TENORS

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

04moments3-web-jumboUp next, La Traviata from the MET at noon on Friday (c0rrection: Saturday at 12:55 p.m.)  on your local movie screen or on the radio. An NY Times listing is… well … provocative… as is the photograph, showing the red-hot pair of Michael Fabiano and Sonya Yoncheva. The NY Times caption reads: “Lower Depths for a Soprano”…

I will let it stand at that.

On the subject of tenors, it is now official that German heartthrob tenor Jonas Kaufmann has cancelled all of his appearances at the MET for next season, including a new production of Tosca that will replace the current one in the rep of the NYC house. And that means that another heartthrob tenor by the mane of Vittorio Grigolo will step into the role of Mario Cavaradossi.

Kaufmann’s appearances on this side of the ocean have been touch and go for the past few years, and concerns about his future continue.  Meanwhile the word on and, more importantly, what we hear in the singing of other younger and rising tenors at the MET is very encouraging.

Grigolo’s turn opposite Isabel Leonard in this past Saturday broadcast of Werther was nothing short of sensational. His singing was full-throated and Italianate and his handling of the very French Massenet vocal line was impeccable, nowhere better than in his show-stopping Pourquois me reveiller.

Grigolo’s and Fabiano’s careers are going great guns with no missteps one can think of. And, at a time when true lyric-spinto tenors ready to take on the Verdi-Puccini roles are as rare as hen’s teeth, this is good news.

Rafael de Acha

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”