tosca: gheorghiu & kaufmann

saw the tosca, live from the met, yesterday -- plan to go back, wednesday -- great 'vissi d'arte,' by sonya yoncheva -- great screams too -- spine-tingling -- blood-curdling -- and a magnificent 'e lucevan' by vittorio grigolo -- pours it all out

here's the 2006 vienna pairing of angela gheorghiu and jonas kaufmann -- i saw them in the movie theater, from covent garden -- incredible -- i watched act three of the below, and act two and the 'mia gelosa' scene -- kaufmann encores 'e lucevan,' and gheorghiu doesn't come out, on cue -- terfel really has fun with his role

addendum: yoncheva and grigolo were singing their roles for the first time -- actually, grigolo sang in the opera, when he was 13 -- as the shepherd boy -- and, in the broadcast, he talked about being congratulated, after the opera, by luciano pavarotti, his cavaradossi, and looking forward to the day he'd sing cavaradossi -- here's the picture they showed, on the broadcast -- 27 years ago

turns out, yoncheva and grigolo were also replacements for the originally cast stars -- kristine opolais and jonas kaufmann -- wouldn't that have been great -- they've paired up, in europe, on at least two operas, i think

not only that, bryn terfel was replaced by zelko lucic, and opolais's husband, andris nelsons, pulled out as conductor, and his replacement, met music director james levine, was suspended by the met for sexual misconduct, and replaced, in turn, by emmanuel villaume

great tosca, with daniela dessi, armiliato & raimondi

i think it was last summer, that she passed away -- and left fabio

in memoriam

nizza & armiliato's 'mia gelosa'

tosca film, with domingo & milnes

looks like a must-see -- 1976 film version of 'tosca,' with raina kabaivanska, placido domingo and sherril milnes, filmed...in situ -- in rome

i can't wait to see her vissi d'arte -- she's got a gorgeous voice

february -- the puccini month

i just realized, that boheme, butterfly and tosca...all debuted in february -- i wonder why

for the record, boheme debuted in 1896, with arturo toscanini, wielding the baton, in turin; butterfly, in 1904 -- milan; and tosca, in 1900, in turin

well, it's obvious, from the dates, that he's an olympian -- belongs with the gods...on mount olympus

wilhelmenia fernandez

i watched the movie 'diva,' last night -- for the first time in decades -- it became an instant cult-classic, when it came out, in '81, '82

the movie brought wilhelmenia wiggins fernandez to the attention of the world, with her great rendition of 'ebben? ne andro lontana' -- at the start of the movie

here are two more great performances

a very slow take...on 'patria mia' -- in luxor

a 'vissi d'arte'...that just floors you

she was musetta, in a 'boheme' with kiri te kanawa and placido domingo

gheorghiu & sutherland: vissi d'arte

another great vissi d'arte

and another

'to rome with love,' fabio armiliato, daniela dessi's vissi d'arte

i just saw the movie 'to rome with love'

so i looked up the great tenor in the movie, fabio armiliato

he's got nine operas-for-tv to his credit -- and, in almost all of them, fellow genovese daniela dessi is his co-star

radvanovsky's vissi d'arte -- and anna's

over the last three weeks, i've heard tosca, live from the met, twice

sondra radvanovsky's vissi d'arte...is just...heart-rending -- brought tears....

here she is, singing it at the met, almost three years ago

here, at a concert -- apparently, just a couple of months ago -- looks like it's outdoors

there's another concert-rendition, on her home turf -- at http://youtu.be/cIkx_koQFAg

for good measure, here's my anna -- seems rushed, at the beginning -- especially in comparison to radvanovsky's renditions