La Bohéme under review

Peter Bradshaw reviews La Bohéme for The Guardian:

The film does its best to deliver Puccini's music with all its chocolatey richness directly into the vein, and it is so intensely sugary that an emergency DVD could be kept in hospitals for acute hypoglycaemia cases

(lol)


Parsi watched the movie and has to agree but I find nothing wrong with sugar.
And I 'm not hypoglycaemic whatsoever.


Watch 30 seconds from the finale of La Bohéme exclusively here...

Parsi is spoilt but not a spoiler, so, you WON´T find here the last bars of the finale...
Go to a movie near you, hon!



All pics (C) Parsi (lol)

ps. I wonder if Peter Bradshaw could contain his tears at the finale...

4 days to go!

Rolando singing "O Gennaris tou 1904", in english.

Music: D. Papadimitriou on a poem by C. Kavafis

Sorry for the quality of the video towards the end...my VCR decided to devour the tape at that very moment...

Fra 1 settimana #2

Here's the second video of Rolando singing greek music in New York.

Fingers crossed: Rolando cancelled his last night performance as Lenski in Berlin due to a throat infection. One more Onegin left (on Saturday), and on Sunday he will be in Athens.

Fra 1 settimana!

In a week, at about this hour, Rolando's recital in Athens will be over.

I don't know if he's going to sing us any Greek songs but what I know is that I will have a huge smile on my face...

Instead of a countdown, during the 7 days left till the Recital, I will be uploading 1 video everyday. 7 videos of Rolando Villazón in New York, singing Greek music...And Granada at the end as an encore...

Let's begin with...

"Me tin proti stagona tis vrohis"



Music: Manos Hadjidakis

Poetry: Odysseas Elytis (1979 Nobel Prize in Literature)

Download HERE the complete program of the performance "Greece: Poetry in music" with full details on the composers and the poets and translation of all the songs that I will be uploading.

Lohengrin + Elsa, reinvented

The Baltimore Sun on Renée Fleming:

The soprano will be saying no to some repertoire in the future. Donizetti and other bel canto composers will be put aside soon. Manon and La traviata also "will probably disappear," she says. But there are tantalizing plans for Wagner's Lohengrin.

To Vima, Rolando Villazón interviewed:

[I dream of singing] Lohengrin, the title role in Wagner’s opera. I hope one day my dream comes true.

Classic FM, Anna Netrebko interviewed:

I want to try Wagner's Lohengrin because it is beautiful and I want to sing it.


Now, vote you sexy reader!!! Rolando+Anna or Rolando+Renée? Or neither?

Rolando on a bus-stop!

While at the bus-stop next to the Athens Concert Hall and while eating a huge hot-dog (I know quite a few singers who adore the
next-to-the-Concert-Hall-hot-dogs)
after last night's performance
(on which I will review later)
I came across this:


Right....and some minutes ago I was telling people that it's soooo nice that there has been no publicity on Rolando's recital and that when tickets are out we 'll get the best seats blah blah blah....

Then I got back in the car, happy that Rolando might have the exact same hot-dog in a few days (it's a must!) and I drove back home with Rolando and Cecilia (ok, Cedolins too) right next to me...

A strange loudspeaker...

Festpiele magazine awards the Best Artists for 2008 (among them, Rolando, La Garança, La Netrebka, Carlos Álvarez, Bryn Terfel, Juan Diego Flórez, Christian Thielemann, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Patrice Chéreau etc) and carries Rolando on its cover using El País as a loudspeaker.

The article on Rolando has the title "MR. 100.000 VOLT"
(while an article on Erwin Schrott is entitled "MR NETREBKO".... He should 've known better...).

Tenor zu sein!

My friend Teresoulini (hehehe, she's gonna kill me for calling her that) bought the new book on Rolando "Die Kunst, Tenor zu sein" and she's got some pics for us.




As you can see, Rolando was born a star!

R-O-L-A-N-D-O V-I-L-L-A-Z-Ó-N__IN__ATHENS!!!

GO HERE AND READ IT BY YOURSELVES.

IT CLEARLY STATES THAT

OUR ROLANDO

WILL SING AT THE ATHENS MEGARON

ON OCTOBER THE 29TH.

(and you read it here first, as always...)

Rolando in the tub!!!!!!!!1111

(there are some things that you just have to see in this life....Edita Gruberova in a bathing suit, Rolando having a bath, George Bush conducting....)

The foto was published on today's El Pais! In the interview that Rolando gives to Karmentxu Marin we learn, among others, that Rolando is wearing underwear with puppy dogs on...


Other things we learn: In the shower he sings songs from The Man of La Mancha, the Jungle Book, tangos etc.
But under the shower he doesn't feel like Mowgli but rather like Baloo, or King Louie...

Baloo and King Louie