St. Louis Woman
“I had a reputation that I was not easy to work with… But that was because they knew I was very professional, very correct and always, always successful.”
Only one diva could say that and not only get away with it, but make us adore her all the more. [St. Louis Beacon]
Vox, I’m sure the hair was beautifully coiffed, though.
I like what she says about youtube! I really got into opera about 4 years ago when I started looking at opera clips on youtube. The internet is probably the best medium to reach younger people I think.
“Always professional”.
Most likely.
“Always correct”.
At the least, what she was TRYING to do was correct.
“Always, always successful”.
Whoa there, old girl. You need to watch some of that stuff from the 80s and 90s and reconsider. There is a concert clip of “O don fatale” from somewhere floating around (probably on YouTube) that is painfully embarassing to watch.
And I speak as a fan and admirer.
Grace Bumbry is superb artist, and as is often the case with such an artist, she has a unique sound, unique presence and a unique approach to roles.
She was an astonishing Santuzza with Corelli at the Met in 69-70 — silver nailpolish and all. She pretty much stole every performance of Trovatore she was ever in, and that was in the days of Price, Arroyo, Domingo, Corelli and Tucker at their peaks.
The Don Carlo’s in 1983, with Freni, Domingo (or perhaps, ahem, Mauro) and Ghiaurov conducted by Levine were simply unforgettable, and her Eboli was heartfelt and devastating.
I found her pretty much peerless as Dalila and Amneris, though not all would agree. Nobody will ever forget her Salome. And she was Levine’s first Tosca at the Met.
What a career. Thanks Grace. We love you still. Always will. (How I’d love to be there for the K-Center awards. What a lineup. Love them all.)
Santuzza with silver nail polish. Love it.
Maybe Mamma Lucia could be applying at as the poor girl sings ‘Voi lo sapete’.
Seriously, though, I was watching some of Grace’s Carmen with Karajan last night. Kitsch production and bouffant coiffure notwithstanding, she is extraordinarily subtle and convincing. Of course, she never liked Carmen much because she doesn’t have an aria on her own, but the role sits perfectly for her voice and — in the late 60s at least — she looked the part to perfection.
Mandryka – was that ’83 Don Carlo really unforgettable? The DVD experience of it is very frustrating – it falls way short of the expected sum of its parts. Bumbry seems cautious to me, and not quite capable of letting rip like she once could, Domingo is very disappointing, Quilico is mediocre, Freni seems uninvolved and appears to tank everything fortissimo and Ghiaurov sounds well past his best which is odd as he went on for at least another 15 years. Guess you had to be there.
CK, @16
No being there didn’t help all that much. I was at one of the performances and wasn’t overwhelmed.
I agreee exactly about Grace. She sang cautiously and her voice was a bit brittle. I got that she was avoiding cracking.
I hadn’t seen her as Eboli for about 10 years
and the comparsion between the walking on eggshells quality in 1983 to the earlier, much more blazing performances of the early 70s was pretty evident to me.
Freni wasn’t really at her best either, and it wasn’t just an issue of age, this Elisabetta and a Mimi I heard her do later that same year sounded off to me and yet a few years later, I saw other performances where she seemed to recover some of the shine and ease in her voice.
I really liked Grace a whole lot. She had lots of spirit and a fine voice. But “always, always successfull”????
No, no, no. Some of the biggest goofs I ever saw were by Grace. A Lady Macbeth sleepingwalking scene where the high dflat sounded like a hiccup? The end of Abigaille’s big scene where she tried three times for the high C? Croaking during Vissi D’arte? etc.
Mandryka, if an Azucena does NOT steal a Trovatore, either she’s a very, very bad singer or the Leonora is spectacular. The opera is designed to let the mezzo steal it; rare the one who does not. Bumbry was my first Azucena, and she was fine but did not distract me from the others onstage as some others have. I wasn’t terribly impressed by her Carmen (I’ve only ever seen one Carmen who did impress me: Borodina, but then I never saw Stevens or Troyanos or Berganza in the role), or by her Eboli or Tosca. The Tosca was just miscasting, the Eboli a poor contrast to Troyanos. Glad I missed her Norma, but it had to be better than Eaglen’s, eh?
Grace is now officially an (inter)national treasure, so if she says she was always successful, then she was always successful. What’s a silly missed top C or D flat between a diva and her grateful subjects?
Cocky: Her Eboli in that Met Don Carlo is an example of a frustrating quality in her performances (for me) — her acting seems incredibly self-conscious. She’s ripping through the final bars of “O don fatale” and yet seems to be terribly concerned about not bumping into the furniture. I miss a sense of abandon, from an acting perspective. Vocally, however, I think she really gives it her all in that performance. She attacks the high notes in “O don fatale” so strongly that her voice even cracks slightly.