On Anna Bolena
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before! You’re practically shouting in the lower register for half the opera. [Donizetti] wants that nasty, chesty voice — he wants it to sound uncomfortable!”
“It’s asking so much of the nerves, the body, the emotion. There’s so much hatred! I never thought I could be so angry.”
On “Manca solo a compire il delitto” when she sings B-flat below middle C
“It’s too much! Too hard on my voice at that point,” she exclaimed.
On mezzo-soprano Giovanna (Jane Seymour)
“She is my friend, and she has betrayed me. Suddenly I hate her! But it’s a beautiful hatred.”
On smiling during her applause
“Oh, you saw it? I shouldn’t do that? I was just smiling to the maestro (conductor Marco Armiliato). My way of saying, ‘We did it!'”
and Armiliato’s comment?
“We had our little moment. Actually, I found it cute. I mean, she’s a great diva, a superstar — but don’t forget, she’s human!”
via The Republic
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.
