Word: contraltos
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Sumac, is no freak. Her range is considerably greater than most,† her voice is sweet and powerful, and she has it under reliable, effortless command. (She can cover almost an additional two octaves, but with little musical value.) In her tenor range she can sound either like a contralto or a real male tenor. Some critics find Jenny's voice a bit dry, but this can be overcome, she believes, before she makes her professional debut. She does not plan to make it for about two years. Until then, she will continue to study with the man whose...
...still effective in declamatory passages, but the many lyric moments are sung roughly. Tebaldi tends to be shrill as Leonora, although parts of her performance are controlled and lovely. The opera itself is uneven, so the singers must sometimes surpass their material. They have only partial success: contralto Giulia Simionato is fine, but basso Cesare Siepi is a disappointment. The best performance comes from baritone Bastianini, making his debut on records. His voice is rich and big, and handled very sympathetically. He contributes the only consistent luster to an otherwise spotty recording...
Opera stars seemed personal friends-or foes-of everyone in town. Once, when Contralto Maria Olszewska spat upon Maria Jeritza during a performance of Wagner's Die Walküre, partisans were close to rioting in cafes all over Vienna. Even while the war-gutted opera house was being slowly rebuilt during the past decade, Vienna managed to put on 600 opera performances a year in other houses (the Met stages about 200, including tours). And the Vienna telephone company offers each day's opera bill, with recorded excerpts...
Diva Schwarzkopf was handsomely supported in Rosenkavalier by New York City Opera's Contralto Frances Bible and German Bass Baritone Otto Edelmann, in Don Giovanni by Metropolitan Opera Basso Cesare Siepi and Soprano Licia Albanese and the Rochester (N.Y.) Philharmonic's Conductor Erich Leinsdorf in both. Standout: Leo Kerz's imaginative, fluid settings projected behind fixed arches onto a backdrop screen. Ahead for the enterprising San Francisco Opera this season: the U.S. premiere of Sir William Walton's Troilus and Cressida (TIME, Dec. 13), and a revival of Rimsky-Korsakov...
...girl you have chosen is easier than it feels. First you catch her eye, and she draws her upper lip away from her teeth to show she notices you. Then you ask a girl nearby who that "girl in the corner" is. She smiles and says in a loud contralto...