US star gives way to young Brit in Covent Garden Tosca opening
News
We’re hearing from people present that Bryan Hymel suffered serious vocal difficulties as Cavaradossi in the first act of the opening night of the Royal Opera’s Tosca revival.
Happily, present in the house was the young English tenor Freddie De Tommaso, who is due to sing the role in this Saturday’s matinee.
De Tommaso, 29, gave good value.
It appears he is the first British tenor in an ROH Tosca for six decades … which is a sign of how derelict the company’s nurturing of local talent was allowed to become for a very long time.
British opera companies don’t tend to favour local talent in the same way other countries do and ROH prides itself on being an ‘international’ house. But I’d certainly agree that far more could be done to employ the many great singers produced by the UK, especially now working abroad post-Brexit is likely to be harder. ROH has had some rather poor Mozart productions stuffed with foreign names even when there are so many really good UK singers of that repertoire being completely neglected. ROH could also consider that when it is attempting to grow its own star (as happens occasionally with young artists like Poplavskaya) it doesn’t always have to be a soprano! I guess something has been lost by no longer having house singers and instead a revolving circuit of young artists. That long term nurturing of talent doesn’t happen much.
I’m sorry to hear about Bryan Hymel. I’ve seen him onstage in Troyens and Butterfly, and he was extraordinary. I hope it’s just a temporary setback.
Sadly he has had recurring problems the last few years.
He really Is a very good young talent, AND he has a very nice timbre
You can read an interview of Freddie De Tommaso in the Edinburgh Music Review edinburghmusicreview.com by our opera critic Brian Bannatyne-Scott.
Why does it matter where people come from? I just don’t get that. It seems to me that it’s kind of a British thing, but I could be wrong.
Freddie di T should definitely be nurtured. A talent to be followed.
Can anyone tell me exactly when he stood in? I’ve read “halfway through”, “in the Second Act”, and that he sang “Vittoria!”, so I have a vision of Hymel being taken to be tortured, succumbing in a strange blend of fact and fiction, and de Tommaso emerging bloody! That would be up there with bouncing Toscas, burning wigs and “non abbiamo il soprano”.