Breaking: Andrea Chenier interrupted ***Updated***!!!

Something quite weird has happened a few minutes ago in Madrid as the performance of Andrea Chenier at the Teatro Real starring Marcelo Álvarez and Fiorenza Cedolins, has been suddenly interrupted. The performance was being broadcast live by Radio Clásica and was cut for 10 minutes most probably due to the boos and whistles that Marco Vratogna received for his aria. The broadcast was finally cancelled by decision of the Direction of the Teatro Real . People that were in the theatre, report that the audience protested for the use of amplification before Vratogna going wild and starting shouting to the audience...

***Update!***

Here's how things happened as one can hear from the recording:

Vratogna sings his aria when a voice from the audience is heard

-¡Que quiten la amplificación!
-Tell them to shut down the microphones!

-¡Es una vergüenza!
-It's a shame!

Cedolins starts singing, the boos and the shouts go on, people are whistling while Cedolins continues. The boos and the whistles get louder and louder while Vratogna and Cedolins sing their duet, and people shout "They should learn how to sing first" (¡Que aprendan a cantar)!

Cedolins speaks to the audience, then has a brief dialogue with the maestro and the performance is cut.

~~~Update~~~

Here's the audio of the incident.

Vratogna+Cedolins trying to sing despite the whistles and the booing, finally Cedolins speaks to the audience "If you want we can all go home...".
My favourite guy is the one who says "Qué aprendan a canta y a impostar" (They should learn how to sing and project).

Marcelo Álvarez singing "Un Di All´ Azzurro Spazio'.
Right after the aria a voice is heard saying
"Y el micro, qué?"

Marcelo speaks: Plácido should free the way. He has already paid off his mortgage

-Hace unas semanas «The New York Times» le dedicaba un reportaje a Plácido Domingo sobre su futuro sucesor. ¿Ve algún nombre para recoger su testigo?

-Estamos hablando de uno de los artistas más grandes que merece todo todo mi respeto, pero yo sí que creo que hay vida después de Plácido Domingo. Mire, ahí está Kauffman, por ejemplo. Lo que sucede es que él está amparado por los medios, que le sirven como altavoz, está todos los días en prensa, radio y televisión, es agotador y no deja el camino libre a otros, a los que empiezan y a los ya estamos. Es tenor, director de orquesta, intendente y ahora también barítono, lo que implica que está demasiado involucrado en todo. Pavarotti, por ejemplo, era mi ídolo. No creo, por otra parte, que sea un tabú hablar de Plácido Domingo, un artista al que admiro y respeto como tenor y por todo lo que ha dado a la ópera. ¿No decían que después de Caruso la ópera estaba muerta? Creo que el único record que le falta a Plácido es que no haya nadie que le pueda sustituir.

~.~

- A few weeks ago The New York Times dedicated and article to Plácido Domingo and his future successor. Do you see anybody who could take the batton?

-We are talking about one of the greatest artists who deserves all my respect, but of course I think that there is life after Plácido Domingo. Look, there is Kaufmann for example. What happens is that he [Domingo] is protected by the media that he uses as his loudspeaker, he's everyday in the press, radio and television, it's exhausting and it doesn'n leave a free way for others, for those who begin and for those of us who are already here. He's a tenor, a conductor, a theatre intendant and now he is also a baritone, which means that he's over-involved in everything. Pavarotti, for example, was my idol. I don't think, on the other hand, that it's a taboo to speak of Plácido Domingo, an artist I admire and respect as a tenor and for everything he has given to opera. Didn't they say that after Caruso, opera was dead? I think that the only record that Plácido is yet to break is to be irreplaceable.

~.~

Full, JUICY interview at La Razón! Marcelo Álvarez speaks also of Gerard Mortier ("I'm leaving for now but I will be back: he will leave in five years and I will be back"), Franco Zeffirelli ("We need people who can help us, not directors to destroy us"), Rolando Villazón and Giancarlo del Monaco.

