Word: chookasian
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Eugene Ormandy, with the Philadelphia Orchestra (Columbia), provides neither the intimacy of Bernstein nor the clarity of Klemperer; instead, he produces a brilliant, brassily dramatic sweep of his own, on which he carries his rich-voiced but not exceptional singers, Lili Chookasian and Richard Lewis...
VERDI: REQUIEM (RCA Victor). The virtues of this new recording are the soloists. Carlo Bergonzi is good enough to make the listener forget Jussi Bjoerling's masterly reading of the Ingemisco. Birgit Nilsson is all fire; Lili Chookasian and Ezio Flagello both have big, warm voices. The difficulties stem from Erich Leins-dorf's conducting of the Boston Symphony. The pace is much too slow. The long, dramatic Otello-like lines enshroud the listener rather than move him. Tullio Serafin's interpretation of the Requiem (Angel) is still the best...
...their Gotterdümmerung through abstract-mobile backgrounds created by light projections with only the minimum of necessary realism: an oppressive Mycenaean Valhalla and a Gibichungen hall studded with hundreds of bleached animal skulls. A cast headed by Birgit Nilsson, Wolfgang Windgassen, Theo Adam, James King, Anja Silja, Lili Chookasian and Leonie Rysanek responded to Wieland's direction with magnificent singing. Under the baton of Conductor Karl Boehm, the orchestra became accompaniment and comment, echo and counterpoint of each gesture onstage...
Though Wieland is still considered an "irreverent traitor" by oldtimers, he is venerated by all who work for him. Says Contralto Lili Chookasian, who sang Erda in Rheingold: "I would do anything for him. Why, I even took a curtain call wearing that black leather costume that opened up to display two enormous leather breasts with threeinch nipples. And I didn't even blush...
Magnetized Talents. Dedicated musicianship of Dunn's caliber attracts talent like a magnet. The warm contralto of the Metropolitan Opera's Lili Chookasian, the glowing mezzo-soprano of Negro Betty Allen, and the responsive, impeccable bowing of Dunn's small string sections all brightened last week's performance of Britten's Rape of Lucretia. Such artists have taught critics and audiences alike that whatever Thomas Dunn tackles musically will be worth doing and done memorably well...