Furia orrenda!
For no particular reason, La Cieca has been thinking of the duet “E un anatema” from La Gioconda, and for a very particular reason, she’s been thinking of Aprile Millo. Anyway, to get the discussion started for the weekend, cher public, how’d you like to share your favorite performances of this duet, YouTube style, down in the comments?
so what are people’s thoughts on Millo’s upcoming recital with OONY?
what are people’s insights into her vocal health?
No clue, but i’ll certainly be there to report back!
coz i really like her and have been quite disheartened by her abrupt disappearance from NY. in terms of the opera world i mean.
I have an extra ticket for Ms Millo’s recital and would love to have some company for it. email me at sschimel@hotmail.com
IN BOCCA AL LUPO!!
I wish. Miss Millo a great, big knock-out success.
No matter what her merits or demerits may be, she seems to sincerely and deeply love opera and the art of singing.
Her style has gone out of style (the grand manner), and therein lies her crime.
These days no one wants to believe in heart.
She attempts, in her own way, to communicate ‘dal cor al cor’.
IN BOCCA AL LUPO, Egregia Signora Millo!!
I agree that the Barbieri/Callas version is the most exciting, but it’s one of those pieces that seems to inspire most singers to give their all, and it usually gets an exciting performance.
Well, the funniest Gioconda duet I saw was in Newark, that bastion of Italian provincial, in the early ’70s with Bumbry, not so long after her soprano crossover, as Gioconda and Tucker as Enzo, both in good voice… the problem was the Laura, New Jersey’s own Gwynne Cornell, who had a sizable mezzo with some juice in it, and later sang (or at least covered) at the Met. But in “E un anatema” she tore her passion to tatters, furiously mugging and over singing to unintended low comic effect and much barely stifled hilarity in the audience. Of course that’s the trap in the duet…if you don’t have the balls for it, don’t strap one on.
Sra. Scusi — funnier yet was the North American touring of Blanche Thebom and Eleanor Steber, driven around the country in a black Buick station wagon by Bobby Jones, the late great pianist and chorus master, in the late 1960s/70s — as they made the Gioconda duet a centerpiece of their program. It was beyond camp, and they really could not sing it, but what a cat fight! Just utter silliness; La G. can slip into that if the singers are not well conducted. “Low comic effect,” indeed.
Laughed at in Newark: it can’t get much worse than that.
Alas – we in the UK rarely get the chance to see La Gioconda in the flesh. A couple of concert performances – Jane Eaglen with ENO and I can’t remember the rest of the cast, Violeta Urmana and Marcello Giordani at Covent Garden, but apart from that it’s been Vicar of John Wakefield casting, the inimitable Ros Plowright and Clare Rutter with Sally Burgess at Opera North (it’s an 1100 seat theatre, however)
Were you not at Holland Park?
Way off topic…. but if anyone can help it’s the all-knowing Parterre cher public. I have recordings of Wagner bleeding chunks – Die Walküre Act 1 scene 3, Dawn duet and Immolation – conducted by Toscanini live ( I think!) in about 1941. Can anyone tell me who the soprano and tenor are singing Sieglinde/Brünnhiled and Siegmund/Siegfried?
Thanks.
If it is 1941 then it should be Helen Traubel and Lauritz Melchior on 22 and 24 February, recorded live in New York.
Maestro’s monumental Wagner concert, available on two CDs on Guild. In retrospect, one of the greatest musical events in New York history.
Thanks Grimgerde2! Shame Traubel doesn’t sing the Liebestod also.
To those who consider me a “dumb listener” for adoring Tebaldi and much enjoying Gioconda I have only one thing to say: A te la mala Pascua!
Awwwwww….tenore! It don’t take T. and La G. to know you
are a dumb listener. W. T. F., you’re a tenor, right? Or were?
Just teasing. If you look at my posting, I revised my comment
on Tebaldi lovers, but not on her. As for you, we all love you
very much so do not worry!
Be cheerful now; at heart we ALL admire La Gioconda. When you
have the singers (with a very good top extension), it is a great
evening of Italian opera! The title role requires much vocal
finesse and technical ability – as I am sure you know; just
bullying it through does not work (ask Voigt).
mrmyster, don’t forget that Santuzza curses at Turiddu because she loves him.
“You always hurt the one you love?”
Heard that sung somewhere. Martha Raye?
The Mills Brothers
All I can say about the Millo/Zajick clip is “Wow, that’s a lot of voce”.
I am shocked and dismayed that none have yet included by far the greatest legendary performances of this duet.
Furthermore, while I acquiesce with the nothing short of brilliant comments by mrmyster regarding Tebaldi, I must say that I am quite partial to her recording of this opera with Marilyn Horne. The duet is exquisitely and excitingly sung by both parties.
Cheers.
The problem for me with Horne is that I don’t want to be that aware of someone’s technique all the time.
In the mid-fifties there was a juke box (I think in the 42nd street subway station or some sort of arcade near the station) that played opera selections. A bunch of us young queens would go there and listen to the Gioconda duet with Callas/Barbieri. We couldn’t believe our ears! We thought it was beyond camp!
ClitaMae: Well, somehow you have hit on the perfect venue!
Callas/Barbieri and a mix of subway train sounds in the close
background (sometimes drowning out the sopranos?), sounds
to me ideal. I must put it in a movie sometime!