Word: mezzos
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...repulsive jailer Wilfred Shadbolt, Zabusky steals every scene she plays. She admirably avoids a problem that bogs down several of the other players: she is at ease and unselfconscious with Gilbert's archaic ods-bodkins-laced dialogue that so easily calls clumsy attention to itself. Her pure, clear mezzo-soprano enchants and, although her flirting with Colonel Fairfax gets her nowhere with him, she has the audience in her pocket...
...sets. The momentum flags some what in the middle, but then at the end the composer recaptures his inspiration with a beautiful fugue, all six singers joining in joyous celebration. The cast is admirable. Beverly Evans as the maid is a good bit more than admirable, combining a fine mezzo-soprano with a deft feel for low comedy...
Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict (Mezzo Janet Baker, Tenor Robert Tear, Soprano Christiane Eda-Pierre, John Alldis Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis conductor, Philips; 2 LPs). In his final work, the ailing Berlioz took Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and made it into his own Tempest, a blend of wit, ardor and gentle sadness bathed in the amber light of a late Parisian afternoon. The opera may be better heard than seen, since its extended passages of French dialogue make it problematical to stage; certainly it is a pleasure in this buoyant...
...Mezzo-Mezzo Soprano...
Benjamin Britten: Spring Symphony (Soprano Sheila Armstrong, Mezzo Janet Baker, Tenor Robert Tear, St. Clement Danes School Boys' Choir, London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Andre Previn conductor, Angel). Berlin born and Hollywood bred, Previn continues to show a surprising flair for English music. Here he leads a zesty performance of a piece that, like so much English music, makes a strength of its provincialism: it has medieval and folk echoes, strikes a resolutely winsome and pastoral note, and is steeped in native literature (with settings of verses by poets from Herrick and Blake to Auden). Britten composed it when...