Ready, set…
Congratulations to tenor Stephen Costello, who today was officially awarded the ceremonial title of Villazóneinspringer at the Vienna State Opera.
No, actually, he’s jumping into two performances of La boheme, replacing Rolando Villazón, on September 6 and 9.
According to the information La Cieca has received,
By mutual agreement between the Vienna State Opera and Rolando Villazón, it was decided that he will give some “catch-up” performances later this season. The dates will be announced in due course.
How much you wanna be that those catch up performances will never happen?
what opera house will engage him now? After all they cannot count on him to show up and just better to hire someone else from the get go.
They can always announce him to sell the tickets and then use another singer. The oldest trick in the book.
Lindoro – Please explain how this works. A company can’t announce a singer without his permission; if they did, the singer would sue the company. And why would a famous singer allow their name to be used in a ‘bait and switch’ situation? The famous singer has nothing to gain and actually may lose out for appearing to be a canceller. Perhaps this worked 70 years ago, but it doesn’t seem plausible to me in the 21st century.
It’s been done at the Met. Frequently sometimes. It was (is?) a way for a singer getting more money without exceeding the Met’s maximum pay-per-performance. It was done for Pavarotti a few times in the 1970′s. His name would be listed for a series of performances (Ballo, Favorita for example) and then sometime later somebody else would be listed for the final performance.
I learned long time ago not to trust the casting listed for the last performance of any run.
I don’t know about the oldest tricks, but in Villazon’s case: why would anyone announce him to sell the tickets? Who would buy those tickets now that he’s a well-known, reliable croaker?
A company can’t announce a singer without his permission; if they did, the singer would sue the company…. The famous singer has nothing to gain and actually may lose out for appearing to be a canceller.
Didn’t Garanca cancel some performances over a year ago in SFO and her name was STILL in the ads, eventhough, according to her reps, she cancelled well before the ads went in print?
As to your 2nd question, i will only point to the winner of the 2010 Most Anticipated Cancellation of the Season: Gheorghiu’s Carmen
Who would buy those tickets now that he’s a well-known, reliable croaker?
The same people who bought the tickets for these performances. There are STILL people out there that will buy anything so long as it is a “star”
I see the Garanca/SFO situation as a contract dispute. I don’t know enough to say her people are lying, or not, about canceling a year in advance.
As for people who still pay to “hear” Villazon at this late date, I have no sympathy. There’s much more to opera than stars(I know you agree with me on this last point, so please don’t think I’m attacking your opinion.)
If this is indeed “the oldest trick in the book,” perhaps you’d agree to enlighten us with a few examples?
The Met on tour announced many singers who had no intention of coming. Shirley Verrett had cancelled her NYC Favoritas and yet was announced for the tour. When I questioned it I was told she intended to sing the performance yet her replacement knew prior to the cast announcement that she was singing all the tour Favoritas. Pavarotti was also announced but John Alexander sang. Pavarotti sang a recital elsewhere that night. Troyanos was announced for Cavalleria Rusticana and Carmen but did not come on tour either time. Likewise one of her replacements had been contracted for the tour long before the announcements came out. (Marilyn Horne did the Carmen. Was she a last minute replacement?)
I know for certain that Sarah Caldwell announced star singers on a couple of occasions before any contracts had been signed or the singers had even been contacted. I believe Shirley Verrett was one of the singers who discovered she was announced for an engagement about which she knew nothing.
Two seasons ago some promoter announced a full roster of singer for a “Tequila for Tots” Gala, the bulk of whom failed to materialize.
I suspect this is an actual improvement over Villazon. In fact his hair alone (receding as it is) is an improvement over Villazon.
Zarzuela! That’s the answer to Villazon’s career stumble, and also to the posters on the previous thread.
Isn’t “Tequila for Tots” a famous Zarzuela opera? Or was it “Booze for Babes”?
With the famous aria, “Shaddap, kid and drink your gin.” Brings a tear…
You ROCK Stephen! Can’t your new management company put all your old clips back on Youtube?
Maybe Rolando can be called in to cover for Bocelli and his Met ‘recital’.
Or better still, Rolando can be a “surprise guest” – the “Duetto Buffo di Due Gatti” from those two might be the best party album in 50 years
Do we know why Villazon has cancelled this time? I mean the official reason (since he hasn’t actually publicly acknowledged yet that this third attempt at a top flight operatic career is as disastrous as the last two). How does he know at this point that he won’t be able to sing on the 6th and 9th of September? I wouldn’t have thought that illness during the rehearsal period, unless it was very serious, would necessitate these cancellations, since he obviously knows the role backwards and is probably already familiar with the production.
Also, if he’s going to sing some catch-up performances as they put it, which poor tenor is going to be relieved of his duties on those nights to allow Villazon the chance to repair his relationship with the Vienna public? Surely there isn’t space in the opera company’s season to schedule extra performances for him?
Maybe someone from the Vienna Staatsoper heard his Nemorino in Munich or his recital in Salzburg. Houses like Vienna and Zurich can slot in extra repertoire performances. Alexander Pereira did exactly this for Villazon’s Zurich debut in a Traviata scheduled on a stage rehearsal day. I think the stage rehearsal was moved to the daytime and the performance took place in the evening. Vienna could certainly do something similar, but why would they bother?
That’s true – perhaps they decided to relieve him of his Boheme duties based on what they heard in his recent attempts to perform.
I hadn’t realised they do have that kind of flexibility to mount extra shows – I quite agree with you though, they’d be better off cutting their losses. Perhaps they can’t for contractual reasons, if the Boheme cancellation was initiated by the management rather than by Villazon himself.
Well, it will be interesting to see if his attempt to re-invent himself as a Mozart tenor – Don Ottavio in Baden-Baden, Alessandro (which has even more coloratura) in Il re pastore in Zurich – has any traction. I’m not holding my breath. After that Handel recital at the RFH, I can’t imagine he has a firmer grasp of Mozart style. He – and Covent Garden – are still maintaining he will sing Werther in London in May. Opera North is premiering a new From the House of the Dead on the same night which looks like a bad omen.
He’s obviously seeking out roles without high notes, but I don’t think that’s going to work either. The reason his high notes don’t work is because his whole vocal production throughout the entire range is unhealthy. I’d guess he’ll tie himself up in even more knots attempting to sing a sensitive ‘Dalla sua pace’ than he would in Puccini where he can let it all hang out.
I wouldn’t worry about the coloratura – he’ll manage it, very tense singers often can.
Vienna has a shit-ton of Bohèmes scheduled for this season (and also a lot of Elisirs). Should Villazón suddenly be ready for something, they could relieve another tenor of his duties.
Hardly fair though to the other tenor, is it?
No, but I think this is what they did for some of his previous Wiener Staatsoper comebacks.
OK, so now I’m looking into it and I can’t say that’s definitely what happened. I looked into the Elisir from last March and can’t figure out if a non-Villazón tenor was originally announced. However, Operabase (not always reliable) lists four different Nemorinos, none of them Villazón, so I suspect he was a late replacement.
Sorry, would like to find proof for this.
If I were another tenor, and I was booted out so that Villazon could do “catch up performances” because he had cancelled earlier in the season for some reason known or unknown, I would tell the Vienna State Opera, or whichever company it was, to go fuck themselves.
Costello sang a few times in Baltimore before the company sadly closed. I just noticed this morning that he will be singing Gounod’s Romeo opposite his wife in Philly soon. He was lovely to see and hear, and I’m thinking of making a roadtrip to hear him again.