Hello everyone! Two weeks after my return to London following Manon in Valladolid (Spain), I’m finally starting to feel a bit more rested and reset after the madness of the last 6 months... Looking back upon it, it truly was a very exciting time for me where I had the chance to sing a really varied amount of amazing music. Yes, that came at the expense of learning and performing three new roles in six months - Suibhne, Fauteuil and Lescaut - but what a joy it was to sing in all three of these productions and being consistently surrounded by caring, wonderful, talented and fun people, on stage and off.
While I start gearing up for some of my upcoming engagements, I thought I’d share with you some of the pictures from our production of Manon. It was a joy to be completely immersed in this music which I adore with all my heart and, as the blog title suggests, I really hope to one day sing Massenet’s rarely performed sequel Le Portrait de Manon where Des Grieux becomes a baritone, putting an end to all my woes of ‘I wished Des Grieux was a baritone’.
Hopefully, these pictures manage to capture some of the joys and fun I had while performing this role and this opera! Of course there are many more pictures of rehearsal and backstage antics and you'll be able to find those on my Instagram account, if you don't follow me there yet.
In the meantime, and after being back to London, I also had the amazing opportunity to sit down with Sarah Gibbs from PlaysToSee.com, and chat a bit not only about my career and my latest roles, but also about issues which are very close to my heart such as Diversity and Equality on stage, and Opera's political and social relevance throughout History. I don't know if you've had the chance to read it yet, but you'll be able to find it here.
I'll be in touch again soon with some thoughts about my next Opera - Ariadne auf Naxos! Again, one of those incredible works which had a bit of a convoluted inception, but I'll talk to you a little bit a about that in a few weeks time!
In the meantime, Happy Easter to everyone and - because it's easter - what best way to celebrate Opera that happens around this time of year than with a compilation of *that* moment in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana!
A dopo,
Ricardo