MILAN — Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, 25 and just out of La Scala's academy, was showered with flowers for her debut performance in the title role of Bizet's Carmen on La Scala's gala opening night Monday.
“She showed herself to be a great artist," conductor Daniel Barenboim told reporters backstage. This was his second gala opening since becoming La Scala's principal guest conductor. The crowd applauded for nearly 15 minutes, raining flowers and shouts of "Bravi!" down on tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Don Jose, Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott as Escamillo and soprano Adriana Damato as Micaela — as well as the conductor himself.
Born in Tbilisi, Rachvelishvili has told Italian media that her musical preferences ran toward rock music, and that she had to be pushed toward classical. Barenboim first discovered her talent when she was auditioning for the lesser role of Mercedes. He recently recalled asking himself, "Why Mercedes? She is our Carmen."
No comments:
Post a Comment