Word: violetta
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...held at New York City's Metropolitan Opera House on Sept. 9, several artists were invited to get with the venue. JANET JACKSON reigns as Cleopatra from Handel's Giulio Cesare, OZZY OSBOURNE plays the sad clown from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and teen queen BRITNEY SPEARS blooms as Violetta from Verdi's La Traviata. Photographer Mark Seliger says the opera music played during the shoots was tolerated to varying degrees. "It didn't last too long with Eminem, and David Bowie wanted me to turn the music down," he said. "Janet really liked it, but I don't think Ozzy...
...high notes are fresh sounding and secure; Cura, 36, is a weightier lirico-spinto with an impressive touch of baritonal muscle. Alvarez made his Met debut last month in Franco Zeffirelli's bloated new production of La Traviata, in which his engaging singing was overshadowed by the spectacularly vivid Violetta of Patricia Racette. Cura's turn comes with next season's opening night, when he will be sharing a double bill with his mentor, Domingo (Cura stars in Cavalleria Rusticana, Domingo in Pagliacci). But even though Cura and Alvarez definitely have the potential to make it big, neither is quite...
...singers, however, and La Traviata was no exception. All the performers, leads and chorus alike, showed remarkable vocal prowess and passion, and among the minor characters mezzo-soprano Gale Fuller's charming and coquettish Flora Bervoix (a courtesan whose wardrobe is far more scandalous than that of Violetta) was especially memorable and a well-needed break from the heavy tragedy of the rest of the opera...
...makes it hard to project--but acting-wise, Rojas has fallen into the the trap of the magnificent singer who is plauged with an inability to act convincingly. He did seem to open up through the course of the opera, but his slightly grotesque nuzzling of the deathbed-ridden Violetta seemed contrived and ingenuine...
Most of the opera, however, belonged to soprano Labelle, completely entrancing in the title role of Violetta Valery. After making her debut last year in BLO's Lucia de Lammermoor Labelle was named The Boston Globe 1997 Musician of the Year, and with good reason. Her vocal and stylistic range is almost unfathomable: in the course of roughly 10 minutes at the end of the first act, she goes from airy coquettish high notes to the wistful, delicate "Goodbyes" to the passionate lament of the "misterioso" theme that haunts the entire opera. She pulls off coloratura singing--that ornamented style...