Intermezzo

Don't give up the day job

Antonio Pappano, billed as a bass (but surely a tenor leggiero), joins Rolando Villazón on his latest recording.

'A' for effort.

Free Britten

The Guardian is streaming Pappano's new recording of Britten's War Requiem, made this summer with Anna Netrebko, Ian Bostridge and Thomas Hampson and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

I watched them perform it at the Salzburg Festival a few days later. It is as you might expect an unashamedly 'operatic' reading, and all concerned are on top form.

The live stream disappears on 21 October, when the recording is commercially released.

For Friends of Italian Opera

Here's one of Verdi's you may enjoy if you weren't able to watch the live broadcast.

Pappano's TV Ring

Rolando Villazón gave us The Genius of Verdi on BBC4 on Friday night.

Next week it's Wagner's turn, as Tony Pappano flits around Europe for the self-explanatory Pappano's Essential Ring Cycle at 7.30.

Don Carlo, Royal Opera House dreamteam style

Don Carlo - Royal Opera House, 4 May 2013

Jonas Kaufmann wasn't ill; Anja Harteros turned up. Given that she'd marked half her lines at the general rehearsal earlier in the week (every singer's prerogative of course, but rare here) I had wondered. If success is defined as exceeding expectations, then the opening night of this third revival was a winner even before a note was sung.

Sir Tony slams "don't care" cancellers

Antonio Pappano had a fierce word or three for singers who pull out of productions at today's Royal Opera House press conference. Reuters reports:

"It happens a lot," he told reporters, referring to cancellations. "It happens more and more. There's something about this generation of singers, that they are weaker in their bodies or don't care.

"I don't know what it is, but it's something that is very very frustrating for me personally."

Asked afterwards to expand on his remarks, he explained it was partly a health issue, with common colds tending to last longer than, say, 10 years ago.

"You can imagine singers. That's a real problem. And there's so much travelling involved now with good singing. I think that people are overbooked, they're over-committed, too many new things, the stress on them and the amount of PR."

"I mean (for Spanish tenor Placido) Domingo to cancel, (he) would have to be on his death bed. It's just a different generation.

"It's taken much more lightly today, the idea of contract, the idea of a commitment. It's true."

He called on opera stars to take longer rest periods between roles to cut down on the risk of illness and exhaustion.