In Conversation with Rolando

Parsi's spy and reader, the mighty DMC reports from London for "Just got back from the event at RoH called In Conversation with Rolando Villazon. I'm so overwhelmed that I really don't know where to start!

It was fantastic and I really mean it! It was an hour and a half of pure Rolando plus an interviewer (Christopher Cook) who, I thought, was rather dull to say the least.

However,in the end he became obsolete as Villazon hijacked the whole thing with his explosive personality. In doing so he made it an extremely entertaining event, full of jokes, anecdotes, mad gesticulation. His exuberance was on full display. It was a real show and the tickets should have been priced the same as for a stand up comedian."


The (my) highlights:

• Domingo; for Villazon opera will never be the same after the Maestro (even though they go out of a beer together, he finds it impossible to address him by his first name and gets annoyed if other young singers do so)
• Serious stuff: recently he's been trying to define the role of a performer and the role of art in general; how to convey the essence of a piece to an audience so that it becomes a total experience; for him it is more than just a technique; we shouldn't be just sitting and judging the skills but losing ourselves being immersed in the work (or sth like that).
• He mentioned his therapist, and the cracked notes at the opening night in DC at RoH, and other cracked notes, and fears and weak nerves, completely lost his thread once or twice (for me there was an all-pervading sense of insecurity and I thought there was something really poignant about it).
• He kept stressing how important it is for a singer not to get too emotionally involved in the role and the character's feelings otherwise the emotions can really affect the voice (difficult to know who is speaking here, Rolando or his therapist or other people with their common sense advice)
• Mention of Bach and lieder.
• At the end of his CD signing session he joked that his next CD is called Rolando is Trying to Sing Handel.

Parsi thanks DMC and sends her the most bizarre of Rolando's photos from Athens!
(that nobody else but her will eva eva see).