Alvarez+Carosi, Viva la morte insiem - à Paris

On opening night, Argentinian tenor Marcelo Alvarez brought the house down twice in the title role. Italian soprano Micaela Carosi, after a shaky start, brings a big, voluptuous voice to a touching portrayal of Maddalena, and Russian baritone Sergei Murazev manages to convey Gérard's ambivalence as he seeks to destroy his rival.

Listen to Marcelino in Un di all'azzuro spazio (Act I)
Paris, December 2009

Marcelo Alvarez (Chénier) brings the house down with robust singing but seems locked in an unequal combat with Micaela Carosi’s heavy-artillery Maddalena, a voice that comes in one, devastatingly large size with matching vibrato.


The Argentinian tenor Marcelo Alvarez has the squillo, the clarion ring, that Chenier’s grandiloquent outpourings require. The Improvviso, his denunciation of the rapacious clergy, brought down the house. Yet his registers are not perfectly blended and he overdoes the sobbing.Micaela Carosi is no wallflower either. Her robust soprano effortlessly soars over the orchestra. “La mamma morta,” Maddalena’s big scene in Act III, though carefully built, sounds impersonal.

And for those who still don't get it, Marcelo brought down the house in all 3 reviews...

Listen to Micaela Carosi in La mamma morta

Paris, December 2009


Nei panni del protagonista, Marcelo Alvarez si conferma uno dei pochissimi tenori oggi in grado di far brillare la parte di antica gloria, a dispetto di frequenti attacchi "sporchi": la voce è bella, l'intonazione facile e le grandi frasi melodiche escono col giusto respiro del canto latino. Trionfatrice della serata è stata comunque Micaela Carosi, una Maddalena di voce calda e appassionata, che ha delineato una Maddalena giovanile e semplice, priva degli accenti "matronali" che le attribuirono celebri cantanti del passato; le difetta solo la dizione, molto "impastata".


Listen to Marcelo Álvarez & Micaela Carosi in
Chenier's Finale (from Ne viene a noi dal cielo)

Marcelino on Bondy's Tosca: The more boos they get, the more work they get

"It's like there's an accident in the middle of street: People say, `Ah, I don't want to go.' But they want to see the blood,"

"Everything that was written by Puccini, it didn't fit. And what he was going to add didn't go with the music, too. He didn't find the right concept for that second act, for me."

"That's when you realize he's just trying to fill time with no purpose," Alvarez said, referring to the end of the second act. "Bondy had a lot of ideas — so many ideas, you have no idea."

"The more boos they get, the more work they get, Then they think, `The public doesn't have the capability of understanding my concept.'"

Read the entire interview to Ronald Blum here

Terfel to sing Scarpia Live in HD

Gagnidze is out - Guelfi is out too.

Will Bryn Terfel undertake the part of Scarpia
for the October the 10th performance of Tosca
that will be broadcast Live in HD?

***Terfel definitely did not sing Scarpia on the 10th of October.
The "Greek Oracle" spoke sh$t***

Tah dah! Tosca from the Met - the videos

Videos of the omnipresent Camilla0690

Fear&loathing in NY: Glamour, blood and boos for last night's Tosca

Opening night Gala at the Met last night and Kay, a Marcelo Álvarez co-groupie reports:

"Bravissimo! What a thrilling evening, one whose memory I will cherish forever. Marcelo was fabulous. I was so PROUD of him! It is quite an honor for a singer to appear in the Met Opening Night Gala.I admit I was a bit nervous for him, considering how important this Gala was, and how many people would be seeing it, but I needn't have worried. Oh, that voice! I could wrap it around me like a velvet cloak! That voice is chocolate for my ears! And does he ever look magnificent -- and a bit like Jose Cura -- with that beard and mustache!

Listen to Marcelo Álvarez in Recondita Armonia
(NY, 21.09.09)

