Rolando Villazón & Ildar Abdrazakov Team Up For ‘Duets’
By Francisco SalazarDeutsche Grammophon has announced Rolando Villazón’s new album.
The CD entitled “Duets” will include Ildar Abdrazakov with Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conducting the Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain.
“Duets” will include French and Italian opera duets for tenor and bass/baritone and is set for release in September. It marks the singers’ first album together and marks Abdrazakov’s debut on the yellow label.
It also marks Villazon’s second duet album after having recorded one in 2007 with Anna Netrebko. That album became an international success and topped numerous charts.
Abdrazakov and Villazon have known each other for many years, having first appeared on stage together in a production of “Lucia di Lammermoor” in 2009 at the Metropolitan Opera.
For Villazón and Nézet-Séguin, this marks yet another collaboration. The two first met in 2008 for a production of Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” at the Salzburg Festival, which was later released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon, and have recently teamed up for a Mozart cycle every year at the Baden-Baden Festival. They have since recorded “Don Giovanni,” “Così fan tutte,” “Le Nozze di Figaro” and “Die Entführung aus dem Serail.” This year they recorded “La clemenza di Tito” and next year they are slated for “Die Zauberflöte.”
After the release of the album, the pair will be performing the same repertoire on a tour that will take them to Prague, Berlin, Baden-Baden, Stuttgart, Munich, Paris and Vienna.