parterre box

10 comments

• kashania says:

  A luscious voice. And for a while, she had solid high notes as well. Loved her Carmen opposite Alagna around 11 years ago at the Met (only time I saw her live).

  on July 29, 2010 at 1:59 PM
• judycadanna says:

  I love her as the Tangerine Dalila. I think she was able to retain the sexual quality all the way down to the lowest notes.

  on July 29, 2010 at 2:20 PM
• BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK says:

  OT — I nominate Schumann’s GENOVEVA as the opera we not listen to during this Saturday’s Chat. We could all get together and not listen and talk about anything we wanted. Plus it stars Anne Schwanenwillms who is the perfect not-listened-to soprano. Several posters already have commented on her voice without ever having heard it. Another advantage si that it’s on at least 20 different stations, starting at 5-minute intervals so we could all be not listening at different times.

  Oh, all right, Happy Birthday, Ms. Borodina.

  on July 29, 2010 at 3:45 PM
• luvtennis says:

  Happy Birthday, Olga!

  In my estimation, the greatest lyric dramatic mezzo (leaving aside only Zajick) since the heydays of Bumbry, Verrett and Cossotto. A voice like molten gold, solid musicianship, superb well-schooled legato – Borodina has been like a good deed in a naughty world.

  on July 29, 2010 at 5:06 PM
  • The Vicar of John Wakefield says:

    “In my estimation, the greatest lyric dramatic mezzo (leaving aside only Zajick) since the heydays of Bumbry, Verrett and Cossotto.”

    What about Jean Rigby and Anne-Marie Owens?

    on July 30, 2010 at 4:29 PM
  • Ruxton says:

    and reportedly … a temperamental, difficult, bitch as well!

    on July 30, 2010 at 9:20 PM
• Camille says:

  Happy, happy birthday to the absolutely fabulous diva Olga, one of the very few to have thrilled me to the bones in the last twenty years. I was lucky enough to be at her Marina in Boris debut. Home run. Wonderful scary Dalila and the thing I most treasure and will hold in my heart forever was her peerless Pauline in Pique Dame.

  Once about ten years ago the New York Times interviewed her. Her final comment wassomething to the effect, and I paraphrase here, that she was “on a mission from God” ratther than just chasing a career like the rest.

  Well, I guess God sanctioned the cigarettes, which have surely eradicated the high notes (Damnation, anyone?) Of late but thank you Lady Borodina for the great notes you’ve given us in your prime.
  Oh yes, there was that Mort de Cleopatre in Carnegie Hall in 2003 which was out of this world.

  Great singer, with or without any notes at all.

  on July 29, 2010 at 6:06 PM
• mouraria says:

  Since we are giving opera singers birthday greetings, I would like to wish soprano Carol Vaness a belated Happy Birthday! She was born on July 27. She has had a notable career filled with accomplishment, despite a few missteps here and there. For me, her portrayal of Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo is one of her career highlights. May she enjoy a long and fruitful teaching enagagement at Indiana University.

  on July 29, 2010 at 9:16 PM
• Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  on July 30, 2010 at 3:37 AM
• Krunoslav says:

  This song has always seemed germane to Borodina’s performance vibe:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au5f6pMgN2s

  on July 30, 2010 at 4:34 PM