Opening nights

Sieglinde skips a few lunches and purchases a $75 seat to the Met prima featuring Met diva-in-waiting Angela Gheorghiu in Act II of Tosca. (Other aspects of the evening aren't worth mentioning in the same blogbreath.) Meanwhile, we hear from the ever reliable Met Futures page (run by Bradley Wilber) that dear Aprile Millo will open the Met's next season. (Millo-Giordani, more specifically, amidst a post-Three-Tenors three tenors configuration.)

(Dear Renée, that's 0 for 2 for you.)

Interestingly, we learn from the Met Opera Database that Aprile has opened the season only twice before: in an Aida in 1989 and as a "surprise" guest at Prince Orlofsky's wet 'n wild bash (singing perennial party favorite "La mamma morta"). We only wish that they lined up Act IV of Manon Lescaut for next year instead of Act III, but like starved peasants we'll take what we can get. Meanwhile, Angela hasn't opened for us, nor has she sung the Tosca in New York, so Act II (the opera's balls) shall be some sort of a thrill. Then later in the season, we are treated to a Violetta we've waited years for, followed next year by the Donna Elvira. There have been signals that Angela's being groomed to be our next Norma (for season 2007-08), but firm plans have yet to materialize (cf. Aprile's Carnegie Hall rock concert). Oceanliner Maria Guleghina's deliriously wishful website once listed Norma in her 2007 schedule, but after last year's laxative Abigaille, not anymore.

(Dear Renée, now's your chance to banish all pretenders off the realm. Demand the Norma for yourself. Cure the Met's phobia of this master opera, and open season 2007-08 as the priestess. Erase painful memories of Renata Scotto and Jane Eaglen.)

Met Futures Page [Brad Wilber via metmaniac]
Metropolitan Opera Archives Database [Met]