JULIA MIGENES: DIVA ON THE VERGE

For many, the world of opera is stuffy and exclusive: there are the incomprehensible lyrics; the improbable and often impenetrable plots; the starving artists, lovelorn teenagers and consumptive leading ladies, played by large, decidedly middle-aged, singers, with very powerful lungs. Drawing on her own experiences as a star of the opera, the irrepressible soprano Julia Migenes invites us to look afresh at the genre she loves, with an irreverent one-woman show which cuts a swathe through operatic preconceptions. Migenes shot to international stardom and received a Grammy Award when she sang the title role in Francesco Rosi’s film version of Bizet’s Carmen, with Placido Domingo and Ruggero Raimondi. As well as appearing major roles in the world’s leading opera houses, Migenes has done much to popularise the genre with her film and television work.

Filmed live from London’s Criterion Theatre, before an invited audience, Ms Migenes is accompanied by pianist Jean-Pierre Moemaers. She punctuates her lively performance with some of the greatest arias in the soprano repertoire, as she sketches out the life of the opera singer, with revealing and audacious anecdotes from behind the scenes. Impulsive, authoritative, moving and witty, Diva on the Verge is very much the mirror of its creator.

The arias she performs in the course of the show are the Mad Scene from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor; the Poison Aria from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette; Act IV, Scenes I & II from Verdi’s Otello; Violetta’s aria from Verdi’s La traviata; Granados’s Muerte Cruel; and the Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde; as well as extracts from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly; Strauss’s Salome; Puccini’s La bohème; Massenet’s Manon Lescaut and Wagner’s Walkyrie.

Aimed at “those who would not go and those who would not go back”, Migenes’s iconoclastic and earthy humour, throws open the gates to the world of opera in all its splendour and preposterousness.

“To transform opera into comedy requires not only a wide knowledge and sincere love of the art form, but also a high level of musical sensitivity and vocal agility. It is possible to parody the great divas, but only by matching their vocal achievements when exaggerating their failings.” (TR) 

JULIA MIGENES

Julia Migenes shot to international stardom and received a Grammy Award when she sang the title role in Francesco Rosi’s film version of Bizet’s Carmen, with Placido Domingo and Ruggero Raimondi, conducted by Lorin Maazel.

Julia Migenes is an American/Greek soprano, also of Puerto Rican extraction, who made her début at the age of three-and-a-half in Madama Butterfly. She studied at the New York High School for the Performing Arts and was chosen by Leonard Bernstein to be a soloist in the ‘Young People’s Concerts’ at Carnegie Hall. Julia went on to study at the Juilliard School and was again chosen by Leonard Bernstein for the television performance of Aaron Copland’s The Second Hurricane. She has sung Berg’s Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York; Massenet’s Manon at Covent Garden and Richard Strauss’s Salome in Geneva and in the USA. Julia received outstanding reviews when she performed Tosca, directed by Francesco Zambello at the Earl’s Court Arena in 1991. She was, for several seasons, the star of the Vienna Volksoper, singing the operettas of Johann Strauss and Lehár. At the Vienna State Opera she sang Mozart roles and Lulu. Her one-woman show, Diva on the Verge, has been performed in Paris, Monte Carlo and in London’s Royal Festival Hall. Julia has an extensive concert repertoire and has shared the stage with Domingo several times.

Julia has made films in Madrid and Berlin, including Riccardo Franco’s Berlin Blues. Her horizons have been broadened by her television work, particularly in Germany. Her performances have won her many awards, including the Camera d’Or for Best Television Performance. She has twice won the Bambi d’Or for Most Popular Artist: the first for Most Popular Artist on Television in German-speaking countries and the second by national public vote as Most Popular Opera Singer. In Luxembourg, she won the Lion d’Or.

Julia records for Erato Warner. Among her recordings are La Voix Humaine and an extensive recital disc of Viennese operetta.

Julia was cast in Puccini, from the BBC television series, Great Composers. For this she sang arias from Tosca, La Rondine, and with the tenor Jose Cura, the final duet from Turandot and the love duet from Manon Lescaut. Her diverse talents as an opera singer have taken her to South America, Australia, Japan and leading venues throughout Europe.

Source: Wikipedia