Word: conductor
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...costumes for spectacles like Prince Igor and Boris Godunov. Seated in a heavily guarded box, Stalin reveled in the gilt-and-rhinestone production numbers as he munched on hard-boiled eggs. He had no knowledge of music. Once at an intermission he summoned to his loge the distinguished Bolshoi conductor Samuil Samosud and told him strongly that the performance "is lacking flats." Samosud had the wit to reply: "Good, Comrade Stalin. Thank you for your comment. We will not fail to pay attention to that...
...state encourages Soviet visitors to the Bolshoi but, says the author, it gives them little help in understanding what they see. Without condescension, Vishnevskaya recalls one typical group of prizewinning collective farmers rewarded with tickets in the front row of the Bolshoi. A peasant woman directly behind the conductor grew restive during the overture. She leaned over the orchestra pit and bawled out the man with the baton: "Why are you waving your arms around like a windmill? Get out of the way! You're blocking my view...
...spite of such difficulties, the completed movie was pronounced the best of all filmed operas by Conductor Herbert von Karajan. The Russian people have been deprived of seeing even one scene. Like all films and recordings of Vishnevskaya's performances, Katerina Izmailova is banned in its native country. So is this book. Westerners are not so unfortunate. -By Patricia Blake
Before Puccini's La Rondine opened at the New York City Opera this season, all the signs pointed to a disaster. The work was little known, and had been dismissed by earlier generations as inconsequential. The intended conductor, C. William Harwood, died unexpectedly last April at the age of 36, and the lead soprano withdrew. During the dress rehearsal, Tenor Barry McCauley objected to Conductor Allesandro Siciliani's tempos and stormed off, while Siciliani threatened to take the next plane back to Italy. Peace was restored, but two hours before the curtain, a can of drain cleaner exploded...
...into opera, Carmen is a perfect way to begin. Because it relies on a few key songs, most notably the famous "Habanera" and "Toreador's Song," the film is easy to follow. Perhaps the only drawback here is that, despite the Orchestre Nationale de France's energetic performance under conductor Lorin Maazel, Dolby remains a poor substitute for the crispness of the opera hall...