From the Met's press office:
Roberto Aronica will sing the role of Don José in the February 15 performance of Bizet’s Carmen, replacing the originally scheduled Marcelo Álvarez, who is ill.
Italian tenor Aronica sang Don José at the Met on February 7 and 11, and has previously sung the role at the Teatro Regio di Torino and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Following his Met debut in 1998 as Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata, he starred as the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto and in three Puccini roles: Rodolfo in La Bohème, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and Cavaradossi in Tosca. Later this season, he will reprise the role of Don José at La Fenice and sing des Grieux in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at Naples’s Teatro di San Carlo.
The February 15 performance of Carmen will be conducted by Louis Langrée and will star Cleméntine Margaine in the title role with Maria Agresta as Micaëla and Michael Todd Simpson as Escamillo.
Okay. It is apparent that Álvarez is very unlikely to sing any of his scheduled run of
performances. We're getting a stream of cast changes as the Met works out who will substitute for him as Don José
4 comments:
It really is rather strange how they're handling this situation. I mean, all due respect to Alvarez, but it's not like this revival is going to live or die by his presence.
It's got to be that they don't want to announce that he won't sing unless they can announce a replacement. Maybe he just has a bad cold, don't know.
I'm frankly a little surprised that they're not just throwing these performances to Davila after that money review in the Times. It's not like Aronica is a luxury replacement per se. He has some name recognition, I suppose, but I would think they'd want to promote a young tenor who made a splash on short notice, as Davila did.
FWIW, I heard Aronica on Saturday and he sounded fine, but it was nothing special. The Flower Song was lovely, but there's a lot of provincialism in his style.
And what did you think of Margaine?
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