Joyce DiDonato on the Barbiere accident

(and her Proms appearance under Sir Roger Norrington, during which she sang "Ombra mai fù", "Ah, mio cor" and Haydn's Scena di Berenice)

Supercalifragilistic: Il Barbiere opens in London!

How many moments of pure perfection is an opera-lover entitled to?

Superlatives fail me, and everything that I could write, has already been written by the press and the blogs (Seckerson, Church, Thompson, Bhesania, Intermezzo, Boulezian, etc etc)

Coz the joy of having a lunar night with a stellar cast that drives you to a nirvana state for hours, days, weeks after the performance is priceless and undescribable. And the real reason for opera-going.

~JDF~

From the moment that Juan Diego Flórez stepped on stage and started singing his "Ecco ridente in cielo", we all knew that this would be a very special night.



Joyce DiDonato and her "Una voce poco fa" came to confirm our impression. Her cavatina blew us all and led to a collective hysteria, (me being a part of it - I 'm still trying to recover).

Alessandro Corbelli

Ferruccio Furlanetto and his hair-raising, Bela Lugosi-like impersonation of Don Basilio, Alessandro Corbelli's fine (perfect is the right word but in this review I would have to repeat "perfect" every 5 words or so) Bartolo, Spagnoli's macho but elegant and discreet Figaro, Jennifer Rhys-Davies hilarious Berta, even Changhan Lim as Fiorello, all contributed in what seems to be a night that made history.


Would there really be a reason to point out certain peak moments of the performance?

For what it's worth, in all this splendour and awesomenesssss I would say...

* Joyce's "Una voce poco fa"

* The finale primo

*Juandi's "Cessa di piú resistere" that had me all drooling like an infant with my eyes and mouth wide open, unable to believe that I was listening to t-h-i-s in vivo.


And what can one say for my hero, our hero (heroine?), Joyce DiDonato, who with a cracked fibula, on high heels and with a crutch in hand -that she handled sooo gracefully as if it was all part of the stage direction- sang Act II and even had time for some champagne afterwards.

Joyce and the crutch


Joyce, the crutch, Alessandro Corbelli, Jennifer Rhys-Davies

***Photoalbum***


~Finale~


Curtain calls

~Furlanetto and JDF calunniando~


The second performance of this unmissable Barbiere takes place tonight - Parsi's spies will be en garde- and as our Yankee Diva already let us know, she will be there to dazzle everyone as the new updated model of "Rosina-on-wheels", (but offstage, as onstage she will be doubled by a mute actress - according to EFE).