Remember Teresa Stratas? How about Kathleen Battle? The role in San Francisco will be shared by an American diva, Patricia Racette, who received raves as Tosca at the Met. Does anybody see a pattern here? Glittering operatic reputations have been broken this way. Gheorghiu has been blackballed by Chicago’s Lyric Opera for not attending rehearsals. At least she made it through the first act of “Tosca” this time, before becoming ill and leaving the house. Six weeks ago, this writer, on a first-ever foray to Milan’s La Scala, eagerly anticipated her Mimi - only to have her be a no-show. I mean the one who didn’t come back after Act I.Īngela Gheorghiu, the famed Romanian diva who enchanted San Francisco audiences in 2007’s “La Rondine” (also Puccini) and again as the composer’s Mimi in “La Bohème” the following year, has been amassing something of a diva’s reputation ever since.

The most exciting thing about opening night of San Francisco Opera’s “Tosca” was the soprano. San Francisco Opera, War Memorial Opera House Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (after the play by Victorien Sardou) Photo by Kristen Loken/San Francisco Opera Melody Moore (above) stepped into the title role of San Francisco Opera’s “Tosca” on opening night whenĪngela Gheorghiu became indisposed after Act I.

Sf opera bravo