parterre box

110 comments

• MontyNostry says:

  BBC and Associated Press officially report Dame M’s death.

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-12315183

  http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/01/29/opera-star-dame-margaret-price-dies-wales/

  on January 29, 2011 at 12:03 PM
  • Alto says:

    “Officially”? Why are those any more official than the notices from the Washington Post or La Cieca?

    on January 29, 2011 at 12:15 PM
    • manou says:

      Because, Alto, you should never believe anything unless it has been reported by the BBC.

      I thought this was universally known…

      on January 29, 2011 at 12:24 PM
    • MontyNostry says:

      Well, both the WP and Parterre references were on blogs (albeit blogs of the highest repute), but now it’s on the newswires, as it were. But it was reported here first!

      on January 29, 2011 at 12:24 PM
      • Alto says:

        Thank goodness the Associated Press has officially informed us that the music of Mozart is “complicated” and that Covent Garden is a “glittering showcase for world-class talent.” It seems especially official when they assure us that her honorary degrees were from “top universities.”

        The vulgarity is overwhelming.

        I must admit, though, that the inclusion of the name of her funeral director was a real coup of journalism and really put all those bloggers in their place.

        on January 29, 2011 at 12:34 PM
        • MontyNostry says:

          Well, the AP got it into Fox. That’s some kind of achievement, I guess.

          on January 29, 2011 at 12:50 PM
        • MontyNostry says:

          Anyway, if it means the Great Dame gets the attention due to her, we shouldn’t be bickering about it.

          on January 29, 2011 at 12:51 PM
        • manou says:

          Alto Risentimento.

          on January 29, 2011 at 12:57 PM
• Mrs Rance says:

  She is the ineffable wordless voice in the beautiful recording by Boult and the London Symphony of Vaughn Williams’ sublime Pastoral Symphony.

  on January 29, 2011 at 12:37 PM
  • Mrs Rance says:

    correction: New Philharmonia

    on January 29, 2011 at 12:55 PM
• kekszakallu says:

  She also sings the aria “the sun goeth down” from Elgar’s the Kingdom – again with Boult. She makes it the one wonderful highlight of what I, as an Elgar lover, nevertheless find to be a tedious piece.

  on January 29, 2011 at 1:09 PM
• callasorphan says:

  A very sad goodbye. I adored her

  on January 29, 2011 at 2:43 PM
• Despina says:

  I saw her in San Francisco in 1980(?) as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra. I don’t recall who her tenor was, but she completely outsang him, He may as well have not been singing. It was an absolutely gorgeous voice!

  on January 29, 2011 at 6:30 PM
• Ruxton says:

  NYCOQ – in answer to your question the only thing I have been able to find out is that she died of “heart failure”. Seems she had a dicky heart

  on January 29, 2011 at 10:50 PM
  • NYCOQ says:

    Thanks Ruxton.

    on January 30, 2011 at 1:30 AM
• richard says:

  I think the first time I noticed Dame Maggie was in the Klemperer Figaro, which really didn’t appeal to me all that much. But Price, singing the tiny role of Barbarina
  was just about perfect, and I don’t use that word all that often, being a champion nitpicker!

  on January 30, 2011 at 8:39 AM
  • armerjacquino says:

    There are wonderful things in the Klemperer Figaro, though- especially from the throats of Soderstrom and Grist.

    on January 30, 2011 at 8:52 AM
  • jeepgerhard says:

    Dear Richard: Barbarina has the standout tragic aria – scuse me: cavatina – in ‘Figaro’: “L’ho perduta”. Since, as the BBC informs us, Mozart’s music is complicated, it stands to reason that this simple little song touches at least one repeated listener’s heart like no other in the over-long opera, doncha know. Most houses (and recording companies) relegate the role to a non-entity. Not so in the Solti case — purely by chance, to be certain. I doubt Solti even noticed! Dame Margaret, may she repose in peace, sang it like no other.

    on February 1, 2011 at 11:10 AM
  • Batty Masetto says:

    Ponnelle was certain “l’ho perduta” was a double entendre (which is why he has Figaro do such a horrified take in the film when Barbarina informs him). I don’t doubt for a minute that Mozart and Da Ponte were capable of putting in a dirty joke at poor Barbarina’s expense, but how well confirmed is that interpretation? It’s linguistically possible, of course (la = verginità), but does it ring true to you Italian native speakers out there?

    on February 1, 2011 at 11:58 AM
    • Unfaithful Zerbinetta says:

      Ponnelle wasn’t the only one to think this:
      http://books.google.at/books?id=HC6lnaOHm9QC&lpg=PP1&dq=understanding%20the%20women%20of%20mozart's%20operas&pg=PA211#v=onepage&q&f=false

      (Only parts of the book available on Google, but I recommend the whole thing, it’s fascinating. The link above is in German because Google always does that to me but the text is in English.)

      on February 1, 2011 at 12:12 PM
      • Unfaithful Zerbinetta says:

        I don’t understand why that link didn’t show up right. Here it is without the apostrophe.
        http://books.google.at/books?id=HC6lnaOHm9QC&lpg=PP1&dq=understanding%20the%20women%20of%20mozarts%20operas&pg=PA211#v=onepage&q&f=false

        on February 1, 2011 at 12:14 PM
      • Batty Masetto says:

        Thanks Zerbinetta – I’m sure many others as well have picked up on the possibility. But just as in the very interesting book you found, so far we’re only engaging in justifiable speculation. Which is fine too as far as it goes. Still, it would be fun to know if we have something more definite. If this is (or used to be) a fairly settled idiom, then we know there’s an actual – rather harsh – joke there rather than a melancholy implication.

        on February 1, 2011 at 1:17 PM
• WindyCityOperaman says:

  Sad to hear of her passing. I was lucky – got to see and hear her Lyric debut as the Countess (Malfitano as Susanna (!); for some reason Geraint Evans got pissed at Ponnelle and left – Stafford Dean was the replacement Figaro) and later her Desdemona – remember she had to bend backward to pick up the discarded handkerchief and I was afraid she’d fall flat on her butt!

