parterre box

59 comments

• Ruxton says:

  PPS …which means you are more likely to hear, “you step on my shockingly designed train one more time and there won’t be enough left of you to stuff a thanksgivng turkey!”

  on March 17, 2010 at 5:55 PM
• BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK says:

  Alas, Ruxton, I admit to my chagrin that I have let down my guard and set down verbatim the very words which were said to me in my very last outing as Flora in the Helena Grand Opera and Barbecue production of Traviata. I would tell you who said them but I don’t want to interrupt her run for the Presidency.

  on March 17, 2010 at 6:15 PM
• Ruxton says:

  Well at least dear Betsy Ann- you were never in the chorus!

  on March 17, 2010 at 7:47 PM
• richard says:

  As far as I know Stella only appeared in NYC once after she was fired from the MEt. That was much later, in an OONY L’africaine with Tucker about 1972. She sounded very old, her voice was very, very dry with no juice at all. And she was 42, another early burnout.

  She had also been subject to disciplinary action at the SFO . Both she and Callas failed to show up for their 1957 seasons and Adler had a fit. Rysanek and Gencer together
  filled most of the performances, things like Lucia, MAcbeth, Ballo, and I think one more opera.

  on March 17, 2010 at 9:28 PM
• Ruxton says:

  Richard it’s the first time I’ve ever heard la Stella being accused of early burnout…in fact quite the opposite. Do you think it might be possible that she just wasn’t “on form” at that time? It does happen.

  on March 18, 2010 at 12:37 AM
• Lindoro Almaviva says:

  Ruxton:

  Richard is right. Stella was one of those sopranos who actually sang everything. there are videos of her doing Both Gilda and Minnie. I think she also sang Puritani.

  She was a little reckless and she indeed paid for it.

  on March 18, 2010 at 4:05 AM
• Ruxton says:

  Lindoro thank you for your input but forgive me for saying so but I’m continuing to be surprised. I didn’t think Antoinetta’s repertoire wasn’t much greater than many divas- ie about 20 roles and she did pretty much stick within the “spinto fach”- so I’m not saying you’re wrong- I’m only saying I’m surprised because I never thought of her as reckless.

  on March 18, 2010 at 5:33 AM
• richard says:

  Ruxton, I only heard Stella once, but it seemed reasonable to conclude that she was subject to a very early decline.

  Her recording of Puccini arias and Verdi on Testament is very fine, she has one of the truly spectacular recordings of Minnie Laggiu Nel Soledad, with a brilliant high C. There is a video of her as Minnie in Japan several years later, she’s really wonderful, very charismatic but the spectacular quality to her top notes is not quite the same.

  A little later, there is another video from Japan, this time ca 1968 in Ballo. Now I really believe Puccini was a slightly better fit for her than Verdi,
  but that aside, the Ballo is not free of problems, there are a number of screetchy moments, Stella is no longer as comfortable with this role as she was just 5 or so years earlier when she recorded it for DG.

  I believe at this point her career really started to slow down (she was in her late 30s). There is a RAI Atilla ca 1970 which has a lot of the dry sound I noticed in the OONY L’Africaine. A friend saw her somewhere in Italy as Tosca around this time and also commented that the voice had completely dried out.

  There is very little in the way of pirate recordings from her from the mid 60s on and almost none after 1970. If her career was still viable, she was singing in very small theaters, quite a difference from the heady days during the 50s (when she was in her 20s, singing all kinds of roles) when she sang in many of the A list houses.

  To add a slightly humorous note, one of the old biddies
  in Rasponi’s LAst of the Prima Donnas comments on Stella. “Sure, her voice didn’t last. What do you think, she worked in a bakery as a young girl and ate salami sandwiches for breakfast. That proved she didn’t know how to take care of her voice” Okaaaay….

  on March 18, 2010 at 7:28 PM
• Ruxton says:

  Thanks Richard- fair enough.

  on March 19, 2010 at 9:54 PM