Feature

The dramatic rise of Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek

by Clive Paget on 13 January, 2016

The singer’s return to Covent Garden is about to hit Australian cinema screens – this time minus the prosthetic boobs.

Eva-Maria Westbroek is no stranger to controversy. You may recall her as the headline-hijacking dramatic soprano with the humungous prosthetic boobs in Mark Anthony Turnage’s operatic biopic Anna Nicole, based on the life of the late American ‘actress’ of the same name. Similarly, last year’s William Tell from Covent Garden was an unexpected cause célèbre for director Damiano Michieletto after its graphic abuse scene led to a media storm and steps to tone it down. Like the Rossini, Michieletto’s latest ROH project will also be screened across Australia by Palace Opera and Ballet from next weekend and sees him teaming up with Sir Antonio Pappano and a first-rate cast, which includes Westbroek, for a pair of repertoire staples, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. A match made in heaven one might presume.

^{Westbroek as Santuzza with Aleksandrs Antonenko as Turrido in Cavalleria Rusticana. Photograph by Catherine Ashmore}