I went through the videos of Antony and Cleopatra that I could find staged on YouTube. Most were of Malfitano and Cowan. I was disappointed not only in the singing, but in the staging and acting. The chemistry between the two of them was nonexistent. It was awkward, and made me feel uncomfortable in a bad way. Danielle put up a brilliant post regarding their acting. I couldn’t agree more. I would’ve expected the scene to look a lot more like this…

I did think Chicago Lyric did a really great job with the staging and scenery. I think it was much closer to the production Sam Barber would have had in mind originally. There were no elephants, or camels, or even horses…and I didn’t miss a single one of them!

The music wasn’t quite what I expected, but from the reviews the revised version received, I had pretty high expectations.

So I tried giving Barber another shot.

I decided instead to look around on YouTube to see if there were any other clips I could find of Leontyne singing the role that was tailor made for her. To my delight I did find a clip with her singing “Give me my robe…” from the opera recorded LIVE. I have to say that after listening to this recording, I might actually give Antony and Cleopatra a try. She was just amazing. However, I think I’ll be hard pressed to find another voice like hers any time soon.