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OperaNotes Review
Théâtre des
Champs Élysées,
Paris
March 30, 2005
By Charlene Frank
Rolando Villazón
Conductor and Musical Director:
Marco Zambelli
Orchestre de L'Opera Royal de Wallonie
No one has ever brought me to tears during "E lecevan le stelle" in concert before. It's happened during an opera, but not during a concert. Last night Rolando Villazón did just that, and not only to me. There were people all around me with tears rolling down their faces, and if I'm not mistaken Sr. Villazón had some tears himself. This young Mexican tenor transported all of us, for just a few moments, from Théâtre des Champs Élysées on Rue de Compagne in Paris to the Castelo Sant'Angelo on the Tiber River in Rome. He was nothing short of magnificent.
The evening began with arias by Gounod and Massenet. They were very well received, especially Massenet's "En fermant les yeux". But after the intermission, when the Italian arias started, this very French crowd could hardly contain themselves. They simply adored him. Ah, those beautiful Italian arias. They couldn't get enough. I don't know if there is anyone in the entire world of opera right now who can do these arias with the perfection and the passion of Rolando Villazón.
Post-intermission began with Donizetti's "Angelo Casto e bel" from Il Duca d'Alba and then rose in intensity with Verdi's "Ah la Paterna Mano". In fact, it was so intense and so emotional that it took Sr. Villazón a minute to compose himself when he finished. Aria to aria, each was more beautiful than the previous, including his heart achingly beautiful interpretation of "E la solita storia". And then came the encores. Five encores to be exact, in French, Italian and "No Puede Ser" in Spanish- twice, because the audience kept demanding more. And not only did we get more, we also unexpectedly got Rossini's high energy "La Danza (tarantella nepoletana)". Mama mia, we hope he will be recording this soon!
La Monde, the French newspaper, reported that Sr. Villazón is the new Domingo. I report that only Domingo is Domingo, and Villazón is uniquely himself and uniquely talented. Unfortunately he has no plans to come back to New York until his Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera next season. Operanotes hopes he doesn't make a habit of staying away so long.