parterre box

130 comments

• mrmyster says:

  #107: d’accord! Mais….when the composer himself sets the translation of the original lnaguage text, as in the operas you mention, that is fine as he will gauge the sound he wants. I would trust Massenet’s ear over that of any Englishman when it comes to setting Manon or any other work of his composition.
  On the other hand, you don’t want to hear
  Owen Wingrave in French! (I don’t want to hear it at all, but you get my point.) I once heard “Les nuits d’Ete” of Berlioz in English; disaster!
  Wakefield is either being outlandishly provincial or just a boffo buffo; I can’t decide which.

  on August 30, 2009 at 4:48 PM
• Arianna a Nasso says:

  mrmyster – Remember how you admonished a fellow poster recently not to take opera too seriously, adding that you don’t either? I think the Vicar shares your point of view

  If he wanted to bash Steber using a Brit, wouldn’t he pick Price or Lott rather than Cross, Hale, and Curphey?

  on August 30, 2009 at 5:29 PM
• mrmyster says:

  #112 La Arianna – surely you are correct. I sense
  that you are; how can you not be, since we essentially
  agree?
  The thing is, one cannot always be certain of his
  perceptions of a British person; they are just so, well,
  *different* – and we get mis-led sometimes by the
  sharing, more or less, of a common language. I’ve
  got into some awful scrapes that way!
  So….I cannot really firmly definitively tell just where
  Wakefield is standing, and on how firm a foundation,
  in any given issue. See what I mean?
  As Mary Garden said: “you must have a firm foundation
  to erect a temple of art.” (paraphrase).
  I’ve just been reading Ethan Mordden on 20th C. opera.
  I feel he gives somewhat short shrift to La fanciulla del West,
  while rather overdoing the effect of Louise. He made me
  think about it though, and I do love both operas so much,
  and happily, they are so non-British Thus easy to enjoy.
  I wonder what has become of Ethan; is he still with us?
  He might have more to say about Fanciulla in 2010, its
  100th year!

  on August 30, 2009 at 6:18 PM
• The Vicar of John Wakefield says:

  112

  Bollocks! Joan Cross was a far better Mozart singer than the Wheeling Wildcat — and a damn fine dame too!

  on August 30, 2009 at 6:22 PM
• mrmyster says:

  Well, Mr 114, if I may be allowed to address you: Yes indeed, Mme
  Cross did have her avid admirers! Colin Graham was quite close to Mme Cross and took inspiration from her. In fact, he wrote a perfectly dreadful opera — the libretto of course — that was inspired by Cross, telling him a T. Hardy tale (the opera was “The Woodlanders”), and he and composer Stephen Paulus dedicated it to her: it was without doubt the biggest bore ever produced in any opera house any where. I well remember opening night in St Louis — at each interval masses of audience departed, so by the final scenes there were about five of us in the house to applaud. The aura of Joan Cross! I saw her in 1955 at Sadlers Wells in Sicilian Vespers, in English, a very non-Italian evening. I wonder what it was that attracted people to Cross? Always a great mystery. Colin, a friend whom I tended to trust except in matters of taste, really got all emotional talking about her! Remarkable! I see she got to you, too!

  on August 30, 2009 at 6:53 PM
• mrmyster says:

  Oh on Cross, I would comment, in all fairness, that
  1955, her 55th year, was the year of Cross’s retirement
  from opera, so if there were any shortcomings in her
  Verdi at the Wells that year, such might be a normal
  accompaniment if age. I have to wonder Wakefield
  if you were there? The tenor was Brycchan Powell.
  Remember him?

  on August 30, 2009 at 7:00 PM
• MontyNostry says:

  Such a shame dear Joan never took on Salome. Her erotische Ausstrahlung would have made her an ideal interpreter — in a genteel English translation, of course.

  on August 30, 2009 at 7:29 PM
• mrmyster says:

  Now, let’s see Monty: Would that dear Joan be
  Cross or Sutherland?
  We had Helen Field as Salome. It was one of those
  situations where it was all total camp and a hoot,
  but she did not know it.
  The poor dear strained herself mightily to sing
  that little Strauss darling, and so much so that
  she never came back and the next Salome we
  had (I speak of SFE), was also British and something
  of a bitch I might add, though at one time she was
  a very fine singer. Janice Watson; voice did not last
  for some reason. Miss Harshaw observed she felt
  the voice was “too forward in its placement.” This
  is thought to be not unusual in the training of
  British sopranos; I wouldn’t know myself, since I’ve
  never trained any.
  Well, bye lads, time for tea. Plain. With lemon.

  on August 30, 2009 at 7:53 PM
• MontyNostry says:

  Oh, I definitely meant Cross. Joan S’s sound would have been far too sensually pleasing for dear Ben (Britten, as in). Helen Field, now I know I saw her a number of times in the 80s, but I can’t for the life of me remember as what. Janice Watson always seems to have a nice sound, but to be rather boring. If you really want a British soprano of a certain age with very little voice (forwardly placed or not), you can try Janis Kelly. On the other hand, I’ve never understood what all the fuss was about with Dame Flott. Pallid of both voice and demeanour.

  on August 30, 2009 at 8:18 PM
• Sanford says:

  Opera in the original language… I hope I get to sing Valentin in Faust at some point. I’d like to try Avant de quitter cest lieux in the original English. It was written to English lyrics for the first London performances of Faust (lyrics by H.F. Chorley), as sited by Richard Miller, founder of Oberlin Conservatory’s Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center, where he taught for 42 years. He also taught for 28 years at The Mozarteum’s Summer Academy. The citation is from his book,Securing Baritone, Bass-Baritone, and Bass Voices (Oxford University Press, 2008)

  on August 30, 2009 at 8:19 PM