parterre box

58 comments

• Lindoro Almaviva says:

  Think about it… Domingo is right: “the public makes the stars”

  Oh but if that was actually true. These days the stars are presented to the public and the ones who really make stars are the publicity machines.

  Now, I am not saying that some starts have not being made by the public. I thing Gheorghiu and to a certain extend Alagna are stars that were made by the public. These days,however, for every star the public makes, there is at least 3 that were made into stars by publicity machines and people too gullible to know better: Charlotte Church, Netrebko (at least in all that coloratura bullcrap), Garanca, anyone?

  on August 14, 2009 at 4:10 PM
• Cassandra says:

  Alagna is the very definition of a created star. He was created by a record company. He had no track record when suddenly his posters and recordings began appearing everywhere in NY and around the world. It’s why he’s always been dogged by middling reviews. It took a long time for him to convince the cognoscenti that he could actually, maybe sing. Gheorgiu was created by Solti.

  on August 15, 2009 at 12:48 PM
• richard says:

  Orlando Furioso @31,

  Some accommodations WERE made for Ludwig, at the Met at least, when she was breaking up with Berry although they were much more subtle and not really publicized.

  In the 1971 revival of Frau at the Met, Ludwig was very, very unhappy about singing the Dyer’s Wife to Berry’s Barak, the emotional connotations of the role were painful to her. So Bing accommodated her and released her from most of the perfomances.
  The cover singer Inge Borkh did all the rest of the performances. On paper this seemed like a good deal but Borkh’s voice was in absolute tatters; I was really taken aback but her initial entrance in Act 1 where she yells at Barak brothers. The notes were undefinable as to pitch.

  Ludwig was very appreciative, so much so that she (mostly) conquered her nerves and sang her only Met Fidelio during those weeks. The performance scheduled was a Nilsson Elektra but she was sick and even Bing thought it was going toooo far to stick the Elektra cover, Borkh, on the audiences. So he swapped the Elektra for Fidelio and Ludwig sang it on short notice.

  All this was done with very little publicity
  and Berry and Ludwig did continue to appear together during this difficult personal period, just less so.

  What Bing could also have done was what AG probably asked Gelb to do and swap her husband with another singer. I would think it would be a bit easier to change Barak than his wife, but who knows why Bing did some of the things he did.

  Personally I was so disappointed with Borkh. I had her Frau and Elektra recordings and she seemed just thrilling to me. But by 1971, it was just too late. Her voice couldn’t take any pressure at all without splintering.

  on August 15, 2009 at 1:04 PM
• Harry says:

  Although one does not care whether Angie & Robbo the latest ‘operatic manufactured sweethearts’ stay together or not,….no one here, has mentioned a point once brought up in the Gramophone Magazine when Angie was first on the recording scene. Mention was made of her good girl ‘convent days’ in Romania and of either a previous marriage and / or annulment before Roberto A. came on the scene. The article hinted also, it was a bit of ‘hush up – airbrushing’ to improve the image of ‘young budding star’. Can someone clarify?

  on August 15, 2009 at 2:19 PM
• browser says:

  No mystery and no hushing up. She was born Angela Burlacu and married an engineer, who was a very nice man and accompanied her to London when she had her first run of contracts at Covent Garden, during one of which she met Alagna.

  on August 15, 2009 at 2:25 PM
• pas0lin says:

  @54: her first husband, Andrei Gheorghiu, is also the son of the great Romanian violonist and teacher Stefan Gheorghiu. she married into one of the most influential musician families in Romania. no convent days, just a member of the choir in a Romanian orthodox church when a student.

  on August 16, 2009 at 4:29 PM
• Sanford says:

  This whole thing about manufactured stars is crap. The PR machine has been around since PT Barnum thrust Jenny Lind on the US. And to be fair to REEEENNNNAAAY, she isn’t the first to have a perfume, nor will she be the last. But no matter how hard the PR machine tries to “make” a star, singers need the goods to continue a career. For every Alagna, who delivers the goods, there are singers like Elena Souliotis who either don’t live up to hype or burn out too soon due to faulty technique. I can’t speak for the lemmings that actually choose who they like because someone else tells them to, but for me, I choose.

  on August 16, 2009 at 5:11 PM
• casualoperafan says:

  Re stars, I think the machine is the difference often between success and stardom.

  There are many distinguished and well regarded singers who are not in the top 5% of “stars”.

  It is not a successful career but that special fairy dust stardom that the big machines most definitely help create and sustain.

  You have to start with something for a big machine to get behind you – usually marketable good looks and a big success or a splash somewhere, something to “brand” and “sell”.

  Many singers may a splash early on, and the machine doesn’t pick them up. They often go on to very successful careers but they don’t necessarily become big stars.

  A big machine alone will not keep you going if you really have a disconnect with the public or you really do not have it.

  But a big machine goes a very, very long way towards keeping you in in the high profile jobs and getting the big publicity.

  Of course all that sometimes actually takes away from the singer’s accomplishment because they spend so much time feeding the beast of celebrity.

  on August 17, 2009 at 10:02 AM