‘Gutted’ Katherine Jenkins cancels Carmen

‘Gutted’ Katherine Jenkins cancels Carmen

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norman lebrecht

July 03, 2016

The popular Welsh mezzo has been promising for years to sing Carmen in concert as proof that she is entitled to be considered an ‘opera singer’.

Not the whole role, mind, just the big arias. It was planned for a festival in rural Wales this week.

But she has pulled out of the show, ‘absolutely gutted’, with a virus.

Some things just aren’t meant to be.

 

katherine jenkins gchq

Comments

  • Maria Brewin says:

    So we’ll just have to make do with the Chilcot Inquiry instead.

    A mere seven years.

  • Mocliamg says:

    Damn – how much longer are we going to have to wait until we have definitive evidence that Ms. JENKINS’ self-branded appelation-non-contrôlé makes her less worthy of the title ‘opera singer’ than even Paul ‘Pavarotti’ Potts ……… ?

    • Nick says:

      Paul ‘Pavarotti’ Potts? I recently watched on TV a ghastly movie allegedly about his life story. James Cordon played Potts – pathetically, I thought (how on earth did he get a OBE – to keep up with Ms, Jenkins who also has an ‘O’?) – and Potts himself sang. It was like amateur night at some Sunday social. Ms. Jenkins is a few rungs up that ladder, although perhaps not many.

  • someone says:

    She’s got her audience and she’s got her stage.
    She has sold her albums a lot and hasn’t she already become rich a long time ago?
    She’s got fame, too, for certain things.
    Then what does she need more?

    Being a decent opera singer or classical musician?
    Why?
    Because she studied at a classical music school or she sang with Placido Domingo?

    I think she’s one of the kind of singers who sing Ave Maria with an attitude and approach of crossover musicians.

    I don’t think crossovers are all just wrong, but I just usually don’t like them.
    And they are different, though many people often confuse the two things and don’t see the differences.

    When one expects to hear classical music, crossovers often sound not enough and disappointing.
    When expecting a crossover, classical music may sound too serious.
    They all have their own fields and don’t need to be called crap in the wrong field.

    I just really cannot understand why she’s been trying to get her foot in the door of classical music.

  • Tim Walton says:

    At last our prayers have been answered. long may it continue.

    What a merciful release that all classical music lovers can celebrate.

  • 18mebrumaire says:

    Katherine’s gutted? The whole nation’s gutted. First Brexit, now this.

  • Una says:

    I am not someone who would go to hear or see her in anything or buy CDs, but the reality is that many of the British population would, and those who otherwise would not hear any classical music whatsoever of any sort other than on our television adverts, follow her and enjoy her singing. They find the real world of classical daunting with its endless snobbery and the cost, and for some out of their social class. Sadly it then falls on he commercialisation of music that only gets people into any classical music and sadly that is the only standard they know, and singing down a microphone and Nessun Dorma. Some people do make it into going to mainstream operas or orchestral music, but at the moment half the nation are now fixed on Adele – and that’s all they know. Katherine Jenkins in many ways has not done the cause of classical music a lot of favours in Britain. And half doing Carmen was never going to be a great idea. I don’t know really what the answer is in getting the millions in Britain that have never been to any real classical music concert at all in their lives.

    • Maria Brewin says:

      I don’t think there’s a huge mystery. IMO:

      1. Get over the inverted snobbery.
      2. People in the classical world to have faith and stop apologising.
      3. (as a consequence of ‘1’) Put it on mainstream TV, not in cultural ghetto programming.
      4. Get it into schools.
      5. Forget KJ and make use of young, aspiring opera singers who can really deliver. They’re not hard to find.

  • Faye Snow says:

    I haven’t been this gutted since Netrebko cancelled Norma 🙁

  • Ruby says:

    This article is intentionally misleading and intended to produce controversy.

    It says, KJ has been ‘promising for years to sing Carmen in concert as proof that she is entitled to be considered an ‘opera singer.’

    She may have wanted to become an opera singer but this has not materialised. She clearly refers to herself as a classical crossover singer, and I don’t think would have changed following her performance, which is the implication. Her dream has always been to perform Carmen and she is deeply disappointed not to be able to do so.

    ‘Some things are not meant to be,’ i.e. haha, what a shame (not). It may not be for you, but it clearly is for many of her fans.

  • Sue says:

    Decades ago Mario Lanza desperately wanted to be regarded as a ‘serious’ opera singer and craved the approval of “very demanding” opera audiences. It’s the musical equivalent of the sporting ‘pb”.

    Sadly for Lanza he self-destructed before his ambitions were realized. He did have a beautiful voice which was more than “cross-over”. As for Jenkins, her voice is altogether too “sweet” for me to take her very seriously in terms of opera. And I don’t know if she’s even got the vocal range, let alone the emotional one to sing opera.

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