Word: madama
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...exquisite 16th century Villa Madama, overlooking Rome from atop the bluff of Monte Mario, is normally an Italian government guest house for visiting heads of state. Originally, the formal gardens, fountains and frescoed ceilings of the villa, designed by Raphael for Pope Clement VII, provided the setting in which the Medici Pope wheedled, wheeled and dealed. Last week, that atmosphere temporarily returned. Caught in a political crisis and under orders from President Giovanni Leone to resolve it rather than resign, representatives of the parties in Premier Mariano Rumor's ruling center-left coalition gathered in the Villa Madama...
Beverly does not have the powerful top notes for roles like Tosca or Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, and particularly not for Wagnerian roles like Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung. But she is ideally suited to bel canto, and to the French lyric romanticism of Gounod and Massenet. In these areas she is unbeatable, and even among the diverse other sopranos in this age of great sopranos?Birgit Nilsson, Sutherland, Price, Marilyn Horne, Monserrat Caballé?she more than holds...
...reuth-but then, the European festivals do not offer beer, hot dogs and wild animals to patrons bored with La Traviata and Rigoletto. Besides, where else could one hear Gladys Swarthout and Rise Stevens break in their Carmens, see Jeanette MacDonald in Faust, catch James Melton in his first Madama Butterfly, or stroll into a Rigoletto and hear Jan Peerce and Robert Weede making their professional debuts...
...responsible for the transformation is Stage Director Frank Corsaro, 43, who believes that operatic tradition is often nothing more than a catalogue of yesterday's clichés. As he showed with his productions of La Traviata and Madama Butterfly, Corsaro is a determined spoiler when he confronts the creaking plots of traditional opera. If he wants to bring on familiar characters at unexpected moments, he does so. If he decides to invent minor characters, he does that...
...PUCCINI: MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Angel). Although nicknamed "Madama Butterball" by her more pernickety listeners, Renata Scotto still does her best to fulfill the image of the 15-year-old Japanese teenager, and has successfully made the role one of her specialties. Her rather metallic intonations are warmed by the richness of Rolando Panerai's baritone and Carlo Bergonzi's tenor, while Conductor Sir John Barbirolli exposes enough colors in the opera's palette to prove that it may not be so smart to sneer at Puccini's musicality...