(Photo: Pavel Antonov)
With all the chaos following American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky's Tosca role debut in Milan on Tuesday night (in Luc Bondy's riot-inducing production that premiered in 2009 at The Metropolitan Opera), we think everyone deserves a nice Radvanovsky treat for taking a ride on the La Scala rollercoaster.
Although she was supposed to debut the role later this month, Radvanovsky was pulled onstage two nights ago at la Scala after a virus struck down primary Tosca Oksana Dyka -- among other colleagues, reported here and here and here and here -- lol omg it never ends! Less fortunate is Jonas Kaufmann's Cavaradossi who has been pulled from tonight's performance (to be subbed by Carlo Ventre) as well.
One of the best American sopranos rocking 19th century Italian opera today, Radvanovsky is poised for a follow-up to her April 2010 solo debut "Verdi Arias". Dropping on February 22 is Verdi Opera Scenes, a duet CD with colleague & friend Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Radvanovsky's shared the stage often with Hvorostovsky and they've channeled their ebony/ivory chemistry into a recording, singing duets from Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, Simon Boccanegra and Don Carlo.
The CD also lists encores from their co-tour last season, one of which was Radvanovsky's “Vissi d’arte”. The Act II Tosca aria is a melodic reflection of devotion, a stirring prayer to love set to Puccini's iconic score. Starting today and ending on the CD's launch (Feb. 22), we're offering the track for download. So you can't catch her at La Scala? You can catch her (in digital form anyway) here!
The free track is after the jump...