I see my mistake now, that is, I read the date from the bottom instead of properly from the top. It did not make sense to me that that Olvis would still be singing in 1973, in any case.

Yes, Mr. Olvis was, according to family legend, an ardent pursuer of women and broke poor cousin Norma’s heart (cousin Norma being his accompanist as well as wife). Much later on when I was old enough to know of such things, it was added that he chased or was chased by men as well, so TT bait he was, indeed.

Of his singing I have a very young girlish recollection of him being rather of the McCracken scuola di bel canto — I’m sure you know what that means. I did see him once, as a very young opera neophyte, sing Don Jose to the scintillating Carmen of Margaret Roggero. Even then, I knew, It Was Not Good.

Most famously, he may be seen and heard in the wonderful (to me) ’40′s film “Deep in my Heart” — saga of composer Romberg which is a marvelous potpourri, including Helen Traubel dancing a two-step with Jose Ferrer, something worth the price alone — in which he sings, in the feyest manner possible, the serenade from The Student Prince. If I recall correctly, he was subbing for Mario Lanza. I believe he went on to Bayreuth, that is, according to some YouTube evidence I’ve found. Years later, I was told by my friend he had been seen around Hollywood. I believe he is to be found on a Leonie Fliegende Hollander as the Steuermann, as well.

Thanks for taking the time to help me sort it out.

A very great singer that no one much remembers today. We have to be thankful for Naxos! In particular, I like the I Lombardi selections; very difficult and not for the inexpert.

I also heartily agree with this statement: “Sills’ fake cozy manner, mock intellectuality and phony bonhomie were appalling;”

You must very stupid darling. I can do without you as an “acolyte” (nor am I looking here or anywhere for such). You haven’t read or certainly understood any Nabokov if you think this grotesque’s vomit displays anything like his control, precision, cross linguistic puns or insights — and while a place like this doesn’t conduce to a serious writer’s discipline in revision, even Nabokov’s casual letters and postcards reveal a remarkable off the cuff verbal virtuosity.

Nor have you really understood Swift. The key to brilliant polemic is an underlying logic and precision, not scattershot free association and reverse pretension along with lies.

The loathsome nonentities’ gloss on comments I may have made elsewhere is lost on most of those here and irrelevant to them as ought to be the case. But what you and the preposterous goon think of as ‘my’ political asides are humanitarian concerns with pointless, mindless slaughter of innocents regardless of the lying justifications of those who defend such slaughter. Neither Swift nor especially Nabokov were taken in by tyrants and the slobbering adulators who are too stupid to think for themselves and support them. In fact their contempt for the dumb fellow travelers like you and I assume your hero(ine) was terrifying. It seems to me that you and the fool you admire are moral nonentities and that is far worse than loving Behrens.

So please ignore me or join in with your hero (ine) — fools belong in peepods where being empty above they can at least keep their cockles warm.

I realize you are not writing in your native language; that might impel someone self-aware and intelligent not to criticize others’ rhetoric or reading abilities.

BTW, did Signor di Stefano tip you after his meal when you gave him back the keys to the Alfa Romeo you brought from the parking lot?

The Rhodes/Olvis SALOME was in 1962. By 1973 they were both long gone from the Met, as was Ramon Vinay.

Olvis bowed out after a 1968 Brooklyn Parks CARMEN with Famous Quickly, Mary Ellen Pracht and Frank Guarrera.

I know him only from the RCA MACBETH recording. I gather he was TT-bait avant la lettre. Does anyone have any comments on his singing? They certainly sent him on often enough…

And insisting on “Groupie” name-caling is a bit well…. puerile, no?. Maybe 60 going on 14? what comes next, a class act elevation to “the corpse fucker”?
You are quite frankly BORING, much worse than evil! OVER

Since your private Nibelheim apparently contains printouts of all of our past posts, I wonder how you can say that I ever said Obraztsova did not have, initially, an impressive instrument. And how! She just was no artist and had no linguistic abilities. I have heard her live in Mahler in Leningrad and in Weill on recordings; so what matter that she sang no “German roles”?

I don’t care where Ms. Behrens’ mother was born– the Berlioz/Ravel recording speaks for itself as to her abilities in putting across sung French.

How exactly I was meant to anticipate Ms. Behrens’ indeed sadly early death by a month and thus avoid “indecency” (you have been studying tapes of Joseph Welch, I see) remains a mystery.

I thank you, as I notice *shocked* that my mother’s cousin by marriage, namely, William Olivis, was still singing at the MET in 1973. I had no idea he lasted that long.

He terrified me as a two year old when he lifted me on his shoulders and walked around the room, singing as loud as possible. Come to think of it, perhaps that’s why I’ve been scared of tenors ever since — HAHAHA! never thought of it like that before. Thanks again. Interesting to me.

There is, in the first part of the scene, an opportunity for an extra, interpolated B flat. It would be easy for someone to mistake the two, as they both sound very high.

The extra B flat occurs on the second page (I do not have the Peters score), I would conjecture, on the word THOU — or DU auf deutsch –in the phrase, “art THOU, terrible indeed!” — sorry, can’t remember the deutsch of the entire phrase at the moment as it is late, but I’m sure you can figure it all out from here as you have studied singing. Okay? Hope this clarifies.

@68.3