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.
Is the picture from the production in question? If so, things may have worked out for the best.
Miss Kitty: Actually no, this photo is from a Paris Wozzeck presented by “La Môme” Mortier.
Reading between the lines of the Everett-Greene article, it struck me as though Villars and conductor Gregor Buhl must already have shared a stormy professional relationship, and Mr. Villars nursed his burgeoning animosity to its natural and logical conclusion.
Who is singing Leonore? I hope it isn’t Carol Wilson.
Pieczonka and that is why I couldn’t find her. Now that someone said this was the Paris Wozzeck that makes sense since Denoke sang there and is in the picture.
I had wondered what Villars was up to. He sang the fuck out of Bacchus at the Met last time they put on Ariadne, but also sounded like he was singing perhaps without great regard to his vocal well being. “On capital,” as I think they say.
I was at the now infamous rehearsal. Villars was not in good voice. Sometimes, the voice responded and other times, it just wasn’t there, and he ran out of steam at the end of his aria. But that really wasn’t the problem. He was fighting the conductor for the tempo the entire time, often singing behind the beat.
However, in the finale, he wasn’t just behind the beat; he had fallen at least a full measure (if not two) behind. The conductor had no choice but to step in and sing his part to keep everyone else together. At this point, Villars stopped singing, walked off stage, and gave the conductor the finger on his way.
The next day, Richard Margison and Jon Kettilson were listed as Florestan on the COC website.
This was my first time hearing Villars. I liked the basic voice, eventhough he was clearly not at his best.
Alagna has established the paradigm of storming off stage! Who’s next? 4 asked who’s singing Leonore. Kathrine Jenkings is a good choice! Opera is becoming more and more opera
“comique” and a farse in real life. Everything’s possible when Domingo gets involved.
Well, if this picture had been run as a Guess-the-Regie production, I would have said Rigoletto…the quartet.
I mean, doesn’t it look (left to right) like Maddalena, the Duke with mohawk, a very unhappy Gilda, and Rigoletto shedding his hump for a fascist uniform?
No matter how poorly Mr. Villars was singing, he should never have walked off that stage. It is NOT ok to walk off in the middle of a scene, regardless of sickness or poor singing; wait until the end of the scene and then inform the stage manager.
So unprofessional of a singer to do that; I hope his management, the union and the opera company kick his ass! Yes, conductors can mess with singers, however, it is so unfair for patrons and ticket holders to have to sit and wait for singers to be replaced mid-scene because of tantrums.