Opera Chic: Raina Kabaivanska Takes in Tosca

July 13, 2009

Raina Kabaivanska Takes in Tosca

As the Puccini Festival celebrates a new production of Tosca that opened on Saturday night at Torre del Lago (by Beppe De Tomasi), we were happy to see that special guest of honor, la Kabaivanska, was there as well.

Vissi d'arte:

Posted by opera chic on July 13, 2009 at 08:20 AM in Raina Kabaivanska | Permalink

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Comments

Such a bitter person... I wonder why?

Posted by: infant18 | July 13, 2009 at 06:50 PM

Spectacular! We miss you!

Posted by: Paolo M. | July 13, 2009 at 07:11 PM

She looks so good for her age. Raina is my favorite Puccini soprano of all time.

Posted by: tempestrata | July 13, 2009 at 07:17 PM

Her Tosca is phenomenal. Did she make a cameo in the show?

Posted by: Sior | July 13, 2009 at 07:21 PM

WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: ariel | July 13, 2009 at 07:59 PM

The last word I would use to describe Kabaivanska would be bitter...

Posted by: Me | July 13, 2009 at 11:08 PM

Mediocre to my taste. Listen to Callas as a reminder, and be in the heart of the real Tosca!

Posted by: Maria. | July 14, 2009 at 01:47 AM

Maria:
I agree with you up to a point. No one compares with Callas in ANY role she undertook. However, La Divina's supremacy does not have to relegate all other artists to mediocrity. There have been a few great sopranos since Callas - such as Sutherland, Price, Caballe',etc. They were sublime and truly great in their own special way. Callas lived in a completely different galaxy than anyone else, and it is really fruitless and futile to compare anyone to her. She was a once-in-a-century artist. Kabaivanska was an extremely competent soprano who did some good work. It is hardly her fault that she isn't Callas. No one else is either.

Posted by: Les Mitchell | July 14, 2009 at 06:41 AM

I thought it was quite good but La Divina is my favorite.

Posted by: Linda Smith | July 14, 2009 at 07:17 AM

Um...Callas admired her very much indeed and named her as her successor, so I'm not really sure where your coming from here, Maria...

Kabaivanska was a wonderful singer. Period.

Posted by: Me | July 14, 2009 at 08:48 AM

Fortunate to have seen her as Desdemona and Alice Ford--two roles Callas could never have carried off. Love her Francesca da Rimini!

Posted by: Bill Philin-Ploplis | July 14, 2009 at 01:42 PM

To "Me" and "Les Michell".
Mediocre for the part of Tosca, since Tosca was the subject.
Raina undoubtedly was and will remain a
very important singer, generally speaking.

Posted by: Maria. | July 14, 2009 at 05:45 PM

Don't forget Renata Tebaldi, who some prefer vocally if not dramatically to Callas. Leontyne Price was a wonderful Tosca also. I agree with Les. Maria Callas transcended opera and no one else has done that since except Pavoratti (though he never played the part of Tosca, of course:))

Posted by: Linda Smith | July 14, 2009 at 08:15 PM

Callas's Tosca was overated.
Tebaldi was a lot better than her.
Listen to 1956 Met Broadcast Jan 7
Tebaldi is superb also beside being
dramatic her voice beautiful unlike Callas.

Posted by: Claude Michaud | December 10, 2009 at 04:17 PM

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