Oh sweet Jeeeez, this beggars belief. Turning third-rate pop-stars into three-hundredth-rate "opera singers" with the help of "opera singers" Jenkins and Bocelli?!? And WTF is Rolando Villazon doing in it? Have things really got that bad for him?
Happy new year to you too, ITV. If you were funded by my licence fee, I'd refuse to pay it. Fortunately you are not.
As for Rolando, here's an extract from Werther at the Paris Opera last year, including the great aria "Pourquoi me reveiller". The debate on YouTube (double-click on the video to acccess it), is all about whether this wonderful voice can be saved... Compare his contribution with the vocal ease of Susan Graham as Charlotte.
Jessica Duchen is a music journalist and the author of four novels, two biographies and several stage works. She writes regularly for The Independent and BBC Music Magazine. Her latest novel, Songs of Triumphant Love, is published by Hodder.
- Brexit Revolt – The insider account of the EU referendum
- We need your help and support
- Standpoint Presenting Two Debates At HowTheLightGetsIn 2016
- The Compleat Corbyn — a round-up of Standpoint's Corbyn coverage this month
- We Told You So
- Sir Raymond Carr in Standpoint
- Conduct Unbecoming: The Classical Commentaries of Norman Lebrecht in Standpoint
- Chronicling The Crash: A Standpoint Ebook
- Is Islam a Peaceful Religion? Daniel Johnson at the Oxford Union
- Standpoint's Autumn Salons
- Win Tickets to the Inaugural Standpoint Salon
- Is Hunter's History Bunk?
- Lawson Collects on Climate Change Bet
- The Cabinet meeting that kept Salman Rushdie alive
- Friends of Russia or Friends of Putin?
- Russia's Win-Win Election
- The Kremlin Plays Old Tricks With Pussy Riot
- A Pyrrhic Victory for Georgian Democracy
- Abandoned in Moscow
- Standpoint's New Facebook Page
- No need to pander to the Bear, Mr Obama
- Govemania
- Standpoint Recommends: The Tacitus Lecture 2012
- Goodbye, Vienna
- Friends Indeed — Daniel Johnson on Gertrude Himmelfarb
- New Culture Forum Lecture: Jeremy Hunt
- Kangaroo Courts Arrive Down Under
- Time To Revisit The Two Cultures
- Opposites meet in the land of Scrugletopia
- The Battle Against The Philistines Never Ceases
- How The EU Elite Paved The Way For Populism
- Why France Is Revolting Against The Ancien Regime
- Anything Dennett Can Do, Scruton Does Meta
- Last Of The Great Elitists
- A Decent Woman Betrayed By Her Gruesome Twosome
9:01 PM