Not a great photo! I had previously got him to pose for two other photos but my camera was all wrong*.
I had not held much hope of seeing Rolando Villazón at the Stage Door, because the production sponsors, Coutts**, were holding a post-performance reception. Someone asked him why he wasn't there; he explained he wasn't dressed for it - sadly not visible in this photo, he was wearing a Kermit the Frog t-shirt.
He saw me and greeted me with 'hello' and then a hug and a kiss, which was rather delightful! There were a fair few people gathered round, asking for autographs and so on. One chap said "I don't do autographs, but would you like to come for a drink...?" Apologetically, he said he was already meeting friends. So the chap said "Jonas Kaufmann did!"
To which Rolando replied "He's nicer than me." Pause. "And he has a bigger voice." A mixture of laughter and people, like myself, saying "You have different voices...". Indeed I put to Rolando the suggestion someone had made on a newsgroup of a modern 'Three Tenors' featuring Rolando, Jonas and Juan Diego Florez because of the differences in their voices. His reaction was, it' s not going to happen***, although he and JDF are doing a concert in Paris, but it was clear that he acknowledged the attractions of such a combination.
He then went on to talk about Jonas's performance as Cavaradossi, full of praise. Someone mentioned the 'Vittoria, vittoria', Rolando commented on Jonas's piano singing. I was deeply impressed by what he was saying. His praise was generous and genuine and totally ungrudging. He was speaking like a fan. I guess it would be easy for fans and critics to create some sort of 'rivalry' but I definitely didn't get that impression from Jonas either. Someone asked Rolando whether he had any plans to sing Cavaradossi; he said five years. So someone asked about Otello (to the general horror of everyone around). Rolando said he would sing it once, then his career would be finished! But he did treat us to 'Esultate!', which was lovely. I said something or other about how wonderful I think he is in the lyric rep, and how I am so looking forward to Hoffmann in the autumn.
I could have waited to see if anyone else would be coming out (Robert Lloyd and Sonia Ganassi had already left) but I figured that those who were going to the Reception could be a long time. I had work the next day, and while the Victoria line is closed after 10pm, my journey home is somewhat longer.
* someone had been twittering in my ear; someone I regularly stand with at the Stage Door. I actually like her quite a lot, but sometimes I just like to concentrate on the task in hand...
** I've used their cash machine once or twice
*** I think the 'three tenors' thing has been done already
