metplayer listening orgy, part the first
Cue up your MetPlayer for a 3:00 pm start for La sonnambula (Broadcast March 30, 1963). You are invited to discuss this performance in the comments section below.
Metropolitan Opera House
March 30, 1963 Matinee Broadcast
LA SONNAMBULA
Amina: Joan Sutherland
Elvino: Nicolai Gedda
Rodolfo: Ezio Flagello
Lisa: Jeanette Scovotti
Teresa: Lili Chookasian
Alessio: John Macurdy
Notary: Andrea Velis
Conductor: Silvio Varviso
Harry,
I’m a lover of the Italian language, and perfect diction is a joy. I love Tebaldi or Scotto in Italian opera, or Freni. They have the voice and the diction. What I was trying to say is that Sutherland’s voice is so outstanding and the joy of hearing it so great, that you don’t mind the fact that she is not pronouncing Italian words correctly. I know many people do not agree with me. She sang once in Buenos Aires at the Colon, and they did not agree with her approach, and she never returned there. As far as I’m concerned, that was Argentina’s loss. Argentina might very well cry for her now.
iltenoredigrazia,
Small world. I was at the performance of Traviata in Boston that was a dress rehearsal, without Sutherland knowing it, and I heard later she was not too pleased. I agree, it was not just the brilliance of the ‘Sempre libera’, but all the singing in all the acts. She might not have pronounced the “Dite alla giovine…” the right way as Tebaldi or Albanese would, but she sang heavenly and it was glorious. Yes, I agree that theatre on Mass Avenue was not the greatest, but who cares? I saw on that theatre also Tebaldi and Del Monaco in Otello a couple of years before. They could sing, as far as I’m concerned, on the subway on 66th St and drown the saxophone player there, and I would be ecstatic.
Correction. I think it was not Del Monaco who sang with Tebaldi in Boston, but Vinay. I hope Alzheimer is not hitting me.