Word: bassos
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...made a stunning La Scala debut as the Greek heroine Pamira. Mezzo-Soprano Marilyn Home displayed her rich vocal resources as the young Greek army officer Neocle (in the 19th century,female singers were often cast as young men). Puerto Rican-born Justino Diaz of the Met filled the basso role of the Turkish sultan with majesty and brilliance...
...Verdi's Don Carlos. Ponelle's dark, brooding sets, painted on black velvet to emphasize the somber mood of the drama, suggested El Greco canvases come to life. The naturalistic direction he gave to the expert cast assembled by Conductor Claudio Abbado-and headed by Bulgarian Basso Nicolai Ghiaurov-gave psychological unity to Verdi's knotty tale of neuroticism and political intrigue in 16th century Spain...
...last week at Manhattan's Philharmonic Hall. While the 20-minute work scarcely explored the lyrical side of the bass, it did give Karr plenty of opportunity to display an awesome technique. Bowing and plucking in quick succession, deftly grabbing knotty clusters of double-stops, he skittered from basso groans up to ghostly coloratura harmonics, shading effortlessly from the sound of a human voice to that of a bee buzzing in a bottle...
...motoric but not without subtleties of phrasing and dynamics. Together with Buswell, he was at his best when the music was at its most kinetic. At times his registration was somewhat arbitrary and misconceived, such as in the third movement of the Sonata in A, where he played the basso continuo left hand on the more loudly voiced manual, and the more important right hand line (in canon with the violin) on the softer one. His frequent use of the lute and leather stops became annoying, largely because of the basic ugliness of these stops on this particular harpsichord...
JOSEPH A. BASSO Prague, Czechoslovakia...