Word: contraltos
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Strauss describes as "a beautiful woman of 32 . . . with Viennese grace and lightness," who has "one wet eye" from the loss of her young lover Octavian "and one dry" with sophistication, pretty Soprano Eleanor Steber could not quite make up in tenderness and charm what she lacked in opulence. Contralto Risë Stevens' attractive singing as Octavian was marred only by her unattractive grimacing. Even so, with Veteran Bass Eugene List as Baron Ochs, and with the help of two new imports, Dresden's Coloratura Erna Berger as a pert, brilliant Sophie, and Vienna's Buffo-Tenor...
Among the U.S.'s most beautiful Negro women (listed by John Robert Powers in Ebony magazine): Contralto Marian Anderson ("an impressive personality and most presentable manners"), Mrs. Ralph Bunche ("dignity, attractive personality, character and a wonderful, soft, feminine beauty"), Hollywood's Scorch Singer Lena Home ("the best example I know of 'outer glow' and 'inner glow' delightfully joined...
Singing Octavian, the Marschallin's unripe lover, was not 27-year-old Contralto Bible's first operatic excursion in trousers: last year, she made the same kind of hit in her hurried debut as Cherubino in the City Center's fine production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. But she is beginning to hope it may be her last. She has sung the role of Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana and Mercedes in Carmen, but feels that she still has to prove that she can also sing in skirts...
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Irma Gonzalez, soprano; Elena Nikolaidi, contralto; Raoul Jobin, tenor; Mack Harrell, baritone; Westminster Choir and New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter conducting; Columbia, 16 sides). The first three movements are performed with more passion than pace; both the singing and the recording in the choral movement come off with some screeching and muffled sounds...
Folk Songs (Kathleen Ferrier, contralto; Phyllis Spurr, piano; London FFRR, 6 sides). Includes the Northumbrian classics, Blow the Wind Southerly, The Keel Row, the Elizabethan Have You Seen but a White Lily Grow? and Willow, Willow, all sung with incomparable beauty and style. Recording: excellent...