Word: cantos
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...makes a fitting backdrop for the evening's vocal triumph. In the current vogue for bel canto opera, I Puritani appears increasingly in the repertory of major companies. Often the production is not much more than a vehicle for a soprano. But the Met also offers a stirring male trio: Pavarotti, Milnes and James Morris, 29, whom the company has brought along carefully. Though Mimes' baritone is too dramatic for a legato line, his declamations are thrilling. Pavarotti, a money tenor in the way that Tom Seaver is a money pitcher, revels in his recklessly high flourishes. Sutherland...
...Opera had established her American reputation in 1966, the La Scala Siege made her an international star. Last week one could see and hear why. In lesser hands, Rossini's florid vocal writing might be just that-little more than tedious vocalizing. With Sills, a mistress of bel canto, each triplet, each double-octave run, each pianissimo high note was given musical and dramatic meaning. At one point in the second act, she sang lying on her back on one of Maometto's couches. At another, she held a soft high D while strolling away from the audience...
...kept good company. Verrett, singing her first bel canto opera at the Met, was emphatic and secure as Neocle. It is a so-called pants role, written originally by Rossini for contralto, but later rescored for tenor in deference to the historic Parisian insistence that men are men and women are women. Today, the role could be sung by either tenor or contralto. The female version is more elaborate, and Conductor Schippers prefers it. Decked out in armor and an elegant Zachary Scott mustache, Verrett moved enough like a man to make the impersonation halfway acceptable. Hers...
Sills gave a dazzling performance of technical brilliance and dramatic depth. Sills the singer tossed off the intricately ornamented bel canto lines with fire and easy grace; her voice is a light silvery instrument that takes cadenzas at breakneck speed and makes them sparkle. Sills the actress managed to breathe life into the flat character of Pamira--the daughter of the governor of Corinth who is torn between love for her country and love for the Turk King Maometto, her father's enemy. Sills's Pamira was emotionally focused--a earess of Maometto's arm conveyed sexual delight...
Siege will provide Sills with a generous supply of ornate bel canto pyrotechnics, notably Pamira's Act II "Si, ferite"(Yes, strike me). Says Sills: "This role is longer than Norma, I hope to tell you. I wish I were getting paid by the note." She gets paid by the performance, of course: $1,000 at the New York City...