parterre box

70 comments

• manou says:

  Sei tu dal ciel disceso o in ciel son io con te?

  on September 1, 2009 at 6:12 AM
• Krunoslav says:

  26 “Olive made her debut as heroine of “The Boatswain’s Mate”, an opera by Dame Ethyl Smyth.”

  The name was ETHEL. “Dyke, ya know.”

  on September 1, 2009 at 6:22 AM
• olddansker says:

  Re the Callas clip. I have no idea who anyone else is, but at 0:31 I would swear that was Barbra Steisand.

  on September 1, 2009 at 8:06 AM
• operadivo10060 says:

  Saw la Negri in 2003 performance noted above by Javier. She is the greatest living diva and is up ther with La Gencer and la Calas. Worth a trip to BA just to see her.

  on September 1, 2009 at 8:39 AM
• Alto says:

  “I still wish I could invent a time machine and take HD tecnhology with me so that I could capture on video the legendary performances with Sutherland and Pavarotti.”

  Well, I was at both, and the more recent run was far, far superior.

  on September 1, 2009 at 8:42 AM
• rapt says:

  #25: Is that Omar Sharif she’s dancing with?

  on September 1, 2009 at 9:09 AM
• The Vicar of John Wakefield says:

  34 Tosh! What of Jo Barstow and Helen Field?

  on September 1, 2009 at 9:26 AM
• danpatter says:

  Alto@35, so was I and, I’m sorry, Dessay is a canny and often affecting artist, but Sutherland’s SINGING in this part was matchless, sparkling, glowing and lovely. Dessay’s voice has definitely deteriorated in recent years – very acid and unpleasant to hear much of the time. Between Big P and Juan Diego, I marginally prefer JD – the top C’s and the grace of the part come more naturally to him, I think. The principals in each cast suited each other well, I think. And please don’t start yammering about the dramatic verities of DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT, and how much better Dessay serves them. Beautiful singing is the sine qua non of this genre.

  on September 1, 2009 at 10:11 AM
• Troppo Primavera says:

  It was’nt Joan Cross who sang in that Welsh Opera Sicilian Vespers but Ruth Packer who was well past it and embarrassingly bad.Needless to say she was hailed as a great stylist by the London critics.Later she became an admired teacher.Cross,who was effective in some lyric soprano roles would never have attempted a great Verdi virtuoso role.

  on September 1, 2009 at 11:45 AM
• mrmyster says:

  # 39 Troppo: Ummm……yes, I am puzzled about that also, for I did some archival checking on the 1955 Vespers at Wells, and it all came up Packer — yet my very sharp recollection is Cross. That summer also offered (at ROHCG),
  Aida with A. Stella, I remember that vividly. Of
  course my memory may be wrong, but I don’t know why I would remember Cross if it were not. Might she have covered for once performance or such? I was just an American college boy at Univ of Ldn for a term, and knew next to nothing of British singers. Hardly a major issue

  on September 1, 2009 at 2:01 PM