Gheorghiu Pulls An Alagna, Leaves Rome In A Huff: "Imattahere!!!"
*BREAKING NEWS*
Angela Gheorghiu, royally pi$$ed for the loud ovations awarded by the audience to baritone Renato Bruson, and even more pi$$ed by the historic encore given by Bruson at their Traviata premiere last Friday, has left Rome.
Her commitment for last night's show has been fulfilled by one of her replacements, Irina Lungu.
Her latest tantrum is seen not only as disrespectful toward the audience, Rome's Opera and her colleagues, but especially as a slap in the face to her director, Franco Zeffirelli, who is said to be "appalled but not surprised" by her "childish" behavior.
Sources close to the Roman opera house -- who is spinning Angela's cancellation as due to an unspecified "illness" -- are ominously predicting a bleak future for Gheorghiu's -- and her husband Roberto Alagna's -- careers "if they keep up this primadonna act -- they just don't have the talent to support it".
The name of crash-and-burn Kathleen Battle is being mentioned quite often.
All hell, obviously, is breaking loose.
vvvUPDATE from excellent opera blogger PARSIFAL vvv
Parsifal's has published ruminations on the developing situation here. Also, the always erudite fignaz had mentioned the drop-out in comments here.
HEY!!!!
U can't drop a BOMBSHELL like that and run away!!!! WTF!
I DEMAND BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Crewmantle | April 25, 2007 at 04:25 PM
Good lord, i have more news dear OC! Check my new post!
Posted by: Parsifal | April 25, 2007 at 04:26 PM
who's the onearmed man then
Posted by: coccodrillo | April 25, 2007 at 05:34 PM
This is no surprise, at all. As I have said before, I wish these people, AG and her husband, would just go away. Then again, their tantrums do provide good entertainment. I wonder if they realize just how silly their tantrums really are? I think they bought into far too many opera diva/divo cliches over the years; the primadonna bit is stale. Anyway, another episode of Opera Cartoons. Let's all enjoy the silliness, lol.
Posted by: Corey | April 25, 2007 at 05:44 PM
Uhm, I reckon we should start a dedicated iMDb for the Alagna pair movie remakes http://operabouffe.wordpress.com/2006/12/12/alagna-contro-tutti/ ... :D
Posted by: giorgia | April 25, 2007 at 07:52 PM
I'm listening to AG's "Diva" album (published for some obscure reasons and by EMI), and finally *understand* why the An-gelosa is so jealous of Renato Bruson. It's so obvious! She just expected people to rely on the old rule that one should respect age. Yes. Tune in - deducing from the amplitude of her vibrato, she definitely could be Bruson's mother...
P.S. Free "Diva" CD to win - send an e-mail, first come first served. Happily. :-)
Posted by: Swiss-Sherlock | April 25, 2007 at 08:47 PM
Swiss-Sherlock - so...how many emails did you receive for that? :D
Posted by: giorgia | April 26, 2007 at 07:21 AM
Giorgia - it actually proved to be a bestseller. I was told that it is a panacea against pigeons on your balcony. (Yes, I know, pigeons are deaf; but apparently when you play the album the bad vibrations mak'em leave...) :-)))
So probably the city authorities dealing with Rome's pigeon problem should try to get Angie back. And make her sing. Openair. "But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils". 'nufsaid.
Posted by: Swiss-Sherlock | April 26, 2007 at 11:20 AM
Swiss-Sherlock - does that work with seagulls, too? 'cos, you see, we have annoying pigeons *and* equally annoying seagulls in Rome...
Posted by: giorgia | April 26, 2007 at 10:26 PM
Cara Giorgia, mi dispiace. For seagulls, you need even stronger stuff, such as recordings of *********'s singing or **********'s or (on a good day) *********'s.
Posted by: Swiss-Sherlock | April 27, 2007 at 05:02 PM