  Yeah, a beautiful voice. I snatched a copy of that Brahms lieder CD – glad I did. Also the Mozart concert and opera CD set (with Mussorgsky’s Nursey Songs as filler) and the aforementioned Somary Messiah – all wonderful recordings. She lived a very private life. There was that Opera News interview, not that long ago, that mentions she had taken up championship dog breeding. RIP.

  on January 30, 2011 at 10:50 AM
  • Baltsamic Vinaigrette says:

    That’s right, WCO: golden retrievers. A very gentle breed and clearly well-suited to her own temperament, if what I hear about her fleeing a production that featured a particularly irascible Canadian heldentenor is correct.

    My partner-to-be (I would have said partner, but now that the law is official in Ireland since January 1, we are taking the big step in April) was sad to hear this news. He saw her in her pre-fame years as a fast-tracking star at the famous Three Choirs Festival (Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester Cathedrals). Many a golden voice has been heard there, but it was clear to one and all that Miss Price – or Dame Margaret, as she would come to be – had so much more going for her.

    I can recommend the charming Mendelssohn song recital On Wings of Song (Hyperion), accompanied by Graham Johnson; she also recorded a disc of songs by today’s birthday boy, Schubert, for Johnson’s Hyperion survey (theme: the moon) which is a delight from start to finish.

    RIP.

    on January 31, 2011 at 10:00 AM
• armerjacquino says:

  This excerpt from her obit in a (very) local newspaper is one of the sweetest things I’ve seen in a long time:

  ‘Internationally acclaimed opera star Dame Margaret Price died suddenly at her home in the village of Moylegrove on Friday aged 69.

  A native of Blackwood in Gwent she had family ties in Cardigan and north Pembrokeshire – she was a cousin to Marteine Richards of Cardigan who runs the Richards Bros coach company. ‘

  on January 31, 2011 at 8:31 PM
  • MontyNostry says:

    They don’t say who’s looking after her golden retrievers, though, but I am sure they are being well cared for by the good folk of Moylegrove.

    on February 1, 2011 at 1:02 PM
• Bill says:

  Margaret Price – being in Budapest this last fortnight
  I missed news of the death of Margaret Price.
  I recall when she first sang Cherubino in London
  a writer in the British “Opera” Magazine surmised stated that Margaret Price would be to London what Irmgard Seefried had been to Vienna when Seefried started there in 1943. So I was intrigued. Alas it was not to be as many of Margaret Price’s greatest successes were elsewhere, not necessarily in London. MP probably had a much closer association with the opera house in Munich than with Covent Garden.

  But I was fortunate, as I happened to be in Koeln
  just at the time Margaret Price made her debut
  at the opera there as Donna Anna (Lucia Popp was the Zerlina, Roger Soyer the Don – the other singers were
  less distinquished). This was Margaret Price’s first
  international breakthrough and from her first utterance one just knew one was hearing a major artist, a superb Mozartian – it was a triumph for Margaret Price and not at all expected by the dressy audience, the DG being a premiere of a new production. Price then eventually gave a recital at Hunter College, her first appearance I believe in NYC and began with Mozart her singing of which mesmerized the audience. One heard her less frequently than she merited, in Vienna, in Paris, in Munich, in Japan and sometimes in New York. There are fond memories of her Donna Anna at Covent Garden with Kiri as Donna Elvira. Price’s Desdemona was splendid (curiously many non-Italians seem to be wonderfully effective in this role).

  Her lieder, particularly in the earlier part of her career was beautifully sung. I always felt that
  some of the roles she sang, Norma, Adriana, should have been switched with more Ariadnes, Marschallins, Agathes, Daphnes etc as her voice was so very suited for Strauss and such music.

  I suspect that Margaret Price was a very natural
  person off-stage. She had rivals in Mozart during her day, Zylis-Gara, Janowitz, Sintov, Lorengar, Kiri herself but no one could surpass Margaret Price for beauty of voice and simplicity of execution and technical mastery of such demanding roles as Fiordiligi.
  As soon as M. Price appeared in Vienna both Krips and
  Boehm took her on but her appearances in Vienna were
  somewhat limited (and she sometimes cancelled). New
  York got too little of her and actually, so did
  London, at least in the opera house.

  Her Fiordiligi may well have been the best sung in my memory – maybe Schwarzkopf was more stylish, Seefried more charming and several others more glamorous on the stage, but Margaret Price had both the technical mastery of a Steber in the role and the beauty of voice of her great Viennese Mozartian predecesors, Seefried, Schwarzkopf, della Casa, et.al. It was an astonishingly gorgeous instrumment, truly a legendary voice.

  on February 9, 2011 at 7:14 AM