parterre box

53 comments

• 41
  Camille says:

  November 12, 2009 at 12:31 AM

  GEE, Mr. Tamerlano, mille e mille grazie!

  Live, with chorus, it was actually even more thrilling.

  Un dolcissimo ricordo.
  Ancora, GRAZIE!
• 42
  Camille says:

  November 12, 2009 at 2:02 AM

  Cieca augusta —
  you mean someone said it IN ENGLISH?

  What a PUTZ!
• 43
  Camille says:

  November 12, 2009 at 2:09 AM

  Re paragraph 2. and speaking of Taddei —
  I must say this: in ‘86, once again in Rome, I saw Giuseppe Taddei, at age 69, come out of retirement to sing in Demofoonte. The story at the time was that he did so “because he was bored”!!!!

  His singing at that time would have been the envy of any of the current crop of barihunks. What a sound.
• 44
  operaddict says:

  November 12, 2009 at 4:05 AM

  Sounds like an old lady who used to sing in my church choir…
• 45
  Regina delle fate says:

  November 12, 2009 at 6:04 AM

  Haha! Unkind, but possibly true.
• 46
  Harry says:

  November 12, 2009 at 11:34 AM

  operaddict; you must realize that Kabaivanska when appearing in that movie, is no longer under any pretense her voice is now well and truly beyond what she was once famous for. Notice though her ‘professional technique’ is still there in spades. Her presence is a dramatic device for the film scene in question – A musical social / soiree’.

  God each year I go to a early December Christmas party. The host, a woman over 60 who had very late vocal lessons and they remained ‘just lessions’.. (get it!) likes to put on her own personal recital for the guests. Perhaps that is the sacrificial ‘given’ for attending. You get massacred soprano versions of everything from Traviata, Faust, Carmen, Lehar -whatever. Wentaro has nothing on her!!! She is what one would call a somewhat mezzo with tortured soprano chords coming out of nowhere – or they just delightfully vanish as she runs out of vocal steam – and the piano just continues on. We smile, and give polite respectful claps for such enthusiasm. One must ‘be gracious’ in someone else’s house.
• 47
  quoth the maven says:

  November 12, 2009 at 11:53 AM

  And what an artist! His mid-80s Falstaff at the Met was one of the greatest things I ever saw.
• 48
  Sanford says:

  November 12, 2009 at 12:09 PM

  I didn’t realize Florence Foster Jenkins was still giving CHristmas parties
• 49
  amlirco says:

  November 12, 2009 at 4:35 PM

  One should take into account that Amelia was practically not in her repertoire. I actually think this was the only performance. So you should consider yourself lucky.
  Than, every singer had his periods of vocal uncertainties, no one is for ever “perfect”.
  Another thing, La Kabaivanska acts with her voice, hence, modulation of certain type are by definition a device for interpretation of states of mind and soul.

  
  Famous is her phrase that she rather would sacrifice the beauty of voice and perhaps the lenght of a tone than to sing inconsistantly with the state of the character. The philosphy behind the character, that’s what is the leading line with a interpreter like La Kabaivanska… and in the art in general.

  Harry is very right speaking about the presented excerpt in terms of a cinematographic approach. The voice here expresses perplexity and torments of characters under cover of a conventional soiree’… the so called contrast. Seeking a “beautiful” singing is a superficial manner of deciphering the art with all my respect (I’m not refering to your comment though).

  Finally, ~10 out of 50 years hardly could be considered mid-career but you’re absolutely right, such kind of sincerity and modesty is a rare behaviour…
• 50
  Ruxton says:

  November 12, 2009 at 7:43 PM

  Or attending them
• 51
  Graciella Scusi says:

  November 12, 2009 at 9:04 PM

  I believe that the only reason Kabaivanska was singing in the Boccanegra in DC was because Freni, who was the original Amelia in that marvelous Strehler production, was at the same time singing Marguerite in Faust and Susanna in Figaro with the Paris Opera at the Met. (a cornucopia of bi-centenial gifts from the continent). Freni did fly down to sing in the final Boccanegra, but I preferred Kabaivanska, who was not at her best, but was far more involved and expressive than Mirella. But the circumstances were not ideal for either diva to be at her best. In the event, it didn’t matter, the opera belonged to Abbado, Cappuccilli and Ghiarov who were in their prime and magnificent, in a production that generously supported their greatness.
• 52
  richard says:

  November 12, 2009 at 9:12 PM

  Graciella, I heard the final Boccanegra. I went down to DC for the weekend and heard Macbeth, Cenerantola, Boheme, and the stunning
  Boccanegra. Cappuccilli sang Macbeth Friday evening, so on the final matinee of Boccanegra, Silvano Carolli sang Simone. That production was very striking, one of the most beautiful I’ve seen.

  After the perfomance, as a kind of encore/addio/tribute(the visit celebrated the US Bicentennial) the Scala chorus sang Va Pensiero acappella. It was a lovely moment.
• 53
  Graciella Scusi says:

  November 12, 2009 at 10:01 PM

  Thanks, Richard, don’t know if my reply is going to end up in the right place, but I hadn’t remembered that Carolli sang the final performance with Freni; that might have contributed to my letdown. I liked Carolli (he was an excellent Ezio to Ghiarov’s Attila in Chicago) but I’m sorry you missed Cappuccilli, at his best with Abbado and especially in Boccanegra, capping the Council Chamber concertato with noble golden age vocalism. I was in DC for several days, primarily to see the Boccanegra and Macbeth. I skipped the Boheme (was it Cotrubas?), but remember seeing Valentini-Terrani in a Cenerentola rehearsal (did she alternate the role?) And yes, the Va Pensiero with that peerless Scala chorus. I’m terrible with timelines, but the Vienna State Opera came at some point too, bringing Salome with Rysanek, Figaro with Janowitz, Popp and Berry, and Ariadne with Janowitz, Gruberova, and Baltsa. Heady days! Plenty material for our anecdotage..lol.