She is happily still with us, and her farewell role was a surprisingly spry Mme. Armfeldt a few years ago. Like Ángeles Gulín, Maria Vitale, and Margherita Castro-Alberty, her voice was huge and somewhat erratic. However, that Roberto D concert is mesmerizing, and I love most of her stuff, however idiosyncratically sung, because of the real sense of urgency and drama in her singing.
More people should listen to Martile Rowland
A drama/trauma-tic soprano in the model of Gencer and Olivero, Martile Rowland sang a brilliant Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux (a last minute replacement for Zampieri, another controversial pick) at a concert, did half a Puritani at the Met, and sang the other “Gencer” roles such as Paolina in I Martiri, the title roles in Caterina Cornaro and Linda di Chamounix, and then retired to teach in the midwest somewhere(?).
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Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.