imitation of life
La Cieca has Sylvia Sass will play Maria Callas. Or, to be more specific, Sass will, after a long career built on imitating Callas, literally play the Greek diva when she acts in a French production of the Terrence McNally play Master Class.
Besides, Patanè has one of the biggest voices around these days. Pretty awful singer if you asking me, but great tits.
Plus, I love Sass’ her pop album in Hungarian too. Bought a tape of it back in 92 in Hungary. It’s very listenable! And I agree that her 4 Last Songs are really nicely done, she finds some colours that I have never heard before or since, especially at the end of September when the horn comes in on the last sung note.
I got rather overexcited when the DJ put Flashdance on at my 30th. I was drunk enough to think I’d be able to do a fair approximation of the dance from the film.
God alone knows what I would have done if it’s been the Sass version.
Ms. Patane is bring her Tursndot to Philadelphia and March, with Ermonelqa Jaho as Liu and a tenor unknown to me, Francesco Hong, as Calaf. That may require a trip just to satisfy morbid curiosity as to Patane *dal vivo*.
What do people mean when they trash Dalis? She’s very good as the FRAU Amme on tapes. What did people find ‘trashy” about her performances? Just wondering.
Patane is a mad, crazy singer. She really GOES for a role. I saw her in Tosca in Cape Town last year, and it was extremely exciting, both vocally and physically. But yes, it sounded too much like Callas. I heard rumours that she’s doing Turandot there next year, so will go see it I think. I read once that she’s the conductor’s granddaughter.
I’m in Cape Town at the moment to see Angela Brown and Johan Botha in Aida, so will let you know about that!
Scara, sorry but that tape of Tosca with Rachel Mathes went with the passing of my dear friend who owned it, as a law student at Harvard, while I was an undergraduate. Of course it is possible that ohers might have it, an dit would surely be a worth a search in some archives as for sheer camp value, there are few things that could match it, yes exactly as she “topples” from the old Castel, wuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah in altissssssimo. It was awesome!
Bill said:
Callas would not have sung Bartok (too modern) either though might have been an interesting Judith.
Bing and Callas had a lenthly correspondence about her appearing in Josephlegende (ballet, with Nureyev) and Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine – not exactly an ancient opera. A shame that it never happened. She did turn down Vanessa, but it wasn’t exactly a good fit for her anyway. OG56
Nerva, I heard Patanè in Turandot in Cardiff. She’s got a huge voice but you can’t work out the words for love or money, she might be singing in chinese for that matter. Francesco Hong is very exciting vocally, has a nice lyric and big voice, heard him in Bologna as Manrico some seasons ago. His is a voice to go and hear & close your eyes – stumpy and unwatchable tenor. jaho is a nice lyric. All sort of provincial, sort of second league, but worth a trip, surely. And Patanè is deffo Giuseppe patanè’s daughter.
#31 Bil :
Sass did sing Judith in ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ in
a concert performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie in ’86(?), music and, obviously, language that she showed an affinity for.. just as a side note, she had apparently arrived in Philadelphia with nothing to wear, so
a friend of a friend, who had interviewed her
offered to take her shopping and tricked her out
in a white, draped number, with big boxy shoulder pads and sequins that looked like it had been
made for Linda Evans or Joan Collins on DYNASTY..
It might have been more appropriate for a medley from her Disco/Flashdance tape and she looked uncomfortable and swallowed up by it.
way back when I read a review of Sass(it was Manuela or something from Stereo Review) that said Sass sang like she had a spear stuck in her stomach(maybe not a bad sound for certain roles). A couple of tube videos of her singing Bel Di and Casta Diva; I didn’t find nuttin wrong with the sounds coming out, but her ‘little girl” emoting was irritating and missed the steel in both Bfly and Norma, even in a concert setting.