.
The Villars story in barebones form was reported in today’s NY Times
I have seen and heard Brandon Jovanovich three times in performance: 1) in Jonathan Dove’s Flight in Boston (where he had a hook up with another male character that I wished hadn’t been mostly off-stage); in Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Mines of Sulphur (where he played a hot, violent hunk); and as Turridu at NYCO, doing pretty well, I thought.
He’s a tall, good looking man, with a nicely sized medium weight tenor, excellent acting skills, and a lot of presence. He will definitely not have the same physique du role that we are familiar with in the iconic Grimes of Jon Vickers or of current, excellent Grimes, Anthony Dean Griffey.
re:21 = and one could assume the Villars is using his own costumes in this production, as I understand he is a big burly leather queen.
78 – Leontyneschiava – Spill, Miss Thing! Spill! LOL
Perhaps he was not fond of the way, Florestan was bound ‘in bondage’ in this production???!!! After all there is a right way and a wrong way… for some people. It can pot some people off their game.
# 86. On January 26, 2009 at 10:36 am, balabanov11 muttered:
re:21 = and one could assume the Villars is using his own costumes in this production, as I understand he is a big burly leather queen.
Re #74 . . . “Is there any other . . .” Yes, I think one could safely say politics.
T1, THANK YOU for catching my mistake. Robert Dean Smith was the Florestan in the Seville 07 Fidelio. He was very impressive!
BIG….yes he is….burly leather queen may be a stretch.
I was there. It was a bizarre moment, with that kraut shouting like an idiot from the pit. (Richard Bradshaw was famous for this too, but at least he stopped the rehearsal to yell at singers).
The scope from backstage was that Mr. Villars in a previous rehearsal told the conductor he was unable to take that particular point in the music at the fast tempo the conductor wished for. The conductor subsequently took it even faster at the final dress.
For the record, I heard a wonderful Bacchus from Mr. Villars in Paris in 2002.
It is funny that the discussion here is about a ‘crisis’ towards the end of Fidelio.
Go back 20 years, I remember an first night incident where the Leonore and Florestan together , glanced at each other, then decided to take the music one way and the conductor another. Comes curtain call, the ‘fuck wit’ conductor finally appears on stage, went to have sharp words with the soprano, but was blocked by the tenor who threatened to knock him into the orchestra pit. The singers were well known.
Another time this stupid conductor was doing Andre Chenier. He dragged out the 1st Act to a snail pace – 36 minutes. His pacing and execcution of the complex opening chords of Act 3 were a absolute mess. Later the same night this conductor was observed at the ’social’ afterward, (quietly snooping and listening) / ‘overhearing’ a former opera singer go through the faults, one by one..Guess what? The conductor quietly called another rehearsal before the next performance, due 5 days later. All the ‘problems mow corrected….even Act 1 down to 29 minutes….that’s a full 20 per cent, faster. There are some clots / baton beaters around.
I haven’t seen John in years, but the performances I have seen were flawless. Knowing Villars, I would say there were tensions before the event. It takes some doing to get him angered to this point. I would say there is much more to the situation. Villars is very professional. I know him.