Angela Gheorghiu vs. Maria Callas

Technology pits Romanian soprano against La Divina.

"Devo veramente a cantare con lei?"
Maria Callas in Cherubini's Medea.
Photo © EMI Classics/La Scala archive.

Like the late diva Emilia Marty, soprano Angela Gheorghiu has made a bid for immortality with her forthcoming CD release: Homage to Maria Callas.

The disc features the Romanian soprano singing some of Callas' favorite repertory in the verismo genre, including arias from Puccini's La bohème, Catalani's La Wally and "La Mamma Morta", the aria from Giordano's Andrea Chenier made famous in the movie Philadelphia.

But the most controversial addition to the disc is a digitally built duet between La Gheorghiu and the late Maria Callas. The two sopranos, one living, one very dead, will sing "L'amour c'est l'oiseaux rebelle", the Habañera from Act I of Bizet's Carmen.

According to a press release (received today from EMI Classics) the new "duet" was created from the original master tape of Callas' 1961 recording of the aria. The engineers chose this over the '63 recording of the complete opera, because it lacked the usual choral accompaniment.

In the engineering booth, the original orchestra (the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française under the baton of George Prêtre) was scrubbed out. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Marco Armiliato re-recorded the music, with the players using a special click track to match the original. Ms. Gheorghiu also chose to learn Callas' particular sense of rhythm and meter, enabling the two divas to warble together, or seperately.


Leaving aside obvious reservations (the biggest one being that the Habañera is intended for one singer!) the new disc will hit New York's few remaining record shops in October, shortly before Ms. Gheorghiu's scheduled appearance with the Opera Orchestra of New York. In the OONY performance, she will sing the title role in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvrer.

Ms. Gheorghiu has a history of recent cancellations and controversies at the Metropolitan Opera. In an interview this weekend with the Los Angeles Times, conductor Leonard Slatkin blamed the diva for his exit from a disastrous 2009 revival of Verdi's La Traviata.

Earlier this year, the singer dropped out of the company's new production of Faust. Scheduled to sing Marguerite opposite Jonas Kaufmann, Ms. Gheorghiu cited "creative differences" with the new production, which updates the German legend to the 20th centiry and makes Faust into Robert Oppenheimer. Perhaps she will use her free time to prepare another tribute, this time to Catalan soprano Victoria de los Ángeles.

Orchestra of St. Luke's Opens DiMenna Center

The DiMenna Center: 450 W. 37th St.
Photo courtesy the Orchestra of St. Luke's.

The Orchestra of St. Luke's has been around since 1979, but has never had a building or venue to call its own. That changed yesterday, when the OSL officially opened its new midtown Manhattan home.

The morning ceremony featured Mayor Bloomberg, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, the orchestra, and a whole bunch of writers and reporters including that guy who writes Superconductor.

The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, (named after two donors who spearheaded the drive to raise the money for the project) is a multi-leveled $37 million dollar space built out of the shell of two off-Broadway rehearsal theaters. It is part of the complex located at 450 W. 37th St., right over the hellmouth of the Lincoln Tunnel., which also houses Mikhail Barishnykov's dance troupe.

One would think that a classical music venue next to heavy traffic patterns might be a bad idea. But, as yesterday's facility tour showed, the two concert halls, practice rooms and control center have excellent soundproofing, designed as "floating rooms" in the architect Hugh Hardy's "box-within-a-box" design. (The traffic was rendered silent.) The rooms are all equipped with removable walls of great complexity, allowing them to be reconfigured as needed for chamber music, orchestral work, or anything else that is needed.


I was on the tour group that got to hear the OSL play in one of the spaces, Cary Hall. This is the larger of the two auditoriums, a subterranean wooden concert hall with the walls covered with acoustic dowels for maximum sonic clarity. Judging from the warm sound of the Orchestra (heard as they rehearsed the Overture to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte), the room allows the large instruments to bloom with firm, round tones. The acoustics also allow clarity between instruments, making smaller voices in the orchestra (particularly the oboes) stand out.

Both Cary and its smaller brother Benzaquen Hall are designed to be used primarily as rehearsal spaces and recording studios. There will be occasional concerts for the general public, and for those, temporary seating will be added. We also saw the musicians' lounge, the central recording room (temporarily bare of equipment as the Center will be inviting producers and engineers to bring their own) and the Orchestra's library room.

A cutaway view of the DiMenna Center with the two concert halls visible.
© HH Hardy Collaborative Architecture courtesy Orchestra of St. Luke's

The morning event concluded with a short concert and ceremony in Cary Hall. Involuntary is a new composition by David Lang, for piccolos, trumpets and drum. It was commissioned by the Orchestra for the occasion. With its dueling piccolos and martial percussion, it served as a short, pert curtain-raiser.

Speeches were made, by St. Luke's president Katy Clark, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Susan Grahame. There was a bizarre ribbon-cutting ceremony with dignitaries and artists taking shears to a copy of a Beethoven score. A short program followed, featuring Ms. Graham singing "Bless This House" and the actual Magic Flute overture, conducted by Patrick Summers.