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The New York Times, APRIL 18, 2016 |
By MICHAEL COOPER |
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Tosca’ Pauses When a Diva Misses Her Cue on Vienna Stage
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Was it a stunning diva moment or an innocent mishap?
Angela Gheorghiu, the Romanian soprano, was singing the title role in
Puccini’s “Tosca” in a starry production at the Vienna State Opera on
Saturday when she very conspicuously missed her entrance in the third act.
That left her co-star, Jonas Kaufmann, perhaps the most sought-after tenor
in the world, awkwardly alone onstage as minutes ticked by.
“Non
abbiamo il soprano,” or, “We don’t have a soprano,” Mr. Kaufmann sang in
Puccini-like strains before the opera ground to halt and he broke character
and asked the audience to excuse them, in German. The opera began again, and
Ms. Gheorghiu entered.
But the back story was intriguing. Mr.
Kaufmann had gotten such rapturous applause at an earlier performance in the
run that he sang a rare encore of the aria “E lucevan le stelle,” something
Ms. Gheorghiu has indicated in the past that she disapproves of. It was
right after Mr. Kaufmann sang another encore of the aria on Saturday that
she left him alone onstage.
André Comploi, a spokesman for the opera
house, said in an email that it did not appear to be an intentional slight.
He said that when Ms. Gheorghiu realized that Mr. Kaufmann would be
repeating the aria, she returned to her dressing room. The confusion, he
said, stemmed from the fact that there was no pause for applause after the
encore, as there had been at the previous performance, and that apparently
made Ms. Gheorghiu late for her entrance.
Representatives for Ms.
Gheorghiu did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Ms. Gheorghiu
has been accused of prima donna behavior in the past. She once balked at
wearing a blond wig while singing the part of Micaela in Franco Zeffirelli’s
production of Bizet’s “Carmen” during a Metropolitan Opera tour of Japan.
That led Joseph Volpe, who was then the company’s general manager, to tell
her that “the wig goes on, with or without you.”
In the next
performance the wig went on without her. But for the following performances,
she and the wig both appeared.
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