Royal Wedding Music, Part 2: Who Would Be Available To Sing?
POTENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR ROYAL WEDDING SOLOIST
In a business where professionals are contracted out five years in advance, what singer could possible be free to sing for the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on April 29, 2011? Checking schedules of the top dozen front-runners for the job discloses that some could be a private jet ride away from the event:
Renée Fleming will have completed her last performance of Strauss's Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera on April 23 and has a Strauss concert of orchestral songs and scenes from Arabella with the Berlin Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann.
Anna Netrebko sings the Pergolesi Stabat Mater on April 28 in Geneva, Switzerland, and again on May 2 in Toulouse, France.
Kate Royal makes her Metropolitan Opera debut the night of April 29 in Orfeo ed Euridice. The second performance of the run is May 4. There are only five performances of the Gluck opera.
Angela Gheorghiu has concerts on April 27 and May 1 at the National Concert Hall in Seoul, Korea.
Marina Poplavskaya is performing The Tsar's Bride of Rimsky-Korsakov at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden during the month of April and her penultimate performance in the run takes place at 7PM on April 29.
Anja Harteros just canceled her appearances at the San Diego Opera as the Marschallin in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, but is to appear in that very role on May 4 in Wiesbaden. She will be singing performances of Mimí in La Bohème at the Hamburg State Opera on April 23 & 30.
Cecilia Bartoli makes her way to Down Under for concerts in Australia on March 15 & 18. Then there is nothing in her schedule until a May 5 concert performance with Orchestra La Scintilla in Berlin.
Elīna Garanča the mezzo-soprano is singing the role of Giovanna Seymour in Donizett's Anna Bolena with a last performance at the Wien Staatsoper in Austria on April 17 and the first performance of the same work at the Opernhaus Zürich in Switzerland on May 21.
What about the possibility of a male performing during the ceremony?
Rolando Villazón will be in rehearsals at the Royal Opera House for Massenet's Werther which will have its opening night on May 5.
Plácido Domingo sings a concert with Ana María Martínez in Puerto Rico on April 17 and then will head to Washington, D.C., for Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride opening on May 6.
Jonas Kaufmann can be found at the Metropolitan Opera in the middle of performing the role of Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre. Performance dates bookend the nuptials date: April 28 and May 2.
Bryn Terfel is also at the Metropolitan Opera taking on the role of Wotan with performances scheduled on April 28 and May 2.
