Das ist eine Diva! (is it???)

Graves in Athens..."She 's just like you and me
but she' s homeless" as the 80's tune sang...

After the controversial Carmen we saw in Athens a couple of weeks ago, i ve been trying hardly to understand why the hell Denyce Graves has become a star. Ok, she's got the looks (well, she 's no Tyra Banks either), the sound of her voice is velvet-y, but what about the technique? the agility? the broken registres? When she opened her mouth to sing "Quand je vous aimerai?" i thought "oh, no, it can't be true, it's a joke". What i heard was a transvestite nasal voice and some ugly chest notes (just listen to the first "je ne sais pas") ...Was it just a bad night? Might have been, after the Carmen i tried to listen to all the (live) recordings of Graves i have...She sounded great!

Judge for yourselves...

Download Habanera


The Odeon of Herodes Atticus "dressed-up"
for the new production of Carmen