Word: daughters
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...story which the opera tells so effectively concerns a fake spiritualist, her young daughter, and a mute boy who acts as their helper in the phony seances. During one such session, the medium discovers to her horror that she does indeed possess supernatural powers. But since she is unable to face the fact she fixes on the boy, blames him for tricking her, and drives him away. He, however, returns unseen, with inevitable tragic results...
...principal singers, Jo Linch as the medium and Barbara Blanchard as her daughter, contribute performances quite astonishing for their power and surety. Miss Linch's voice, while never becoming harsh, possesses just the right quality to project the rather angular music which Menotti has written to depict the spiritualist's descent into horror. And Miss Blanchard, whose singing carries a lovely, lyrical quality did not faulter for a moment even in the highest passages. Her rendition of the ballad-like piece which opens the opera was entirely captivating. Both young women, furthermore, are not only fine singers but actresses...
...performer who must combine the abilities of dancer and mime. Eugene Gervasi distinguishes himself in both capacities. He quite brilliantly manages to make his body and hands express the boy's desperate eagerness to speak, and, what is perhaps more difficult, project his love for the medium's daughter...
...Sugarman makes a most fitting brother to the emperor, but Abigail Sugarman is not always at ease in the crucial role of the emperor's vengeful wife. Her face and voice do outstanding work for her difficult part, but her gestures and postures float detachedly or rigidly. As Lavinia, daughter to Titus, Susan Howe is intense and haunting. After her famous entrance ("ravished; her hands cut off and her tongue cut out") she is fully successful...
...other leading performers faired not quite so well. As the Major-General's daughter who loves Frederick, Linnet Houle was hindered by a rather unfortunate voice. The same difficulty hampered Richard Hamlen, Jr. (the pirate king) although not so much. Hamlen cut a fine figure of a pirate, but octaves cannot be pasted to a voice as easily as the moustache was stuck on his upper lip. Nancy Adam was a passable ward, but Anna Jeffrey was somewhat jittery...