She never does anything twice
La Cieca is totally in awe of the insightful (and totally enjoyable) reporting her baby sister OperaChic is doing on the most recent Angela Gheorghiu scandale. In what La Cieca chooses to regard as an early 50th anniversary hommage to one of the most infamous moments in the career of Maria Callas, la Gheorghiu has, yes, walked out of a production at the Rome Opera. It seems that at the prima, Renato Bruson took a bis of “Di provenza,” which (so OperaChic whispers) the soprano interpreted as an act of war. Gheorghiu obtained a doctor’s certificate and canceled her second (and final scheduled) performance.
Permit La Cieca to say: maybe this is why they stopped allowing encores in the first place.
I just don’t hear an Elettra or a Fiordiligi in her voice. I think both of those roles lie a little low for her – she just does not have the heft downt here methinks.
Boy though, what a Countess she would make. that would be dreamy!
Re Gheorghiu and Mozart, she was considered for the Elvira and even listed in MetFutures, but my understanding is that she past it by.
She was also considered for a new Nozze at Covent Garden but passed that by as well.
She recently did Mozart arias in Paris for New Year’s Eve that included Susanna’s aria and one of the Countess’s.
The Susanna was nicely done but frankly she’s too mature for that role now I think.
The Countess aria (the 1st one I think) was OK but not distinguished.
There was some other stuff too maybe the Don-Zerlina duet and the Cosi trio.
She supposedly has a CD of Mozart arias waiting to come out if I recall correctly. But no Mozart slated on the boards or at least none announced to my knowledge.
Okay – I don’t have time now to read everything and nor do I have time to comment on everything…but I STILL stand by the fact that I think AG needs to step OUT of the limelight and let REAL artists into it. Her nonsense that she forces her colleagues, her ‘fans’ and the rest of the opera world to put up with is just unprofessional. Other people have been fired from jobs for lesser crimes…and even GREAT voices (AG is only a good voice, sorry) like Antonietta Stella had truncated careers because of their “atteggiamento” in the professional world.
The actions of this woman and of her husbands are a BAD example to young singers, they are – in my opinion – degrading a publically misunderstood artform rather than trying to help it survive modern musical movements. Bruson has been singing a whole LOT longer than she has and if the public wants him to encore an aria, he is entitled to do so – he has had a long and very wonderful career and is one of the great artists of our time. She still has a LOOOONG way to go to be considered in that light. And furthermore, she needs to learn that the age of Malibran and Pasta and Grisi and Melba and Tetrazzini is OVER. If I or any of my singer friends pulled stunts like she did, we would not have careers – and I think it is infuriating that she and her husband and people like Netrebko can get away with MURDER in this business and still make TONS of money. I realize that ‘drama’ and ‘scandal’ sells…but really, there HAS to be a point when it is just too much and has gone too far.
BOO to unprofessional people who are degrading what SHOULD be the HIGHEST form of HUMAN art!!!
I love Angela’s voice and loved her recent Violetta at the Met. But to cancel a performance because a highly-regarded veteran like Bruson got an encore is beyond ridiculous. Both her and and Alagna need to be brought down to earth.
“But to cancel a performance because a highly-regarded veteran like Bruson got an encore is beyond ridiculous.”
Again, this is only speculation! We don’t know FOR SURE, yes, some may strongly consider it a posibility, but we should give her some benefit of the doubt. She’s not pure evil and insensitivity afterall.
There’s something insincere about her.
Perhaps, the audience were excited to see Mr Bruson.
Every time, I have ever tried to see him live, he has always pulled out.
His track record must be worse than Gheorghiu.
Il Tenore: Your ‘Gheorghiu’s only a “good” voice’ remark has got to be one of the most pathetic comments I’ve ever read anywhere. To dismiss La Angela as mediocre, one might as well stand before the Sistine Chapel and criticize Michelangelo’s treatment of the trees in the background or stand before the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and bitch about Leonardo’s masterpiece or fuzz about the amount of light Rembrandt put into his paitings. Gheorghiu is beyond great, she is otherwordly, a soprano of the highest caliber, unreachable, divine, eternal, her Stradivarius of a voice will echo throughout the centuries. People audacious and jealous enough to badmouth her, can screw themselves hard!
OPÉRA CHANTEUSE:
We get it, you’re a fan. I agree, Gheorghiu is great. BUT, she’s not perfect. Hopefully you can admit that.
Baritenor: I’m a firm believer that there is no such thing as perfection. I’ve never considered Angela perfect, far from it. However, for me, those petty imperfections make her all the more compelling and endearing.