Addio, diletta California!

Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna with Placido Domingo, in his capacity as Boss of the Los Angeles Opera, after a performance of La Boheme last December.

It turns out that I will not, after all, be going to Los Angeles in September to see Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu (and fantastic Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecen as Silvio!) in Pagliacci. In the end, I really don't have the money. My long-term temp job (calling up company stockholders and asking them to either vote proxies for annual meetings or to participate in stock tender offers) is going through a slow period, and although I bless my bosses for keeping me and my colleagues working, the only way they can do that is by reducing our hours. I also just went on some interviews for jobs at various state agencies (I took the "Professional Careers" New York State civil service test back in February and got a virtually perfect score), and was told if I get the job, I won't actually get my first paycheck until a month later! That means October minimum. So if I get one of these jobs, I'll have to save up to last from leaving my current job to the first paycheck in the new one, and if not, well, I just hope things at this one pick up quickly.

I will content myself, hopefully, with Angela's Tosca at the Met's Opening Night Gala and her Violetta in February. Assuming, of course, Joseph Volpe doesn't have some scheme to throw her out Kathleen Battle-style in order to make himself a "hero" to the press to coincide with his leaving. And there is the New York Philharmonic's New Year's Eve Gala and possibly the Philadelphia Orchestra's gala in January. Roberto, unfortunately, is going to have to wait for Enzo in La Gioconda in Fall 2006 (although if I really get some kind of monetary windfall, I might consider going to see him in Aida at Orange next July). Unfortunately, he is not doing Tosca with Angela at Covent Garden (Marcelo Alvarez is). I have the feeling this is the fault of his manager, about whom the less said the better.

And Roberto has a new coming out this fall of music associated with French pop-operetta singer Luis Mariano, which looks like a cross between Marcelo Alvarez' Gardel CD and Susan Graham's French operetta CD. And hopefully by Hanukkah I'll have a new TV and a DVD player and can enjoy him and Angela that way...