OPIUM in Madrid

Did anyone attend yesterday Opium concert in
Madrid?


Well I was there and it was an unforgettable experience.
I said before that I wasn’t very fond of melodies françaises and Duffy told me
to wait till I hear him live and she was right!!!


I am still under the spell of his charm and
talent (and I am also working) but I’ll try to write something clear about this
amazing concert. Please is someone was there also share your opinions! I met
two women from Barcelona who went all that way long (as I did from the other
side of Spain) and they were also so excited!


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Pilarddcc,

Yessss! Or to say it with Philippe: Chacapumba, chacapumba! Now imagine this program in a small hall, more intimacy.....I'll do it ever and ever again, if I'd get the opportunity. I'm happy you loved it, too......

Dear all! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]here you have my modest contribution to Philippe's cocnert reviews. I hope you like it:


Yesterday it was a great experience in Madrid.
The theatre was full and I was very lucky because I could change my seat for a
great one in platea. I was so near that I could see him sweat! He looked
stunning and very very happy. His eyes were bright and he was enjoying it. The
repertoire was mostly Opium CD but he added some jewels as Berlioz’s ”L’île
inconnu” and some Verlaine’s poems, I think he wanted us to enjoy an advance of
his next CD. I particularly enjoyed his “Nuit d’Espagne” et “Il pleure dans mon
Coeur”. He was fantastic and so sensual, his voice was like velvet, and the
atmosphere was very languishing, very fin du siècle! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


He was very generous and he made four encores.
He addressed us in a very sweet Spanish (he’s improving a lot!) and the public
was totally in fever when he started to sing the Viardot’s habanera half Spanish
half French. Then he chose a French melodie about an “affair gallante” but I
don’t know the author, and he played with his baritone and his contre-tenor
voice, making fun of his changes and being such a great “comediant”. The third
encore was “Duerme negrito” in the piano rendition, very sweet. By then people
were in ecstasy clapping and shouting “bravo”, standing, etc. so he repeated “Sombrero” as the last
encore. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


His voice was especially flexible; I don’t know
how to express it. Even if he always sounds amazing, he looked fresh and on top
form. You could actually feel him very relaxed. I’m still stunned by his great
memory, all those songs, long and complex poems and he did as he was doing
something easy.


Then he started the signing line. Unfortunately
there was no kissing line! There were a lot of people but he was very patient
as usual. I must confess I was a little ashamed because there were some people
who actually brought a lot of CD’s to sign for everyone they know and they took
a long time to do it. Poor thing was in a hurry because he had a dinner with
the Theather’s director so he had to finish as soon as possible. It was such a
pleasure to see him and talk a little to him again. I tried my best with my
French even if he was talking in a very fluent and beautiful Spanish. People around
were delighted, me too!!


To sum up it was such a great soirée, his
talent and his charm were as usual in very high levels, it worths always to
follow him around the world….
I'm in heaven [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Pilar,

I'm s-oooo envious as I desperately wanted to go to this concert but the Teatro de la Zarzuela's inflexible online booking system wouldn't accept my "foreign" credit card (and there were seats available at the time too). I don't understand why as I had no problems with the same card when booking tickets for the Teatro Real (who use a different system).

And he sang my favourite Verlaine poem, apparently (sob, sob) ...

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much and thanks for the report.

A.

The rehearsal

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Artemis: What a pity! I didn't know that it was so difficult to get online tickets!

Lullamy: Beautiful picture! I would have love to be in the rehearsal, you were so lucky! I heard that sometimes Philippe allows people to be there...

Thanks Lullamy
Oh Pilar, Pilar, OMG!
Luuuucky girl!

Oh dear Pilar, what a wonderful description of your evening with Felipito!!!You almost made me feel as if I had a li'l window into the concert and it was very generous of you to take time to tell in detail!!! I am very happy for you to be so close to him!

And I feel for Artemis, to not be able to get tickets. Sob. He is such a hottie!!! Gracias nuevamente Pilar!!!!
Maria

Pilar

I didn't attend the rehearsal, nor the concert. I wish! A friend sent me the pic and I decided to share it here.

