Word: capobianco
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...star of opening night's new production of Bellini's bel canto classic Norma. Though Sutherland did not warm up until after her cruel Act I setpiece Casta Diva, she has rarely sung as passionately or been so actively involved in the dramatic proceedings. Under Tito Capobianco's ingenious direction, Sutherland clearly dramatized the two sides of Norma's often enigmatic personality-severe and stately as the imperious high priestess of the Druids, yielding, even frantic as a woman in love with, and ready to kill for, a Roman proconsul (Tenor John Alexander...
...canto opera puts everyone to the test, including the audience. Norma, for example, is one of those static abstracts that-like most neo-Roman architecture-more often command respect than love. That Sutherland, Capobianco and Designer José Verona could infuse it with any passion at all was testimony to the peculiar alchemy of opera when it is defying both the gods and the arts...
Beverly habitually arrives at rehearsals with her part fully memorized, her score shut and her mind open. "I can ask her to try anything onstage," marvels Tito Capobianco, who has directed most of her successes at City Opera and whom Beverly regards as "her" director. She mugs, sings lying down, and once, in Buenos Aires, even danced the tango with six Argentine stagehands. All in the cause of easing tensions and clearing the way for creative work. "Beverly, was that an F and G in your part?" Conductor Aldo Ceccato once asked during a snarl-up in a recording session...
...Beverly's researches convinced her that at the time of the opera's action, Elizabeth I would have been a much older woman than is usually portrayed. Appearing at rehearsal one day made up as a 60-year-old, Beverly persuaded the company that she was right?including Director Capobianco. Onstage, that makeup lends a harsh poignance to the climactic moment when Elizabeth, her voice dry and pinched, sentences her recalcitrant lover Essex to death...
...moments, and this may be one reason why Beverly drives herself so unremittingly in her career. For her, performing is not only a fulfillment of her aspirations to artistic excellence, not only an outlet for her avidly competitive desire to come out on top, but also a balm. Tito Capobianco has always been struck by the way she actually seems to yearn for the stage. Mama knows why. "When Beverly gets onstage," she says, "all her worries are behind...