The Met Opening Night Gala is a major social event in New York, attended by celebrities, dignitaries, and VIPs. For over $1,200 a ticket, these folks can attend a cocktail party before the show and a gala black-tie dinner with the cast afterwards. The Met has 3,000 seats. Another 3,000 chairs were set up in the plaza outside the house for people to watch the show on a huge screen, and in Times Square, 2,000 more people watched it; that's 8,000 people! And in the center of all this excitement...our Marcelo!


When I arrived, over 100 photographers, TV news cameras, members of the Press from all over the world, and paparazzi were already lined up. It was like the Academy Awards! People were beautifully dressed, the men in evening wear and the women in gorgeous gowns. Among the celebrities I saw were musician Billy Joel, actors Patricia Clarkson, Harvey Fierstein, and Christine Baransky, and I'm sure there were many many more.


If you were listening on Sirius, you might have heard boos at the end of Act II. Unfortunately, at the curtain calls, the production team drew more loud, prolonged boos. I felt so sorry for the singers who had to stand on the stage and listen to that. Even knowing it was not meant for them, it must still be unnerving to hear it. I honestly don't think the production deserved such hostility.

Listen to the Act II (short) booing

Many people liked it, and it was nothing like the Sonnambula debacle last season. Interestingly, people I spoke to who watched it outside seemed to like it very much, so I am thinking that the cameras focused on the singers rather than the scenery. If so, then it could be great in HD!..




...I am liking Gagnidze quite a bit; I just wish Levine would stop drowning
him out in the Te Deum.

Listen to George Gagnidze in his Te Deum


Mattila looks wonderful but she had a bit of a trouble in places.
She went way off pitch while telling Mario about the murder.

Listen to Karita Mattila in Vissi d'arte at the premiere and
the dress rehearsal

and more trouble for Karita in Act III



Marcelo got huge applause after his final aria and really, really huge applause at his curtain call. :)"

Listen to Marcelo Alvarez in Vittoria, vittoria and
E lucevan le stelle

and gran finale with "O Scarpia, avanti a Dio"...and the boos mixing with the bravos

while the boos obviously covered the bravos when the production team came on stage.



OperaChic was also there (and we were not), loved the Luc Bondy production and reports .

Costume Designs for Tosca by Milena Canonero
Photos by Ken Howard / Richard Termine / Mary Altaffer

Tosca spoiler !!!

"She runs into a tower and a body double jumps out of the stage right side.

She's in a harness and the lights go out as she is suspended in mid-air.

Unfortunately, the lights took a little too long to go out, so the jump didnt make the effect it could have"

As if this was the only problem of the dress-rehearsal of Tosca at the Met...

Listen to Karita Mattila in trouble
(towards the end)

Giusto cielo! che feci in tal giorno? - Adriana Lecouvreur in Torino

A production of Adriana Lecouvreur from the San Carlo di Napoli-regia di Lorenzo Mariani- opened in Torino on the 23rd of June to conclude the 2008/9 Season, starring Micaela Carosi and Marcelo Álvarez both debuting in the parts of Adriana and Maurizio



La Stampa reports:

"Micaela Carosi è una protagonista eccellente che, pure senza possedere l’appeal della gran diva, tratta con sicurezza e sprezzatura la parte della fatale attrice. La voce è piena, giovane e ferma, il canto nobile, le sfumature ben condotte, il gesto sobrio e convincente. Alla fine Carosi esce al proscenio in un diluvio di applausi.


Lo stesso si può dire per il tenore Marcelo Alvarez, che fornisce una lezione di canto italiano ad alto livello di stile e di gusto: anche la sua voce è fresca e squillante e i picchi emozionali, piazzati ad arte da Cilea, svettano quando soprano e tenore cantano abbracciati. "



Here's a taste from the premiere:

Marcelino sings "L' anima ho stanca"

Micaela Carosi in "Giusto cielo..."

Micaela Carosi sings "Poveri fiori"

Marcelino in Salerno, last night

Nessun dorma


Pourquoi me réveiller

via user MuSicSoprano85

We <3 Marcelo!

Marcelo&friends

Marcelo in Abu Dhabi

