La Cieca hears that last night at the Met (i.e, only a few hours after Angela Gheorghiu‘s dress rehearsal) ushers were handing out complimentary copies of a DVD of La traviata.
Starring Anna Netrebko.
On a less ominous note, Unnatural Acts of Opera presents Beverly Sills at her most scintillating in a 1970 performance of La Fille du regiment.
La Cieca’s spy L’incredibile, who has only moments ago slunk home from the Met’s Traviata dress rehearsal, predicts a triumph for Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta. “The most beautiful soprano to sing the role here since Anna Moffo,” L’incredibile exults, though he adds reservations about the carrying power of Gheorgiu’s “veiled” voice and the “frequent disagreements” about tempo between the diva and maestro Marco Armiliato.
New attire for Ms. Gheorghiu includes a flowing “oriental” robe in a deep rose silk for the first act (“think Adriana’s first entrance,” L’inc explains) which the soprano strips off to perform “Sempre libera” in corset and petticoat. (Apparently this was The Zef‘s original concept, but for whatever reason it was ditched when this production was introduced back in 1998.)
The spy, though closely questioned, would not commit to an opinion regarding tenor Jonas Kaufmann, since he marked “the entire opera.” Kaufmann does, however, appear to be planning on interpolating high C’s into the first act finale and at the end of his cabaletta. Anthony Michaels-Moore (Germont) boasts “the loudest voice in the cast, plus he sings directly out into the house the whole time.” Incredibile, ma vero! Oh, La Cieca can hardly wait! (In the meantime, she and you can bone up on Gheorghiu 101 in this archive.)
In her never-ceasing quest to give you, the reader, what you want and need, La Cieca has restored the “Google Search” function on parterre.com.
With this handy gizmo you can search the entire (blog and non-blog) parterre.com site, or, years from now when you’ve learned all you can learn from La Cieca, you can also search the entire web — and insiders now whisper that this “web” is indeed world-wide in its reach. You can find the Google Search in the right-hand navigation column.
Go ahead! give it a whirl with, oh, I don’t know, say, strapping Tommasini as the search terms. You’ll have hours of safe, clean fun!
La Cieca hears that one of our most popular and beloved mezzo-sopranos is going to drop the “mezzo” part and push up into a higher Fach. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if this American artist were to show such poor judgment? A quick look-in at Academy Records this evening revealed a tantalizing assortment of CDs on the WH Live Opera label. Promised delights include Anna Moffo as Melisande, Leonie Rysanek as Elisabeth, a Jon Vickers/Tatiana Troyanos Parsifal, and a Trovatore starring Renata Scotto, Luciano Pavarotti and Shirley Verrett! Have any of my cher public purchased these or other recordings on [...]
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