Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu |
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Angela Gheorghiu (born Angela Burlacu) (born September 7, 1965) is a Romanian opera singer and one of the most famous and internationally acclaimed contemporary sopranos.
Biography
The daughter of a train driver, Gheorghiu (IPA: [gejorgju]) was born in Adjud, Romania. Along with her sister Elena, she sang opera music from a very early age.[1] At age 14, Gheorghiu went to study singing at the Bucharest Music Academy, primarily under Mia Barbu. Her graduation in 1990 coincided with the overthrow of Nicolae Ceauşescu, enabling her to seek out an international career immediately. Her professional opera debut took place at the Cluj Opera as Mimì (La bohème) in 1990, the same year she won the Belvedere International Competition.[2]
Gheorghiu made her international debut in 1992 at Covent Garden as Zerlina in Don Giovanni.[3] She debuted at the Vienna State Opera as Adina in L'elisir d'amore and at the Metropolitan Opera as Mimi in La bohème.[4]
In 1994, she was auditioned by the conductor Sir Georg Solti for a new production of La traviata. Her debut as Violetta led her to international stardom.
She records many albums and complete recordings and often appears on TV or in concerts. Her performance as Violetta in La traviata with Solti was watched by more than 1 million of people in the United Kingdom.
Gheorghiu has built her career slowly and carefully. She concentrates her repertoire in some roles with which she has great affinity: Violetta (La traviata), Mimì (La bohème), Magda (La rondine), Adina (L'elisir d'amore), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) and some others. In 2003, she debuted as Nedda in Pagliacci and as Marguerite in Faust. A soprano with a large range and a dark coloured voice[5], Gheorghiu is also able to sing spinto roles. She has recorded Tosca (also made into a film directed by the French Benoît Jacquot) and Leonora in Il trovatore for EMI and sang in her first Tosca at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2006. Her performance was an overall success, although because the famous Zeffirelli production of 1964 was replaced by a new production (which premiered with her), there was comparison between the Toscas of Gheorghiu and Maria Callas, for whom the Zeffirelli production was designed.
Divorced from her first husband, from whom she retained her surname, Gheorghiu married the French-Italian tenor Roberto Alagna in 1996. The couple have sung together often on stage and on studio recordings. She was recently chosen the 74th most beautiful woman in the world by the magazine FHM.
The notoriously temperamental Georghiu was publicly fired by the Lyric Opera of Chicago in September of 2007. It was cited that she missed 6 out of 10 rehearsals for a new production of "La Boheme", staged personally for her by Renata Scotto, and violated her contract by traveling to New York without permission. (She was going to see her husband in the Metropolitan Opera season premiere of Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette.")
Partial Discography
- Arias Decca 1996
- L'Elisir D'amore (Donizetti) Decca 1997
- Mysterium - Sacred Arias Decca 2001
- La Boheme (Verdi) Decca
- La Traviata (Verdi) Decca
- La Rondine (Puccini) EMI
- Werther (Massenet) EMI
- Manon (Massenet) EMI
- Tosca soundtrack (Puccini) EMI
- Il Trittico (Puccini) EMI
- Verdi: Requiem (Verdi) EMI
- Il Trovatore (Verdi) EMI
- Romeo et Juliette (Gounod) EMI
Notes
- ^ http://www.jcarreras.homestead.com/AlagnaArtPeople1999.html
- ^ http://www.wienerkammeroper.at/gesangswettbewerb.en.php
- ^ Biography on Official website (2004)
- ^ http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/bio.aspx?id=690&type=1
- ^ Crory, Neil (2005) "Recommended CD Recordings: Puccini: Angela Gheorghiu" Opera Canada 46(2): p.47