Tristan has been the season-launching opera three times before now, but good luck finding someone to provide a firsthand account of the last time.
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The annual Richard Tucker Gala is probably the event of the year to indulge your love of verismo staples and can belto screaming.
The Metropolitan Opera’s much vaunted so-called “Tudor Ring” of three royal operas by Donizetti got off to a bumpy start Saturday afternoon with a revival of Anna Bolena that stubbornly refused to cohere either musically or dramatically.
Even before Italian diva Mariella Devia had completed the stunning high D natural that capped her miraculous portrayal of Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux Thursday evening at Carnegie Hall, tens, then hundreds of those in attendance leapt to their feet to shout their acclaim.
It appears that tenor Stephen Costello, whom some of you guessed was a subject of a recent blind item, is not so centrally involved in the controversy as was imagined.
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.
La Cieca just heard that Stephen Costello goes on tonight (i.e., in just a few hours) in Roméo et Juliette at the Salzburg Festival opposite Anna Netrebko. He’s jumping in for Piotr Beczala, who, if you ask Norman Lebrecht, is probably malingering with a South Seas cutie.
“Director Manfred Schweigkofler conceives a new production that pits the Capulets and Montagues against one another as dueling fashion houses. Against a backdrop of models, paparazzi and high style, Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other unfolds to its deadly conclusion.” [Opera Company of Philadelphia]
La Cieca has just heard that Stephen Costello is the 2009 Richard Tucker Award Winner.
In today’s Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell explains how Stephen Costello “steals [an] aging queen’s heart.”
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/7HMCZ589eKc” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] “WHAT in GAY hell was jumping around him?” exclaims a puzzled YouTube fan, and La Cieca agrees that even the gifted Stephen Costello seems nonplussed by, well, all that gay hell. (This clip is from a recent Rigoletto performance.)
Premiere Opera Podcast has returned after a hiatus of several months, and, as always, Ed Rosen keeps us up to date with the latest tenor activities. Recent episodes include excerpts from a duo recital (Juan Diego Flòrez and Rolando Villazòn) and a Lucia scene from Stephen Costello.
Everyone’s favorite new tenor Stephen Costello (whom so many of you have seen and enjoyed on
La Cieca has just learned that the winner of the 2006 Richard Tucker Award is tenor Lawrence Brownlee. Career Grants will go to Kate Aldrich (mezzo-soprano), Jordan Bisch (bass), Quinn Kelsey (baritone), Dimitri Pittas (tenor) and Gerald Thompson (countertenor). Sarah Tucker Study Grant winners include Stephen Costello, Ann McMahon Quintero and Trever Scheunemann.
Well, no, of course, there’s no such thing as too many tenors, but it’s good to know we have so many high male voices around these days. One from the present (Rolando Villazon) and one from the past (Beniamino Gigli) are featured in Ed Rosen’s recently-debuted podcast, and one for the future is parterre favorite…
Stephen Costello is ear-candy too: here he is singing “Torna ai felici di” from Puccini’s Le villi. Care to hear him sing the whole opera? Then tune in on Sunday, January 29 to a webcast from wrti.org featuring The Academy of Vocal Arts’ production of Le villi as the second half of a double bill.…
Rolando Villazon says he’s willing to do nudity, but only if it’s called for in the story of the opera. Might La Cieca hope that such a plot-driven rationale be found to get budding hunkentenor Stephen Costello to strip off during OONY’s Guglielmo Tell this Sunday? Well, perhaps not. But (so La Cieca heard at…
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