Mariusz Kwiecien hurt his back at the Don Giovanni dress rehearsal (wah!).
High-profile new production, Luisi conducting, can't have a second-stringer stepping in for Kwiecien, so, a little shuffling of the Met schedule gets us PETER MATTEI taking over for Kwiecien! (At least for opening night.)
This increases the chances of my showing up for the HD broadcast, you betcha, if Mattei sings the full run.
Update: Cher La Cieca, or her spies, report that Dwayne Croft subbed in for Kwiecien for the balance of the rehearsal and apparently was the cover. Well, Croft is a good singer, but Mattei has a whole lot more animal magnetism going for him.
11 comments:
Oh lord, yes. (I like Dwayne but Mattei makes me go weak in the knees.)
Actually Mattei is scheduled to be interviewed by Opera News on Monday evening at their Education Center. (Yes, I have a ticket and yes, I'll be drooling in the front row.) But GIOVANNI is scheduled for that night so if Kwiecien isn't recovered by then I expect the interview is kaput.
Mattei is only listed for the opening night as of now.
Guess who's got tickets for opening night? Actually, I rather liked Kweicein in this in SF a few years back. (He's a far sight better the Meecham who is opening up DG there this year.) The pole is also singing the lead in the LA Phil/Dudamel concert version next spring before his Santa Fe perfs as King Roger. So as much as I love me some Mariusz, I'm pretty pleased about this one.
Lin, that's about how I feel about Mattei. He was a great Count Almaviva here a few years ago, sang rings around John Relyea as Figaro - and hasn't been back since.
Brian, I am jealous. :) I agree with you about Kwiecien, who was terrific in 2007. I'm skipping the SFOpera DG this year, sigh.
Interview - kaput! Guess I'll be buying a ticket to the Opera News Awards.
I probably won't get a chance to see Mattei in the Met's new production but I'll be going to a transmission of the La Scala premiere. And the last time he sang the Don at the Met I attended all four of his performances and he really was divine. Each performance he tweaked just a little bit so each audience got something different.
The most recent press release from the Met says that he is singing on the 13th, 17th, and 22nd. DG TBA for the 25th and 29th. I HOPE he gets the HD broadcast.
As you probably noticed over at parterre there may be a problem with La Scala because they are transmitting their opening night which is Mattei singing the Don. I assume that would be a future DVD release and that would make two recent DVDs of the same opera with the same Don. (Not a problem for me though.)
And adding to this is that Mattei then goes on to Paris for the revival of the Haneke staging of DG and I have been desperately hoping that this time it would be filmed. I can't imagine that's going to happen now. But I'd gladly exchange the MET and La Scala for that one.
Oh, ARGH.
I haven't read deeply enough at Parterre to have found that. Thanks. Oh DESPAIR: who will they get for the broadcast??
It's just speculation on La Cieca's part. Who knows what accommodations are going to be made?
I'm still trying to figure out why the MET has never released the Bart Sher "Barbiere" with Mattei, Florez and DiDonato on DVD. Practically everything else that was an HD transmission is available.
Is there an existing Barber and thee Met doesn't want to compete with itself? Gotta say, though, that is a DREAM CAST.
I hope they release Comte Ory, as long as we're talking about JDF and JDD.
The MET released its previous Barbiere production on DVD AFTER the Sher production had premiered which I can't understand. And Covent Garden released its production with JDF and JDD on DVD(the one where she's on crutches) but again,the Sher staging had been premiered two years before Covent Garden. The MET had a long lead time.
I'm sure Comte Ory is going to be released either later this year or early in the next. That would follow the pattern that's been established.
That's good news - I was hugely surprised at how much I liked Ory!
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