There are so many invaluable contacts and awe-inspiring friends that OC has made these past six months of blogging, but one in particular must be mentioned: loyal reader, stellone fignaz...who always has the 411, somehow manages to be in 20 locations at one time, uncovers the most obscure recordings, and always has his super-figgynaz fingers on the pulse of the opera world. Even more fortunate is that he is insanely generous, and shares his booty liberally. It was fignaz who forwarded to me a sparkly little gem of an mp3, more twinkly than a Chopard happy diamond, more cutting than a Kikuichi knife, and more blinding than the sunlight off my pearly white teeth.
Rai's Radio Tre program, La Barcaccia, was all over the Opera di Roma La Traviata la prima, and rebroadcast their opening night coverage this past Tuesday, April 24, with clips of the performance, along with scattered interviews. One of their victims was Angela Gheorghiu, who joins hosts Enrico Stinchelli and Michele Suozzo for a chat an hour after the performance.
Listen and weep. Here's the yousendit link (an mp3) of a small clip from the interview that addresses Angela's reaction to the Bruson encore business, where Angela describes his actions as "not kind" and "not collegial".
And that's all I'm gonna say about that. peace & i'm out. //*Note to playbill, et al...freely steal this translation ('tis the nature of teh intarnets), but plz be nice enough to give the Opera Chic blog attribution/ascription tia ktnxbi.
~~omg here is the super-translation (with notes)~~
- INTERVIEWER: It’s strange, for a diva like you: Bruson cunningly gave an encore...
- ANGELA (overlaps): It is not kind, not kind...
- INTERVIEWER: I thought, for the theater’s tradition...
- ANGELA (overlaps): I don’t think it is done, no...
- INTERVIEWER: So I thought, "What’s Angela supposed to do now..."
- ANGELA: He surprised me, it was a surprise, yes, yes.
- INTERVIEWER: Then what are you preparing as a response to this?
- ANGELA (playing dumb): A response to what?
- INTERVIEWER: To that thing.
- ANGELA: Nothing, it happened, and if you...no, "no comment".
- INTERVIEWER: Well, in a way, Germont, with Violetta, he’s never too – he’s a cynical man...this father who only thinks about his son...
- ANGELA (interrupting): No, no. He’s just, he’s an Italian singer, this thing has been allowed in Italy...
(note: in her quick Italian, AG says “è passato”, from the verb “passare” ( to pass), which is not correct, and ambiguous: She either mean,s “this has passed” as in “this has been allowed to proceed, to go forth”, or she simply means, “this has happened”, as in “this is part of what has passed; part of the past”: her followup, though, indicates her exact meaning).
In another theatre it’s certain that this is not allowed, this same thing. (note: “E’ sicuro che non passa”, are her words: she’s using “passare” as “being allowed to go forth”, the other meaning would not make any sense here).
And then, certainly, he is a great artist, he has sung forever...
(she uses, incorrectly, “enormemente”, literally “enormously”, context and the following argument indicates that she means “a lot”, quantity, not quality, or better yet “for a long time”)
In this theatre and all over the world, and maybe, it is, it is a hommage on his part. But it certainly isn’t very collegial.
(in the sense of camaraderie, “collegiale” in Italian means just that). - INTERVIEWER: It was a surprise!
- ANGELA: A surprise, yes. I’ve never accepted it for me, I don’t know if it’s very collegial.
- INTERVIEWER: Listen, at this point, what we can say...what about this tenor, he came here, to debut, with you...
- ANGELA: Yes, yes, I met him in London at the Proms, a concert of mine. He did his songs, no?
- INTERVIEWER: You’re a beautiful couple, I have to say.
- ANGELA: Yes yes, I was very surprised to see a singer who has a beautiful voice, musical sense, a handsome kid who...
- INTERVIEWER: We’d better not tell Roberto then.
- ANGELA: No, no, let’s tell him, these are the things...
- INTERVIEWER: He’s not jealous.
- ANGELA: No, all of us. I’m jealous, he is too, but this is our job. It’s made of meeting colleagues. It’s a good thing they’re bravi e belli...
- INTERVIEWER: True, he just did Manon with la Netrebko and you do La Traviata with Grigolo.
- ANGELA: Ooooooooooooh, no, I sing all the time. I also did a most beautiful Traviata in New York with Jonas Kauffmann who’s really very good, I sing with all the tenors in the world who are really belli e bravi… like Roberto, it comes natural to be with everybody.
play or get played am i rite?