Villazon Triumphs in Stage Return as Love-Sick Twit: Review
Sad-faced people held signs reading “Suche Karte” (Seeking Ticket) as the luckier souls piled into the Vienna Staatsoper last night. Scalpers charged as much as 1,000 euros ($1,350) for a seat in the top balcony.
Rolando Villazon, the most beloved tenor in the opera world since Luciano Pavarotti’s Three Tenor days, was about to sing the love-sick bumpkin with the great aria in Donizetti’s frothy “L’elisir d’amore” after a year spent sidelined by a cyst on his vocal cords.
This was the 38-year-old Mexican tenor’s second career- halting illness in four years. In 2006, he abruptly canceled all performances for six months, citing exhaustion and taking on roles too heavy for his voice. His comeback as Massenet’s Werther in January 2008, also at the Vienna Staatsoper, was a triumph.
But vocal problems soon returned and the cyst was diagnosed in early 2009. Villazon was told that surgery was necessary and that he might not be able to speak again, let alone sing.
Through amusing video postings on his Web site, the tenor kept his fans up to date on his condition and several weeks ago announced that he was ready to resume his career as Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” at the Berlin State Opera.
But Vienna got him first, squeezing him into a one-night- only appearance just four days before Berlin.
The scheduled tenor and soprano were dismissed and replaced by Villazon and Russian beauty Ekaterina Siurina as Adina, the fancy local farmerette who is resistant to his charms.
Straw Hat
A minute-long ovation greeted the tenor as he wandered onstage eating an apple with a straw hat precariously perched atop his bushy coal-black hair.
Launching into his first aria in full voice, he quickly established that no damage had been done. The sweet, burnished bronze voice sounded as full as ever.
A natural scene-stealer with Chaplinesque timing, Villazon juggled three balls without dropping a note in the most inspired silliness of the evening. And he’s stayed slim during his mute hibernation. At one point, Ambrogio Maestri, the huge basso singing the part of Dulcamara, the quack hawking cheap Bordeaux as a magical cure-all elixir, simply lifted the tenor by the waist and placed him on his other side.
Villazon’s big test of the evening came with the opera’s hit tune, “Una furtiva lagrima,” a slow, melancholic aria accompanied by harp. Not a conventional showpiece capped by a high note, Villazon shaped the lament into a masterful technique, coloring each syllable and demonstrating astounding breath control during the long final cadenza, gradually raising the volume on the penultimate note and then reducing it to a mere whisper.
Come Back Soon
After a heartbeat of silence, the performance stopped for six minutes of ear-splitting bravos and foot-stomping before conductor Daniele Callegari could restart the performance.
The final curtain calls lasted almost 25 minutes during which Villazon waved to friends, blew kisses, and, grabbing the hands of his colleagues, rushed from the rear of the stage to the footlight, letting loose with a loud victory whoop.
Rating: ****.
What the Stars Mean: **** Excellent *** Good ** Average * Poor (No stars) Worthless
(Larry L. Lash is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer on this story: Larry L. Lash in Vienna at L3Productions@aol.com.
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