parterre box

77 comments

• richard says:

  Happy Birthday Dame Gwyneth!!!!

  Another one of those very variable divas, but at her best she was stupendous!

  Oops!!!! Did I poach an adjective from another birthday girl??

  on November 7, 2009 at 12:32 PM
  • kashania says:

    Richard, you’ve gotta be kidding me. (Just testing out the reply function).

    on November 7, 2009 at 12:45 PM
• kashania says:

  Ouch, Joan gets relegated to “also on this date” after the jumps.

  on November 7, 2009 at 12:47 PM
• javier says:

  I had no idea it was the other Dame’s (Gwyneth Jones) birthday today. Joan Sutherland is number one in my opinion…but I guess that depends on whether you like Wagner or flashy coloratura. But Dame Joan sang Wagner too.

  on November 7, 2009 at 12:56 PM
• rommie says:

  i think that 1984 norma sucked though. i mean when i visualize it its actually rational/logical… pollione leaves norma coz she’s really fucking old. there’s a nobility to the age, but damn, the march of the priests was too fast, her sediziosi voci was too strained even.

  on November 7, 2009 at 1:07 PM
  • javier says:

    Well, Norma is really fucking old, but Adalgisa is really fucking fat.

    Anyway, this was my first Norma recording and I like it more than Sutherland’s first studio recording. Her voice had a lot of rougher nuances to it so you can really hear the drama.

    on November 7, 2009 at 1:14 PM
• Sanford says:

  Dame Gwyneth is my fave (and first) Desdemona on the recording with James McCracken. One of my favorite complete recordings

  on November 7, 2009 at 1:13 PM
• Sanford says:

  Do “rougher nuances” translate as “wide vibrato”? Caballe’s Norma with Fiorenza Cossotto is fairly horrible, but her L’Orange performance from 1974 is legendary.
  

  
  

  on November 7, 2009 at 1:34 PM
  • javier says:

    Rough edge, wide vibrato, tremolo, old hag…I still like it.

    on November 7, 2009 at 1:36 PM
• WindyCityOperaman says:

  Say what you want about La Stupenda, warts and all, mushy diction, memory lapses and catty asides, the lady could always deliver the goods vocally. Wish that Decca would reissue the “Command Performances” set complete, instead of in drips and drabs on various compilation CDs.

  Dame Gwyneth, well, suffice it to say you had to be there. I never forgot when she was the REPLACEMENT Leonora in Fidelio at LOC. Tremendous, and those imperfect “vocal” things meant a lot less in the theatre. On records, I remember (I think it was) Jellineck lamenting her being cast in so many projects in a row (Octavian, Salome, Kundry, etc.).

  on November 7, 2009 at 1:43 PM
• Sanford says:

  You made me laugh. I’m seriously loving Vespri, though I don’t think Gedda is particularly idiomatic in the Verdi; I would have loved to have heard Domingo do this (if it didn’t go too high for him, not sure what the range is). And I forgot that “Arrigo, a parli a un core” is from this. It’s one of the most stunning things Caballe recorded. I saw Carol Vaness sing this with the Washington Opera Chorus in the 80s. Can’t remember how she actually sounded though she looked gorgeous.

  on November 7, 2009 at 1:43 PM
  • javier says:

    Domingo did it (not that “it”…I’m talking about Vespri) with Caballe in Barcelona in 1974.

    on November 7, 2009 at 1:48 PM
  • Dubist Derlenz says:

    Carol Vaness sang a wonderful Elena with the Washington Opera Chorus. Her “Arrigo, ah parli a un core” was really good, marred only by a manic conductor who mistook the aria for a cabaletta. Ms. Vaness also sang a wonderful “Merci dilette amiche”, lacking only the final e natural. She also sang the role to great acclaim in San Francisco. Unfortunately, a performance of Vespri with Johan Botha in Vienna in the late 90′s found Ms. Vaness in poor voice, and her final aria was well below her normal standards. This was her last performance of Elena.

    on November 7, 2009 at 9:07 PM
• La Cieca says:

  on November 7, 2009 at 1:47 PM
  • La Cieca says:

    on November 7, 2009 at 1:52 PM
    • lorenzo.venezia says:

      Saw this when ROH came to L.A. for “Olympic Arts Festival” in 1984 with Domingo. It was the best Turandot I have ever seen. She was a tiger for that, burning bright, in the forests of the night It was awesome.

      on November 7, 2009 at 4:40 PM
      • messa di voce says:

        Ah yes, the marvelous attacca that Dame Eva gave to Gwyneth, along with a cup of tea and some boudoir biscuits.

        on November 7, 2009 at 7:25 PM
  • javier says:

    La Cieca, you should have lead with this clip of Jones considering what’s happening at the Met today.

    on November 7, 2009 at 1:56 PM
  • Tamerlano says:

    SOOOOO beautifully sung! Not particularly idiomatic, as far as vocal color in concerned (aka, no italianata), but the almost instrumental purity she brings to the music reminds one of how much Verdi was still heavily reliant on the belcanto tradition. And the way she turns the final trill just kills me…She might have made an astonishing Anna Bolena, or even Norma (did she ever sing it?). As much as I love the later Gwyneth, the voice was rarely as BEAUTIFUL as it is here. And for once, the aria doesn’t plod along. She hits all the vocal marks dead on, and so easily, that it really feels all of a piece and not a bunch of disjointed musical “moments”. LOVES IT!

    on November 7, 2009 at 2:30 PM
    • MontyNostry says:

      Didn’t she do a Norma late in her career in Zurich? Thrilling though she was as Elektra and Turandot, that must have been pretty horrible, frankly.

      on November 7, 2009 at 2:51 PM
      • La marquise de Merteuil says:

        Jones’ Norma is best described as demented filth.

        on November 7, 2009 at 10:49 PM
    • Baltsamic Vinaigrette says:

      Er… Puccini, right?

      on November 8, 2009 at 6:19 AM
• senti questa says:

  brünnhilde’s awakening is one of my favorite moments in gwyneth’s chéreau ring. nice choice.

  she is the artist (from a brief clip of her immolation scene) that convinced me wagner was worth a listen after all. my appreciation of her artistry deepens with time…she was much more flexible than most people give her credit for. she could have been one of the great verdi singers of her time — she really was, arguably, in the 60s and 70s — but thank gods for her salome, elektra, and brünnhilde, truly inspired and demented singing. as a young opera princess there are many things i feel i’ve missed out on, but feeling gwyneth shaking the rafters is at the top of the list. (i’d love to hear some of you venerable queens’ stories!)

  dame gwyneth, happy birthday, and thank you.

  on November 7, 2009 at 1:53 PM
  • MontyNostry says:

    As I’ve said before on here, the best thing I ever saw Gwyneth do was a Faerberin in Paris in 1980.
    

    
    The sound really did shoot up to the gods and past your ears.

    on November 7, 2009 at 2:08 PM
    • La Cieca says:

      on November 7, 2009 at 2:24 PM
      • SilvestriWoman says:

        Mattila can only dream…

        on November 7, 2009 at 3:04 PM