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Kaufmann loses his Iago

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norman lebrecht

September 21, 2019

Claudio Sgura replaced Ludovic Tézier at the Bavarian State Opera’s season-opening Otello last night. He is listed for the next two performances.

Tézier reportedly pulled out.

Adam Fischer conducts.

Comments

Olassus says:

September 22, 2019 at 5:43 am

Looking forward to hearing him on Tuesday, although Tézier would have been wonderful.

As staged, Iago is hard to pull off, and there are hints he is physically attracted to Otello. (Finley did well last season.) It may be that Tézier wanted to sing and act Shakespeare’s Iago and not execute the stage director’s precious concept.

John Rook says:

September 22, 2019 at 1:08 pm

As staged, Iago is hard to pull off, and there are hints he is physically attracted to Otello.

Well, maybe Otello will oblige.

Reply
Nik says:

September 23, 2019 at 9:38 am

Tézier was also supposed to sing Iago at the ROH in 2017 when Kaufmann had his role debut, but he was removed from the production for unspecified reasons.

Reply
- Yes Addison says:
  
  September 23, 2019 at 12:45 pm
  
  No, I think that that time we did know. He kept missing rehearsals with a reported health-related issue, but promising to come later. The ROH finally decided they couldn’t let one of the principals miss any more prep time on a new production, so they sent the cover on. It was probably the right thing to do. Unfortunately, the audience got Vratogna’s worn-out singing.
  
  Tézier then put up a video in which he announced he was in perfectly good health and wished he could have sung the Iagos.
  
  But you’re correct that it’s not the first time Tézier has been scheduled for performances of Iago with Kaufmann’s Otello and then hasn’t sung them.
  
  Reply