Word: escamillo
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...staggered punch-drunk through Oliver Smith's scenery, obviously stolen from the backgrounds of one or two Walter Lantz cartoons, and Peter Hunt's lighting, so determinedly atmospheric that is declined to illuminate such non-visual set components as actors. Bruce Yarnell, of Annie Get Your Gun fame, sang Escamillo with an ample baritone, but sounded ready to launch into "The Girl That I Marry" at the smallest provocation. Carole Bogard's Micaela had lots of potential but her lively soprano couldn't compensate for the inherent dullness of the role. Glade Peterson's powerful and expressive tenor seemed perfect...
...without a Carmen on its list, and last week, after six years' absence, Bizet's supple shocker returned to the Met in a new production. The Carmen was Grace Bumbry, a Negro mezzo-soprano from St. Louis; her Don Jose was Nicolai Gedda, a Swedish-Russian; the Escamillo was Justino Diaz, a Puerto Rican. The conductor was Zubin Mehta, an Indian from Bombay who now conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic-and who last week touched off a furor by denying that he was the least bit interested in conducting the New York Philharmonic*Yet what the musical performance...
...beginning, Soprano Leontyne Price sounds outsized, more like Lilith than a simple gypsy, but the opera soon rises to her voltage. Tenor Franco Corelli manages a convincing disintegration as Don Jose, and Baritone Robert Merrill's Escamillo exudes male vanity. Mirella Freni makes a sweet-voiced Micaela. Conductor Herbert von Karajan colors the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra sensuously, generally keeping the tempos down and the temperature up; the smugglers' quintet reaches a high pitch of excitement...
...they both won Fulbright scholarships and in 1957 entered Berlin's Hochschule für Musik. There they were discovered by Director Carl Ebert of the Berlin City Opera (predecessor of the Deutsche Opera Berlin), who signed them both for his company. Their debuts-Stewart's as Escamillo in Carmen in 1958. Lear's as the Composer in Ariadne the next year-started the couple on the road to recognition on the Continent...