VIENNA (AP) -- He came, he mugged, he juggled, he blew a lick to his fans. And, yes, he sang — unequivocally nicely, as well — as an adoring assembly welcomed Rolando Villazon behind to the show stage.
The Mexican-born tenor"s quip purpose Monday night at the Vienna Staatsoper was Nemorino, the lovesick farmer in Donizetti"s overwhelming humerous entertainment "L"elisir d"amore" ("The Elixir of Love").
It"s a purpose that"s befitting to Villazon"s voice and personality. It doesn"t distortion as well high, it doesn"t force him to sing over complicated orchestration. And it plays to his full of health instincts as a clown, even if he overdid the foolery — glancing at his wristwatch to exaggerate how prolonged he was holding onto a sole high note.
That was far from the usually time he pennyless character. There were countless winks and nods to the audience, and a "look at me!" countenance during a specialist arrangement of juggling. And the nonsensical laugh he often displayed seemed less about Nemorino than about Rolando Villazon"s pleasure in being behind on stage.
But he took the singing seriously, stuffing out Donizetti"s symphonic line with seemly phrasing and tasteful courtesy to dynamics.
To contend Villazon done it by the dusk but a outspoken join might receptive to advice similar to gloomy praise, but since what he has been by in new years he was probably as relieved as his majority fans.
Nevertheless, his voice did not receptive to advice utterly similar to the Villazon of a couple of years ago. It has taken on a darker hue; the one-time abdominal fad and radiate of his tinge appear dampened and subdued. And though his voice sounded full of health and secure for the majority part, there were times toward the finish of the dusk when he ominously resumed his old robe of pulling up from subsequent to reach the tip notes, rather than attack them passed center.
The Staatsoper assembly possibly didn"t notice or didn"t care. His Act 2 aria, "Una furtiva lagrima," was awarded an startling five-minute acclaim as the throng cried in vain for an encore. The last screen calls — filmed by radio crews — lasted some-more than twenty mins as he and his expel friends were regularly called back. But it was unequivocally usually Villazon they wanted.
It should be remarkable for the jot down that soprano Ekaterina Siurina starred conflicting him as Adina, singing with lively and energy if not most appeal or melting beauty. Baritone Tae Joong Yang proposed off prosaic as the preening Sgt. Belcore, whilst drum Ambrogio Maestri sang and acted vividly as the elixir-peddling Doctor Dulcamara. Daniele Callegari conducted the band with love for the rhythmical score.
Villazon"s singular performance, that sole out roughly as shortly as it was announced, outlines the finish of a second prolonged interregnum in the career of a thespian whose problems have come to appear mystic of most that is wrong with the high-pressure universe of show behaving today.
Villazon, who incited 38 last month, detonate on the theatre about 10 years ago with a full-bodied verse effort voice that reminded majority listeners of a immature Placido Domingo. His impassioned, at times roughly frenzied, behaving impression combined to his repute as an sparkling performer.
He partnered with soprano Anna Netrebko in a now-classic prolongation of Verdi"s "La Traviata" in Salzburg, Austria, and sang with her in this same Otto Schenk prolongation of "L"elisir" in Vienna, prisoner on DVD in 2005. They set off sparks at your convenience they appeared together, together with a noted array of performances of Verdi"s "Rigoletto" at the Metropolitan Opera in 2005-06.
But as he took on heavier roles, flaws in his technique and stipulations in the energy and range of his voice took their fee with harmful speed. In 2007 he voiced he was receiving multiform months off to rest. When he returned, he attempted out a little new roles, similar to the pretension impression in Verdi"s "Don Carlos," that he could not lift off successfully. In Jan 2009, he suffered a meltdown on the Met theatre when — again singing with Netrebko — he lost carry out of his voice during a consequential thoroughfare in Donizetti"s "Lucia di Lammermoor."
Finally he was diagnosed as carrying a protuberance on his outspoken cords and underwent surgery. During his prolonged recuperation, he lifted highbrow eyebrows by apropos a decider on a British being TV show called "Popstar to Operastar." Some observers wrote him off as a critical artist.
Now with his opening in "L"elisir" he might be behind on lane to resume his career, if he wants to and if he chooses his repertory carefully.
Next he"s on to Berlin for 3 performances as Lenski in Tchaikovsky"s "Eugene Onegin." The usually alternative operatic purpose on his monthly calendar at benefaction is a informed one, Alfredo in "La Traviata," in Zurich. He"ll additionally be giving a array of concerts and recitals. And he"s slated to direct, but not sing in, a prolongation of Massenet"s "Werther" subsequent deteriorate in Lyon, France.
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