Word: coloraturas
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...contest for the official inaugural song, which was won by Bring Us Together-Go Forward Together, lyrics by Hal Hackaday. The committee turned down dozens of requests to perform from would-be entertainers all over the land, including an acrobatic group, an Illinois woman who claimed to be a coloratura soprano, and a lady from Texas who said she had shouted "Amen!" during a Nixon campaign speech. "A lot of people get the idea that this is some sort of variety show," says Assistant Ball Chairman Henry Berliner Jr. "It isn't. It is a ball, a dance...
...length opera for the first time, he tackled The Magic Flute with warnings ringing in his ears. "Some pointed out that it was the most difficult opera of all to stage," said Ustinov. Their point was well taken, since The Magic Flute is a stylistic hodgepodge: there are dazzling coloratura arias, sunny folk songs and slapstick scenes. It is a curious melange, and the fact that it is based on a solemn Masonic morality play only adds to the confusion...
Mozart's Vesperae was much more exciting and slightly less well-done. The major problem was the grim Carl Orff assault which soprano Donna Newman made on the sacred coloratura aria Laudate Dominum: all the notes were there, too many of them flat, all of them invested with a Donizettian apocalyptic bravura, Mozart may have been only one year away from great operatic achievement in Idomeneo, but at the moment he was still close by the altar. Miss Curtis seemed intimidated by this Salome-like display but still bettered her prosaic performance in the Schutz. The two male soloists sang...
...Philharmonic Hall. While the 20-minute work scarcely explored the lyrical side of the bass, it did give Karr plenty of opportunity to display an awesome technique. Bowing and plucking in quick succession, deftly grabbing knotty clusters of double-stops, he skittered from basso groans up to ghostly coloratura harmonics, shading effortlessly from the sound of a human voice to that of a bee buzzing in a bottle...
...instrument" as vocalists in the know might say) is basically as lovely as her appearance, though it can have an unpleasant choked sound in the lower register. Her performance at Holmes unfortunately revealed serious technical problems in handling the music. The Bach solo cantata was the closest to coloratura the Master ever came, and is a tough order for anyone to handle. Wednesday night Bach's elegant roulades were indistinct and slow; the tempo dragged at every soprano entrance. The accompanying trumpet, string quartet, and harpsichord, though. perfectly competent, was unconducted and therefore had major difficulties with ensemble...