Angela Gheorghiu: The Rolling Stones have a big sound. You know why? Because they are plugged in!

Angela Gheorghiu is in London to promote a season of Royal Opera House filmed performances, three starring herself. The Royal Opera House is striving to build up opera and ballet audiences by piping 10 productions, five of them live, into 700 cinemas worldwide. The season opener was last night's live broadcast of Gounod's “Faust,” with Gheorghiu. Her recorded performances of “Adriana Lecouvreur” and “Tosca” will be in October and November, respectively.

I believe in cameras and microphones, and I believe in everything recorded, because this is the only way to leave a testimony, for an interpreter. The most sensual, the most powerful and the most sexy instrument in the world is the human voice. People must know that in the opera house we are not using microphones. It's acoustic sound from the choir, from the singers and from the orchestra — real, not-playback, not-overdone sound. Imagine in a stadium a concert with the Rolling Stones. They have a big sound. But you know why? Because they are plugged in! In opera, we don't need that.

“It's a new step to have, all over the world, people looking at opera singers. We are like everybody. We want to be admired. I really want to make you understand what I'm doing after years of study and work. Thousands of people are interested in our work. We are speaking about music that was not composed yesterday. We are still here. Classical music is forever.

“I like life, I like love. I'm in love with music and art. I'm a real woman who is enjoying everything that's nice and tasteful and also with a lot of spirit.”

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.