Word: aria
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...tterdämmerung in order to prevent stage accidents. Vienna was never especially fond of innovations, but some became famous. When Soprano Maria Jeritza was rehearsing Tosca with a Scarpia who knew not his own strength, she landed flat on her face on the floor just before her big aria, Vissi d'arte. She sang it from there, and seldom afterwards did it any other...
...almost unrelieved dissonance, both in the 35-pIayer orchestra and in the singers' melodic lines. But it provided a Lucullan feast of varying moods, from the poignant ending of the courtesan's part ("For me, too, prodigious Rome/ Could not protect from prodigious Rome") to the heartbreaking aria of the bereaved fishwife. The fine unison chorus at the end was as rousing as a latter-day Verdi's, and the pure major triad that sang out as the curtain fell was a real shocker...
...Tenor David Poleri), murderous in the arms of the villainous police chief (Baritone Josh Wheeler), and distraught at her lover's death. Vocally, she was head and shoulders above the others, crooning pearly high notes here, dropping into gutty dramatic tones there. She sang the great second-act aria, Vissi d'arte (rendered in English as "Love of beauty") with a flair worthy of the Met. Except for clumsy phrases in the translation ("How your hatred enhances my resolve to possess you!"), and a phlegmatic but overbearing orchestra, TV's first Tosca was a rattling good show...
...singers know the music so well that they rarely have to watch the conductor. Consequently, the staging has the flexibility and coherence often lacking in opera. Another important concession to dramatic values is the use of translations. English does not lend itself really well to the rapid-fire arias of Bartolo and Figaro, but in recitatives it becomes invaluable for following nuances of the plot. Apart from the language change, Mr. Goldovsky adheres to the composer's intentions. Rosina, for instance, is sung by a mezzo-soprano as Rossini first planned. And she sings his original Lesson Scene...
...flavor of his subject. He writes with absolute conviction in an idiom that was new when Puccini was young. His strings sing with silken suavity behind tender scenes, but brasses and percussion can also rasp and grump disturbingly. Tenor David Poleri (Michele) has a tongue-lashing, show-stopping aria (". . . You are ashamed to say: 'I was Italian' "), and Soprano Gloria Lane* as his mistress has another...