Diana Damrau And Xavier De Maistre @ La Scala: "Like A Studio, But With Energy"

There are many things Opera Chic -- still back in New York for the summer -- misses about Milan: things like restaurants and concert halls and galleries and cobblestones and stores and torrefazioni and rosticcerie and the way a particular church is illuminated at night, especially at midnight, in that silence, and yes she misses even some select people -- but the good thing is they'll all be there when she's back eventually.

Sadly Diana Damrau, who appeared earlier tonight at la Scala in a much-awaited recital, won't be there when OC is back -- missing tonight's recital gets more painful the more OC's inbox and cell gets filled with txt and email telling her just how amazing the whole evening was.

First things first -- Diana being Diana, not just Opera Chic's female singer of 2008, but quite simply one of the very few sopranos of her generation who will certainly be remembered among the greatest, up in the Olympus of opera, and Diana being Diana it wasn't your usual piano+voice recital. No piano on that august stage, but a hawt French harpist working his big bulky thang -- Xavier de Maistre was Diana's partner.



The program made for an eclectic night of Strauss, Fauré, Debussy, with some awesome encores -- a Bellini aria from I Capuleti e i Montecchi, then Schubert's Ave Maria.  Some of the  messages OC is getting from across the ocean:

"She makes everything sound so EASY I don't know how she does it"

"She thanked us because everybody was so concentrated nobody moved or coughed! She spoke in Italian to say thank you and that she was happy to be here and then added in English: 'The audience here is special: it's like a studio but with energy!' We all loved her and gave them so many bravas and bravos"

"The harpist is so hot!!!!!!!"

And then OC is told stories of Milanese ladies of the old skool, usually aloof in their "I've heard it all already from la Maria and la Renata and all the others, let's hear this goofy German girl sing our Bellini now then let's go to dinner OK?" jump up in an impromptu standing ovation by the end of the recital, saying things like "phenomenon", because Diana is like that.  

While reading the program OC felt it was worth it the plane ticket to Milan, round trip, just to hear Damrau sing Strauss's "Wiegenlied" -- Opera Chic can just imagine being there: happy... then sad... throughout the concert as Damrau sings in three different languages, switching from whisper to prayer and back again, because it's as if she's sitting right next to you then she's airborne, circling the globe, she flies like Superman, then rushes back to earth and circumnavigates your heart. It's all there, really, if you know her voice and you're familiar with what she sang tonight -- it's there, in full, after the jump:

Richard Strauss

Ich schwebe op. 48 n. 2
Efeu op. 22 n. 3
Nichts op. 10 n. 2
Winterweihe op. 48 n. 4
Allerseelen op. 10 n. 8

Gabriel Fauré

Impromptu op. 86
(per arpa)
Après un rêve op. 7 n. 1
Clair de lune op. 46 n. 2
Sérénade toscane op. 3 n. 2
Les berceaux op. 23 n. 1
Adieu op. 21 n. 3
Notre amour op. 23 n. 2

Claude Debussy

Nuit d’étoiles
Les lilas
Fleur des blés
Clair de lune
Mandoline
Arabesque n. 1
(versione per arpa)

Richard Strauss

Freundliche Vision op. 48 n. 1
All’ mein’ Gedanken op. 21 n. 1
Wiegenlied op. 41 n. 1
Die Nacht op. 10 n. 3
Morgen op. 27 n. 4
Kling! op. 48 n. 3

Sorry you weren't there?

yeah, me too.