Monday, January 30, 2017

Met Carmen Musical Chairs

From the Met:
Rafael Davila will sing the role of Don José in the January 31 and February 3 performances of Bizet’s Carmen, replacing the originally scheduled Marcelo Álvarez, who is ill.
Puerto Rican tenor Davila made an unexpected Met debut during the opening performance of this season’s Carmen, and sang the role at an additional performance on January 27. His recent performances with other companies include singing Don José in Carmen and Don Alvaro in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino at the Washington National Opera, Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca at the Florida Grand Opera, and Turriddu and Canio in the double bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci at the Teatro di San Carlo.
The January 31 and February 3 performances of Carmen will be conducted by Asher Fisch and will star Cleméntine Margaine in the title role and Kyle Ketelsen as Escamillo. Maria Agresta will sing Micaëla on January 31 and Janai Brugger will make her Met role debut as Micaëla on February 3.

7 comments:

G said...

Somehow I keep getting lucky with this! Was at the Barbiere on the 21st where both Mattei and the person scheduled for Bartolo were ill, though as it turns out, Edward Parks does quite a fine Figaro (He's no Peter Mattei, but then again, so few people are!).

Lisa Hirsch said...

Ahaha, RIGHT.

At intermission at the LOC "Troyens," several of us were hanging around in the lobby comparing Brian Mulligan's Chorebe with that of Lucas Meachem (we liked both very much). Then someone mentioned Davis's second recording: "....and Chorebe is PETER MATTEI" and there was a collective sigh.

Unknown said...

I assume that the very positive NYT review for Davila's last-minute debut is why the Met hasn't tried to nab a "name" replacement for Alvarez, who's missed all but one performance of this run to date. I'll be at the matinee next Saturday and am wondering who I will be hearing!

G said...

Yes! I adore the second Davis! If only he would (or people would invite him to?) sing it again sometime. Paris has him in From the House of the Dead this fall, and I'm ever so tempted.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Oh man. I have never seen From the House of the Dead live, only in the Chereau/Boulez DVD. Mattei must be in the role Olaf Bar took in that.

Jeez, Paris + Janacek + Mattei. HMMM.

G said...

Yeah! All the dates overlap easily with La Clemenza, and the last two performances can additionally be combined with Boheme, in which (I swear I'm not making this up) Artur Rucinski is singing Marcello!

G said...

And Mattei sings Shishkov, which is all of 25 minutes(?), unfortunately.