Word: arias
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Bing had momentarily run out of new productions, but he put on a high-spirited Marriage of Figaro, and introduced a promising American newcomer while he was about it. Cleveland-born Mezzo-Soprano Mildred Miller sang a charming, properly boyish Cherubino, stopped the show with her second-act aria, Voi Che Sapete. It was, everybody agreed, the final bright spot in the Met's sparkling week...
...second act was musically, dramatically, and visually the best. Virginia MacWatters, singing the role made famous by Patrice Munsel, stopped the show with her provocative rendition of Adele's "Look Me Over Once" aria. The action in the second act picks up considerably as the comedy of cross-purposes begins to resolve itself. (Example: Eisenstein's attempt to seduce a masked lady at the ball, not knowing she is his wife." The dance sequence, although it added nothing to the story, was indeed spectacular, and the audience loved it --which is all that matters in a production of this kind...
Said one veteran operagoer: "I've heard Otello several dozen times, but Nelli is the first Desdemona I can recall who sang the Ave Maria as if it were a prayer and not an aria...
...then, when the action seemed to call for it, Stravinsky's music had a stringent dissonance, but most of the time it was straightforwardly lyrical. There were no ravishing melodies to leave the audience humming, but Anne Trulove's first-act aria - lamenting departed Tom - beautifully sung by Soprano Elizabeth Schwarzkopf of the Vienna State Opera, came close to stopping the show. The other top voices: Tenor Robert Rounseville of the New York City Opera as Tom, Mezzo-Soprano Jennie Tourel as Baba the Turk, the sideshow bearded lady whom Tom marries as a jape...
Berg: Der Wein (Charlotte Boerner, soprano; Janssen Symphony Orchestra, Werner Janssen conducting; Capitol, 1 side LP). Berg's masterful concert aria extols the qualities of wine ("I make your wife's eyes sparkle and give fresh strength to your son") in twelve-tone style. San Francisco Chronicle Music Critic Alfred Frankenstein explains the twelve-tone language (with Bergian illustrations) on the second side. Performance and recording: excellent...