Who was the most tempestuous diva of them all? The hot tempered high C. Where would grand opera be without coloraturas who erupt? The diva radiates excitement, spreads magnetism, creates argument. And more…
The tribal behavior of male and female operatic stars has been sieved and analyzed by psychologists who talk of complexes and neuroses and by laryngologists who attempt to explain the strain. To sing a sustained high C under bright lights in front of thousands is not a normal way of making a living. All evening long the audience waits for that one high C. Is she going to make it?
As the diva takes a deep breath before attacking the critical note, everybody sits as tense as in the circus when the drums roll and the trapeze artist swings out into space. No matter how beautifully the diva has sung before- is she doesn’t make the high C, she’s a flop.
—A sumptuous beauty, a lecherous villain, barefaced treachery and murder, all capped off by a spectacular suicide: Puccini’s “Tosca” never fails to provide the drama audiences crave.
And one scene that never fails to stun is the break-neck suicide leap that the title character, Floria Tosca, makes from a castle parapet at the opera’s end. The scene has been the subject of lore since the early 1900s: While performing “La Tosca” — the play Giacomo Puccini would later adapt into his opera — the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt leapt and injured her leg so severely it was eventually amputated.—click image for source…
Unfortunately, the normal human voice does not produce high C’s. The singer’s top tones are the result of years of physical effort, hard work, nervous concentration, correct breathing, and a dozen intangibles such as climate, disposition, good health, and the proper mood.
The life of a prima donna is as competitive as that of a lion tamer. She never sings for anybody, always against someone: against the orchestra, the conductor, against her colleagues, or against the audience- “they’re just waiting for a cracked high note.” To be able to withstand such pressure and come out on top with a high C demands physical strength and absolute egotism. The prima donna must be convinced of her superiority to be able to convey it to her audience.
—Christine Goerke’s singing was demonstrably sumptuous in the title role. The costumes were typically splendid and while I wouldn’t really call the whole affair Tarantinoesque, as McVicar implies in an interview in the program, themes of angst, violence and revenge run through the entire performance like a locomotive. —click image for source…
Grand opera thrives on exaggerated emotion. The protagonists live in a super charged atmosphere of musical drama. In a Verdi opera, people either love or kill each other; no other emotion is tolerated. The suffering in Wagner’s Musikdrama is on a heroic scale with endless climaxes. No wonder the artists often don’t know where make-believe ends and real life begins.
The prima donna on stage is rarely permitted to enjoy a happy ending or, at least, a peaceful death. She jumps to her death ( Tosca, Flying Dutchman), is burned alive ( La Juive), buried alive (Aida), stabbed to death ( Rigoletto, Carmen), strangled in her bed ( Otello), executed (Salome), goes mad ( Lucia, Elektra), dies of t.b. ( La Boheme, Traviata), or of despair ( Tristan und Isolde). Under the circimstances it is hard to keep a sane sense of proportion.
ADDENDUM:
(see link at end)… Dame Nellie Melba
The next time you eat melba toast or peach melba, you can thank the Australian soprano Nellie Melba (1861-1931) after whom the foods are named. Melba had a glorious, wide-ranging voice that could sing everything from Madame Butterfly to La Boheme to Hamlet.
However, the diva was extremely egotistical. She honestly thought that the entire opera world revolved around her. Apparently, during a Chicago performance of Romeo et Juliette, she insisted on the premature ending of the performance because her voice was supposedly gone. Melba would often interrupt the high notes of other sopranos and, reportedly, made life miserable for several young singers including Rosa Ponselle and Luisa Tetrazzini. One of the most famous stories about the diva says that, when John McCormack made his London debut, Melba pushed him away at the curtain calls and said “In this opera house, no one takes a bow with Nellie Melba!”
However, like all other divas, Melba’s faults were forgiven because there simply was not a more beautiful voice. Read More:http://voices.yahoo.com/5-most-notoriously-difficult-divas-history-6186682.html?cat=33
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