Ohhhh Lullamy! What a pity! However you have a very nice
friend, very kind of him to send you a picture. I am checking in Youtube just
in case someone has recorded something of this concert. I had some pictures but
they are really bad and while I was taking them I was scared that someone would
have argued with me, so I didn’t dare to record anything. I wonder how other
people got those great videos!!

Hi everyone. I tried to get some pictures for you, but I didn't want to disturb his performance or bother him during the autograph's line. So the result is quite bad and my camera is not very good. However I post them here. Next time I'll try to get a better camera!


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Thanks Jna for your help, i'm very clumsy!

Pilar,

I think they're very good pictures; this is what he really looks like, as opposed to the "photo-shopped" efforts that end up in magazines. I'm very gratified to see that he is taking care of his countertenor-ly throat with a warm scarf!

Did Jérôme Ducros sign as well?

A.

Thank you Artemis! He looks very chic with that scarf [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I didn't know that Jérôme sings! He didn't in Madrid.

Pilarddcc

What a nice pictures!!!! ( You did it with the upload, didn´t you? )



" Sign "- not "sing"!

But Mr. Ducros has an verrrry nice deep baritone.

Dear Jana, I'm glad you like them. I'm quite clumsy with computers!

I missunderstood the question, Artemis!! I was surprised about Jérôme singing but you never knows...however, he didn't sign, he vanished after the concert. Philippe was very quick, the poor thing didn't have a little break before starting to sign. He had a dinner after the concert and there were a lot of people in the line, but he was very kind and patient, always with a big smile. He's so adorable [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

No one in this forum were there? It's a pity. BTW I read in a spanish opera forum that he was thinking of coming back to Madrid in 2013 because it would be too much not to sing in eight months. Someone said that his partner is Spanish and he feels quite confortable in Spain, I don't know if the source is reliable but lucky us spaniards!!!! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

A Spanish partner would explain why his Spanish is so good. Nothing is better for your language skills than a whole family in law who only speak that language.

Yes, Caroline, nothing is better than sleeping with the dictionary!! I should have done that with my German, by now I would speak decently...it's a pity I love very much my own spaniard! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Pilar,

I wouldn't really expect Jérôme to sing - at least in public! Although he does sing at the beginning of the "Opium" video and has quite an attractive, ringing baritone voice (bet he would be a bit inhibited to sing in front of Philippe on the concert platform though). I only asked because he does participate in the autograph sessions sometimes - and rightly so - he's a real collaborator on the Opium project and an equal partner. He composes too, btw.

Yes, I saw him in reviews signing near Felipe but I guess this time he wanted to go away because the signing line was long and Felipe finished at 11 o'clock!!

Yes, Pilar, nothing is better than sleeping with the dictionary, the dear dictionary, but bear in mind that it is a geographical dictionary!!
I am sure that Felipe has learned to declare already perfectly "zarrapastroso", "juerga flamenca " and " jamón serrano ", and am afraid that Christina Pluhar claims that, in a future" Iberian project ", Felipe is started by Huelva´s fandangos, farrucas or soleares.
For own experience I know that it does what it does, it will do it well, but it would not like to see it singing to duo with Chiquetete, indeed, indeed that nó. I also have my limits.

Don't be like that! There are a lot of spanish baroque music to choose, maybe this supposed Iberian project could explore that. I would die of love if Felipe keeps singing in Spanish

What do you think about these?:

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Both videos are beautiful, beautiful.

All Spanish Baroque repertoire is a huge treasure to Philip, as rich as the Italian and sometimes much more dramatic. It may be madness, of course.

This was a joke, Pilar, but ... the last Christina Pluhar gives me a little afraid and Felipe is so nice ....

Great pictures, Pilar, thanks for sharing them, and thanks for your review too! You must have been so happy!!!

Rosamunda: I know, my dear!

SJuli: You're wellcomed! Ye I was in heaven!

I found this little report about the concert. If you need any help with spanish, just let me know!

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