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 () was born in Adjud, Romania. Along with her sister Elena, she sang opera music from an early age.http://www.jcarreras.homestead.com/AlagnaArtPeople1999.html At age 14, Gheorghiu began to study singing at the Bucharest Music Academy, primarily under Mia Barbu.Her graduation in 1990 coincided with the overthrow of Nicolae Ceau?escu, enabling her to seek an international career immediately. Her professional opera debut took place at the Cluj Opera as Mimì in La bohème in 1990, the same year she won the Belvedere International Competition.http://www.wienerkammeroper.at/gesangswettbewerb.en.php

Gheorghiu made her international debut in 1992 at Covent Garden as Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Biography on Official website (2004) She debuted at the Vienna State Opera as Adina in L'elisir d'amore and at the Metropolitan Opera as Mimi in La bohème.http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/bio.aspx?id=690&type=1

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 television and in concerts. Her performance as Violetta in La traviata with Solti was watched by more than 1 million 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 voiceCrory, Neil (2005) "Recommended CD Recordings: Puccini: Angela Gheorghiu" Opera Canada 46(2): p.47, 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.

Gheorghiu at the Met

Gheorghiu has experienced a tempestuous relationship with the Metropolitan Opera since her debut as Mimi in 1993. It is rumored that she frequently butted heads with the Met's former General Manager, Joseph Volpe. In 1996, Gheorghiu was cast as Micaela in a new production of Carmen, opposite Waltraud Meier and Placido Domingo. The production, by Franco Zeffirelli, called for Gheorghiu's Micaela to wear a blonde wig, a nuance to which the soprano vehemently objected. Volpe famously declaimed that, "the wig is going on, with you or without you" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E6D71731F932A15750C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=. Gheorghiu later relented, and appeared in ten performances of Carmen that season.

Two years later, Volpe had planned to engage Gheorghiu in her signature role, Violetta Valery, for a new production of La Traviata, also to be directed by Zeffirelli. Her husband, tenor Roberto Alagna, was to sing the role of Violetta's lover, Alfredo Germont. Again, the soprano (as well as her tenor husband) squabbled with intendent and director over production details. Both Gheorghiu and Alagna eventually signed their contracts, which were faxed one day past their expiration date. Holding them to the letter, Volpe refused to accept them and the production opened with Patricia Racette and Marcelo Alvarez as the lovers. Eight years later, in the last year of Volpe's tenure, Gheorghiu sang her first Met performances as Violetta to glowing reviews. In a grand act of defiance, she arrived with her own costumes and refused to wear anything else.

Gheorghiu is a favorite of the Met's new General Manager, Peter Gelb. In 2008, she will sing her first performances as Mimi in the house since 1996, and one of those performances--the matinee on Saturday, April 5--will be simulcast into movie theatres across North America and Europe and later released on DVD. Rumors as to Gheorghiu's future engagements at the house include Magda in a new production of Puccini's La Rondine, the company's first performances of the opera since 1936; Marie Antoinette in a rare revival of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles; and another new production of Carmen, this time as the opera's eponymous heroine.

Personal Life

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.

2007 Lyric Opera Dismissal

Gheorghiu 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 production of "La Boheme", staged by Renata Scotto, refusing to be fitted for costumes made for her at her insistence, 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.") Her husband stated, "It was terrible! She just came to be with me here . . and she's sung 'La Boheme' so many times - she knows it so well!"Deseret Morning News, 21 October 2007, page E9, Associated Press/Verena Dobnik, "Once-booed tenor wows the Met"

Partial Discography

• Arias Decca 1996
• L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti) Decca 1997
• Mysterium - Sacred Arias Decca 2001
• La Bohème (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

External links

• Angela Gheorghiu: Official website

1965 birthsLiving peoplePeople from Vrancea CountyRomanian female singersRomanian opera singersRomanian sopranosDivas

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