Word: aria
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Opera HANDEL: SERSE (Westminster; 3 LPs). One of the greatest boons of the expanding recorded repertoire was the debut last year on vinyl of Handel's Rodelinda; now comes his tragicomic opera Serse, or Xerxes, which begins with the famous aria Ombra mai fu, generally called Handel's Largo, a song of praise to a plane tree. The deep, dark, mellifluous voice of Alto Maureen Forrester as the Persian king is set off by the light, bright vocal acrobatics of Lucia Popp, a rising young Czech soprano. Brian Priestman is the conductor, using the Vienna Radio Orchestra...
...resided almost solely in the cast, despite the presence of only two genuinely operatic voices: the Don of Sean Barker and the Donna Anna of Donna Roll. Barker displayed all the necessary magnetism and menace, but without the grand air of defiance appropriate to his eventual damnation. His Champagne Aria was most exuberant, if a bit breathless; and the Serenade was one of the few instances all night of fine sotto voce singing. Roll's soprano, while raw and occasionally off-pitch, was clearly the biggest voice of all, and was used to best advantage in her massive revenge aria...
...Hades scene, "Quelle soudaine horreur," with its macabre, Gesualdo-like modulations (superbly sung in the production); Phedre's pathetic scena, "Cruella mere des amours": the Act IV Hippolyte-Aricie duet, "Ah! fautil e un jour," with its revealing major-minor key shifts, and Aricie's closing "Nightingale Aria," one of the first soprano vs. flute bel canto trials...
...subplots of revenge, lust and political hanky-panky. What makes the opera worth the salvaging is the vigor and sheer melodic beauty of the score. Though Verdi the patriot worked at odds with Verdi the composer, the fervor of his convictions could occasionally inspire him as well. The opening aria "Let us be free," for example, is charged with the kind of youthful brio that was to come to full flower in Rigoletto, written five years later. Fresh, forcefully direct, the Attila score was polished for six months by Conductor Amaducci, until each facet sparkled. The result was worthy...
...Umbrellas is filmed in the most violent, least muted colors you're apt to see in a movie of the 60's. One aria scene between young lovers Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo takes place in an alley walled in pink, chartreuse, and flaming orange. By cutting various camera angles, Demy gets background colors to underscore whatever mood happens to be flooding the sound-track in song...