Speaking of tenors

The Age today has an interview with Franco Farina, the American tenor singing the title role in Opera Australia's Melbourne season of Otello, which opens tomorrow night. To judge by the accompanying photo, he's going to be a bit more blacked up than Dennis O'Neill was here. As with Butterfly, I'm keen to hear reports of this production from anyone attending, especially as the Melbourne papers seem to have stopped reviewing opera, or at least publishing the reviews online. 

It's Farina I'm especially curious about. To my knowledge, I've never heard him sing a note, but his name is well known to me from the blogosphere, where I've read more hilariously horrified comments about his singing than of almost anybody else's. Earlier this year he even bit back at one less-than-impressed blogger, which just isn't cricket. Anyway, I'll be interested to hear if he lives up to the anti-hype or is, in fact, perfectly fine. 

Kate Ladner sings Desdemona. Cheryl Barker has spoken about talking revival director Cathy Dadd into accepting her own conception of the role, which differed from Harry Kupfer's. I wonder, then, if Ladner will bring Desdemona back in line with Kupfer's vision of a "stronger and feistier" figure than Cheryl's (gorgeous...I'm sighing again at the thought of her...) heroine. 

Otello and Desdemona might be different, but the best thing about the Sydney production remains unchanged in Melbourne — Jonathan Summers is still singing Iago. He's worth the price of admission on his own, and definitely worth the shudders and nightmares his performance may well elicit. In fact I'm beginning to feel a bit jealous (how appropriate) just thinking of it. But I suppose I had more than my fill during the Sydney season. Enjoy, Melbourne!

Comments

[Barbara]

FF does a fairly decent Nessun dorma on YouTube. It's pretty hard to find people who can sing Otello.