I don’t know how I feel about the recent announcement that Italian mezzo Cecilia Bartoli will star as Maria in Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story at the 2016 Salzburg Whitsun Festival; Gustavo Dudamel will conduct. She’ll probably be cute as all get-out, but I’m just having a hard time picturing it. Maybe this is how people felt when Ben Heppner announced he’d be joining the cast of Mirvish’s Titanic The Musical.

What do you guys think? Will Ceci be a charming Maria? I’ll admit I’m totally curious to hear an Italian Baroque specialist play a Puerto Rican immigrant in English, in Salzburg. The cultures, they’re colliding, guys.