Word: bassos
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Diva Schwarzkopf was handsomely supported in Rosenkavalier by New York City Opera's Contralto Frances Bible and German Bass Baritone Otto Edelmann, in Don Giovanni by Metropolitan Opera Basso Cesare Siepi and Soprano Licia Albanese and the Rochester (N.Y.) Philharmonic's Conductor Erich Leinsdorf in both. Standout: Leo Kerz's imaginative, fluid settings projected behind fixed arches onto a backdrop screen. Ahead for the enterprising San Francisco Opera this season: the U.S. premiere of Sir William Walton's Troilus and Cressida (TIME, Dec. 13), and a revival of Rimsky-Korsakov...
...customary refinement of diction and gifted insight into the music as a whole. But her singing and a few instrumental solos were the only high spots. The chorus sang with colorless tone and indifferent diction most of the time. Furthermore, Greenebaum made the texture bottom-heavy with a basso continue of four cellos, double bass, and bassoon. As a result, big ensembles plodded badly and the duet for soprano and bass seemed interminable until it finally expired...
...theater or the circus, know little about how an opera is staged. It is actually an extraordinary exercise in skill, timing and logistics, far more involved than play production. Many opera plots include supernatural happenings and require complicated equipment; what is more, everything from magic fireworks to the basso's whiskers must move according to the music. Technically, one of the most demanding operas is Gounod's Faust, which opened the Metropolitan Opera in 1883. Last week Faust had its 317th Met performance, a matinee...
...basement, directly below Faust's vocal soul-struggles, Mephistopheles (Basso Nicola Moscona) paces nervously, dressed in evening clothes, redlined Inverness cape, with top hat and cane. Three grips stand ready at the trapdoor platform. Another maestro, with a score on his lap, sits near by. Mephistopheles clears his throat, begins la-la-la softly. The maestro, straining to hear the orchestra, says, "Ready!" and Mephisto steps onto the platform...
...came from an Ohio pastor, who had read the TIME story to his congregation. The Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale of Manhattan's Marble Collegiate Church wrote that he had used the story of Palmer's project in a sermon. A German lieder singer and a French basso profundo offered to do free recordings. The Cornell Glee Club, which had been on a holiday singing tour in Mexico, made the same offer...