In continuing with today's Callas theme, here is something to make you rofl: From the flagship Ricordi store in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, where I go to buy the latest opera and symphony releases (and piano sheet-music), you can find something to brighten the dark and rainy, late-Fall days in Milan.
Upstairs among the opera selection stands a promotional cardboard cut-out of Anna Netrebko/Rolando Villazón (btw, don't ever forget to check-out Villazón's personal, hilarious sketches here), which I'm sure has been there since the DVD release of La Traviata from the Vienna State Opera.
An intrepid Netrebko-defector has made their opinion known, defacing the life-sized cardboard with whiskers and a cry of dissatisfaction of Netrebko's reading of Violetta. In addition to the whiskers, "W Callas" is scribbled in ball-point on the soprano's arm, signifying the "W" for "Viva"...as in, "Long Live Callas", and, "Callas Forever".
It always makes me loalz. What kills me is that I've been in this city for almost a year, and I have been to Ricordi over a dozen times, and the staff just doesn't care, leaving the poster in plain sight. I consider myself lucky to live in a city that is so passionate about opera…