She is superb in Spanish song, delightful in English, a lovely Musetta (on record, I doubt she ever sang it on stage), wonderful in Rossini.
Here she is in the English song “Oh, no, John.”
To some extent, though she would probably be considered light for the role, she spoiled me for all other Carmens. (This is in French; YouTube also has her singing in Italian.)
But the main clip is Cherubino’s “Non so piu,” where you can just SEE the frustrated adolescent.
She died much too young, in childbirth, at age 40. She’s buried in the Liberal Jewish Cemetery, in Willesden, London, and I swear I will put flowers on her grave at some point. (Her husband was Jewish and she converted on marriage.)
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.
