Word: cleva
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Fausto Cleva, not the Met's liveliest conductor, this time set his singers a brisk pace, never permitted any sagging in the supple vocal line that Verdi skillfully stitched through Arrigo Boito's libretto. As Othello, Tenor Mario del Monaco sailed onstage in full joyous shout in his "Esultate," and from there on through his Act III explosion of jealous rage, never pausing to be subtle, kept the house ringing and the stage dark with passion. Baritone Leonard Warren as lago proved again his ability to soar dramatically or modulate to a mahogany pianissimo, invested his role with...
...horses, Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci. Performed more than 200 times at the Metropolitan Opera, they were now rounding out a season that had only two more weeks to run. The casts were studded with familiar names, and in the pit was Fausto Cleva, veteran of the Met's Italian wing. But on this routine occasion the audience was treated to a beautifully sung, splendidly paced evening for which much of the credit went to two middle-aged American singers named Warren and Tucker...
...Manager Bing, and canceled her performance because of a throat irritation. Harassed Manager Bing, firmly siding with Diva Callas, said Sordello had been fired solely because he had added extra embellishments and showy high notes to his part in Lucia, and, when reprimanded, had been "impertinent" to Conductor Fausto Cleva. The final Callas word on Sordello: "He's nothing but a bit player and a nasty...
...house, she was just a demure little coloratura. But opportunity beckoned in her florid aria, Caro Nome, and Soprano Robin seized it: she unexpectedly gave out with what critics call a B "in altissimo"-up in the whistling range. The audience gasped at the piercing sound (which Conductor Fausto Cleva had specifically outlawed during rehearsals), and the critics scolded. Wrote the Examiner's Alexander Fried: "Startling is the word for the tone . . . It was so loud and impetuous that it sounded more like a cry of alarm than a musical tone." Nevertheless, Mado Robin scored a popular success when...
Verdi: Otello (excerpts) (Ramon Vinay, tenor; Eleanor Steber, soprano; Frank Guarrera, baritone; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva conducting; Columbia, 2 sides LP). This anthology includes the best duets and arias of Verdi's best opera. Vinay defends his title as the finest Moor of the day, and Steber makes a pure-voiced Desdemona; Guarrera is not malignant enough to do Iago full justice. Recording: excellent...