Word: aida
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...close to her lyric roots. She comes from the world of the poor, consumptive Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème and the sparkling, scheming Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Despite taking on some distinctly heavier parts, mostly Verdi heroines, in recent years-Aida, Desdemona in Otello and Elisabeth in Don Carlos-she is still rightly regarded as the finest Mimi and Susanna around. "The dramatic soprano voice is big, and for the coloratura you must have the high notes," says Freni. "But the lyric voice is about quality of expression. It must sing...
Freni is familiar to American audiences from several excellent popular opera recordings-La Bohème and Madama Butterfly with Supertenor Luciano Pavarotti, Aida and Don Carlos with Tenor José Carreras, all conducted by Herbert von Karajan-as well as from films of Bohème and Butterfly shown here in 1965 and 1976. She captivated audiences at her U.S. debut as Mimi at the Metropolitan Opera in 1965 with her technical accomplishment and winsome vocal timbre. But Freni's talent still far outshines her American reputation. Her career has been primarily European: between...
Radcliffe had originally intended to make the facility available to freshmen also, Aida K. Press, editor of Radcliffe Quarterly, said yesterday...
...temple dancer, and the imperious Rajah's daughter Gamzatti (Cynthia Harvey) are rivals for the love of the great warrior Solor (Anthony Dowell), who pledges himself to Nikiya over a sacred fire. Later the Rajah chooses Solor to marry his daughter. If this sounds like Aida, it is. In the ballet, both women are murderous. Gamzatti, who plants a deadly snake among flowers given to the dancer, is the successful killer, but Nikiya has ectoplasmic revenge. Her spirit appears first in a lyrical vision to Solor, and again to break up his wedding (and decimate the temple for good...
...then a full corps of 30 or 40. Finally, for mass operas of about 75, they will drag in people from wherever they can. The assistant stage manager might get them from a certain college or theatrical organization or even the YMCA. For example, in the trample scene of Aida they needed so many people they used some football team from a high school in New Jersey. I, of course, taken as a young recruit, started off on that level, but by the end of my third year I was regularly getting into operas which had only...