tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1163401251609993612006-11-13T07:00:00.000Z2006-11-13T07:00:00.000Z2006-11-13T07:00:00.000ZHere's a letter I sent to the Evening Standard back in 2004... <BR/><BR/><I>Norman Lebrecht wrote in his column of 10 March 2004 - 'Outsized Talents': <BR/><BR/>"The up and coming tenors - Cura, Licittra, Flores, Verazzon –<BR/>could fit collectively into one pair of Fat Lucy's pants with no<BR/>diminution of volume. Big singers are dropping fast, out of fashion<BR/>and out of sight."<BR/><BR/>I'm assuming he means Cura, LICITRA, FLÓREZ, and VILLAZON?<BR/><BR/>Dear oh dear. As your Arts Editor, shouldn't he have been able to get the names of these gentlemen right? Especially since both Juan Diego Flórez and Rolando Villazon have sung at Covent Garden in the last two years - Villazon less than a month ago in Les Contes d'Hoffmann.</I><BR/><BR/>Needless to say, it was not published.<BR/><BR/>And another...<BR/><BR/><I>I sometimes wonder if Norman Lebrecht actually goes to operas or even reads much about them, despite his frequent pronouncements on the art form's imminent death. In 'Novel ways to update opera' 7 July 2004, he writes: "There is an inner music to Greene, which makes the failure of his only opera [Our Man in Havanna] the more perplexing." <BR/> <BR/>His only opera? The End of the Affair based on Graham Greene's novel had its world premiere in Houston this year, to wide international press coverage, with two of the principle roles created by English National Opera regulars Cheryl Barker, Peter Coleman-Wright. </I><BR/><BR/>Needless to say, it was not published.<BR/><BR/>And then this year re 'How Domingo Killed the Three Tenors', February 22, 2006...<BR/><BR/><I>[...]Contrary to what he has written, Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti did not "avoid direct vocal comparison in a duet or trio until the closing Nessun Dorma medley" at the first Three Tenors concert in Rome. First of all, 'Nessun Dorma' was not part of a medley at all, but a single final encore, following an encored 'O sole mio'. Secondly, they sang a total of 11 songs and arias together in two medleys before that final 'Nessun Dorma'.[...]</I><BR/><BR/>Needless to say, it was not published.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com