sydneyboy

Thank you. I visited Montreal many years ago. A very beautiful city.

Could I ask a basic question. Why does Montreal have this predominance of strip clubs? I did google Taboo and it gets very mixed reviews.

That comment of mine was written in haste after a disagreement. I offered an apology, it was exaggerated and everything is back on track.

There are 2 reviews on Rentmen, one positive one mediocre.

The standard of America’s tennis players is certainly higher than Australia’s. Depressing given our great tennis history. We have that appalling Nick Kyrgios who is a disgrace to the game and his country.

A very unusual profile.

I think he’s a cutie.

As I previously reported, in media interviews while he was in Sydney a couple of weeks ago he said he would be singing a staged Tristan in 2021 but did not say where.

I have seen his Sleepyboy ads for some time. I could not connect those with the rentmasseur ad. From what Joethomas reported he is more an escort than masseur.

He must be new, I haven’t noticed his ad before “reviewing “ those sites before my London trips.

Evaldo is very easy on the eye.

Domingo had a reputation as one of the genuine “Mr Nice Guys” of Opera. Humble, unassuming and the antithesis of a Prima Donna. He rarely cancelled. To hear of this dark side is sad.

Unfortunately there is a liberal sprinkling of rude, ignorant internet trolls lurking there. You have to carefully separate the wheat from the chaff.

He gets around and no reviews.

Could you please advise the name of this opera chat site?

This has been widely reported in Australian newspapers.

I started a thread on Kaufmann’s Sydney performances. Magnificent.

I saw Vittorio Grigolo a month ago at Covent Garden in Tosca. What a voice! He received huge ovations from the audience after his major arias and at the final curtain. A major talent and handsome to boot.

The reviews for ''Andrea Chenier'' have now appeared and its obvious that I am not the only one who enjoyed the experience. I quote in part from the review in the ''Sydney Morning Herald'': "A tenor of peerless refinement, a soprano of soaring richness and a fierce-edged baritone of complex darkness. Vive la revolution! Jonas Kaufmann transforms the traditionally stertorous ''spinto'' tenor sound into a thing of wondrous handsomeness, modulating tone, vowel and colour with immaculate poise and musical intelligence. It is a work that lives or dies on its golden voices and, on this occasion, soared triumphantly.''

Jonas Kaufmann has done a number of media interviews while in Sydney and has outlined future plans. He has sung Act 2 of Tristan and he has confirmed that he will sing the whole opera in 2021. Where he did not say but my guess would be his home town of Munich. He has not ruled out eventually singing Siegfried. He is a believer in work life balance and made it clear that he will not be a Domingo singing in his mid 70’s (in Domingo’s case by the way he is going into his 80’s.) He said most people consider retirement in their early 60’s and that made sense to him.

I write in the afterglow of last night's concert performance at the Sydney Opera House of ''Andrea Chenier.'' A dream cast of Jonas Kaufmann, Eva-Maria Westbroek and Ludovic Tezier delivered the most stupendous singing I have heard in 46 years of opera going. A perfectly balanced cast in the prime of their careers. We can consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have had 3 visits from Herr Kaufmann in recent years (a recital, a concert performance of Parsifal and now Chenier.) I had the good fortune of hearing him in Otello at Covent Garden 2 years ago which I reported on here. A very pleasant surprise was Ludovic Tezier. I have read reviews of him overseas and he certainly lived up to expectations. Nothing was lost from it being a concert performance and the audience literally roared its approval at the end. Never to be forgotten.

James Bowman was my first counter tenor. In 1978 he sang in Britten’s “A Midsummer Nights Dream” for Opera Australia in Sydney. The voice type is an acquired taste. This Polish gent is quite a discovery in more ways than one.

Greetings from Barcelona! My third visit to this city since 2015. Thermas quite good. The last 2 visits on this trip I have been entertained by Juan from Columbia. Wow! At 50 euro good value.

I never cease to be amazed at the bewildering range of “high end” hotels in Bangkok and they continue to sprout like mushrooms. The older 5 star hotels have had to upgrade to stay in the race eg The Athenee where I stayed in December/January very good by the way. I find the rates fairly reasonable. Compare Bangkok to Rio. I defy anyone to name a city in the world of comparable standing that has a more appalling choice of hotels. Things have improved marginally in the past 10 years with the renovation of the Copacabana Palace (some of the reviews of the rooms at the Copa pre renovation had to be read to be believed), and the construction of the Fasano and Emiliano. Still the pickings are lean. Most of the beach front hotels are concrete and glass monstrosities dating back to the 1970’s.

I have had 3 procedures from Australia’s leading hair transplant surgeon and that was not a requirement. Dr Russell Knudsen has a detailed website.