Word: aria
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...have said so; along with largeness of conception goes a looseness of treatment, as much sprawl as size. As Shaw's characters explain themselves and react on one another in an evening-long, often brilliant conversation piece, something veers toward tragedy, something else explodes into farce, a philosophic aria gives way to a dialectical trio, fireworks light up the scene, flummery disfigures it. Heartbreak House is quite marvelous in bits and pieces, but too miscellaneous and uneven as a whole. In the long final scene, where the immemorial charm of the English countryside is charged with the tensions...
...Bach: Arias (The Bach Aria Group, conducted by William Scheide; Decca). One of the nation's finest chamber groups, including Soprano Eileen Farrell and Tenor Jan Peerce, offers masterful performances of some little-known arias and duets from the Bach cantatas. At least two of them-Gott versorget alles Leben from Cantata 187 and Wenn kommt der Tag from Cantata 70-deserve a place on any Bach shelf...
...climactic aria belonged to Mamma Callas, who works at the Manhattan jewelry shop of Mamma Gabor. Last week she recalled with gratitude how Meneghini once sent her $40, while Maria sent her nothing. Said Evangelia of her daughter: "Meneghini was a father and a mother to Maria. Now she no longer needs him. But Maria will never be happy; my soul says it. Women like Maria can never know real love...
Prokofiev's music, written in the early '205, is taut, economical and superbly dramatic, consisting of almost continuous recitative, punctuated with an occasional soaring aria. The opera reaches its vocal and dramatic climax in the Inquisition scene, in which Renata. a group of nuns and the Inquisitor weave eleven different vocal lines into a complicated polyphony, terminated by a staggering explosion of brass and cymbals...
Vocally, the performance did not go as well. Though Nancy Shelton's lower register was solid and assured, her soprano was far too insecure on the high notes to make her long and beautiful aria really affecting. On the other hand, the low notes of the contralto aria were the ones that gave Barbara Blanchard the most trouble; perhaps a reversal of the parts might have benefitted both ladies. In the incisive opening chorus and the stirring chorale at the work's close, the small chorus proved to be simply too small. One can appreciate Harbison's attempt to scale...