Word: lyricized
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Chinese Love Lyric...
...York City," said the Metropolitan Opera's Rudolf Bing not long ago. When the statement touched off explosions of operatic temper from one end of the country to the other (TIME, Oct. 13), Bing exempted San Francisco and Chicago from his blacklist. But last week the Chicago Lyric Opera concluded a ragged season by staging a production of Aïda that made Bing's apologies to Chicago seem entirely unnecessary...
...past the Lyric has put on many a fine, star-heavy performance, and last week's cast was again impressive: Viennese Soprano Leonie Rysanek as Aïda, Italian Mezzo-Soprano Giulietta Simionato as Amneris, Swedish Tenor Jussi Bjoerling as Radames, Italian Baritone Tito Gobbi as Amonasro. But the stage sets looked as though they had been resurrected from an early copy of the Victor Book of Operas: cluttered scenes with every temple, tower and palm frond rendered in tedious detail. And Paris Opera Conductor Georges Sebastian throttled the tempo to a crawl, once even goaded Tenor Bjoerling into...
...glory of the performance, was disturbingly uneven. Soprano Rysanek's warm, lambent voice was as beautiful as ever, but she displayed an alarming tendency to soar to high notes and then to wander around dazedly for several bars while she tried to come down again. Bjoerling's lyric tenor lacked the heroic style that the role of Radames demands, and Gobbi was far from his compelling best. Only Mezzo Simionato sang with the range, color and fire that her fans have come to expect of her. The voices of the supporting singers were lost in the huge house...
...went to Chicago, where, after a year of feuds with management, he was fired. Freelance since then, Rodzinski triumphed last year with a brilliant Tristan und Isolde at Florence's Maggio Musicale. This autumn he returned for the first time to Chicago, made silk-purse magic with the Lyric Opera's orchestra (TIME...