Thanks to reader Georgiana for pointing out that Cadogan Hall has scheduled new artists for the June 11th concert which Erwin Schrott cancelled.
They're tenor Joseph Calleja and his wife, soprano Tatiana Lisnic.
Calleja's last appearance in London was an impressive one, opposite Renee Fleming in the Royal Opera House's Thaïs. And he'll be back partnering la Renay at Covent Garden next year in La Traviata.
So £12 at Cadogan Hall sounds like a bargain.
O noes!!! I am devastated by Jessica Duchen's latest lid-blowing news - Erwin Schrott has cancelled next month's Cadogan Hall recital.
Contract busting? The words "hearsay", "lawyers" and "bargepole" flutter so noisily between my ears they drown out speculation.
But I note with interest that the future Mrs Schrott, Anna Netrebko, is expected at the Paris Opera on the night in question, June 11.
I go away for a few days and look what happens. The advertised recital of baritone Carlos Alvarez at Cadogan Hall on 11 June has been replaced without explanation by an Erwin Schrott concert.
No foul play suspected - presumably Alvarez has sensibly decided that it's not smart to perform in London while in the middle of a taxing Verdi run at the Vienna Staatsoper.
Whether Erwin is as impressive in recital as he is on the opera stage remains to be seen. Even though the Cadogan Hall aircon is authentically English, i.e. non-existent, a shirt is customary on its stage.
No programme announced yet, but he'll have a full orchestra with him, so Bits of Opera Stuff would be a safer bet than Winterreise.
Netrebko (are they, aren't they?) is unlikely to turn up - she's getting down to some Bellini in Paris that night.
Erwin Schrott, the Royal Opera House's current Don Giovanni, today spoke to Radio 3's In Tune programme, which will be available for 7 days on their Listen Again facility from around 7.30pm tonight.
He had a lot of fun at yesterday's Don Giovanni first night but was sad Anna Netrebko wasn't there. He thinks the cast is very balanced without a weak link, but it was a pity director Francesca Zambello wasn't there for rehearsals, as he appreciates the opportunity to discuss things. When the interviewer suggests DG is a v.secksy character, ES responds 'I don't see any secks in Don Giovanni'. [what was he smoking this time - SEE PIC !!!11] He views it more as a buffo role - DG is looking for 'something else'.
In rehearsal he likes to really let himself go - he nearly knocked a wall down in rehearsal fighting with Masetto. In his spare time he plays piano, guitar and drums - he particularly loves playing Brazilian music and going back to Montevideo to relax with his daughter and family. Oh, and he's booked up to 2012.
And proving he's not just a great set of pecs, interspersed with the interview are some rather nice clips of ES singing Don Giovanni, Figaro and L'Elisir d'Amore.
Don Giovanni - Royal Opera House, 11 June 2007 (First Night)
Tonight I did something I haven't had the energy to do for a long time. But the opportunity came up and I thought I'd give it a go - after all lots of people do it regularly and come to no harm. I stood up for an entire 3 1/2 hour opera!
My place was right at the back of the amphitheatre, the top level of the Royal Opera House, and so I was about half a mile from the stage, or it seemed that way. I'd brought proper binoculars to make sense of the doll sized figures below, but even they weren't quite up to the task - really, only astronomical instruments would have cut it.
Anyway, it didn't matter too much, because this evening was all about superb music. Starting with the titular Don, played by Erwin Schrott. As if his physical perfection weren't enough, his black velvet voice exquisitely embodied the seductive charisma of the serial seducer. The gratuitious shirtlessness of the second act was a cheap but effective trick that just nudges his rating up to #1 on my crushometer.
Covering at short notice for an indisposed Anna Netrebko, Marina Poplavskaya as Donna Anna was, Schrott aside, the star of the evening. She has poise, presence, a crystal pure tone and solid projection. Her voice paled a little in its upper reaches, but she stunned otherwise. If the dark roots in her blonde hair were just an unhappy consequence of the short notice of Netrebko's sick note, they coincidentally underlined the determination and backbone beneath the sweetly feminine exterior of her Donna Anna.
In the relatively thankless role of Don Ottavio, Michael Schade rightly drew some of the biggest applause of the evening for his two arias, though he did seem to be holding his fire in between. Kyle Ketelsen's Leporello was inevitably overshadowed by Erwin Schrott, but with his superb comic timing he was the perfect foil, neatly bringing out their symbiotic relationship. Matthew Rose brought a big solid voice and a credible lumpkin dimness to his Masetto.
Although the orchestra parted company with the singers somewhat during a few of the trickier arias, it wasn't hugely noticeable, and Ivor Bolton motored them on with terrific verve, keeping enough in reserve for a final exhilirating burst of power in Don Giovanni's death scene.
Although I've seen this production before, a few years back, the design still left plenty of questions unanswered. Why did half the action take place in a giant urinal with a life size Madonna pinioned halfway up the wall? Why did Don Giovanni's dinner (and the Commendatore) appear from a Japanese hot tub? Where did the giant burning wicker man appear from and why? In a musically less accomplished performance, these details might matter more, but it was easy to ignore them. The overall design was easy on the eye, the colours made sense even if the objects didn't, and by lighting the production well and keeping most of the action centre front (simple but crucial details overlooked in the ROH's current Fidelio), most of the audience could see most of the performance.
And there were a few idiosyncrasies which really did work - Donna Elvira's wedding dress in her final showdown with was a great touch. And best of all - the final glimpse of a smirking and unclothed Don Giovanni in hell, laydee in his arms.
Ivor Bolton, Erwin Schrott, Kyle Ketelsen, Ana Maria Martinez
Michael Schade, Marina Poplavskaya
Sarah Fox, Matthew Rose
Marina Popslavskaya, Erwin Schrott
Erwin Schrott, due to pair with Anna Netrebko in Mozart's Don Giovanni next week at the Royal Opera House, tells Time Out's Martin Hoyle in this week's issue:
'Once I had a crazy idea - I must have been smoking pot - that the opera's the vision of a dying man'
A figure of speech, a misplaced metaphor from a non-native speaker no doubt.
But now it's out there, just hope the poor lamb remembers to allow time for the inevitable full body cavity search at Heathrow......
The Royal Opera House present another of their Big Screen events next Wednesday 13 June at 7pm when Mozart's Don Giovanni will be relayed to outdoor screens around the country, including the Royal Opera House's back yard, aka Covent Garden Piazza. La Netrebka, if she turns up (and there are rumours...), will be Donna Anna, and Erwin Schrott the Don.
Sadly I'm already spoken for with Anne Sofie von Otter at the Wigmore Hall, but she's another serial canceller, so who knows?
