Vienna got Caballé; New York got Te Kanawa

Comments

[hippoes]

It is such an irrelevant part, who cares. In fact her presence may add a sort of "will she mess it up, let's hope she forgets her lines or falls over" anticipation, that we wouldn't have with a proper singer. I still would have preferred Dot Cotton though.

[Oroveso]

It wasn't irrelevant, messed-up or small-scale when Ljuba Welitsch did it with Sutherland and Pavarotti.

[Rannaldini]

I'm a British Tory to my roots - and yet I find this woman so gratingly odd, that its almost worth going to see (again..) just for the freak value. Harsh...but fair.

[Michael]

Paris gets Felicity Lott in the Autumn!

[DESR]

Is there a role for Michael Howard in the piece?

God preserve us.

[SJT]

Vienna got Caballé

New York got te Kanawa

London gets 50% discount on full price

And still we're screwed...

[JohnnyFox]

The real tragedy is how PRs and trash television companies continue to delude this woman that she's a celebrity and her opinions or appearances count for squat.

If the Tory party thought anything of her as a pioneering woman politician, she'd be a Baroness in the Lords instead of a Pantomime Dame for anyone who'll bung her a few quid.

Panto at Bromley this year, I believe ... never saw Nancy Astor doing that, did we ?

[Vecchio John]

Acres of empty seats even at discount prices.

[Nikolaus Vogel]

Panto @ Bromley - a fitting climax to a political career whose highlight - if you can call it that - was suggesting manacles for pregnant women prisoners (not that Widdecombe has ever known much about pregnancy) when she was Home Office Minister. That the RO treats this unsavoury, self-deluding woman as some kind of variety act is pretty mind-boggling.
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Intermezzo replies - even if one sets aside her repellent past, the fact remains that Widdecombe can't sing, can't act, can't even pronounce her lines anything like correctly. She simply has no place on a professional stage - especially one that aspires to 'world class' standards. Her presence is an insult to performers of the genuinely world class calibre of Colin Lee and Patrizia Ciofi.

[Getheroff!]

Hideous woman. I shall never forgive the ROH for puffing up this repulsive person. Uuuurgh.

[amac4165]

I saw it on Saturday - its ok - but pretty much a "tribute act" to the original performance. It's a pity they didn't restage it as what Ciofi could do rather than have an artist's impression of Dessay.

Colin Lee was pretty good - he seems to be getting better and better. To the stage now where he is in some ways a pleasant alternative to Florez. La donna del largo should be fairly interesting.

Widdecombe was funny but no funnier than if she sat on a Cornish pasty. [that works better if you have seen it]

But on the other hand neither was Dawn French.

What they needed to do was take a leaf out of Strictly's book and go over the top to hide the true awfulness

[Manou]

The Donna is in the Lago - Largo is the space the factotum needs.

Or Ombra Mai Fù, of course.

[amac4165]

well at least some reads my posts !

It came up on spell checker and I went for largo !

[Diane]

... and, of course, the Donna del Largo was actually a tree ...