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Gheorghiu, no stranger to accusations of capricious behavior, pulled out of a Traviata in Lisbon (after Giuseppe Sabbatini was substituted for Marcelo Alvarez), inciting whispers that she was incapable of singing the first act. Then Munich kicked the soprano out of a gala Boheme when she failed to report to the dress rehearsal.
Meanwhile Alagna asked to be released from next season's Simon Boccanegra in Vienna, slated to feature also Gheorghiu's first Amelia Grimaldi. On the other hand, the rumor mill says Gheorghiu is keeping company with Riccardo Chailly, so maybe we haven't heard the last of her after all!
November 2: When Olga Makarina jumped in at the Met for her second Pirata tonight, our spy in the audience reports, though the voice is perhaps a size too small for this dramatic part, it's a pleasure to hear the music sung accurately and tastefully, or (again in the words of our spy), "not in the manner of Sarah Vaughan." America's Favorite Soprano, meanwhile, was reportedly on doctor-ordered vocal rest to relieve "strain" -- following her grand total of two performances of Il pirata. (Poor thing! As if that review by Peter G. Davis weren't traumatic enough!) A spectacular new CD-ROM release from Mike Richter: a complete Ring (from Buenos Aires, 1962), in clean stereo sound, and for only $8.95! Get the full details on the Richter Web site. After the spectacular success of Adriana Lecouvreur last season, Opera Orchestra of New York reportedly will re-team Marcello Giordani and Aprile Millo in the winter of 2003-2004. Which opera, do you ask? That part of the item will have to remain "blind" for the moment, but La Cieca expects you will all be happy girls when you find out! The throne of Carthage is no longer vacant at the Met: according to reports, Michelle De Young will sing the March run of performances of Les Troyens at the Met. She will follow Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who will sing the opening night and performances in February -- as you of course know, since La Cieca broke this news on September 17! October 25: Le tout New York packed the house last night at the Met for Aprile Millo's sole performance there this season. La Cieca noted among many other bold-facers Matthew Epstein, Bill Schuman, Ira Siff, Catherine Malfitano, Marcello Giordani, Eugene Kohn, Joyce Castle, Lina del Tinto, Mr. Fire Island 2001... well, just everybody... plus the highest concentration of opera queens seen at Sybil's Barn in a decade or more. Flowers and bravas rained down during the numerous curtain calls and, well, it was one of those nights. La Cieca knows you will be happy to hear that Mr. Giordani looks just as yummy in real life as he does onstage in Il pirata, and the goatee is a definite keeper! Millo's Maddalena showed her to be in strong voice, intonation firmly in place and some very lovely use of a fully supported mezza voce -- different in effect from the detached pianissimo she was famous for in the early days of her Met career, but to La Cieca's ears a true and honest sound. As with the Adriana last season, she undersang to begin with, then seemed to settle and let the voice out. An interpolation of what sounded to these ears like a high C# in Act 3 set the stage for a full-throated "La mamma morta" and then she really blazed in the final act. For La Cieca's taste, Millo takes the aria far too slowly and the piece tends to lose its shape and sense of movement. I also would venture a guess that a less languid tempo would transform what was tonight a very fine high B into an absolutely astonishing one. (And understand, La Cieca doesn't think anyone, not Tebaldi or Milanov or probably even Flagstad, could sing that aria that slowly and not run a little short of endurance by the final phrases. Millo got in her own way a bit here; in fact the very brisk tempi Paul Nadler set for the "Vicino a te" seemed to bring out the greatest brilliance and color in her voice of the whole night. For all the richness of the timbre, I still think this is a "fast" voice, one that works better at a clip than in repose.) Placido Domingo (announced as suffering from allergies) walked on eggs for three acts then canceled, Antonio Barasorda took over and had the high notes for Act 4, not much else.
Backstage after the Thomas Quasthoff-Angela Denoke Wolf recital at Carnegie Hall, whispers of future New York appearances rustled like autumn leaves. La Cieca hears we can look forward to the Marschallin at the Met "in a few years" for her, and for him, a concert Falstaff in 2006!
October 12: You know Joe Volpe and Beverly Sills may be playing kissy-face for the New York Times, but insiders whisper there's little love lost between the Met capo and the new Chairwoman of the Board. Our source says that Uncle Joe refused to be seated adjacent to Ms. Sills on the dais at a recent Guild luncheon at the Waldorf -- or "at any time in the future," for that matter. Reportedly Sills habitually arrives late for these affairs, "making an entrance" and therefore overshadowing her (less famous) co-board members. As quoted by the Associated Press, La Bev took a scarcely-veiled swipe at AWOL arts angel Alberto Vilar, "We must broaden the base of donors. I would rather have 10 people give $100 dollars each, than one person who gives $1,000. Because if the $1,000 person conks out, you've lost it." (And by the way, Sills sang a total of only 69 times with the Met company back the '70s, not "over a hundred" as reported in the Times article.) "Per Zeffirelli son gay," says Jeremy Irons in an interview published by "gay.it," a sort of Italian Planet Out. Irons stars in the just-released Callas Forever as the queer opera producer "Larry," involved with (as the Italian story put it) "un giovane pittore di quadri ispirati alla voce della Callas," but then, aren't they all? No word yet on an American release for the film, which features Fanny Ardant in a "reinvented" tale of the diva's final years.
Ms. Hunt Lieberson's first Didon at the Edinburgh Festival in the summer of 2001 inspired The Guardian's critic to gush, "...what makes this an extraordinary evening is Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's Dido, the greatest performance of the role I have ever heard. Its force derives from her ability to generate emotion by the sparsest of means. A simple walk across the platform denotes majesty. The droop of her head indicates anguish. Phrases and words are etched with immaculate restraint until she gets to the final scene, when Dido's cries of misery seem ripped from her. She delivers the final prophecy in a voice that both is and is not her own." A "Phantom of the Opera" moment interrupted the prima of Giulio Cesare at Paris's Opera Garnier last night. According to a reliable source backstage at the Opera, soon after Cleopatra's first aria, the gala audience was startled to hear the voice of Jennifer Larmore thundering from somewhere in the auditorium. But Ms. Larmore was not on the premises: sharp-eared fans recognized her singing from the CD of Cesare she recorded under the baton of Rene Jacobs. even more gossip
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