Word: conductor
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Others do. The Pavarotti voice inspires some opera buffs to evoke the pre-World War I Golden Age, and others to proclaim a new one. "It's a phenomenal instrument, one of those freaks of nature that come very rarely in a hundred years," says Conductor Richard Bonynge. Clear and penetrating, it has a brilliant, metallic timbre and yet remains warm, with a gorgeous romantic sheen. Pavarotti supports it with a taut, energizing column of air that keeps the tone uniform from top to bottom; ins notes have been described as a set of "perfectly matched pearls...
...unnamed piece by the late film composer Nino Rota. But very quickly Fellini bends his dramatic situation into a cautionary tale about the dangers of anarchy. The musicians begin by goofing off and refusing to play together; then they break into open, violent revolt against their German conductor (played by Bald win Baas); finally they calm down and accept their leader's authority. The film's ominous finale shows the conductor barking Hitler-like commands to his now submissive charges. In other words, Fellini is making the conservative point that revolution is but a way station...
Just as Fellini gives us a German conductor-cum-dictator to hammer home his message, so he creates his supposedly symbolic revolution out of such literal-minded devices as graffiti, falling plaster and gunshots. Certainly the movie's point comes through loud and clear, but, as art, Orchestra Rehearsal is distressingly tone-deaf...
...Houdini, Tenor Jerold Norman was re-creating his role in the Amsterdam production, and the experience showed in his secure, if rather monochromatic, performance. Other major roles were ably filled by Rita Shane as Houdini's mother, John Brandstetter as his manager and Viviane Thomas as Bess. Conductor Richard Dufallo, who heads Aspen's annual Conference on Contemporary Music (at which Schat is one of this year's composers-in-residence), had the work firmly in hand. His youthful chorus and orchestra managed most of the score's difficulties, though without making them sound any less...
...complete Lulu in February, one of the masterpieces of 20th century opera stood revealed at last. Or did it? Berg left the orchestration of the third and final act unfinished at his death in 1935. For years the work had to be performed in truncated form. In Paris, Conductor Pierre Boulez unveiled the full score as completed by Viennese Composer Friedrich Cerha. But Director Patrice Chéreau's eccentric staging reflected as much Chéreau as Berg, and many of the composer's dramatic intentions remained unfulfilled...