thy sweet voice
Well, NachtundTraume buzzed in first with all eight names in the correct order for the “Mon coeur” quiz. Since this week’s Regie seems already to be a wash as a guessing game, La Cieca will try to keep you entertained with yet another performance of the celebrated selection from Samson et Dalila. Can you identify the two singers?
Sergio — what a hotty! I remember seeing this. I watched the Mike Douglas show every afternoon after school.
Thanks, Cieca! May I point out that Julie takes the “big phrase” in one breath. Brava, diva!
Well, yes, quoth, but Julie is singing to a pre-recording. Not many singers will risk running out of breath onstage in a live situation. I do remember that Olga Borodina sang the first statement of the “big phrase” in one in her first Met run of Dalila, though she took an extra breath the second time around when Domingo joined in.
It actually should not be so spectacular a feat of breath control to sing through this phrase, but the habit in recent decades has become to drag the tempo to a virtual halt here (a la Jessye Norman). The melody loses some of its sensuous quality if it’s sung too slowly.
Congratulations to NachundTraun – fantastic job.
If you’re in the mood for more English understatement as Delila (and I understand that you might not be), somewhere on youtube is a vid of Janet Baker singing it in a rather wonderful victorian operatic English translation. Not just “interesting”, I think.
There is no excuse for Sam and Dal devotees to miss the video of the 1931 in Tokyo recording of Mon Coeur sung by Dame Clara Butt. I know she was a vocal goddess a hunert years ago, but I have never Got her singing. She sounds to me like Schumman Heink at her most old hausfrauish. I am open for an education in what I should be appreciating when I hear Butt, or Ernie S-H.
As a child I always wanted to *be* Julie Andrews. Later, of course, I realized it was because I wanted to kiss Christopher Plummer.
Speaking of Mme Schumann-Heink, her friend Ossip Gabrilowitsch, conductor of the Detroit Symphony, invited her to appear with the orchestra. At the rehearsal, Madame swept in from the wings and walked through the orchestra, jostling the players and knocking over music stands. The conductor says, “Why don’t you walk sideways?” Madame responds, “Gabrilowitsch! Mit mir ist no zeitvays!”
sounds like a Zinka story. And did ZM ever attempt Dalila. In the 20s and 30s, from some pictures I saw of Z she was actually somewhat swelt.
DeMille has come from his grave at Forest Lawn this week. Cieca has given us 2 entries concerning Sam and Del(French and Paramount) and the Republican Party(created by God) now gives us a clip of Charleton and Yaweh and Paramount Special Effects dividing the Sea–to show us that Obama has a divinity complex. And there are some clips on utoob of Samson and Delilah dubbed into Spanish. Wait till you hear what George Sanders sounds like in Spanish