Word: coloraturas
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...house lights dimmed on La Scala's gilt and maroon, and the packed audience sat back to size up an unprecedented debutante: Coloratura Soprano Mattiwilda Dobbs, 27, of Atlanta, Ga., the first Negro ever to win a principal role at La Scala...
...Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Tullio Serafin; Victor, 3 LPs). A fine performance and elegant recorded sound make this the first fully satisfactory LP of The Barber. De los Angeles' voice, while not so flexible as Pons's in her heyday, is brilliant and accurate in coloratura passages. Monti is a lyrical and affecting tenor, and Rossi-Lemeni's bass is almost too sumptuous for his tomfoolery as Basilio...
...grandmother, Josephine Brown dominates the rest of the cast, but Margaret Bannerman is properly imperious as a retired mistress of kings. To the role of Gigi's mother, a frustrated Lakme in whom champagne brings out the Bell Song, Doris Patston contributes a giddy charm and a hefty coloratura. Michael Evans is too flamboyant as the roue snared by innocence, but Bertha Belmore's comic maid is the most accomplished scene stealer on the current stage...
...soprano who can trill for a quarter of a century on the coloratura's high and skittish vocal trapeze is a notable rarity; this musical generation has Lily Pons. At an age (about 48) when most coloraturas seek the terra firma of German Lieder (where they can be expected to last indefinitely), Trouper Lily pours out her Caro Nome, her Bell Song from Lakme and other acrobatic items of coloratura literature, and gives more than a dozen opera performances and two dozen concerts a year...
...boast: "I can hold my breath one minute and 13 seconds with my mouth full of pebbles." Basso Norman Scott said he could better Peerce by at least one second, and the contest was on. Winner: Scott with a time of one minute, three seconds. Last in the field: Coloratura Pons, who had to gasp for air after 39 seconds...