Barbican

31st October 2006

I do think these are like 2 of the coolest singers ever. Anna is like the sexiest girl in the world except for maybe Aisleyne off Big Brother but actually Anna might be sexier if she wore what Aisleyne wears or maybe doesn’t wear is a better way of saying it. Rolando is well cool, brilliant singer brilliant actor so I should of really loved this but I didn’t. Everyone else really loved it but sometimes I think I go to a different performance from the critics which I probably do of the operas but there was only one of this I think. There were bits I liked, in the first half Anna was wearing a dress with a low neckline and I got some really good views and it was well cool when she bowed. I hate it when they bow with their hands over their cleaviges, it’s just not fair when they do that. And sometimes they just kind of curtsey and don’t really bend over so you don’t get to see anything extra.

Anyway they started off with this orchestral thing, everything the orchestra did was brilliant, those were the best bits in the concert. It was the Royal Philharmonic conducted by Emmanuel Villaume and they did the overture to Romeo et Juliette, a bit from Eugene Onegin, the prelude to Carmen and the Cav Intermezzo. They were all well good but the Carmen one was a bit short. The Onegin one seemed longer than it does in the opera but maybe I was imagining things.

Anna started with Juliette’s aria and she sounded a bit dodgy, her voice was a bit thin and she was missing some of the notes but I think any soprano would really if they started off with that one, you have to be brave to do that. Anyway it warmed her up really well and she sounded great in the rest of it but she didn’t seem that involved in what she was singing, the bits she sang on her own were a bit boring sometimes. The one by Delibes was the best, the Russian one was okay and so was the Catalani but I just can’t take that one seriously, who would call their leading woman Wally?

Rolando wasn’t singing his best all the way though, he sounded really scratchy. When he did the Massenet one I thought okay he’s just warming up but he never did warm up. Even the Lensky aria was a bit crackly and he’s brilliant at that. The Cav aria was the best, he got really involved in that and it suited it that his voice wasn’t very smooth.

The duets were weird, it was like they were more interested in playing up their own relationship, not the characters. They say they’re not shagging and I believe them, if they wanted to make up something to make their fans like them even more they’d probably say they were. But they can’t keep their hands off each other. Violetta thinks they’re secretly in love and one day they’ll realise it, I don’t know much about love but there’s lust definately. Rolando should get in there, even if Aisleyne is sexier they probably don’t have much in common. Maybe they were just acting really well though.

They did 3 encores but we didn’t see the last one, we went after the West Side Story duet because Violetta saw this guy she says is stalking her, I don’t reckon he is but everyone else said we could go so we ended up missing the Brindisi which Violetta was really hoping to see them do so she’s a bit pissed off but it’s all her stalker’s fault of course. They did it in Halloween costume aparently, cool! So I do kind of wish we’d stayed till the end. I don’t remember what the 1st encore was, it was okay but the West Side Story one was better than everyone’s saying. Rolando’s English is well good and his voice seemed the smoothest it was all night I think Bernstein is a bit crap usually and of course it’s a really slushy song but I thought it sounded good. We missed the signing too which was crap but Rolando wouldn’t have had a chance with Anna if she’d seen me would he?

FitCrit

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