A performance of Rossini’s Otello ossia Il Moro di Venezia from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, featuring Mariella Devia, Bruce Ford and Juan Diego Florez.
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.
The beautiful singing here is less in the sound than in the way the voice moves.
Now we find Mariella Devia, a diva held in near mythic regard due to her vocal longevity, with competing videos of two of her performances that were released, literally, on the same day.
By the time Roberto Devereux saw its premiere at Napoli’s Teatro San Carlo on 29 October, 1837, Gaetano Donizetti had lost, in an 18-month time frame, both his parents, two still-born children, and his beloved wife Virginia.
Which operatic character could be best described as a spider?
What makes Norma such a high-profile role in the soprano repertory?
“At Carnegie Hall last Thursday, a capacity crowd witnessed what might be the final official act of a monarch who has reigned for more than four decades.”
Even before Italian diva Mariella Devia had completed the stunning high D natural that capped her miraculous portrayal of Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux Thursday evening at Carnegie Hall, tens, then hundreds of those in attendance leapt to their feet to shout their acclaim.
Mariella Devia will augment her already vast bel canto repertoire next year with the role of roles: Bellini’s Norma.
Miraculous Mariella Devia sings “Casta diva” at a New Year’s Day concert at La Fenice. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1rEx2M5zRX0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Mariella Devia at amazon.com
