Shall I play Amneris blonde or black?
OperaThe Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča is having last minute doubts about her Vienna role debut in Aida.
Makes blackface seem so… 2020.
View this post on Instagram
UPDATE: A decision has been made.
Comments
MOST READ TODAY:
-
Orchestras
Berlin Phil oboe’s US class arouses disquiet
A social media activist has circulated a video…
-
Opera
Trouble in Venice as tenor spurns white-face Otello
Francesco Meli is due to sing Verdi’s Otello…
-
News
Another prof quits Cleveland
We’re hearing that cello professor Melissa Kraut has…
-
News
US conspiracy theorist rants against a woman conductor
The world according to conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza,…
Black wig; straight hair. Some darkening of the skin. Mediterranean look.
What’s the problem?
Being Latvian you should not sing along with netrebko, dear Elina. Neither as a blonde, nor as a brunette, nor as a redhead. Your compatriots (and not only them) are very disappointed with your attitude. Very much so.
In agreement.
If Verdi’s Aida takes place in Hellenized Egypt during the Ptoloemaic dynasty then Amneris should be a blond; if it’s before that, as a brunette. I would advise Elina not to be disappointed with her compatriots if their attitude is one of disappointment for having her sing with Anna Yuryevna. It wasn’t too long ago that their antecedents collaborated with the German Einsatzgruppen to wipe out a certain ethnic group in Latvia. Unfortunately, their ideological heirs are alive and well in Western Ukraine and propped up in the Kievan government by the good Ol’ U.S.A. with instructions to homogenize the rest of Ukraine with their intolerant ideology and kill Russians. Ukraine is not a democracy.
She also shouldn’t do it because her voice is not large enough for the role.
Elina has performed there since the invasion and annexation of Crimea on various occasions (at the State Kremlin Palace, as an example). The pay was usually great there, as I am told, and it seems nothing felt wrong. She speaks excellent Russian and knows very well what was going on there.