"The acclaimed Argentinian tenor Marcelo Alvarez had the audience rising to their feet and calling for an encore with his powerful final rendering of Nessun Dorma, the hauntingly beautiful aria from Turandot by Puccini."

I know the feeling!

Click here
to remember Marcelo singing Nessun Dorma in Thessaloniki in September 2008

Marcelo Álvarez together with Inva Mula, Franco Vassallo, Julia Gertseva and the Orchestra of La Fenice under Juraj Valcuha, thrilled the audience of the last concert of Abu Dhabi Classics, First edition last night at the Emirates Palace Auditorium.

~-~

Abu Dhabi Classics might be over, but you still got the chance to win 5 pairs of diamond (?) tickets for Roberto's first visit to the Middle East on the 11th of May.
(Click here)

Tosca qui, Tosca lá, Tosca dappertutto!

Marcelo Álvarez or Jonas Kaufmann?


Micaela Carosi or Emily Magee?


Marco Vratogna or Thomas Hampson?


Massimo Zanetti or Paolo Carignani?


Parma or Zurich?


Zürich opened on March the 29th

while Parma is having it´s dress rehearsal tonight.


***Click on links for audio excerpts***

Marcelo Álvarez pulls out of Il Trovatore

As the AP reports, Marcelo Álvarez had to pull out of the second half of last night´s performance of Il Trovatore at the Met due to illness.

Marcelo's cover, Philip Webb made his Met debut and according to the AP:

Webb, Alvarez's cover singer, had a pleasant sound and nice color but didn't have quite enough power at times for a hall the size of the Met. His voice was slightly constricted at the top of "Di quella pira," and the bearded tenor moved well despite being a bit burly. The crowd gave him a warm ovation during the curtain calls, and he visibly exhaled. Baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky gave Webb a warm hug.

Enter Manrico

Marcelino Álvarez is on the cover of the February issue of Opera News and is also interviewed by Barry Singer.

On Licitra´s withdrawal "for personal reasons" from the Met's Trovatore:

"Was it his decision or the Met's decision? I don't know. It is not my concern. The Met called me and said "Licitra is not in this anymore, there is no contract with him - are you interested? And I said yes. Sometimes it happens the other way around-sometimes I cancel and my friends go and sing for me. This is very normal. I much prefer that my friends sing for me than my enemies"

Enemies? What enemies?


On the first meeting with his first voice teacher:

"...Sing O Sole mio for me he says. I don't know it, I say. I only knew pop tunes! Patricia [his wife] and I both loved Donna Summer. I could have sung anything else for him, but nothing operatic. Still he agreed to give me lessons. And that was it! I sold the business. From then on, I was a singer."

Donna Summer? I feel love (4 Marcelo)!

On La Scala:

"I have never had problems with the opera public," Alvarez insists, sidestepping a report that he once was booed at La Scala. "My problem was with the artistic director. The directorship at La Scala disrespected me. I wouldn't stand for it. If there is agony
backstage, if the work isn't pleasurable, then I don't want to be
part of it. If you're in despair, it's no fun."

Who's in despair now Marcelo? Certainly not you...


"There is a chance I will go back in 2012, maybe in Tosca. But my schedule is so very tight."

Marcelo Alvarez is The Verdi Tenor

Great news for all Marcelo Álvarez fans
(and whoever is not, is probably deaf).

Marcelo's new cd will be out in February.

It's content: Tutto Verdi!

It's title: The Verdi Tenor

It seems that our lyric Marcelo is crossing over to some most dramatic repertoire. After his Manrico, it's time for Radamés at the Royal Opera House!

As maestro Luisotti said recently in an interview:

I'm coming back to do a new production of Aida in 2010 with Marcelo Alvarez making his debut as Radames,' he confirms. 'I think he's going to be marvellous: he's such a wonderful singer and a great human being.

I couldn't agree more!

Find the tracklist of the new cd here

and 'till February...

Listen to Marcelo Alvarez singing Di Quella Pira in Zurich, January 2008