parterre box

154 comments

• mrsjohnclaggar1 says:

  Just kidding Bill. I saw Conley a lot — he was my first Faust and Duke and also Verdi Requiem. He and Rudolf Petrak and Jon Crain were inescapable in opera Philly, I wonder what one would think of them today? I remember Conley had a strong tone and good top but am s little vague about timbre. And really Kurt was everywhere, Walter Fredericks too — that’s why Tucker and Peerce had such big followings in Philly, they seemed a lot better than the competition. Whatever the people who didn’t like Tucker said, that was one major sound with a huge top. I remember Albert da Costa my first Walther during the one of the Met’s Tuesday night visits, that was my first glimpse of the greatest Lisa Della Casa but I somehow remember Hertha Glaz better and I always hated Otto Edelmann who sang flat a great deal and tended to run out of steam, despite the cuts — so many Sachsen and Walkeure Wotans! And I remember Mignon — as butched up by Frank Bible with the elegant Richard Verreau and with the unknown Sills as Philine (seemed very long to me). City Opera used to visit a lot too — they had real productions. But I remember enjoying the Met Faust a good deal and loved the Met Cosi — wasn’t that Alfred Lunt who staged it and came out and swished around lighting the foot lights? And there was the new Perichole staged by that (married and Catholic) queen Cyril Ritchard who was in it with Munsel and the adorable Teddy Uppman — I think people thought it was a vulgar production and I was sad that no one died but it was funny.

  Also for the assholes putting down Little Renata’s Sonnambula, I saw her give a divine performance, gloriously sung in Philly where she pulled Pierre Duval all around the stage, making sure his back was to the audience when he had to sing. Fabulous as Joan had been (and she and Nikki Gedda were) Little Renata was a REVELATION. It was taped by those evil queens the Fisher brothers — they have refused to trade or sell ANY of their tapes, which are ALL in spectacular sound.

  on March 2, 2009 at 12:48 AM
• MICHAEL says:

  #118, rad΄s bottom is dark? Why? She is not washing it?

  on March 2, 2009 at 6:10 AM
• Nerva Nelli says:

  “And if any of us are lucky, we’ll get to hear Ms. Zajick sing Marfa again in “Khovanschina.”

  When she did so before, in 1999, she paled both vocally and dramatically before the one performance given by her alternate, Larissa Diadkova.

  Dolora could have been great in the role, but she wasn’t.

  on March 2, 2009 at 6:39 AM
• Hagen D'Arse says:

  I need to get myself some Ponselle!! La Cieca/anyone – does that 1923 recording come from the Nimbus/Prima Voce editions or the Naxos/Ward Marston remasters, and does anyone recommend one over the other?

  on March 2, 2009 at 7:56 AM
• puhleese! says:

  Ponselle rules.

  on March 2, 2009 at 8:01 AM
• Buster says:

  Hagen – I like the Pearl transfers for the Columbia acoustics, and the Romophone’s for her later records. Best of all, I like her Villa Pace recordings – a cheap 3 CD box is now out on Naxos – a real bargain.

  on March 2, 2009 at 8:14 AM
• Perfidia says:

  That Scotto clip is fabulous. Yes, she is working awfully hard, but there is a certain “rightness” to the way she does the text (both words and music) that eludes Radvanovsky, who I don’t find offensive, but is a tad faceless in this music. When I hear the way her voice flows I understand how some people find Radvanovsky’s voice manufactured. That whole Miserere/Tu vedrai section can be really exiting when done right. Sutherland catches fire in some Australian recording I heard. It’s like Lucia’s mad scene on steroids, and Scotto gets that excitement too, plus she is more vivid. But if there ever was a perfect middle Verdi voice (even if the interpretations never came close to the potential) it was Sutherland.

  on March 2, 2009 at 8:37 AM
• Grace Ann says:

  “does Sondra Radvanovsky (particularly in middle voice) sound eerily like Shirley Verrett?”

  Nothing this fine if not-to-all-tastes young singer has done deserves such an invidious comparison.

  on March 2, 2009 at 9:37 AM
• All-Knowing Seashell says:

  For me, when hearing Radvanovsky in the house, the vagaries of pitch are slightly off-set by the jolt of hearing a voice of such thrust, complexity of texture, and sheer volume emanating from such a svelte, graceful performer.

  Under the harsh glare of the broadcast microphones, though, the dynamic shifts. It’s like hearing someone who is not remotely a virtuosa at it attempting to play the theramin: the sound is vibrant, eerily human, even haunting, but you can never entirely relax into it, because you never know when a phrase is going to fly wickedly out of tune, and migrate into the key of Asia Minor, or some other microtonality.

  Dmitri, on the other hand, actually benefits from the radio broadcasts. In common with the late Pablo Elvira, with whom she shares a soft-grained, cotton flannel nap in the sound, there isn’t enough size or cut in this rep heard live at the Met.

  Zajick is phenomenal, a true force of nature who could hold her own against any of the best Verdi mezzos of the last half-century, Simionato, Cossotto, Stignani, and Barbieri included.

  I have no idea how Alvarez sounds in the house in this, but I’m hard-pressed to think of anyone who’d be much better these days, and we’ve all heard worse as Manrico in the past (Giorgio Merighi, anyone?).

  on March 2, 2009 at 12:22 PM
• schweigundtanze says:

  lmfao @ bill

  on March 2, 2009 at 2:04 PM