Did someone say bite me?

The Gheorghiu cancellation story gets odder.

The capricious diva has pulled the Facebook statement quoted below. Baden Baden remain silent on the 'withdrawal' and continue to show her name in their cast list.  

Is this a brief delay to formalise 'contractual negotiations' or has Angela had a change of heart?

 

Comments

[Nikolaus Vogel]

lololol - another great picture. If I were Jonas, I'd wear a crucifix and carry garlic secreted in my pockets the next time I sang Lecouvreur with her.

[Nikolaus Vogel]

A ploy to up the fee?

[John]

It's still on her website, which suggests the statement might have been pulled because of the number of critical comments by disgruntled "fans". I truly wonder what kind of management she has. Why doesn't someone sit down and tell her: Angela, enough with the nonsense. If you just did some proper work, you'd get all the adulation you so obviously crave. Learn some new roles, turn up reliably, sing out even when the cameras aren't there. It's not that complicated!

[inter mezzo]

There's no statement on her website - but neither are there any dates. It's as if the engagement never existed.

[Renata P.]

With all this mess, I wonder if Angie will fall ill and cancel OR pull herself together and show up as Mimi in tonight's performance in Paris...
(especially if they continue to "blackmail" her!)

[Rudolf]

We are paying way too much attention to a singer with a very limited and rather undemanding repertoire and ... a redoubtable diva status. In other times, Ms. Gheorghiu would have been another House Soprano, at best. There are better and more versatile sopranos around. They only lack the media attention and thus fly under the radar. So to speak. Ms. Gheorghiu lately causes more buzz through her unpredictability rather than her artistic accomplishments. :-)

[Renata P.]

Rudolf dear, please don't tell us to whom to pay attention - that's our choice, not yours! Meanwhile, feel free to pay attention to whomever you wish.

[John]

I personally feel you are mistaken. The reason why Gheorghiu has attracted so much attention is because she has a uniquely luscious voice, which screams star quality to most listeners. She is undoubtedly aware of that, and her limited repertoire is probably due in part to her desire to preserve her prime asset - her vocal quality. Her inability or unwillingness to make the most of this gift ie use it to generate an artistically rich career, rather than generating interest through her offstage behaviour, is a source of frustration to many.

[Isabella]

Well, apparently she showed up tonight!

[SJT]

O dear! Fangs ain't what they used to be chez Tish...

[Johann Erinn]

That's true.

This thing with Baden-Baden, though, reflects only an unwillingness to rehearse for a dumb staging, which is why she said she could not free herself "for the whole period," or some such phrase.

June 6, 9, 12, by themselves, were fine.

[Elise]

Saw her yesterday in Bohème in Paris, no cancellation, outstanding singing, and she looked really happy to be there. Perhaps the Baden Baden production just sucks, which is why Anna pulled out into first place!
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Intermezzo replies - Anna Netrebko pulled out of *all* her Faust engagements - several different productions.

And Gheorghiu gave several reasons for pulling out, but she didn't say she disliked the production (which would have been a lot more understandable than the excuses she did come up with).

[Francis]

Maybe she didn't make her reasons clear to English speakers, but from what she said I gathered she pulled out because she didn't like the production (but hadn't known enough about it earlier, when she signed up for it).
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Intermezzo replies - Let me quote - again - exactly what she said. Nothing here about not liking the production:

"I am very sorry to have to turn down the offer from the Baden-Baden-Festspielhaus to perform in Faust in June this year. It has always been one of my principles not to sing in a new production that has not been conceived from the very beginning for me. It is also rather unusual for me to have to replace another singer. Nevertheless, I have tried to make it possible and to be available for the whole period but unfortunately I have not been successful in doing this."

[Francis]

These were the words she used; I am talking about what I think she implied (in her convoluted English).
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Intermezzo replies - If she implied anything, it was that the rehearsal period may have been longer than she wanted/expected. I really don't see how you can read any dislike of the production into her comments.

[Francis]

Here is my "translation": "I generally don't take the risk of signing up for new productions created for other singers. I made an exception this time, thinking it might work out. It didn't, so I am pulling out (all of a sudden, I discovered I no longer have the time for rehearsals)."