May 10, 2007: Stiffelio in London

2007-05-10 Stiffelio (Verdi), Royal Opera House

Stiffelio = José Cura
Lina = Sondra Radvanovsky
Stankar = Roberto Frontali
Raffaele von Leuthold = Reinaldo Macias
Jorg = Alastair Miles
Federico di Frengel = Nikola Matišic
Dorotea = Liora Grodnikaite

Mark Elder, conductor



Director: Elijah Moshinsky
Set designs: Michael Yeargan
Costume designs: Peter J. Hall
Lighting: Paul Pyant
Fight Director: William Hobbs


Federico di Frengel: Nikola Matišic§
Dorotea: Liora Grodnikaite*

§ Jette Parker Young Artist
*Jette Parker Principal

Last performance, not only for me, but for the whole cast. And this one; was it the best? All I can say it that it is really amazing to see that for every performance new things happens, new inspirations. WOW. Amazing. Finally I can say Sondra, you have no longer a diction problem and I kind of like your voice now, and find you wonderful as an actress. But you know, Catherine Malfitano is my preferred Lina, and I have her on DVD, so, I am OK. In this performance we really know, because we saw it, Lina and Raffaele is really, how do you put it, "hot together" ?. So the duet Lina / Raffaele which is so hard to get to make it natural, they did that, Sondra and Reinaldo Macias. Amazing... BRAVI!! and the duets Stiffelio/Lina, wow, fantastic. Anyone would have been scared stiff with Jose Cura's Stiffelio completely raging mad almost violent. FANTASTIC. And when Stiffelio took of his wedding ring in act 2. And to see him almost completely crushed when listening to Lina. And on this last night, we were so close to maybe Stiffelio would reach out to his wife. Soooooo close. But he was crushed .... GREAT, FANTASTIC...

And if you think that I regret seeing STIFFELIO three times, no way.... (of course all JCx members understand this kind of operamania)

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Blog post: May 2007: Stiffelio in London (2007-05-10)