Dream Baroque Drama Queens Roles

I was battling between writing about the dream Pants Roles and the Dream Mozart Roles, but then I decided I wanted to write about baroque music since I’m doing so much baroque music this semester. By the way I’m so writing this to the sound of the Met’s production of Eugene Onegin with Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, so off topic, but it’s glorious, and I love it!

Before getting down to it I’d like to make a few announcements, first that I decided to break it off with the so called Don Giovanni I was seeing. And when I say Don Giovanni you can think of him with every aspect of the character, and elas, I was Elvira. But never more, as I’ve said in twitter earlier, I’m too young for that character anyways! And second and coolest news is that I’ll be watching Vesselina Kasarova’s concert here in São Paulo next week and I’m super excited, but I have two big perception tests before it so the concert will be like a gift for studying so hard.

I’m kinda terrified because of one of these tests, surprisingly so, it’s the easiest one I’m most terrified of. I had a problem with the teacher a couple of semesters ago (he basically humiliated me in front of the whole class and wouldn’t let me do the test, it was awful) and I spoke out and complained to the director, I don’t know what the director did to him, he’s still teaching same as he was before, but I am pretty sure he hates my guts.  And this test is an individual and oral one, and I really do not know what to expect when I’m put in a room alone with him, I’m terrified actually. Not that I think that he’s gonna hit me of anything, but he’s likely to destroy me verbally and I’m probably going to burst into tears and it’s gonna suck and I’ll fail this subject YET AGAIN. Therefore, I’m terrified.

Well anyways, we gotta wait and see, in the meantime all I can do is study, which is exactly what I’m doing, I’ll give it my best, let’s just see if it’s enough…

Happy talk now, let’s talk about some cool baroque Drama Queens roles to honor my favorite singer Joyce DiDonato and her fabulous recording. So I’m picking my favorite four baroque queens to talk about, but this is probably gonna be Baroque Dream Roles (part 1) since, there’s so much cool stuff in this repertoire!

First, in no particular order whatsoever, maybe because I’m totally doing her this semester, Cleopatra from Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto. I mean, come on! Cleopatra is super iconic and such an awesome personality, as David Daniels said in a recent interview, that all little girls dream about being Cleopatra and so did he as a little boy! That was just amazing!  And the character goes through so many transformations, she actually falls for Cesare, something she wasn’t particularly planning to do, and their reunion is so romantic. All their parts together are quite inspiring and her alone solos go from witty and “Wee, I got him!” to extremely dramatic which is fantastic to have in one character alone.



Danielle De Niese as Cleopatra above in the Metropolian Opera and bellow in Gynderbourne

Then we go from Drama Queen from Egypt to super awesome sorceress, but since she’s in Joyce DiDonato’s Drama Queens, I totally consider her a queen as well. The life destroying Alcina from Handel’s Alcina. Just a parenthesis here, my friend has a teacher named Alcina, and I freaked when I found out and asked him if she turned her naughty students into stone, he just started as I laughed at my pathetic joke alone. Anyways, Alcina is ass kicking and an amazing baroque queen, having power and beauty and being in control of everything around her until she falls helplessly in love and literally looses the ground beneath her. Plus “Ah mio cor” is one of my favorite arias ever, I totally can relate to it I every level you can possibly image (who can’t hun?) and she’s also a two faced character just like Cleopatra, which I like a lot.



Anja Harteros as Alcina, with Vesselina Kasarova as Ruggiero.

Next another empress in the making, Poppea from Monteverdi’s L’Incornazione di Poppea. That’s another great character, one that is control of probably one of the most dangerous man in history, at least in the opera she is. He’s completely crazy for her, and you can never know if she’s crazy for him or not, it depends on the production. There are Poppeas that act purely selfishly and don’t look like they care much about him, but others she seems to like him, even love him, I prefer the latter interpretation. Their first duet is super sexy and super one of my favorite baroque “duets” ever, although their last duet is so beautiful, ending in unison meaning that now they are one.

Danielle De Niese as Poppea and Alice Coote as Nerone

Last but definitely not least is the first baroque opera I ever saw, Rodelinda from Handel’s Rodelinda, yet another awesome queen. I first saw this opera in a sort of gangster European (duh) production with Dorothea Röschmann as Rodelinda, and absolutely adored it. A queen standing still against all odds to protect her throne and her child, she’s so bad ass. Then I saw Renée Fleming as Rodelinda and my love was solidified for all eternity. Strangely so my favorite Rodelinda aria is “Morrai Si” but “Ritorna Caro” comes right after it. Again 2 facets, one grieving and weak because of her husband’s disappearance and another strong and firm that won’t be manipulated. Love it, love her.

Renée Fleming at the Metropolitan Opera as Rodelinda

And I guess that’s it! For now, next post will probably be my views on Vesselina Kasarova’s concert here in São Paulo, I’m thinking about going to both, because who knows when she will return, right? One more thing, I’ve decided to post here in the end of every post some of the quotes I’ve been collecting in my little green book, some are huge, others just a sentence, but all very wise. Peace everyone!

“Big rockets require big launchers” – Marilyn Horne