Word: mario
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Raffaello de Banfield: Lord Byron's Love Letter (Astrid Varnay. Gertrude Ribla, Mario Carlin. Nicoletta Carruba; Academy Symphony Orchestra of Rome, conducted by Nicola Rescigno; RCA Victor). An adventurous musical reading of Tennessee Williams' curdled little tale about a New Orleans lady of reduced circumstances who supports herself and her granddaughter, illegitimately descended from Lord Byron, by displaying a love letter she received from Byron in the "gold and azure days'" of their love affair. Italian Composer Banfield's score offers some green and willowy moments of vocal beauty, but its lush-styled orchestration is finally...
...first-act aria reclining voluptuously on the steps leading to the open-air stage; Canio, ripping off his white clown's coat at the opera's end, revealing a blood-red shirt. All in all, it was a topnotch new Pagliacci, thanks partly to robustious Tenor Mario Del Monaco, who not only burned the gold paint off several rear boxes with a scorching Vesti la giubba, but turned in a chilling acting job as well...
...would gladly have substituted Tosca for Traviata, said Callas (Bing denied it), or sung three straight Macbeths: "But he offered me Lucia as a substitute which is even more ridiculous than Traviata. A few weeks ago it was reported to me that Mario Del Monaco had canceled Aida, and they gave him another opera. So why pick on me? Is it because I am an American? The others are all foreigners." Said Bing: Tebaldi had canceled Traviata only after she agreed to accept a substitute role, and Del Monaco's cancellation in Aida had been arranged in ample time...
This week she received one of the few operatic honors not yet accorded her-the opportunity to open the Met season. In the title role of Tosca, opposite Mario Del Monaco as Cavaradossi and George London as Scarpia, she looked statuesquely handsome in velvet gown and jeweled tiara, was more than ever the creature of low-banked passion whom an Italian colleague calls a "diva serena...
...Mario Del Monaco, 39, tenor, singing opposite Tebaldi in this week's opening Tosca. Endowed with the most glorious top register in all opera, Del Monaco came to the Met in 1952 after serving in the Italian army and making his big-time debut at Covent Garden. Short, stocky and a shouter, Del Monaco commands ringing B-flats that have made a name for him in all the roles-Pagliacci's Canio, Samson, Aïda's Radames-in which vocal volume, height and brilliance are needed simultaneously. His interpretation of Otello, by critical consensus...