José Carreras Gala 2013 (Back after my long summer break;))

Now wasn't that a long, long summer?

Now I'm back and well, the new opera season in Vienna has started 2 weeks ago - I think by now I can say that opera house is my 2nd home! Seems to be so anyways, hahaha. 

However, the other day I was at the José Carreras Gala. It was a beautiful and quite touching matinée. I had seats for a change! The seats weren't expensive at all and the good thing was that a big part of the money you paid benefited José Carreras' leukemia foundation!! So this matinée was the most wonderful thing in any aspect.

The concert itself featured not only Carreras himself, but also some younger singers. 2/3 of these young singers were good. The baritone and the soprano did a nice job (though he got the lyrics wrong one time and she breathed terribly wrong at one point - but hey, not that big of a deal this time), but the mezzo soprano was terrible. ANYWAYS. Carreras was in a WONDERFUL shape, I tell you! Loved his singing♥
Also they sang SO many encores! I don't remember how many, actually!

José Carreras also got the "Ehrenring der Wiener Staatsoper" in the course of that matinée. It was quite some touching moment!!! There was only one criticizable moment ... When the director of the State Opera gave him that award, the director held a little speech (at least he tried to...) and he mentioned for only split seconds what an important singer Carreras is for the opera house, then he changed to the subject of the younger singers that were performing in that matinée. I mean - who does that!? In that moment you have to honor one of the most important singers of all time and NOT talk about how great the younger ones are, right? That should have been Carreras moment and his moment ONLY!!! After that event he could have talked about the younger generation as much as he wanted, but NOT DURING THAT MATINÉE!!!!! OMG!

Enough said about that now. He also wrote so many autographs that day for such a long time (2 hours I estimate that was)! Admirable! Also I got one :) And a photo:))) --->>>happiest girl;)

Today in the news I saw that also Baltsa was there. I expected her to be there actually. Tried to see where she sat, but I couldn't find her among the crowd. 

Here's a small article from today's newspaper. The picture above = Baltsa & Carreras --->> L-O-V-E-L-Y

On Wednesday (September 18) there will be Agnes Baltsa's solo concert at the State Opera - she'll be performing her Greek Songs. I'm SO looking forward to it! I've actually got 1rst row tickets!!!!!
(btw she performs the Greek songs again in November - in Linz)


Here's a short clip I uploaded on YT:

Programme of the Gala:

La gazza ladra - Ouverture

Te voglio bene assaje (Gaetano Donizetti) - José Carreras

Nel giardin' sotto il tiglio (Franz Schreker) - José Carreras

Una voce poco fa (Gioachino Rossini) - Margarita Gritskova

La ci darem la mano (W.A. Mozart) - Adam Plachetka, Anita Hartig

Vedrò, mentr'io sospiro (W.A. Mozart) - Adam Plachetka

Terra e mare (Giacomo Puccini) - José Carreras

Sole e amore (Giacomo Puccini) - José Carreras

Oh dieu, que de bijoux (Charles Gounod) - Anita Hartig

Je te veux (Erik Datie) - José Carreras, Anita Hartig

T'estimo (Edvard Grieg) - José Carreras

El eco de tu voz (Isaac Albéniz) - José Carreras

Canción del gitano (Francisco Alonso) - José Carreras

Les filles de Cadix (Lé Delibes) - Anita Hartig

Sogno (Francsco Tosti) - Adam Plachetka

Pecchè (Francesco Pennino) - José Carreras

Vierno (Vincenzo Acampora) - José Carreras

Habanera (George Bizet) - Margarita Gritskova

Dúo y Jota (Manuel Caballero) - José Carreras, Margarita Gritskova

Core n'grato (Salvatore Cardillo) - José Carreras