Word: hemsley
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
City Opera has done well by Argento. Set Designer John Conklin's haunted house is properly spooky, and the opera's shifts in time and mood are made decisive by Gilbert Hemsley's lighting. Conductor Julius Rudel kept things going so smoothly one almost forgot that this was a world premiere, the first time for everyone. For Rita Shane there can be only praise. Her acting was fiery, her singing confident, if uneven. It is hard to think of anyone, including Sills, who could have truly commanded the part. Miss Havisham's Fire burns a long...
...face the play unfolds. Occasionally Ponnelle overstyles that drama: Idomeneo (skillfully interpreted by Swiss-born Tenor Eric Tappy) and the court freeze their poses, while Ilia laments the apparent loss of Idamante. But such effects are redeemed by the cast-and by the brilliantly inventive lighting. In Gilbert Hemsley, Ponnelle has the best lighting designer in American opera. Hemsley paints on Ponnelle's single set as though it were a blank canvas, creating reality out of apparition and believability out of legend. That is, of course, what opera is all about...
...religions, and in its juxtaposition of war and idyllic love scenes, Montezuma is a powerful statement about the human condition that calls for astute judgment and courageous imagination. This Caldwell has provided, with astonishingly flexible sets (by Helen Pond and Herbert Senn) and bold lighting effects (by Gilbert Hemsley) that the Aztec sun gods might have admired. On the musical side, Boston's impresario/director/ conductor has assembled the shiniest of casts, notably Tenor Richard Lewis as Montezuma and Soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson as Malinche, the princess turned slave...
...something of a peak, too. The audience let loose repeated barrages of bravos, shouts and applause. Even Andy Warhol was seen to touch palm to palm. The Bolshoi stars were surprised and somewhat unnerved. "They didn't know who to send out first for curtain calls," said Gilbert Hemsley, a production supervisor for Hurok Concerts, which arranged the Bolshoi visit...