Word: birgit
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Vivaldi: Juditha Triumphans (Birgit Finnilä, contralto; Ingeborg Springer, mezzo-soprano; Elly Ameling, soprano; Annelies Burmeister, contralto;. Berlin Chamber Orchestra, Vittorio Negri, conductor. 3 LPs; Philips; $23.94). Vivaldi composed his 1716 oratorio for his students at the Ospedale della Pietá. the Venetian orphanage where he taught music. The subject was a bloody one for schoolgirls: after beguiling the barbarian commander with words and wine, Judith seizes his sword and chops off his head. The score is sumptuous, propelled by the Baroque master's typical unflagging vitality. In this recording both male and female solo roles are sung...
...film, the plot seems straightforward. Tamino (Josef Kostlinger), a knight pure of heart but uncertain of course, is enticed by the Queen of the Night (Birgit Nordin) and her handmaidens into abducting her daughter Pamina (Irma Urilla) from the palace of Sarastro (Ulrik Cold). Sarastro, once the Queen's husband, is dabbling in some dark arts that turn out to be nothing more mysterious than the rites of Freemasonry. Tamino is aided in his quest by a forester named Papageno (Hakan Hagegard), whose robust cowardice at times of stress provides comedy relief. The two men, sensing they have been...
...vision is not literary but psychological, vital and sexual. Absent is the usual dance contest between Daphnis and the cowherd Dorkon, danced by Reid Anderson, for the reward of Chloë's kiss. The veil dance of Lykanion, the Grecian Salome, is gone too. Instead, German-born Ballerina Birgit Keil slithers into a hot pas de deux with Cragun, whose ardent body is counterpointed by his gentle face. Through her mellifluous movement, Haydée conveys a Chloë too ripe to be altogether innocent...
...York's Metropolitan Opera has been improving steadily. The height is its presentation of Wagner's four-opera masterpiece, Der Ring des Nibelungen, opera's most ambitious undertaking. All performances have been sold out, but the most clamorous demand has been for the ones in which Birgit Nilsson, the only great Wagnerian soprano today, sings Brunnhilde. Then a couple of weeks ago, people with tickets to other performances won a bonus. When Leonie Rysanek, scheduled to sing Sieglinde in Die Walkure, got sick, Met General Manager Schuyler Chapin approached Nilsson, who was free to sing the role...
...veteran of more than 1,000 Wagner performances, Heroic Soprano Birgit Nilsson, 55, is understandably cautious around the holes, traps, platforms, rising elevators, special effects and other hurdles that wait in ambush on the operatic stage. But last week, as she carefully felt her way through a dress rehearsal for the Metropolitan Opera production of Götterdämmerung, the singer was ensnared by a shaky staircase. As she stepped from a stage platform onto the stairs, the structure collapsed, sending her tumbling four feet to the floor. Hospitalized with a dislocated shoulder, face cuts and multiple bruises, Good...