the return of Rolando Villazon

On 29 January, Rolando performed Tosti's L'alba separa dalla luce l'ombra on my new favourite TV show, Popstar to Operastar. I may be wrong, but I believe this was his first public performance since his surgery.

OK so it's only one song, and it's well within his limits - but not bad, huh? 

And here's another, even more impressive, performance of the same song on a different show (Alan Titchmarsh's) together with a brief interview:

Wow, he's been busy. Only a snippet of singing here - this is an introduction to opera and classical music. He recommends three great performances at the end - Bernstein's Beethoven 9, Domingo's Otello and the Barenboim, Zukerman et al Trout Quintet:

Comments

[Hal]

Sounds good. But we won't really know for sure until he does a complete opera, right? And will he be smart enough to take proper care of his voice from now on?

[@GtelloZ]

i think is playback. Lipsync is not perfect, and sounds like his old voice, the one he lost.

[Maggy]

Quite, I thought that these musical tastes of his were signing his real come back! and this last performance,though it is televised,but 'serious', well I mean...You know after all these ITV extras! This is Rolando, getting ready for his audience in London and Paris soon!

[HairMan]

@ @GtelloZ My internet connection is frankly too cr*p for me to see any of the clips but I did have the misfortune to be sitting at home watching the first clip on TV and it was quite obviously a live performance by Villazon - the big giveaway (apart from the encouraging performance) was the reaction of the orchestra who were visibly relieved after hours of accompanying some woeful singing to finally have a true opera singer on stage with them.

[BG]

Ha ha HairMan! So funny and accurate. Cruel and accurate. Poor lambs.

And thank you so much, intermezzo, for all these links! Lovely stuff and so encouraging. The Titchmarsh tapes in particular fill me with hope for Villazón's safe return.

[Kit]

Like HairMan, I too had the misfortune to tune in to IM's new "favourite show", but after 2 mins had to turn over - the cringe factor was just too great. So I missed the aria. No regrets. Sorry IM, no amount of post-modern irony can make the experience bearable... Horrible, horrible, horrible.

[Julian Hopkins]

Intermezzo's 'favourite TV show' is just awful - surely she is having us on! I agree with Kit - I watched 10 mins of the first show, then a few minutes from one a couple of weeks ago, and have given up on it totally. It seriously misrepresents opera and does damage to its image as an art form. Apart from a string of other rude things I could say about it, but won't, I actually think Rolando Villazon is mostly to blame - he cheapens the whole thing. I won't go to see him in the opera house again, that is if he ever turns up.

[BG]

Villazón cheapens From Popstar to Opera Star! You despise it on account of him? Sorry, lad, you just lost the argument.

I speak as someone who does watch the show, with all its faults, its crassness, and its honesties too. Sometimes you watch from behind a cushion, but still there's something going on there. It's not opera and it's not about replacing opera. It's about those individual singers at the level that they're at. I wish there had been more about their coming to terms with the demands of it, and less about the razzle dazzle of phone voting, but even so...

In my opinion, people are wetting their pants unnecessarily. Opera isn't in any danger.

I applaud Intermezzo's courage for saying she watches this fun show. (Strange world where you need courage to justify fun.) Bravo!

[BG]

Sorry: a PS. I have to add this in case it looks like I'm agreeing with Julian Hopkins that Villazón cheapens From Popstar to Opera Star. He's the unequivocal source of dignity there, IMO, and I wish we could stop being anxious about the setting and start to cheer on his return.