Lady in the dark
POSTED at
11:38 PM
02 December 2007
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20 Comments:
Elena Souliotis--if I am wrong I hope Peter Gelb does not find out and start to hate me. He is the object of 7 out of my 12 desires.
I also think it's Souliotis. I'd know that chest voice anywhere.
Souliotis. Yup, the chest voice is a dead giveaway.
Elena Souliotis, no question. I'm not anonymous, I'm Alice Roberts. You know kids, the BBC has a television programme in it's vaults where Miss Elena
sings Abigaille's aria and cabaletta, Lady M, likewise,
Casta Diva, [I can't remember if she included the cabaletta] Voi lo sapete, and Madre,, Madre......
Thank you very much for this extract of Elena Souliotis ! She was great !
Malipasta here
We ve been trying to get this for years - and although most of the series the BBC did are known to exist there is a sneaking suspicion that this must have been wiped.
I d love to see it. Suliotis may be bad a lot of the time but when she s good - she s very good. The Suicidio from Rio in 1969 is one of the best EVER. Almost as good as mine.
The BBC wiped lots of fabulous stuff from the sixties and seventies (many of the Peter Cook / Dudley more programmes) and then kept a lot of crap too....
Of the BBC series the campest ever is with Amazing Grace - La Bumbry herself. She has HUGE fab hair a la Callas ( as in the Harewood interviews) which she keeps above water as she swims in her pool - drives a Farrari with a crash helmet on and runs around in a purple jump suit like a black Emma Peel/Bond girl and finally sings Amneris to her own Aida!!!
The singing is pretty good too.
Malipasta here
We ve been trying to get this for years - and although most of the series the BBC did are known to exist there is a sneaking suspicion that this must have been wiped.
I d love to see it. Suliotis may be bad a lot of the time but when she s good - she s very good. The Suicidio from Rio in 1969 is one of the best EVER. Almost as good as mine.
The BBC wiped lots of fabulous stuff from the sixties and seventies (many of the Peter Cook / Dudley more programmes) and then kept a lot of crap too....
Of the BBC series the campest ever is with Amazing Grace - La Bumbry herself. She has HUGE fab hair a la Callas ( as in the Harewood interviews) which she keeps above water as she swims in her pool - drives a Farrari with a crash helmet on and runs around in a purple jump suit like a black Emma Peel/Bond girl and finally sings Amneris to her own Aida!!!
The singing is pretty good too.
Yes, it's Elena Souliotis, I think live in Mexico City 1969. There are three live Macbeth with her, one from Mexico City 1969 (her debut in the role), Genova 1970 (where, after the sonnambulismo scene a guy in the public shouts "Brava Gencer!") and San Severo 1974.
She has a poor technique, and it was a pity, the voice was of great quality as you can hear. Re-listening to her I think she had many many problems, but I think many singers of today that sing those roles (and others) have many more problems than Souliotis.
She was supposed to sing Macbeth in New York in 1970, but the production was cancelled, so she never sang at the Met.
Tomorrow, the 4th, will be the anniversary of Elena Souliotis' death.
She should be an example for young singers on how not to ruine themselves with wrong roles choices and singing with a poor technique, but I think few people understand this.
Malcolm Groeme
Suliotis of course. Whatever happened to her Norma selection for DECCA? Anyone knows whether it's ever been released on CD?
Voce miracolosa. Destino tragico.
La Malipasta,
I think finding that Bumbry video is going to become my new reason to go on living.
Correct me if I m wrong - and I know it seems insane - but I remember the critics in the UK fuming that Suliotis was making her debut in the role of Lady Macbeth at the ROH. I think that was around 1969. There should be tapes of those performances knocking around.
The Aida from Dallas with Verrett is interesting - their duet is fantastic. Verrett is sensational in the judgement scene - but is nt she always........
PS I asked Grace about the BBC show after her (wonderful) farewell recital at the Wigmore Hall this year. She said that two of her biggest fans (in New Zealand) had a copy......happy hunting.
If that is Suliotis it has exactly the quality I remember in her work, the voice is rather 'held,' and is insufficiently supported. The tone is not floated, not even in the most basic sense -- it is in the throat and, for want of a better word, rather shouted out. So, it tires quickly, then more pressure is applied ... and we know the result. Anyone else comment on the technical side of this example of her work? It is dramatically exciting, I would agree. For an alternative, hear Pauline Tinsley sing this -- one of her specialties; you have that Cieca? "She prowled around the high notes like a Tigress certain of her kill," it was said of Tinsley! Nice.
MrMyster
I saw the Suliotis Macbeth at the ROH
and she received the rowdiest reception with continual booing and jeering I have experienced there. The voice was wreck even then and the same for Abigaille around the same time. She came back a couple of seasons later as Santuzza which surprisingly was more secure but small scale.
The only video I ve seen of Suliotis is the Forza from Naples (apart from the BBC programme in the early 70 s ) where the acting is very restrained - dull even - though if you listen to the audio its exciting......
One of (the many) theories about her is she was a great contralto who got pushed into the soprano rep as a replacement for Callas.
