Angela Gheorghiu's International Fan Club

My admiration for Angela Gheorghiu started a few years ago when I woke up one morning and turned on my TV to Mezzo; the French classical music channel. It being then that I saw one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen in or out of opera, performing the aria “Habanera” in a segment from the opera “Carmen” by Bizet. As for myself, it was not an issue of my never having seen or heard anybody else perform this very aria but there was something in the way this sensuous woman with dark black hair interpreted this aria that made it so alluring to watch; as she with not only her voice but body and coquette gestures performed it. It was Angela who added so much with not only her graceful sexuality but the way her eyes and smiles added to her interpretation; all of which making her as if an actress in a scene of seduction.

I at that point must admit was captured by Angela even to the point of being enamored with her, not only as a great soprano but by her femininity which came across in the way no other’s ever had in the world of opera. Of course there had been other ladies of beauty in opera such as Te Kanawa or Fleming yet Angela Gheorghiu was one who in a way was to opera what Marilyn Monroe had been to cinema, her being a woman who put so much of her female self in to her parts that never failed to exclude feminine passion. Looks wise hers was a face that combined beauty with personality that perhaps did not always include symmetrical features yet soft ones that to my eye made her a delight to watch; as she expressed herself in arias which seemed almost composed for her womanhood. I even getting the impression hers was pure celestial joy whilst she delighted with her persona and above all talent.

It was then that I became a fan of Angela’s as I at one point had become one of Kiri Te Kanawa yet with Angela it was equally an infatuation with her as a woman as it was as a soprano. My desire for her being like what I would have probably felt had I lived in the time of Marilyn Monroe. Naturally I took to following her career and above all operas, most of which she performed with her soon to be ex-husband; Roberto Alagna. I must acknowledge that she even lend something extraordinary to roles that previously had not been among my favorites, as she brought a certain capricious nature to them that was not pretentious in anyway yet much like an adorable child. This being precisely how I saw her as Flora Tosca in Puccini’s “Tosca”, specially when playing the jealous lover next to Roberto Alagna in act I in which she acts with suspicion over the gorgeousness displayed in Cavaradossi’s painting of the Magdalena; claiming “e tropo bella” (she is too beautiful).

Angela Gheorghiu in the second act would deliver a stupendous rendition of “Vissi D’ Arte” (face of art) which I had heard several times before yet when taken to her ways became as if an aria I was hearing for the first time; as there seemed to be a passion which had never been there. Angela Gheorghiu in the second act of Tosca would also demonstrate all her strength of character when slaying police chief “Scarpia”, declaring she is Floria Tosca after having claimed “mouri, mouri” (die, die).

Act three did not fail to live up to my expectations in this film version of Tosca and neither did Angela Gheorghiu, as she displayed so much emotion when she believes her lover to be pretending to be dead; only to discover that his was not a game of deceit. It being at that point that she is discovered and rather than be taken alive she decides to end her own life by jumping off the building before she can be captured; all as if to prove that only Tosca can decide such matters.

I would go on to see Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna perform in several other roles such as Mimi and Rodolfo in “La Boheme” and even in a gala event concert in Dresden which like many of her performances I recorded on DVD from Mezzo. I for my part must even confess to have written two articles about her entitled “Why Do We Love?” and “What Makes Us Love?”. This holding as truth though I did not mention it in anyway that be direct or even indirect that they were about Angela yet it is now that she will be once again free of the bond of matrimony that I declare that they were about Angela Gheorghiu. It being her for whom I felt when I wrote the above mentioned phrases to love.

As for myself, it maybe that I never get to meet Angela Gheorghiu yet I can do no other than dream that I might someday be the object of her adoration, as she is of mine or that my poems might capture her spirit as it might soar; as her voice does on to mine. This for it is my fantasies that include her in ways I dare not even mention in this article or in any other save to her if ever our paths should cross.