Just in: Netrebko is rehearsing Trovatore without a tenor
mainIt is being reported from Berlin that Aleksandrs Antonenko has dropped out of Il Trovatore, leaving Trebs to mark the role without a tenor and only ten days days to opening. Of course, there is an ex-tenor lower down the cast, but he’s a baritone these days. Any chance of a comeback?
Vittorio Grigolo or Roberto Alagna, that is my guess…..
Grigolo is too small. Alagna: unlikely. Álvarez could do it, if he has no conflict.
Kaufmann could spring to the rescue, at least for the first two nights, if he chose (madly, heroically) to take time from preparation for “La forza del destino” in Munich — but that would be a waste because Barenboim can’t conduct Verdi.
Come to think of it, maybe Antonenko bailed because his work with Muti has taught him how a Verdian phrase should sound.
Álvarez is in Tokyo. Grigolo may be “too small” but he would jump on any big money bandwagon (remember Rigoletto from Mantua with Domingo singing Rigoletto…..), and so would do Alagna. Kaufmann would be upstaged by Anna and Domingo anyway so he won’t do it, reportedly he cancelled the concert with Anna and Schrott in London two years ago because of this, because of Anna getting all the limelight of course and he wants to be the only star of the show……
Unfounded slur on Kaufmann.
Unfounded? At all.
Anyway, apparently they’ve picked Gaston Rivero to replace Antonenko.
How do you have a Trovatore sans Manrico? I suppose it IS standard repertoire and there shouldn’t be a problem finding someone capable of singing it. But, in this era, when singers are booked years in advance that might be a problem. I wonder if the cited tenor now baritone might not be capable of the role–even if he might no longer have the Cs. (I don’t think any of the 5-6 Cs are written but of course, theyre always sung!)
It is no just Cs that he does not have these days but Bs or As either. He has not sung anything above G in public for several years now. This is not meant as criticism but is simply a fact of life. For me, PD is one of the greatest operatic performers ever.