Scent of a woman
La Cieca shudders to think that Hugh Canning may be indulging in a trifle more anatomical detail than is absolutely necessary:
The few touches of colour make big statements: the hostess’s red camellia at the Act I festivities, or her scarlet and her friend’s pink one at Flora’s gambling party.
Lindoro Almaviva, I sort of agree with you in the case of Janice Baird. I was present at her Met debut, and I enjoyed her a great deal, although there was a lot of room for improvement, mainly due to the bunny-in-the-headlights attitude she had which quite understandably took her a little while to shake off, given the circumstances. This isn’t a criticism of Baird, just an acknowledgement that it didn’t sound like she was giving her very best, and I doubt anybody could have in that situation. But we don’t know what Baird’s history with the Met is. Dramatic sopranos obviously tend to come into their own a little later, and it may well be that Baird auditioned for the Met at a point when she wasn’t ready, which in theory means they should have invited her back and heard her again after 3 or 5 years, but in practice meant they stuck her in the ‘emergency cover only’ box and failed to properly reconsider her.
Does anybody know if Baird has been asked back to the Met at all? I really hope so. I hope we get her in London too.