Long before the strops, the frocks and the walkouts, Angela Gheorghiu was feted for her electrifying performance in Benoit Jacquot's 2001 Tosca, which BBC4 will show this Saturday, September 15, at 7pm.
This is a full film version, not the usual BBC point'n'shoot live broadcast, and features Roberto Alagna and Ruggero Raimondi alongside la Gheorghiu with Tony Pappano conducting.
Diamanda Galas - Barbican 7 May 2007
Angela Gheorghiu - Barbican 8 May 2007
TWINZ !!!
Diamanda Galas hasn't visited London since dinosaurs roamed the earth, but still managed to summon up a full house at her Monday You're My Thrill concert. Tonight it was just her and the piano - and a couple of mics for whipping up vocal FX. In a skin tight black spandex tunic/flares outfit with killer heels and a bunch of silver chains that literally nobody else could have carried off, she stalked on, waist length black hair streaming behind, the quintessence of goth (though her between-song comments make me think she'd smack me down for using the g-word).
Her raw bluesy delivery and idiosyncratic arrangements made it a job to recognise some of her material straight away - or indeed at all. (Here's the opening song - any idea?) Familiar stuff like Autumn Leaves and The Thrill is Gone was weirdly coloured by her fabulous 3½ octave range and extended vocal technique. In the moment she makes everything else you ever heard seems puny and worthless.
Talking of puny and worthless.........Tuesday was Angela Gheorghiu's turn to bring down the house. Or try. The Puccini-heavy programme, announced only after tix had sold out, was disappointingly cheeseboardy. Not to mention miserly - a mere half hour of vocals, padded with a further half hour of overtures. I am not one to measure music by the yard, but £45 for that makes £180 tix for five hours of Parsifal seem like a bargain.
La Gheorghiu does have an undeniably beautiful instrument, but it's a teeny-tiny one, and it battled throughout with the LSO, even at mp. When they occasionally failed to make allowances and (and where WAS conductor Ion Marin when they let fly?), she simply disappeared. Looking alternately nervous and disinterested throughout the first half, and plagued by intonation problems, she offered nothing more in the way of presentation than a bit of simpering and skirt grabbing. Perhaps she thought her demi-couture skankwear (changed THREE TIMES - desperate, desperate, desperate) would compensate?
She kind of woke up a bit after the interval, and grappled enthusiastically with the Carmen Habanera, but she was a kitten playing a tigress, and it was just squirm-inducing. Her O mio babbino caro lacked any wit, but at least it was sweet and lyrical, the first moment of the whole night she actually sounded vaguely like a first division star. None of this seemed to perturb the (presumably) fan-packed audience, who called her back for three encores. The last of these, a perky Granada, almost redeemed the evening, but once again the orchestra drowned her. Still, at least you can hear it done by a proper singer on Youtube.
Angela Gheorghiu/LSO - Barbican 8 May 2007
Angela entertains London with a chestal display. And here's the fuzzy pix to prove it.
Check out the goods!
Praying for a good review 
Look! I shaved my pits!
OK, cameras out, here they come! 
