August Opera Challenge Day Twenty Five: Opera You Would Sell A Kiidney To See

A year ago I was actually trying to sell a kidney (as well as my soul) to see the ROH Pappano-conducted Tosca with Kaufmann, Gheorghiu and Terfel. Luckily, all it took in the end was a combined twenty eight hours of queueing and I got to see both performances with all of my vital organs still intact. Now that's all over, I'm back to wishing Mephistopheles would pop up and exachange my soul for a ticket to La Scala's upcoming Don Giovanni. From the 7th of December to the 14th of January the world's most famous opera house are staging one of my favourite operas. Daniel Barenboim and Heinz Steffens are conducting, and the casting is amazing.

Sadly, Elina Garnaca won't be singing Donna Elvira any more because of her pregnancy, but the rest of the performers and their alternates are still worth the sacrifice:

Don Giovanni- Peter Mattei, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo
Leporello- Bryn Terfel, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo
Donna Anna- Anna Netrebko, Tamar Iveri
Donna Elvira- Barbara Frittoli, Maria Agresta
Don Ottavio- Giuseppe Filianoti, John Osborn
Zerlina- Anna Prohaska, Ekaterina Sadovnikova
Masetto- Stefan Kocan, Kostas Smoriginas
Il Commendatore- Kwangchul Youn, Alexander Tsymbalyuk

I won't be getting anywhere near Milan this year (or next) so my only hope of witnessing this piece of opera heaven is to see a cinema broadcast on the 7th of December, but according to the Opera in Cinema website, there aren't any scheduled UK broadcasts (yet?) Until all becomes clear, I'll just have to play Bryn singing Guardate!- Madamina, il catalogo e questo over and over again...