Word: julius
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This month alone, she has already performed a trilogy of operatic queens at the New York City Opera that amply confirms her own regal gifts: Elizabeth I in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux (see cover), Shemakha in Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or and Cleopatra in Julius Caesar. Starting this week she and the New York City Opera will recreate all three during a three-week guest stand in Los Angeles (planned for next spring is a new production by Beverly and the company of another Donizetti queen, Maria Stuarda). Early next month, she will give two performances of Lucia...
...transformation did not happen quickly. Beverly was 37 years old when she broke through to international prominence in a 1966 production of Handel's Julius Caesar at the New York City Opera. She was 40 when she achieved La Scala. But, having bloomed late, she is at least blooming the way she does everything else?exuberantly. Her career surges ahead with ever growing momentum. Her itinerary looks like an airline route map, as she crisscrosses the globe to meet this year's schedule of more than 100 operatic, concert and recital appearances. To friends who urge her to slow down...
Where this really shows up is in her ability to cope when things go wrong onstage. Last month, while singing under the baton of City Opera Director Julius Rudel, she inadvertently skipped a few bars and hit a high A too soon. "I held up my hand, and she knew immediately what the problem was," recalls Rudel. "So she held the note until I lowered my hand eight bars later. To make anything clear to her, a finger, an eyebrow, is enough...
...instructions to the orchestra were brief and to the point: "Trumpets, didn't you notice I slowed down?" Politely but firmly he told an overeager tenor: "Please don't cut off the baritone in mid-phrase." He remained unperturbed when a voice from backstage implored: "Wait, Julius, wait. Don José's costume has just fallen apart." The singer finally appeared onstage clutching uncertainly at his trousers. "Jesus Christ, Julius," he wailed, "I'm losing my pants and I've got nothing on underneath." Deadpanned Rudel: "Now you've got it made...
...these new works are likely to be permanent additions to the repertory. "Of 20,000 operas written throughout history," he notes, "1 defy anyone to name 50 masterpieces." He has also dug brilliantly into the past to retrieve and remount such almost forgotten musical delights as Handel's Julius Caesar and Donizetti's Roberto Devereux...