In a very atmospheric and poetically written article, 'Una prima senza smoking per Sly dopo l'alluvione lo spettacolo', in La Repubblica 10/20/00, Nicola Gallino said that at the performance last night Carreras was as emotional as if it were the 'real' first night, which had been cancelled because of the floods in Piemonte. Carreras spent the afternoon away from people and concentrating on the performance. Last Saturday, Gallino had been at the dress rehearsal for invited members of the public. After the applause, Carreras went back through the rain to the Hotel Sitea. He did not return to Barcelona, but stayed in Turin during the whole period of the flood emergency. Turin, a city...

"where art can be a life-renewing consolation. Even if he, with his great discretion, doesn't like to talk about it, Carreras has won his personal battle against death. And he is one who truly knows what it means when life triumphs. Perhaps also because of this, there was such convinced applause."

In 'Né lustrini, né gioia alla prima del Regio' in La Stampa 10/20/00, Emanuela Minucci said that yesterday Jose Carreras...

"gave a double gift to Turin. He appeared on the for the first time after a long absence in the role of Sly which requires a great interpretive versatility. And it appears that he will available on November 30th to make up the cancelled 16 October performance."

In 'Poeta beone tra sogno e realtà', in La Stampa 10/20/00, Paolo Gallarti wasn't too keen on the opera itself. He didn't like Wolf-Ferrari's score. He liked the production and singing very much. He said that such a fine production made the "holes in the score" even more obvious. Of Carreras...

"There he was on the stage, José Carreras in full vocal form with his ringing timbre and the naturalness of a good actor."

A couple of brief eye-witness reports from our readers who attended the October 19th performance. From Inge Jordan, news that a friend in the Viennese Club managed to get through to Turin for the performance of the 19th, and said that it was...

"the best performance of Sly ever. It was 'phenomenal' - just grand. Better than any of the other performances yet, and she saw Sly in Washington, in Zurich and in Barcelona, but this one beats them."

From Laura Scandariato...

"Josè had a beautiful voice, strong and secure. His diction perfect, as always. His interpretation that of a great actor. I expected people to burst into applause when he first appeared on the stage, but with their classic Turinese composure, they waited until the end of the act to applaud. As the opera progressed people became ever more taken with the opera and the end of the second act there was an ovation, above all for him. This was repeated at the end of the third act. I could hear people saying "This is a beautiful opera! I'm glad I came" And then, then, in the interval, I saw his son, Alberto. I greeted him and told him I was a great admirer of his father. So at the end, after almost everyone had left, he brought me and 6 other people to see his father. He was in the corridor, still in costume amiably greeting two others. Then it was my turn..."

I am very much looking forward to hearing the rest of Laura's story! If you can get hold of the October 20th print edition of La Stampa, there is a very nice and very large photo of Carreras during the performance. (The La Stampa web site, unfortunately, didn't have photos on it.)