BY GEORGE LOOMIS [NY Sun, 10 January 2008]
Balmy weather might be expected to add to the appeal of a visitor’s first trip to New York City, but, for Elina Garanca, it felt like nothing but trouble. The 31-year-old Latvian mezzo soprano, who has excited European audiences from Vienna to London, arrived earlier this week to prepare for her American debut on Saturday evening as Rosina in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Il Barbiere di Siviglia.” Like any conscientious singer, she was less inclined to enjoy the spring-like breezes than concerned with how the fluctuation in temperature would affect her health. “It’s gone from minus 10 to plus 17,” she said, referring to Celsius degrees, “and I am sensitive to air-conditioning.”