Kaufmann cancels Hollywood, will not be replaced
NewsThe Hollywood Bowl has posted its regrets about the latest lapse in Jonas Kaufmann’s stuttering schedule:
‘Due to illness, Jonas Kaufmann is unable to perform during the September 12 concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Additional arias performed by Diana Damrau have been included in the updated programming.’
That, frankly, is poor value. Ticket holders have not paid to hear a solo evening of Ms Damrau, excellent as she may be.
The cancelled show is also a blow for Sony, which aimed to use it as a springboard for JK’s Puccini album of duets and scenes with leading sopranos, including Anna Netrebko and Asmik Grigorian (but not Ms Damrau).
Bad form all round.
Why of course. As I said, become protected by Opera Mafia and you too can cancel all you want without consequences.
He cancels some of his performances just like any singer (isn’t it said that tenors are particularly delicate instruments?) But when he sings (and he sings the vast majority of his engagements) this portal doesn’t write about it. It’s such negative conditioning.
I agree with you, Silvia. The same thing happened with his excellent ROH Andrea Chenier, never mentioned on this portal.
If he is ill, he’s ill and, as a singer myself, he needs to be fully fit to cope with a demanding list of solos/duets, otherwise he would be criticised for an under par performance.
Whatever he does, he can’t win!
He is a superb performer in so many genres and, if you look at his performance schedule, I’m amazed that he can do so many dates and rehearsals with recordings in a year, with all the travelling and different time zones.
The decision by the Hollywood Bowl may be questionable.
But calling illness “bad form” is a bit harsh.
I don’t recall such criticism when serial canceller Martha Argerich sends her frequent regrets. Jonas Kaufman has had health issues for years. Why is his health less important than hers?
I thought he had found a doctor who had told me exactly what was wrong and now he had had treatment and he would never have to cancel again?…
“Ticket holders have not paid to hear a solo evening of Ms Damrau”
Actually the LAPhil marketed this as “Dudamel and the Stars of Opera,” which today changed to “A Night of Opera with Dudamel.”
Apparently the LAPhil confuses operetta with opera and hasn’t seen the names of either Kaufmann or Damrau as salesworthy.
For the Hollywood Bowl audience (as opposed to the Los Angeles Opera audience), Damrau and Kaufmann probably aren’t major draws. Whatever their gifts (past or present), they just aren’t that famous outside the bubble of opera fans.
Ah, yes, the Hollywood Bowl audience.
Indistinguishable from Lakers fans really.
Just Los Angeles rich plastic people munching sushi in their night-air boxes, clueless despite 100 years of Classical programming on Thursdays.
It ain’t the Waldbühne!
We pity the LAPhil’s hapless marketing department.
I bought my Bowl tickets early in the season, not knowing about Kaufmann. Dudamel and opera was the draw, since LAPO no longer presents a staged opera.
There is no confusion there since both Damrau and Kaufmann are definitely “stars of opera” far more so than they are those of operetta. As for the current wording, it reflects the fact that after JK’s cancellation DD added a few purely operatic arias to the program, not to mention the fact that the concert begins and ends with orchestral music from operas. As a result, the combined duration of music from operas in the revised program far exceeds that of music from operettas.
Diana Damrau is a great singer in her own right.
I bought tickets to her Carnegie Hall recital last winter. Alas, she canceled.
She’s fussy. Her Lucia and Violetta were too fussy, and not in an Italian way.
She was a superb Königin years ago, of course. And later a precise Olympia.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to hear her, but she is certainly an accomplished musician.
There are countless up-and-coming tenors available in Southern California. Give them and the audience a chance to experience their performances on the Hollywood Bowl stage.
Dem Doze da risks when hiring Kaufmann. Conversely, it likely would have been his single largest audience of his career.
Seine Absage hat nichts mit länger bestehenden Problemen zu tun, sondern der Grund ist eine Sommergrippe, aus Verona mitgebracht. War dort wohl ein ungesundes Klima: auch L. Tézier hat nach dieser Tosca seine darauffolgenden Auftritte in Wien gecancelt.
Revised program below, sans Kaufmann —
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Diana Damrau, soprano
MOZART Overture to Le Nozze di Figaro (orchestra alone)
MOZART Voi che sapete from Le Nozze di Figaro (with Ms. Damrau)
MOZART Crudele… Non mi dir from Don Giovanni (with Ms. Damrau)
Johann STRAUSS, Jr. Overture to Die Fledermaus (orchestra alone)
LINCKE Schlösser, die im Monde liegen from Frau Luna (with Ms. Damrau)
Josef STRAUSS, arr. Wolfgang Dörner Polka Mazur from Die Naßwalderin (orchestra alone)
LEHÁR Wär es auch nichts als ein Traum vom Glück from Eva (with Ms. Damrau)
LEHÁR Ich weiss es selber nicht… Meine Lippen sie Küssen so Heiß from Giuditta (with Ms. Damrau)
BERNSTEIN I feel pretty from West Side Story (Unannounced Encore – with Ms. Damrau)
INTERMISSION
R. STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier Suite (orchestra alone)
Poor Alan Green.
He doesn’t have a dollar to show for all of his years representing singers. The cash cow on which his entire roster hangs, cancels more often than he sings. Yet he dare not drop him as he has so many others for lesser infractions. Dispensations are not evenly handed out in the universe.
he just doesn t seem to be much interested in singing anymore.
it s a pitty that in his prime, when he really sang well , he wasn t much known and famous, so people didn t run to his many performances
as you get older the
health can get worse.
Is he ever NOT ill?
Are you never ill? Never had a day off work? Never felt like s**t? Get a life.
In over 30 years I can only remember taking one sick day. Most ordinary mortals are not allowed as many absences as these overindulged performers.
Purchased tickets in early September 5 of us in a box just to hear him(Diana a 2nd). Now this. Has anyone heard him in “Pearlfishers” with Dimitri H? Tops. He can’t help it if he’ sick, but you can.