| Description: | Anja Harteros
return to the opera stage last night in Milan after a two month recovery from colon cancer surgery as Verdi Simon Boccanegra was undoubtedly heroic, admirable, and almost miraculous especially in this annoying new age of divas and divos cancelling performances on a whim without giving any more explanation than "illness". But this premiere of Boccanegra didn't yield the dream reception (as some are erroneously spinning without even having been present) that the Spanish tenor could have wanted, nor a Boccanegra who Verdi himself could have imagined affecting the role. And it certainly didn't rise to the unbridled success that greeted it in Berlin last fall for Domingo's role premiere.
Last night at la Scala for the opening night of Verdi Simon Boccanegra with Domingo in the title role, the unruly loggione made sure that the drama on the stage would be shadowed by the drama in the stands, made even more effective by a curse hurled at the stage by one of the angriest |
