A tale of three divas
Years ago, Diva Past (whose career, by that point, was really done) canceled a prima donna gig at a major American opera house. Diva Present won overnight stardom when she substituted. Now, years later, Diva Present has booked a return to both venue and role of her triumph. At the moment, though, her schedule is extremely nip and tuck. And so the doubting opera company is about to send on … Diva Future. It’s the circle … the circle …. of divas!
Could Debbie be out of San Fran’s Ballo? She may need a nip and tuck from all the weight loss in prep for Salome. But would that give her enough recovery time for the Oct 21 premiere? She replaced Susan Dunn, who didn’t really earn the title “Diva Past” status in 1990. Could then Future Diva Angela Brown be on as Amelia? Angie covered Trovatore in San Fran a few seasons ago and sang a spectacular Ballo Amelia in Philly with Marcus Haddock last season. I can’t make the circle connection though… Does the circle tie in to Ballo?
Yes, Hagen, I agree. This has to be about when Voigt replaced Dunn in “Ballo.” Can’t wait to hear what happens next.
And what have we heard from Chicago? Exactly how much does this production’s Salome dance? And how much does she take off? Or does a ballet babe do the dancing for her?
The circle may be La C’s clue to the SFO logo, which is the star burst design around a central circle. It actually depicts the chandelier in the War Memorial. Gockley introduced it with some PR fanfare over a new “visual identity” in January just a week or two after he officially took over.
Or am I forcing an explanation to fit?
Am I the only one who took “the circle” to mean the “circle of life” or something like that? Not long from now, Diva Present will be Diva Past etc.
Judging by the pic on the Lyric’s website of Salome, the dance scene should turn out to be quite interesting… Either way, Voigt is not what she used to be IMO.
Sondra Radvanovsky is supposed to be an up-and-comer, and she’s sung Trovatore before in Paris (on YouTube with Alagna), and scheduled to sing it at the Lyric this fall. Perhaps a bit too young to do Ballo, but Sunnegardh is doing Turandot, so age apparently doesn’t matter these days.
Sunnegårdh is forty something…
Oh La Cieca why do you torture us so. =) I love it.
Sunnegardh is still no Turandot.
Relax, everyone….Ms Voigt was at rehearsal tonight for Ballo here in SF and looked (and sounded) fabulous. She also cracked a couple of jokes about being concerned about how she was going to look as Salome, and was planning on coaching it while here….so at least for the immediate future, she’ll be doing both Ballo AND Salome.
is sunnegardh already fourtysomething? jesus! but then hildegard behrens was nearing her fourties when she became famous …
though i dont know much about sunnegardh apart from the met thing.