Witchy Woman
The return of Unnatural Acts of Opera continues with another rarity, Respighi’s 1934 grand opera La fiamma. Starring in this tale of witchcraft in medieval Ravenna is American soprano Alessandra Marc as the mysterious Silvana.
According to Will Crutchfield‘s review of this live 1987 performance in the New York Times, La Marc’s “voice is full, beautiful, creamy at times. Her tone is pure: it does not have the overripe, pushed vibrato that afflicts so many singers in weighty operatic roles today. Miss Marc also has a feel for the soaring curves of Puccinian lyrical writing. She is generous with portamento, and she lets her feelings into her singing. One would not be surprised if Zinka Milanov had been one of her models.”
The cast also includes Mignon Dunn and James McCracken, with Robert Bass conducting.
Marc also made a very beautiful recording of Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony in the early 90s.
Thanks for La Fiamma and all the other rarities. La Cieca, you don’t have a recording of Respighi’s La campana sommersa up your sleeve, do you?
This is way off the subject, I just wanted to get my story out there.
Onegin the Evil?
This post is not intended to cause ill will or to create an antagonistic atmosphere in any way. Rather, I am only trying to understand more about why these events took place.
When I first discovered youtube.com, I was searching for information online about the soprano Renato Scotto; in that internet search I came across parterre.com. It was there that I found links to videos posted on youtube.com. Wow, I thought this was an amazing discovery. Youtube.com exposed me to new singers and new repertory; but most importantly it exposed me to things I could never see here in the US. One of the first videos I opened was of Lucrezia Borgia from Milan 2002, with Mariella Devia and Marcello Alvarez. This video, in particular, opened my world up to so much pleasure. The more I watched this amazing soprano, the more I wanted to see more of her. This led to my hobby of collecting non-commercial opera videos. The more I added to my collection, the more I wanted others to gain enjoyment from these “hidden treasures.” I only wanted to give back to others, the great joy I had received from these videos.
Over time, some of my favorite youtube accounts started to close. With each of these deletions, it seemed like this world of online opera videos was slowly coming to extinction. I was worried that I might be the next victim in this cyber-annihilation. Then it happened, my account was suspended. I was very disappointed, not for myself, but for the people that derived so much joy at seeing their favorite singers in my new videos.
It didn’t surprise me that my account was suspended. What did surprise me, however, was that a very familiar youtube face was responsible for the suspension. Onegin65 or Oneguin65 was responsible for my account suspension. The email that youtube sent me said that Onegin S.L. had the copy write for my videos. My account wasn’t the only one terrorized by Onegin65! Gabba02, Mekarts were also suspended.
What is the end result of all this madness: there won’t be as many videos for young opera fanatics like myself to enjoy.
I will still dedicate myself to exposing others to the art I love so much. Of course, I want others to enjoy the beautiful soprano Mariella Devia, so I will try to find a way to incorporate her in new projects and new postings.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Best wishes to all!
No offense towards anyone, but deviafan’s post took me back quite a bit.
Obviously I am a massive fan of Devia, and yes, I do see her rather large selection of materials on YouTube, but I have never posted anything on YouTube. Watching YouTube however has led me to purchase some videos of Operas I was not aware existed. It is very foolish for some individuals to get overly touchy about copyrite, as I think its free marketing that has more rewards than costs.
Just don’t want us to be confused!
Sorry about the trouble deviafan, and yes, it does seem there are some very unpleasant people on YouTube, that want to spoil it for everyone else.
well, this is all very sad, because all these aforementioned accounts: loginfancy, onegin, gabba etc. provide such a plethora of rare and valuable footage that will never be available to the general public. What a pity.
The hilarious “Mommie Dearest” remix from the JoanCrawfordbest.com site has been removed. That breaks my heart. Somehow, YouTube has to work out the copyright issues. I fully understand the proprietary protections for owners, and I don’t believe bootlegged stuff should always be in the public domain just because we want to see it–but this issue isn’t as black-and-white as it seems just now.
Off topic yet again: For Aprile Millo fans–take a look at archivmusic.com’s special out-of-print section, where they have the rights to reproduce albums out of print. There are not too many vocal features in there, but Millo’s 1980s-vintage Verdi recital just got posted.
I’m a bit confused – Devia_Fan, why are there two posts by you addressed to you? How does that work?
So you are the person who had posted all the Devia videos? I adore you for them – please please PLEASE find a way to post them back on the internet! I don’t think I can live without them!
I reviewed Alessandra Marc in a recital at the National Gallery of Art in 2004, but I missed her recital there last year.
ITDCS, one message is from deviafan and the other is from devia_fan. Note the underscore between devia and fan in the second name.
I would think that these are two different posters or possible one with split personalities.
Thank you Wendell, you seem to be the one poster who has read the posts, and can instantly pick up we are NOT the same poster.
Its really sort of flabberghasting to me too that the very person who calls me a Russian and dictator for falsely accusing has done exactly the same thing to me. A bit of reading would have shown otherwise, from writing style to seeing when the accounts were opened would demonstrate otherwise. Heck, even though I think I know who deviafan is, because I DON’T really know for sure, I didn’t publish their name!
My only mistake was believing deviafan about who had accused them. And as my deleted post showed, I questioned that the accused actually had the copyright. Based on their own post here, they do not.
Unlike some posters, I do NOT have multiple related profiles, or come on the internet to defame people. I was actually horrified by what some posters said here regarding Ruth Anne Swenson and Aprile Millo.
I have removed the post of mine that followed on deviafan’s suggestion that it was Onegin65 or Oneguin65. It’s only fair, but beyond that, there is nothing I can do. I don’t even know why my name shows up as devia_fan when I registered the name as Devia_Fan and it says “You’re currently posting as Devia_Fan,” in the little comment blog window!
All I can do now is close this profile, to prevent further confusion in this sensitive issue.
Maybe I will rejoin, maybe not.I just don;t like this sort of thing happening, or having to untangle it all.
Devia_Fan
Devia_Fan (note the “_”): It just is like that on the board. I am singined in as Baritenor, but it shows up as baritenor. It’s just a quirk of the system.