There was the Press Conference and Photo Call
A report (in Spanish) Ovacionan a Plácido por La Valquiria en Copenhague
And an exclusive eye-witness account from Raffe, Our Correspondent in the Frozen North:
woooooow! (we are back from Copenhagen...). The Valkyrie in Copenhagen on April 7 with our hero as the hero Siegmund (you can tell I'm feeling poetic). It was a magic evening. Plácido sounded, looked and moved like a superman half his age. Warm, rich, beautiful 'baritonal' sounds. The rest of the cast and production were very, very good too. Sieglinde (Gitta-Marie Sjöberg) was a fine match to Placi's Siegmund and the Fricka/Wotan (Susanne Resmark/James Johnsen) interchange in act 2 was excellent. Audiences applauded like they've never done before in the frozen north at the end of each act. Placi came back also for the third act curtain calls and got standing ovations (of course). I did not stalk him by the stage door, take pictures or ask him if we could elope together or anything. (I'll save that for a later occasion ;-) Now that I've seen that hero's real age is somewhere between 35 and 40, I'm sure there will be more chances. PS: There was quite a bit of furniture abuse in this production. One fine example was when Placi-Siegmund threw a chair through the french windows at Hunding's place.
Also, a report on Opera-L
I had wondered how Domingo would sound after his long illness. But I need not have worried. He sang extremely well. It is amazing that there is no trace of age in his voice at all. His voice sounded extremely even in all its range and his low notes are very impressive. His "Wälse" sounded very impressive. It is uncanny how much he sounds like on his recordings.
As the first act came to an and I wondered how the A at the end would sound. It sounded fine - but unlike what I have heard him do before he did not hold on to it at all but went almost directly from "Wäl" to "sung" and then but the stress on "sungenblut". It worked ok musically - and better than an ugly-sounding long A would have been.
I was impressed how young he looked. He must have lost weight (he looked very slim) and he moved (and fell) like a young man. His deathscene was very moving.
So Furniture Abuse and Falling on the Floor. What more does an opera need...?
