You perhaps will not be completely flabbergasted that La Cieca has a spy following the Met’s Japan tour (pictured). The reports thus far (I mean, once the ragtag band of misfits finally landed in the Land of the Rising Sun) are not particularly scandalous, but, please give our operative time!

Supai-san reports:

La Boheme has the best cast; Barbara Frittoli landed in Japan, found out Anna had cancelled and asked to switch from Elisabetta to Mimi because she doesn’t have an ego! She is fabulous and perfect  in Mimi but, again, waste of talent…I think.

Lucia didn’t have a full rehearsal but was close to perfect; not the biggest fan of Diana but she was great; Mariko Anraku‘s harp was beyond this world! She should have received an ovation; this production with the ghost is just so not my cuppa tea.

Don Carlo: Rene Pape continues to rock (though looking bad…BAD…BAAAAD), Dmitri can “hit” notes, but then he kind of mumbles…and he has got to stop playing with his hair! The rest were fine. The audience didn’t really warm up to Marina (like they Diana Damrau!) Ekaterina Gubanova, replacing Olga Borodina, was good too. I think tonight was Yonghoon Lee‘s big introduction to the Japanese audience. I think he won them over! (If only he’d stop with the “Jesus loves you” stuff!)

Not sure if the five-act version was warranted. Yeah, Marina and Yonghoon’s duet’s nice but not sure it’s really all that necessary. The whole thing gets so loooooooong… and I love DC! The Japanese love this production (they’ve seen the new one on HD). Mr. G likes the newer “cleaner” prodution but I say f— him! (Sorry!) Yonghoon was fantastic, probably better than Jonas but the Japanese are still disappointed.  Great performance but not as moving as Lucia with Villazon!

Tickets are not selling very well, not because of the quake (sales started almost a year ago) but because they are so expensive! Plus, Japanese like tenors; tenors sell tickets.