18 January 2009

U-huh yeah, we need one more recording of that one

Angela Gheorghiu records Madama Butterfly in the studio, a role she's not sung on stage. (Can you just hear her say "Eat that, Renée".) There's a promotional YouTube from EMI (via Mostly Opera), where you'll see Gheorghiu's extravagant hand gestures and hear Callas in stereo. (Truly.) You'll also see tenor/porn star Jonas Kaufmann looking totally spicy in jeans. (I mean, who doesn't want to have a baby with his virile Pinkerton, I'd like to know.) My only question: in the dying age of studio recordings, who did Maestro Antonio Pappano threaten to sleep with to buck the trend?