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.
operalalaworld: You’re right. It is just speculation.
Is there anyone on this site that could argue that Angela Gheorghiu doesn’t have one the greatest voices alive? Better than Ms Fleming? Is anone going to argue that Anna the impaler has more going on? Natalie Dessey?
I don’t think so.
Why do so many seem to berate her, because she is percieved as a bitch? If she is a diva, and?
Can somebody explain how they can hear insincerity? I’d love to know.
No coloratura? No spinto? I cannot let that go.
First of all, coloratura is a style of singing, not a fach. So to say Gheorghiu can’t sing coloratura because she doesn’t have high notes, is wrong.
I don’t know what you think spinto singing is, but her Traviata act III has great spinto — her Mimi too.
Boipussi (god that’s obscene):
ok, fine, she can’t sing the coloratura repertoire/belcanto, is that more accurate? I think we all know what i meant. And would you ever want to hear sonnambula without anything above a C-sharp? *Maybe* she could sing lucrezia borgia, anna bolena, a ricciarelli-style lucia (at a small house and with substantial coaching on belcanto and practice ), but it could never be a substantially successful career move. Regarding her “spinto”….have you ever heard her live? You can’t really hear her in Act III of traviata, except when she’s singing alone, so i’m not sure what spinto you are referring to. This also detracts from the more dramatic parts of Act II as well, i.e. “amami alfredo”. Despite these shortcomings I am a huge fan of her, and I feel that she is incredibly moving and makes the most of her rather limited, though distinct vocal resources.
I don’t think you can compare Dessay and Gheorghiu- I think they only share one or two roles, or none at all.
Chanteuse – for as much as I enjoy much of what you say on here – as regards AG, I COMPLETELY disagree. There are only 3 things that I have ever heard of this woman on recording that turned my head towards her rather than away from her. An excerpt from a Boheme during the Musetta scene where Angela actually sounded like she knew what she was doing – I can’t say the same for the rest of the opera. Also, there were some moments that I had heard on the Manon recording that I thought were extremely well done – and there is the video of her singing “Pleurez mes yeux” on YouTube that, for me, is the absolute best thing she has ever sung – she knocked me off my seat when she sang that – and I was willing to redeem her in my book until she proceeded to sing one of the most DREADFUL and OUT OF TUNE Habanera’s following a display of what I had considered great vocalism. Unfortunlatey I can ONLY rate her as ‘good’ because she has yet to phase me in any other thing that I have heard her in. Her Violetta, from what I have seen and heard, is probably her best role – but I think it lacks in many ways. I firmly believe that Angela needs to STOP singing Italian verismo opera and start focusing on French repertoir – Massenet seems to do extremely well for her. Her flat and unstable renditions (ALL of them) of “O mio babbino caro” is some of the most offensive singing I have heard.
I don’t expect her or anyone else to be perfect…but we will just have to agree to disagree on this fact. I do NOT think that AG is a great singer and quite frankly, have no desire to like her. Her timbre, her out of control vibrato and her out of tune singing – her inconsistent vocalism – as much as her consistent unprofessional and derogatory attitude offend me far to much to ever become a fan.
Fair enough, Il Tenore… You know, as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is just too bad that Angela did not cast her spell on you. I apologize for the slightly offensive comment I made yesterday, heat of the moment, you know.
Apparently she didn’t cast a spell on Roma either, where apparently the latest review has dissed her Traviata, singling out her bland, pale, unsexy voice and inability to distinguish emotions. (CF operachic’s blog for an image of the offending review.)
But what is really astonishing, is that they have the Sistine Chapel RIGHT THERE in Roma for purposes of direct comparison and they STILL dared to diss her, the Michelango of the lyric soprano repertoire.