Rumors abound for the past 48 hours that Juan Diego Flórez did indeed give the Vienna Staatsoper audience exactly what he had delivered exclusively to Milan's Teatro alla Scala back in February (but denied London): an encore of "Ah, mes amis" in Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment, flaunting his superb high-C $killy-$kill$.
Well, he had resisted the urge to lol bis lol for the first two performances, but an anonymous reader was kind and generous enough to share an anecdote from the Monday, April 9th performance at the Vienna Staatsoper, corroborating the rumors, and providing illuminating evidence:
"I must duly report to you THE ENCORE delivered by JDF at yesterday's performance [Monday, April 9, 2007] in the Staatsoper: Under the pressure of an unceasing five minutes' applause AND stamping, and in the face of a teary commotion of the soloist in question, Yves couldn’t but to give in. I must admit that I couldn't escape the impression that the Viennese audience went for the now-or-never scenario, but their (applauding) award was more than generous (If not borderline stalking hahaha - after the final curtain the clapping just went on and on and on! Ten curtain calls at least.)"
"For the rest it is worth mentioning that Dessay got visibly pissed off for not taking an applause at the and of C'en est donc fait. The 'brava' came only at the end of the Salut à la France at which she stepped out of amidst the chorus and yelled "Mais vous êtes pathétiques!" into the roaring of the applause. Needless to add, the magnificent Oberstürmbahndiva Montserrat Caballé [cameo as the Duchesse de Crakentorp] remained adorable and funny even when openly making fun of the audience for not stopping to applaud her."
heh. “Oberstürmbahndiva” I ♥ that. Thanks again to the anonymous donor for the sparkling recap!
Just in case you're jonesing for a JDF fix, below is a YouTube clip from one of the earlier "Ah, mes amis" April 2007 performances of La Fille du Régiment at the Vienna Staatsoper with Juan Diego Flórez’s Tonio stealing the show. Everyone loves a diva am i rite or whut?