I first saw the legendary soprano Angela Gheorghiu in the 2011 film version of Tosca. She commanded the stage, as only a diva can.
Today, I expect her to flounce into the Savoy after keeping me waiting for hours. Instead, she arrives, practically on time, wearing a baby pink jacket. Her T-shirt bears the logo, "This girl is cute". That logo, and the pastel pink clothes are at odds with her prima donna persona; so is her manner: she is piano, almost pianissimo.
Gheorghiu's reservation may be down to the reviews she received recently that her Magda in La Rondine at Covent Garden, had been "cautious".
I suspect there is a personal reason as well. Covent Garden was where, in 1996, she met Roberto Alagna. She was a Romanian, married to an engineer, and just getting a taste for super-stardom; Alagna was a tenor with a dazzling career and a wife and daughter. They sang in La Boheme and promptly fell in love.
Their tempestuous relationship and later marriage were PR gold. Then suddenly, last January, Gheorghiu announced the couple were splitting and, last month, she accused Alagna of domestic violence.