Mortali! il vostro fato è in vostra mano!
“Even if you’re not going to the concert, you can visit the website www.mariinsky.ru and decide Guleghina’s fate.” These words fraught with doleful moment invite you, the cher public, to play at gods with the repertoire of soprano Maria Guleghina (not pictured).
The Mariinsky’s website invites one and all to select which arias (of the daunting array listed) she will include in her program for a July 5 gala concert climaxing the 2010 White Nights Festival. You are thus encouraged to vote early and often!
Credit goes to her, it is the first time that I know an entire concert program if being selected by popular vote.
I voted for “È strano… Ah, fors’ e lui”, “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta”, “Quando men’vo”, “Un bel dì, vedremo” and “Casta diva” only because Toby from “The Medium” wasn’t listed.
Was it wrong of me to vote for the aria I know she is going to sound the worst singing?
How in the world did you choose?
Oh, it was hard, but the Casta Diva seemed like the biggest travesty. I caught her Norma at the Met a couple of seasons back and I just want to relive the ugliness of it all.
Am I the only one who has LSD flashbacks? You wrote “caught her Norma”, and I had this immediate image from Disney’s Cinderella of a frantic Druid priestess in a wire cage under the cellar stairs while Pert Kelton in a prom dress pranced about singing Bibbi-di-bobba-di-boo.
Let’s face it, everything reminds you of Pert Kelton.
Hey, La Cieca, don’t be dissin’ Alice Kramden! And she was awesome in The Music Man
Guleghina must have submitted a seriously out of date repertoire list for this little venture! Unless, of course, it is going to be a less than perfect example of democracy….
When was she last capable of a convincing Vespri Bolero, Sempre Libera, Rondine… the mind reels, it really does. Naturally I went for a combo designed to have her tanking everything out as loud as she can, juddering through some coloratura, and then attempting Doretta’s Sogno and Musetta’s Waltz Song.
Well no matter what anyone says- she gets 10 out of 10 for sheer guts! I can’t think of too many other singers who would expose themselves to something as challenging as this. Quite incredible.