Due to weather conditions in New York, soprano Renée Fleming has been grounded by airlines still catching up from the Christmas blizzard. She will be singing the New Year's Eve concert with Staatskapelle Dresden on Friday with Christian Thielemann conducting excerpts from Lehar's Die Lustige Witwe. Thankfully Anna Netrebko is nearby and will sing the dress rehearsal, which will also be filmed.
The program will now feature the aria "Heia, heia, in den Bergen" from Die Csárdásfürstin by Emmerich Kálmán (Netrebko) and "Rojo Tango" by Pablo Ziegler (Schrott). The two will sing the duet "Lippen schweigen" from Die lustige Witwe.
The rest of the operetta highlights will be sung by Anna Gabler and Christopher Maltman. The taped portion with Netrebko and Schrott will be shown before the live concert with Fleming on Friday evening. It is a good thing everything worked out or Deutsche Grammophon would have to ditch their planned CD release.