parterre box

54 comments

• Orlando Furioso says:

  Of the “forgotten” Met telecasts, one that really ought to re-emerge is the Verrett Tosca.

  on June 1, 2010 at 6:54 PM
• Ruxton says:

  la Shirl was a great singer and she is a truly great lady. She was so gracious in sending me an autographed photo and a letter in response to a request of mine. Happy Birthday Shirley – you are tops!

  on June 1, 2010 at 9:35 PM
• Camille says:

  Of the estimable Shirley Verrett I conserve the most interesting potpourri of memories and missed chances…this blog has brought back those three performances. The first, the meltdown MET Norma of 1979. She was booed after the Casta Diva. Indignantly shaking her long ponytail and rallying herself she launches into the cabaletta. Things were not bad but it wasn’t MC, and I don’t mean Mariah Carey. By the beginning of Act II, she broke into sobbing, altogether too real, after “Dormono entrambi”,and Obratsova really came on and mopped her up and, I feel, really took over. I recently got a chance to listen again on Sirius to this performance and realized it was more good than bad. This sad after having survived both the Norma of Mescheriakova and Ghouleghina a couple years ago–a traumatic hallucination.

  Okay, then fast forward a few years. She was to have made her debut in Rome as Lady Mac. Everyone was buzzing with anticipation but most unfortunately, she fell very ill, AND, made the disastrous mistake of trying to recite the opening cavatina, after the the letter recitation. So I was told. I was also told that the audience sang its own responding cabaletta, namely, “Noi Vogliam I Nostri Soldi”. I guess they had to refund them.
  Well, I ended with Renato Bruson Elizabeth Connell, not bad at all.

  By the time Verrett made a recital at Teatro dell’Opera, I approached with great foreboding, wondering what would go wrong. Nothing went wrong this time. I can still remember the great beauty and soulful longing she invested into the Schubert Schwanengesang — Abschied — I remember her arms outstretched, still, as she bound all of us,romani di Roma plus one straniera americana, to her magic spell, and how a theatre filled with Italians erupted into thrilling cheers of “Brava” for this black American mezzo/soprano singing ein lied auf deutsch. Music the universal language of the soul…yes it was. I thank Madame Verrett for that one surpassingly wonderful moment she granted us all lucky enough to hear.

  on June 1, 2010 at 10:45 PM
• Ruxton says:

  Camille – (cough- cough) so you struck a bum Norma night – yes, even the great ones have ‘em. The second Macbeth night didn’t fare much better cos she was sick-but then again who cares?.. you weren’t even there- you just heard about it. Take three and you copped a wonderful recital- thank God. I can’t quite work out what the “missed chances” are though? (Cough again)

  on June 1, 2010 at 11:11 PM
• Lucky Pierre says:

  camille,

  i never caught ms. verrett live in an opera, just one recital towards the end of her career. i have a CD of one of her met normas, it’s with obraztsova and cossutta, i think, and it’s not good. however, one of her SF normas (1978? available on gala) is fantabulous. someone once said there were only 4 legendary normas in his opinion, and they were callas, sutherland, caballe and verrett (not necessarily in that order). so get your hands on the gala set if you can.

  on June 3, 2010 at 4:37 PM
• Lucky Pierre says:

  if you want to read some client reviews, check amazon:

  http://tinyurl.com/28cgjn8

  on June 3, 2010 at 4:40 PM
• Lucky Pierre says:

  btw, one of the reviewers above says the tenor is john alexander,which is obviously wrong as per other reviews (see how much we can trust him???).

  here’s a source for that CD:

  http://www.tower.com/bellini-norma-paolo-peloso-cd/wapi/106558902#product_details

  on June 3, 2010 at 4:47 PM
• Camille says:

  How courteous of you, Monsieur Pierre, to inform me of this Norma and to take the time and trouble to locate it for me. Je vous remercie!

  Perhaps when I do go to order it I’ll get that L’Africaine from San Francisco as well, which I love for all three principals’ performances. Maybe San Francisco was a luckier house for her? I don’t know. It’s always a mystery why a singer does better in one place than another.

  Grand merci pour la votre gentillesse!

  on June 3, 2010 at 7:05 PM
• Lucky Pierre says:

  camille,

  vous savez, we frenchies must stick together. you, me and manou… n’est ce pas? of course, i’m not truly french, i just dabble in french, and some greek on occasion, with attila, but that’s another story…

  apropos l’africaine, i don’t know why, but i never got too enthusiastic about her selika. i saw the later video from SF (1983?) and she’s not in great form, she even sang the lullaby very, very carefully an slowly. i thought for sure, in the earlier version from SF (1974?), she would be better, but still not great. i think gracie did a better job in london in 1978 and 1981 — again, this is all from the recorded evidence as i’m too young unfort. to have seen these ladies live in opera (the whole generation i missed: price, horne, caballe, sutherland, scotto, nilsson, etc.). i’m very regretful that i never caught verrett’s troyens, siege de corinthe (stupendous!), tosca (everybody says she was fantabulous and in the 2 live ones i have, she seemed to be the almost perfect tosca), carmen, dalilah, lady macbeth, etc. such pity!

  on June 4, 2010 at 1:12 AM