or as we used to call it, “tuesday”
From Franco Corelli: Prince of Tenors
The battle between tenor and conductor reached a climax when Cillario denied Franco his ovation at the end of “E lucevan le stelle.” An infuriated Corelli flipped his overlong thumb to his teeth in disgust and ran offstage. The audience was left stunned, the orchestra still playing the ascending scale leading to Tosca’s entrance, and Tosca herself bursting on stage to find it empty and the audience buzzing around in a mini uproar. Backstage, Chapin saw Corelli screaming at Charlie Riecker, teeth clenched, eyes bulging. There was no time for discussion. Chapin grabbed Corelli and pushed him back on the stage, where he resumed his role.
With the very rare exception (Netrebko at the end of Act 1 of Traviata) end of act curtains calls disappeared about 10-15 years ago at the ROH.
When Domingo made his debut in Tosca in the 60s he was warned not to expect applause after his first aria.
Rather well earned and appreciative applause at the end than universal Standing Ovations which seems the practice at the MET these days.
Talking about WNO conductors whatever happened to that Jimmy Levine who conducted La Boheme in Llandudno aeons ago?
Applause is bought by record companies now
Netty got a solo bow after act one traviata……so much for standards.
The British no nothing about Italian opera. Applause or not.
Oh please, please teach us, OMG. Lift the veil of ignorance that smoothers our poor country and all its inhabitants.
Actually perhaps someone should teach OMG… that would be “know nothing” as in to have knowledge of…
though actually I guess if you really do want to be pedantic – and I do – “know nothing” would be to have no knowlege of anything…..
I know the Garden intimately as I would sing Carmen and Amneris there before doing Eboli and all my RING parts at the Festwochen, then returning home to face Marcellina.
Rizzi is one of the few conductors who can totally ruin a performance for me, even if the singers are good.
On another topic, take a look at the excerpts LA Opera have posted on their new Otello (taken from the Dress, which is why there is no Desdemona) – can someone explain what the Otello (Ian Storey) is doing to produce that ugly, strangulated sound?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_anzc0NWJS4
Hey free willy, david made a typo too….in the interest of fairness, he meant “smothers”. how come you don’t play teacher teacher? Whatever, matters the frig nothing to me.
I have weathered enough ignorance in views of opera from the British “informed”……whatever/ hideous crap they buy and tell us is really “smashing” opera….NOT- no use going back and forth there Brit, my opinon and it stands.
Otello – big confession here – is far from being my favourite Verdi. If you’re going to do it, shouldn’t stunning voices be a prerequisite? It doesn’t look as though LA had them …
Thank you harry, I had missed the news of Maestro Cillario’s death. He was highly respected as Music Director of the Australian Opera. There is a wonderful story form his time in Sydney: Luciano (may he also r.i.p.) was finally back in the country (one of his first major gigs had been with the Sutherland/Bonynge tour in 1964). Anyway he actually did a stage orchestral rehearsal but interrupted “che gelida manina” complaining about the intonation of the orchestra, to which maestro cillario calmly replied, “I’m sorry Luciano but the orchestra is accustomed to play in the original key”! To which I must also add that I did once see a Boheme in Wien with Luciano and Mirella + Carlos Kleiber in the pit. Che gelida manina was also a half-tone lower, but it remains the greatest night I ever spent in the opera. Unfortunately I never heard that Tosca Vittoria live from Corelli…..
And on the topic of Rizzi, wasn’t he the conductor who completely destroyed Netrebko’s Traviata in Salzburg??