Day 4 in London, a rather exhausting one, as i visited the British Museum. Full stop. Period. That's enough to exhaust you for a whole day! And i didn't want to be tired for my first encounter with Magdalena!
Magdalena Kozena was there for our "date", as were Toby Spence, Lorenzo Regazzo, Simone Alberghini, Alessandro Corbelli, Elena Xanthoudakis, Leah-Marian Jones and maestro Evelino Pidό.
Parsi arrived early at the Royal Opera House, collected his tickets, bought many useless memorabilia from the ROH Shop and went to his seat. Excellent view! Parsi was happy indeed!
Regarding the production, i think most of us have seen it before live, or on dvd with Sonia Ganassi and Juan Diego Florez back in 2000. It's this "wannabe" italian 50's environnment that (quite unsuccessfully) was created by directors Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier and set designer Christian Fenouillat. I didn't particularly enjoy it on dvd, neither did i live...
Now, to the point:
Nobody can argue about whether Magdalena is a good singer or not. She is a world class mezzo, she possesses a divine instrument BUT Cenerentola she isn't. Even so, she fought her way through the role and gave us a very interesting rendition of "Nacqui all' affano" at the end.
The rest of the cast, well, what can i say, I COULDN'T HEAR! 'Cause the audience of the Royal Opera House is by far the noisiest i' ve ever met! Coughing, talking, laughing outloud as if they were watching the Monty Pythons...Gee! Anyway, it's Christmas time and Santa told me that i better not complain even if during the performance i really wanted to do this:
... And 'cause i' m a good boy, when i get back to Athens in about a week i will "let" you hear the Rondo Finale from La Cenerentola as La Kozena sang it on the 20th of December!
Stay tuned, more Live from London to come, tomorrow, after the Cecilia Bartoli Recital!
Magdalena Kozena was there for our "date", as were Toby Spence, Lorenzo Regazzo, Simone Alberghini, Alessandro Corbelli, Elena Xanthoudakis, Leah-Marian Jones and maestro Evelino Pidό.
Parsi arrived early at the Royal Opera House, collected his tickets, bought many useless memorabilia from the ROH Shop and went to his seat. Excellent view! Parsi was happy indeed!
Regarding the production, i think most of us have seen it before live, or on dvd with Sonia Ganassi and Juan Diego Florez back in 2000. It's this "wannabe" italian 50's environnment that (quite unsuccessfully) was created by directors Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier and set designer Christian Fenouillat. I didn't particularly enjoy it on dvd, neither did i live...
Now, to the point:
Nobody can argue about whether Magdalena is a good singer or not. She is a world class mezzo, she possesses a divine instrument BUT Cenerentola she isn't. Even so, she fought her way through the role and gave us a very interesting rendition of "Nacqui all' affano" at the end.
The rest of the cast, well, what can i say, I COULDN'T HEAR! 'Cause the audience of the Royal Opera House is by far the noisiest i' ve ever met! Coughing, talking, laughing outloud as if they were watching the Monty Pythons...Gee! Anyway, it's Christmas time and Santa told me that i better not complain even if during the performance i really wanted to do this:
... And 'cause i' m a good boy, when i get back to Athens in about a week i will "let" you hear the Rondo Finale from La Cenerentola as La Kozena sang it on the 20th of December!
Stay tuned, more Live from London to come, tomorrow, after the Cecilia Bartoli Recital!
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1 comment:
you've been busy! yes, 'interesting' is certainly the right word to describe la Kozena's performance.......but, y'know, I'd happily listen to it again
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