New York Times Clips Wings Off Metropolitan Opera's "Bat"

Susanna Phillips (Rosalinde) and Christopher
Maltman (Eisenstein) in Johann Strauss, Jr.'s
Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera
(Photo: Nick Heavican)

"Real Champagne tends to provoke sticker shock in cash-strapped young people hoping to drink their way through New Year’s Eve. A popular solution is André, the saccharine, mass-produced sparkling wine that sells for about $4 or $5 a bottle. The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Johann Strauss Jr.’s tuneful farce Die Fledermaus, which rang in the new year on Tuesday evening, is operatic André: bubbly, sweet and syrupy. It’s not subtle or deep, but if you’re determined to have a party, it’ll get the job done. And the Met’s youthful cast is nothing if not determined to celebrate. The performers sing, dance and mug their way through Strauss’s classic waltzes with big smiles and lots of hearty laughter, intent on showing the audience a good time. But their lines are often worthy of groans more than giggles." [Source]

First Glimpse of Anna Netrebko at MET "Manon" After-Party

More gorgeous photos of Ms. Netrebko by photographer Julie Skarratt can be found here. See more pictures of guests (including Paulo Szot, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Barbara Walters and Peter Gelb) click here.

Talk About Debbie Downer, Critics Need to Pay More Attention

As Deborah Voigt transitions from her performances of Die Walküre at the Metropolitan Opera to a concert of Broadway show-stoppers at Carnegie Hall, the music critic largely neglects another star on stage. Paulo Szot, who has sung at the MET and New York City Opera as well as off-Broadway in South Pacific, joined Ms. Voigt as a special guest for the performance. However, this is all the New York Times music critic decided to include about him in the review: "...the dashing baritone Paulo Szot was special guest and Ms. Voigt’s on-and-off singing partner."

Paulo Szot and Deborah Voigt getting down with Broadway classics (Photo: Julieta Cervantes/NYTimes)

And as for Ms. Voigt, this was the only kind thing he could find to say,"The problems began with the microphone. Ms. Voigt’s decision to use one throughout most of the program turned out to be an exercise in self-suppression. She muted her power to create a more informal, intimate attitude, making her voice sound ragged and occasionally uncertain, if still essentially operatic. Only when she dispensed with amplification to sing 'My Man’s Gone Now,' in a Porgy and Bess suite, did her magnificent sound unfurl in scorching tongues of fire."
[Source]

Paolo Szot Returns to Café Carlyle

(Photo: Robert Stolarik/New York Times)

"It is to say that Mr. Szot has learned to relax enough so that while he sings, you don’t imagine yourself receiving stentorian orders from an army general. Mr. Szot’s lady-killer aura (bedroom eyes, pencil-line mustache, flickering half-smile, loosened tie and the slightly tousled look of a lover emerging from an erotic tussle) is matched vocally by a much more persuasive emotional connection with his material." [Source]

Q&A With Paulo Szot

Szot as Don Giovanni for Dallas Opera
(Photo: Gleb TARRO)

Favorite non-classical musicians and/or recordings? Music that makes you cry – any genre? A few relatively recent films you love? A few books that are important to you (and why)? Thing(s) about yourself that you’re most proud of? Three things you can’t live without? “I have a secret crush on…”? 

Want the answers to those questions and 13 more? Baritone Paulo Szot gives Albert Imperato the full story on Playbill's "20 (Plus) Questions."

MET Sirius XM Radio Tonight: "Tosca"

Listen to the Metropolitan Opera perform Puccini's Tosca live tonight at 8:00 PM EST on Sirius XM radio. Intermission guests: Edward Gardner, Matthew Gallaway, Paulo Szot and Timothy Cobb. 

Watch a video of soprano Sondra Radvanovsky singing "Vissi d'Arte" from the final dress rehearsal at the Metropolitan Opera. She will singing the title role in Tosca this evening for the first time at the MET.

Paulo Szot Returns to Café Carlyle

A pre-Valentine's Day treat for many, opera singer Paulo Szot returns to Café Carlyle from February 1-12. Read a review from his last cabaret performances in New York from September 2010:

"Paulo Szot smolders. With his sultry bedroom eyes, pencil-line mustache and enigmatic half-smile, this Polish-Brazilian baritone is every inch the traditional Latin lover projecting the compressed heat of a boudoir bandit."

Tickets range from $75-$135 and dinner is required. Visit the Café Carlyle website for more information.