parterre box

77 comments

• Gilg@mesh says:

  Ah, the memories…
  Keeping in the spirit…

  I fell in love with Thais from my tape of the live radio broadcast of Sills’ and Milnes’ ’76 opening night broadcast in San Francisco. (Reel-to-reel, back then, but I had it converted to cassettes in the 90s.)

  It was a year or two prior to their Met outing (which I never heard) but this performance and the one I attended the following week had few rough patches for either, the passion of the final scene as moving as anything any opera performance has ever produced for me.

  And, apropos Maria Stuarda, after all is said, Sills’ recording DOES have the Elisabetta of Eileen Farrell.

  La Scotto had a mere five roles in San Francisco, the one I remember most fondly being her ’79 debut Gioconda, with Pav (their last outing together, I believe), Toczyska, Lilova. A splendid Suicidio! What has become of that videotape? – it was televised on PBS but never released. We always thought the feuding diva & divo blocked it somehow.

  After that, a moving Charlotte opposite Krause in the 80s, Adler retired as intendant, and her SF appearances were over.

  on October 2, 2007 at 4:11 AM
• Krunoslav says:

  Actually, Adler retired as Intendant in 1981, four years before Scotto sang those wonderful Charlottes opposite Kraus: Terry McEwan invited her.

  She was contracted to return in LA VOIX HUMAINE the following summer but bailed when she learned that in effect she would be curtain-raising for Regine Crespin in THE MEDIUM. Karan Armstrong was the not altogether satisfactory replacement.

  on October 2, 2007 at 7:49 AM
• iltenoredigrazia says:

  Scotto had sung Adriana and Butterfly in SF prior to Gioconda. After the Giocondas she sang Ballo in Chicago with Pavarotti. I have a recording of that.

  Mrs. Clagart said of Scotto that “Her ‘return’ Vespri in ’74 was an incredible evening and the audience went mad.” True. I was there and it was a truly electrifying performance. That’s when Levine fell in love with her. In the musical way, that is.

  I also agree with JF in his comments about Andrew Porter. How I miss those New Yorker articles!!

  on October 2, 2007 at 8:20 AM
• sugarmezzo says:

  Hmmmmm….

  on October 2, 2007 at 9:48 AM
• Evenhanded says:

  Ms. Clag has said many many wonderful and exactly correct things about Scotto: one of the very greatest ever. Those Vespris are beyond incredible (really outshining Caballe even). I did not hear Freni enough to venture a strong opinion, but she always seemed just a tad boring to me – it took a lot to get her imagination going.

  Regarding Miricioiu: I agree 100% with Krunoslav – she is emphatically NOT a fake. Eccentric, sure, undisciplined, well yes, but a fake? Not at all. Those MET Vespris were AWFUL. But mainly, I think, because she is past her best years now – she’s lost some of her former confidence, and the voice doesn’t respond as well as it once did. She has always seemed an emotional creature – volatile in fact – and it shows in her singing. If you go back to the 80s and get your hands on many of her pirates: Bolena, Stuarda, Borgia from Amsterdam, Tancredi, Armida, even Lucia – there are some very high quality moments and some of the performances (specifically the Amsterdam Bolena) are among the very best EVER by ANYONE. It is a shame that she made such failures at the MET, but that doesn’t negate a career that verged on greatness from time to time.

  on October 2, 2007 at 10:00 AM
• opera in the uk says:

  OK, I was at dinner with friends, hit the vino and logged on when I got home. Broke my own rule, you can look, but don’t join the conversation, because you’ll come out with some shit. I did.

  Anyway, sober, I still think Angela is a truly great soprano.

  on October 2, 2007 at 10:13 AM
• armerjaquino says:

  Erm, not *that* sober, opera in the uk… I suspect you’ve put this post in the wrong thread…

  on October 2, 2007 at 11:14 AM
• La Cieca says:

  Regarding Miricioiu: La Cieca hostessed three podcasts recently featuring the soprano in Roberto Devereux, with “encore” highlights from Ermione and Anna Bolena. The podcasts can be found on the 2007 Archive page.

  on October 2, 2007 at 12:00 PM
• balabanov11 says:

  Dear Constantine A. Papas –

  Thank you so much for reprinting the introduction to ‘Vocal “Technique” for Dummies’, in your response to my post, although what it actually had to do with my post escapes me.

  Aren’t you the fan who takes long airplane flights to experience Netrebka performances? If so, what possible interest could you have in vocal technique?

  on October 2, 2007 at 1:53 PM
• Constantine A. Papas says:

  Dear Balabanov 11

  I never read “Voice Technique” for Dummies, and I didn’t even know that it existed. I responded to your previous note regarding to vocal technique and “support from the diaphragm.” Since the age of five, when I heard old recordings of Caruso’s and Gigli’s arias, I got hooked and obsessed with opera and the human voice. I’m a physician (MD), and although not an ENT specialist, I have been fascinated with and a lifelong student of the singing human voice and its anatomical and physioligical infrastructure. If you look, and I have, at someone’s larynx it would be impossibe to comprehend that two simple folds of tissue- the vocal cords- have the potential to become an instrument of deity. My attendance of live operas at the Met, Lyric of Chiago, Houston, Ceveland, Europe, and including recitals, is way above one hundred-I’ve stoped counting-and my collection of complete opera LPs and CDs is vast. When the Met was in Cleveland for its spring tour, I closed my my office for the entire week, attending evry single perfotmance. Last weekend I was in Nwe York City and saw the opening of Aida and the second performance of Romeo et Juliette. In my time, I’ve seen, live, all the great singers of the past 45 years. I hope I answered your question concerning my intrest and experience in vocal techique.

  on October 2, 2007 at 4:17 PM