SFist: Touched by an Angela: La Rondine at SF Opera.

SFist: Touched by an Angela: La Rondine at SF Opera.:

Angela Gheorghiu, the diva, made her SF Opera debut on Wednesday evening, in Puccini’s La Rondine.

Now, Angela has some redeeming qualities: one could excuse her for her behavior; being diva in the truest operatic sense of the word, that’s her job after all. Plus, she brings excitement to a performance well before a single note is sung, which is good in the accounting department. It does not hurt that she can display major cleavage very convincingly. And: she can sing.

Angela’s musical performance as Magda was a bright point in the La Rondine production. She’s as stunning on stage as she appears on the promo material, wearing in the first Act an ankle-long evening dress slit all the way up to her thigh. Her voice is warm, silky, it evoked a caramel swirl to us, or a heavy velvet drape: a voice with texture and depth. Her acting, on the other hand, was built on a single premise: look at me. If she walks, she comes off as Naomi Campbell ona catwalk. If she takes off her shoes, she plays a coy little girl. Maybe her attention grabbing behavior off-stage predisposes us to see her forced acting as a ploy for attention, so go check for yourself. Fortunately, it does not deter from the enjoyment of her singing.

LOL at cleavage display convincingly. Gonna try to catch this when I get back to SF.

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