Word: italianized
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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There is a unique quality about Italian sopranos that makes their singing especially exciting. On Wednesday night Renata Tebaldi provided an excellent example of Italian singing at its best. Her voice is more sensuous and passionate than Elizabeth Schwarzkopf's, but lacks the cool perfection of the Viennese singer's style...
...tenor Gigli. There is no doubt that she is a true diva; even her faults are majestic. Her voice is accustomed to soaring over an orchestra, and the bare accompaniment of a piano could not hide her steely, shrill quality at full voice, another common trait of Italian sopranos...
...program was almost all Italian arias songs. The only composer of the German school represented was Mozart, and he by an Italian aria from The Marriage of Figaro. The most successful song was Bellini's Dolente Immagine, in which Tebaldi lingered over every vowel, almost caressing the notes with her voice. Another highlight was the magnificent Ave Maria from Verdi's Otello, which despite one shrill phrase was memorable for a ravishing final high note in mezza-voce. The audience went wild, and called Tebaldi back for three Puccini arias as encores. She didn't mind the tiring program...
With the lines in English a few of the usually "dramatic" Italian phrases sound a bit peculiar. For example, the young maid has finished a long sorrowful song about her mistreatment by the bawdy Don, and her gallant suitor warbles "Ohhh, a piteee." These are the exceptions however and this fine presentation, like Cosi, is highly enjoyable...
...coaxes her into a bedroom reunion, but at this point and over the next decade, the plot begins subdividing like an amoeba: 1) Rose takes up with a 20-year-old named Vincent; 2) Sir George dies; 3) Alexis and another of Uncle George's girl friends, an Italian contessa, get high at his funeral and land flat in some French hay; 4) Rose's and Uncle George's daughter Jenny, by now a remarkably early-blooming 13-year-old begins stalking Alexis. At novel's end, Alexis runs off with the contessa, but in effect...