Friday, May 22, 2009

Stop nagging! Colin Lee is great!


It's quite confusing.



Had the ROH announced Juan Diego's decision not to sing Almaviva on July the 13th prior to the opening of the sales?

Was everybody aware of who would sing Almaviva on the 13th?

Wasn't Juandi aware that the performance of the 15th of July would go to the big screens and would be recorded/filmed?

Some say that they already knew, that from the beginning the ROH had announced Colin Lee, others say that no, that the ROH did that after the sell-out of the tickets blah blah blah.


We are delighted to announce that the young South African tenor Colin Lee, who is already scheduled to sing the role of Count Almaviva on 18 July, will now also sing the role on 13 July. Colin Lee has previously sung the role of Count Almaviva for Vienna State Opera, Opéra de Paris, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera and Garsington Opera. He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in 2005 as Marzio (Mitridate, re di Ponto) and returned in 2007 to sing the role of Tonio (La Fille du régiment). Recent performances have included Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor) for his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Elvino (La sonnambula) for De Vlaamse Opera, Marzio (Mitridate, re di Ponto) in Vienna and Oreste (Ermione) at the South Bank Centre.

The rest of the cast remains unchanged with Simon Keenlyside as Figaro, Joyce DiDonato as Rosina, Alessandro Corbelli as Doctor Bartolo, Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Basilio, Changhan Lim as Fiorello and Jennifer Rhys-Davies as Berta. Antonio Pappano conducts.

Ok, I admit I would be really pissed if I had booked air-tickets, hotel and opera tickets (that at the ROH cost as much as the air-tickets-or even more) to watch Juandi and instead I was "obliged" to watch someone else. It has happened to all of us, hasn't it? -and I hope that it won't happen to me again this time.

But hey! a Barbiere with Colin Lee, Joyce DiDonato, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Alessandro Corbelli, under Tony Pappano still sounds awsome!


And FYI, Colin Lee is a grrrrrreat rossinian singer. You can already find many sound clips at his site
but Parsi 's got moar for u sexy readers...

Listen to Colin Lee singing "Que les destins prospères accueillent vos prières!" from Le Comte Ory -Athens 2008


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

i bought a grand tier box for exactly this performance....... just to see florez... thousands of pounds wasted from our point of view.

Anonymous said...

I can certainly understand the disappointment and I am sorry for you. I do hope you choose to go and hear Colin Lee, he IS a fab tenor - in my book every bit as good as Florez.

Anonymous said...

Hi all,

Re the "who did what when" for the 13th July "Barber" performance, let me put things straight for you; In the original 2008/09 Press Release from ROH, Colin Lee was indeed scheduled to sing the 13th July performance (you can check yourself, the PDF is still available on the ROH website). However, a few weeks later, Florez decided that he did not want to sing the Matinee/family performance on 18th July as the 12.30pm start was too early for him. So the ROH asked Colin Lee to change the 13th performance for the 18th. This was well in advance of anything being sent out in the mail or put on the website, and nothing was announced by the ROH re the change of dates. At this time, the broadcast date had already been agreed!! Ticket sales starts and of course the performances sell like hotcake! Then a few days later, Florez decide that he cannot possibly sing on 13th afterall, as he would not get enough rest for the important 15th July performance ........... etc etc etc. You have all seen the Press Release from the ROH. So there we are.

No doubt there are many disappointed Florez fans and I do feel sorry for them, especially those having made travel arrangements from abroad. However, this is the chance one takes when following a particular singer. I have been there myself, once or twice - and I was not amused!

However, may I just stress that Colin Lee is a FANTASTIC tenor and most definately not a "poor replacement" for Florez. Colin Lee is indeed highly regarded within the rep and all the major opera houses in Europe and at the MET. In fact I prefer Colin Lee voice over that of Florez and indeed Brownlee.

If you are a hardcore Florez fan and cannot bear to hear any other voice, well you can try and return your ticket to the ROH and see if it sells.

If you are an opera fan, DO come and hear Colin Lee, I am sure you will not regret it.

See you there - both 13th and 18th July!

Tenorfach

Hariclea said...

Can't believe this debate is still going on... sigh.... good music, good singers, what do people want more? I am sure Juandi will sing it again ;-)

Elina5 said...

Μήπως μπορείς να μου πεις τι ειναι αυτή η λίστα για backstage στο ROH γιατί με ενδιαφέρει παρα πολυ. Πώς μπορεί κανείς να μπει σ αυτή;

Parsifal said...

Ελίνα,

η λίστα υπάρχει στην εισοδο του stage door για "φίλους" των καλλιτεχνών. Είχα την τύχη να μπω στη λίστα ως "φίλος" της Φλέμινγκ, μέσω κοινών φίλων που ήξεραν οτι θα πάω κ οτι θα θέλω να τη δω. Γενικά δεν είναι εύκολο παντως...στον Barbiere πχ δεν τα κατάφερα. Γενικά μπορεί κανείς απλά να περιμενει τους τραγουδιστές στο stage door για αυτόγραφα/φωτος κτλ.

Elina5 said...

Ευχαριστώ πολύ για την πληροφορία. Τι κριμα που ειναι τοσο δύσκολο, αν και βεβαια δε θα ηταν καθολου πρακτικο αν ηταν ευκολότερο. Ήξερα για τα αυτόγραφα,αλλα αυτο το backstage list μου φαινοταν τρομερα ενδιαφέρον. Ευχαριστω ξανά για την πληροφορία!