Word: maometto
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...Pamir a, the doomed daughter of the governor of Corinth, Sills successfully re-established her claim as the most radiant and musical of prima donnas. The dilemmas that Pamira finds herself in would try even Aida, and Sills rose to them all. Briefly, Pamira loves Maometto (Bass Justino Diaz), the leader of the attacking Turks. Her father wants her to marry the Greek warrior Neocle (Mezzo Verrett...
...elopes with Maometto, but persuaded by loyalty to her homeland, she returns to Corinth and stabs herself to death as Maometto's troops enter and sack the burning city...
...writing might be just that-little more than tedious vocalizing. With Sills, a mistress of bel canto, each triplet, each double-octave run, each pianissimo high note was given musical and dramatic meaning. At one point in the second act, she sang lying on her back on one of Maometto's couches. At another, she held a soft high D while strolling away from the audience. None of that is especially conducive to perfectly calibrated tones; the oldtimers did not plant their feet squarely at stage center for nothing. A few of Sills' high notes were thin...
...Scott mustache, Verrett moved enough like a man to make the impersonation halfway acceptable. Hers is not a warm voice, but it is clear and brilliant. Dramatic coloratura lines spun out in the third act's "Non temer" brought Verrett a three-minute ovation of her own. As Maometto, the tall, athletic Justino Diaz not only displayed one of the richest, manliest basses around, but actually made this terrible Turk a figure of dignity and believable emotion...
What a Tent! The drop-style production mounted for Sills' debut is both attractive and sensibly economical ($175,000, cheap by current prices). The sets are fashioned after La Scala 1969, except that the second act is set in Maometto's tent rather than on his ship. And what a tent it is-opulent red carpets and ottomans, hanging lamps, each big enough to contain a man, table lamps that burn with a molten glow...