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Florez wows crowd at Met with 18 high Cs - Yahoo! News

NEW YORK - Rewarding a rare encore with an even rarer standing ovation in midperformance, a rapturous Metropolitan Opera audience hailed the company’s beguiling new production of Donizetti’s comic gem, “La Fille du Regiment” (”The Daughter of the Regiment”).

It was Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez as the lovesick Tonio who brought the crowd to its feet late in Act 1 on Monday night by sailing with ease through the nine high Cs in the aria, “Pour mon ame” — and then singing it a second time.

Listen to it as it happened.

The ovation in the middle is incredible. I’ve been to The Met and the idea that people would basically lose their minds like that in the middle of a performance is amazing. I would love to have been there. Thankfully he’s going to be at the Met again next year in La Sonnambula, so I’ll get a chance to see him do his thing live. It won’t be something as remarkable as this, but it should still be pretty good

Here’s a Youtube video of him performing the same aria last year:

I’m deeply saddened by his passing. It was apparent the end was near with the amount of time he’s spent in the hospital but it still puts a sour note on the morning. I never saw him sing live, which is a mistake I’ll regret for a long time to come. It’s just one of those things…

Anyway, let’s celebrate his immense talent with the help of Youtube. None of those bullshit pop star duets here. I’m going to honor his passing with a duet with Dame Joan Sutherland.

This is a real standard so it might be familiar to even opera averse ears. What might not be common knowledge is the fact that this is a drinking song. It is, just check out the words- Libiamo ne’ lieti calici.

Famed opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who appeared on stage with singers as varied as opera star Dame Joan Sutherland, U2’s Bono and Liza Minnelli, died Thursday in Italy after suffering from pancreatic cancer, manager Terri Robson said in a statement. He was 71.

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71 - CNN.com

I bought tickets for the October 20th Saturday matinée performance of Aida. I’m really excited to go as (a) I heart opera in general and (b) I’ve always wanted to go to the Met specifically. My desire to go has grown significantly as we listen to the Met broadcasts regularly. We try to listen every week with varying results depending on our schedule. At worst they’re on in the car while we’re out doing errands, so we get the performances in 20 minute chunks. At best they’re on while we sit out back sipping a cocktail

After the show we’ll be meeting my New York people for dinner somewhere (I have to figure out where. I want to go here. Or here again.) It’s going to be a fun weekend…

Met Opera has record opening-day sales - Yahoo! News

This is a very cool thing. I got this email from The Weekly Dig’s Craig Kapilow. Opera is the shit*:

“Hey all,

I wanted to reach out and let you know about a special work related project that I’m unbelievably excited about, and hopefully it will interest you as well.

Late last year, I was approached by Opera Boston (far more contemporary than Boston Lyric Opera) with the hopes of working together to increase the interest in opera amongst our general age group. We decided on partnering with their existing operas, while producing smaller, more intimate affairs in non-traditional opera venues.

We launched with an event (and yes I suck for not mentioning it earlier) called Opera Underground, essentially a bare bones $5 opera at the Lizard Lounge (there will be another one.) The event completely sold out, and in fact, we had to turn away almost 200 people at the door throughout the night. The event itself was great - you saw tons of older folks enjoying opera next to kids - it was a cool scene..

We’re following this up by presenting the first ever Dig Night at The Opera on Friday, February 23. Essentially, the first performance of every Opera Boston production will be Dig Night! We’ve created a discount price for Dig readers (2 tix for $50,) and will be throwing a free after-party as well - nothing fancy, but somewhere to grab drinks.

We chose Kurt Weil’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny to launch the series. Some of you may be familiar with his work - The Doors covered his Alabama Song, and he heavily influenced the likes of David Bowie, the Dresden Dolls, Nick Cave and others. For those that aren’t, visit http://www.operaboston.org/dignite for more information. If you’d like to purchase tix, you can do so here, http://www.broadwayoffers.com/go.aspx?MD=2001&MC=OPERADIG&PID=4464, or by phone 1-800-233-3123 and the offer code is OPERADIG (to get the discounted price.)

And in case you were curious… pre-press from the Opera Underground
Read all about it:

“Opera Boston brings informal cabaret to the Lizard Lounge”
12/15/06 David Weininger, The Boston Globe

“Where there’s a Weill, there’s a way”
12/18/06 Bobby Hankinson, The Flip Side blog, Boston.com

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The Boston Phoenix

Hopefully you can make it!

Thanks,
Craig ”

*I’m putting my money where my mouth is there as I’ve got tickets for La Boheme in just a couple of weeks.