Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

The term 'prima donna' can be used to mean two things: in everyday parlance, it is a woman inclined towards hubris; in the world of opera, it simply describes a performance's leading lady. But the everyday term was derived from the operatic one, and sometimes they entwine - as in the person of Angela Gheorghiu, the Romanian soprano who sings with the power of a hurricane, and who has withdrawn in a huff from a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos at Covent Garden.

The same applies to her husband: opera does not deploy the term 'primo uomo', nor do we use it to describe a male who cannot exist unless he is the centre of attention (and there is no shortage of those). But well we might, as might the temple of opera, La Scala in Milan, when describing Ms Gheorghiu's spouse, tenor Roberto Alagna. Last week, soon after his wife's pull-out from London, Alagna became the first singer ever to storm off stage while the music was still playing, having been booed for his rendering of Verdi's aria 'Celeste Aida'. Two tantrums within a few months, by the couple who have become known as the 'Bonnie and Clyde' and the 'Ceausescus' of opera.