Believe me they/we were desperate for a new Callas in the late 60 s early 70s hence Sass, Papantoniuo etc.......Aliberti - who in her defence gave 100 per cent on stage - one of the most exciting Lucias in a run at CG about 84 starting with Sutherland / Bergonzi then Aliberti , Anderson to finish with Gruberova...what a run!
The Suliotis La Scala Nabucco 68 is Fantubulosa...so is the Rio Gioconda - ok not all of it - but the bits that COUNT , the Decca Nabucco, the Madrid Ballo.....
Returning to Amazing Grace - the arias on the Profile were Lady Macbeth letter scene , Tosca, Santuzza - (where the the "Io son donnata" nearly blows poor Mamma Lucia Off the stage !!! )., Ernani-Fantastic even if she just leaves out the top note - then the Aida duet.
Story about Grace -stopped at customs in Russia in the Soviet era - having spent her otherwise worthless roubles on fur coats. Told if she does nt give them up she ll have to wait 2 days in the airport to get clearence replied - "Honey you just picked on the wrong N-----r" sat there 14 hours, got clearence went home with coats.....!
Love her.......
That story about La Bumbrina made me LOL. Best one I've heard since the story about how she told Price that Aida should really be called "Amneris", and before Price went on she looked at Bumbry and said "I'm about to show your Black Ass why it's called Aida."
There are a lot of vaguely racist stories about Lee and Grace -- I was witness to a few, and when I was really friendly with Grace I used to call her and pretend to be Lee (deep voice, slow accent) driving her crazy.
A safe Grace story is when she was working at home in St. Louis and vocalizing up to a high D which was eluding her, when suddenly she heard a tinkling, bell like high D from somewhere near, every time she tried the D, the tinkling easy one came sailing into her room. She looked out of her window and saw a little neighbor girl just waiting to sing the note, when she saw Grace she sang it. "Get your bony pickaninny ass away from there and go play in the street where there are CARS!!" Grace screamed, and then had to apologize to the girl's parents. (She told me the story herself).
There seems to be a real Suliotis nut amongst us. I have never heard a worse singer with so much potential and I saw that Dallas Aida, because I was pals with someone she was 'close' to at the time. I thought she was pretty poor, and Shirley mopped the floor with her. The Carnegie Norma need not be mentioned again -- the shrieks from the stage were horrifying. And I saw her 'return to New York' recital (shared with Rolf Bjorling!!) -- she had that pneumatic drill like chest (but what pitches are those really?) and nothing else. After a while she staggered and said, "I am so drunk." I used to give the Norma record as a gift to the unsuspecting (they threw it out to a man) -- along with the horrific singing (by poor Mario too) there are the cuts, though since it's Cava, maybe that's not such a great loss. I also occasionally gave the nightmarish Macbeth to people -- but almost lost friends over it.
However I forgive all for a kind word about MY Lucia, Aliberti, I know she was nuts (though I had dinner with her a bunch of times and found her adorable)-- and say what all will say, I swear I saw a fantastic Sonnambula in Berlin that was heart breaking for its pathos (morbidezza is part of the style), a fabulous impersonation and actually well sung, if one could accept the timbre, that is until she began to wobble during Ah non giunge, I also saw what I still think is the best acted Lucia in my life (and this after Dessay) from her twice -- and again she sang it well.
That Dallas performance is a case where the opera SHOULD have been called Amneris...Suliotis is poor in it - its only in scene with Verrett that she comes to life. Verret is fantastic in the scene with Radames - Zambon.
I m not a Suliotis nut - but there are some very very exciting live performances - despite the many, many faults. The early Nabuccos the Giocondas in Chicago and South America etc. She was pushed too hard too soon by her record company / manager - something that surely would never happen now ..errr ....
Apparently when she returned as a mezzo - briefly - in roles such as the Principessa in S Angelica the vioce was huge, 'volcanic ' I seem to remember someone writing.
Lucia Aliberti sang and acted two of the most exciting performances I ve ever seen - when she sang Lucia at CG in 1986(?). Following four performances by Sutherland and Bergonzi in their 'indian summer' was a tough act to follow (I taped the second Sutherland performance - they were wonderful that night).
Aliberti both suffered and gained from sounding and looking (from a distance) like Callas. Some people saw her as just an impersonator - but she was a gutsy performer and I ll never forget those Lucias. There are some DVds of performances of hers - I think that Sonnambula is one of them - with Il Divino (Rockwell Blake).
LOVE that Aida line!!!!Another Grace story - safer this time I hope. Relates to the little girl story....
A friend was standing in the wings during her CG Macbeth and at the end of the sleepwalking scene she screamed one of the most awful bloodcurdling attempts at the High D you could ever imagine. The Amazing Grace just walked calmly by - looked at my frinds horrified expression and said - referring to the conductor - "I told him I could nt sing that note" - and then strode serenely off.....
Whilst singing the role of Aida in Paris - when it came to the top note in O Patria mia she just didnt sing it - and behaved as if absolutely nothing untoward had occurred.
Her Wigmore farewell was the live music event of the year for me.
I will miss her........
i cannot believe Her Grace La Bumbarina would ever say the N-word in public. i think that story is false.
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