Comments on: An evening with Aprile

By: poisonivy

poisonivy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:26:35 +0000

I think Aprile’s actual weight nowadays is unimportant. Certainly many singers have been fatter (Montsy anyone? And VdlA also got very large later in life), but Aprile has been very open in her blog that she *feels* fat, that she is trying very hard to lose weight, and that she feels like her appearance is preventing her comeback. It’s kind of like how “fat Callas” never looked that fat to me — she just looked like a sort of overweight, big-boned soprano. But it was important for Maria to lose that weight.

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:25:13 +0000

No drastic weightloss measures like Debbie Voight for sure, perhaps she can be the one to revive the grand ol’ operatic tradition of tapeworm weight loss therapy.

By: spiderman

spiderman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:42:48 +0000

There is not a single opera you can cast Miss Millo properly nowadays and let’s be frank abut that: she is totally unreliable and cannoot sing a whole production run.

By: luvtennis

luvtennis — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:04:15 +0000

I alway wondered why Millo has so little regard for Leontyne. God knows she would have been a much better model for career management, vocal longevity and good high notes.

By: luvtennis

luvtennis — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:56:10 +0000

Millo was a great hope at one point. The voice was large, ample. Like her idol, Tebaldi, there was some difficulty accessing the upper register (seeds of doom), but in the 90s youth covered all.

Unfortunately, the years of singing Verdi exacerbated the upper register issues (a wobble started to creep in) and her confidence went out the door. Her mannerisms which were endearing in the early days (is channelling Renata or Zinka today) became intolerable eccentricities (I cannot imagine someone like Gelb tolerating her for more than the time it took to have her escorted from his office).

Also, her near fetishism for Tebaldi and Zinka was ultimately a real problem for her. It meant that she never made a mark as HERSELF.

A good lesson for singers far less gifted than Millo.

By the way, I have everything she ever recorded except for the Luisa Miller. The Aida is the best since Price. The Trovatore Leonora is again the only modern recording that can be even mentioned in comparison with LP, and the Elisabetta di Valois are as fine as any on record.

By: iltenoredigrazia

iltenoredigrazia — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:18:00 +0000

Her weight gain no longer looks to me like from eating too much but more likely a physiological problem, e.g., glandular.

By: javier

javier — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:42:42 +0000

So from the dress and the description of her hair it seems like she looked like a 1980s drag queen that night. What happened to her career? Getting fat doesn’t seem like a good answer. I’ve heard people suggest that she took on rep. that was too heavy much too early in her career, but I really don’t know much about her and I haven’t listened to many of her recordings.

By: tannengrin

tannengrin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:21:06 +0000

thank you for the enlightenment. I thought I would have to go to bed as ignorant as I was when I awoke. That snood goes well with the doily. Is that a prop from a recent Salome production in Ogunquit?

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:22:55 +0000

Snood.

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:19:13 +0000

Based on these photos, I agree that she’s working an old-fashioned look. I can’t think of a role she could portray convincingly on stage. Definitely not Minnie. Perhaps an opera based on the life of Ethel Merman?

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:07:48 +0000

The first step, squirrel. Especially since we know you like to store nuts.

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:57:50 +0000

Will JJ review in the Post?
Was the NYT there?
Did the Washington Post
make the trip?
Will PTB reconvene its print
issue to review and
illustrate this
signal event?

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:51:08 +0000

One of the dumbest damn films I ever saw;
what a waste of good talent. I want to see
singer Ewen McGregor in opera, preferably
nude!!!

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:40:05 +0000

You are also not old enough!
Go to any 1940s movie!!

By: squirrel

squirrel — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:28:27 +0000

sorry, squirrel has no idea what any of you are saying.

By: Camille

Camille — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:02:01 +0000

“The men who stare at goats”
Starring George Clooney — now in theatres everywhere!

By: zzzznombula

zzzznombula — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:49:27 +0000

When will we hear from La Millo, herself? I’ve been checking operavision… Nothing there. Not yet, anyway.

It would be fantastic to hear her reaction to the recital!

Are you reading this, Aprile????

By: Quanto Painy Fakor

Quanto Painy Fakor — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:26:20 +0000

Gran dio, she looks a little like ZINKA now. I hope the poor man who fell is alright, but La Cieca’s description of someone shouting up to an artist onstage “Man down” out here is hysterical.

By: Graciella Scusi

Graciella Scusi — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:09:33 +0000

@6.3.1.3 Indiana : “Is he covering anything?”

Hopefully he’ll start covering his passagio or he’s going to be in trouble. As one of the judges said in ‘The Audition’, “He’s either going to be great or dead.”

By: hndymn

hndymn — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:08:26 +0000

a snood is sort-of a bag made of mesh or net worn on the back of the head, holding a mass of hair. Seems to me Gail Sondergaard used to favor them. (That reference ought to establish my own queer bona-fides…)

By: kashania

kashania — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:43:04 +0000

I don’t like to go after singers’ weight issues but I have to agree with Cassandra’s shock. And La Cieca wasn’t kidding about the dress.

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:15:47 +0000

Holy CRAP! I haven’t seen her in a awhile, but that’s AFTER she lost fifty pounds? I’m in shock.

By: Indiana Loiterer III

Indiana Loiterer III — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:00:20 +0000

Raffaele is a comprimario role. Is he covering anything?

By: squirrel

squirrel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:55:46 +0000

i considered publishing on this site under the name Bantcho (in homage, really) but my exquisite sense of taste prevented me.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:48:29 +0000

was bedeutet das eigentlich?

By: squirrel

squirrel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:47:27 +0000

He’s doing Stiffelio this season (Rafaelle) I don’t know the opera and, thus, whether this is a big role debut or not.

By: messa di voce

messa di voce — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:38:18 +0000

A photographic negative of the above: dress in black and skin in white.

By: messa di voce

messa di voce — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:37:01 +0000

Squirrel:

Everyone knows your “goat” is a one-man billyboy. La Cieca will never get him away from you.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:22:01 +0000

She looks like Bette Midler on steroids. And, boy, would she need the wind beneath her wings.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:20:27 +0000

I didn’t realise that the costumes for Antony and Cleopatra were mock-Renaissance. It must have been hell getting stuck in a pyramid with all that clobber on.

And, yes, I had worked out it wasn’t her own hair. All that would never fit under one of her trademark turbans now, would it?