UNITED KINGDOM: Royal Opera House's first new production of Tosca since 1964, starring Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu opens to positive reviews

Record ID: 384231

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Royal Opera House's first new production of Tosca since 1964, starring Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu opens to positive reviews
  • Date: 15th June 2006
  • Summary: (CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY) TERFEL, GHEORGHIU AND ALVAREZ POSING FOR PHOTOS; GHEORGHIU POSING FOR PHOTOS (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOPRANO ANGELA GHEORGHIU SAYING: "It means something divine, something different, something untouchable, something unique. I'm not thinking at all about that world in the performance, for sure. That is sort of a title that everybody, people want
  • Embargoed: 30th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA6U53XRY4RKT94XAV06IQ58EVY
  • Story Text: When Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu performed the title role of "Tosca" for the first time ever on stage late on Tuesday (June 13), it was as if Maria Callas was watching from the wings.
    Comparisons with the great diva were inevitable at the opening of the first new production of the Giacomo Puccini classic at London's Royal Opera House since 1964.
    It was 42 years ago that Callas triumphed at the same venue in director-designer Franco Zeffirelli's seminal version, reportedly receiving 27 curtain calls for her performance.
    Little wonder her successor, now one of the most highly regarded sopranos in the world, was relieved when it was all over.
    "In this house it was her, more than forty years ago she sang for the first time, it was a new production in Covent Garden. So to have this change now, is like 'How she dared to do that?' I am really happy that finally it is done, it was a really big pressure, but I really enjoyed, I really enjoyed each moment of this production." the 40-year-old told Reuters in an interview backstage after the performance.
    "I feel that tonight it was really part of history, what people wanted to do years before with all the dreams all the ideas, it was a big, big change here at the opera house," she added.
    While Gheorghiu's reception was not quite as rapturous as that for Callas, the early critical reaction was generally positive for a soprano with a reputation for being the last of the old-style opera divas.
    "Instead of the barnstorming power of Callas, her Tosca is a light-voiced, pious heroine," Guardian newspaper critic Tom Service said of Gheorghiu.
    "It makes Tosca a sympathetic, vulnerable figure, and her scene with (Marcelo) Alvarez in the third act is a heartbreaking declaration of love," he wrote, although he added that she was "underpowered" at times alongside Alvarez, an Argentine tenor.
    The Telegraph's Rupert Christiansen was less kind to Gheorghiu in his comparison between the two sopranos.
    "Coy, flirtatious and manipulative, she radiates kittenish petulance and sings with velvety allure. But of Tosca's heart - of the peasant courage, cunning and command that Callas triumphantly emphasised - there was nothing," he said.
    The production, by director Jonathan Kent and designer Paul Brown, was deemed a worthy successor to Zeffirelli's Tosca that is still performed today.
    "So who's won?" said the Independent's Michael Church. "I will happily trade Callas for Gheorghiu in this role, and Kent and Brown have pulled off what seemed impossible. Bravo."
    Gheorghiu, one half of the opera "dream couple" alongside her husband, French tenor Roberto Alagna, shrugs off questions about her reputation for being the difficult, demanding personality associated with great opera stars of the past.
    An unsourced weekend report in the Observer newspaper said she had turned up a week late for rehearsals and had put shopping ahead of singing on her list of priorities.
    "What does diva mean to you?" the daughter of a train driver said when asked about her portrayal in the media.
    "It means something divine, something different, something untouchable, something unique. I'm not thinking at all about that world in the performance, for sure. That is sort of a title that everybody, people want to put on me or to use to describe me to have a label or title, it is the same so thank you very much, it is a compliment," she said.
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