Word: mezzos
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...soloists, who were often embarrassing, presented another set of problems. Counter tenor Donald Parsons was the worst detractor, and bass Donald Langmuir, though not prone to missing notes like Parsons, lacked power and richness. Greer McLane, the mezzo soprano, was the best of the trio, if rather uninspired...
Magnetized Talents. Dedicated musicianship of Dunn's caliber attracts talent like a magnet. The warm contralto of the Metropolitan Opera's Lili Chookasian, the glowing mezzo-soprano of Negro Betty Allen, and the responsive, impeccable bowing of Dunn's small string sections all brightened last week's performance of Britten's Rape of Lucretia. Such artists have taught critics and audiences alike that whatever Thomas Dunn tackles musically will be worth doing and done memorably well...
...Biss's version was singularly unexciting. He made every important cue, handled all the details of podium performance with more polish than one expects of a novice students conductor; unfortunately, the sound lacked a matching professionalism. For example, the dynamics of the first and third movements ventured little beyond mezzo forte and forte; throughout, there was hardly any of the nuance that made Layton's performance of the Mozart Symphony No. 26 (E-flat) so pleasant. One could even argue that Biss's slow initial tempo magnified the introduction to the symphony disproportionately. Still, Biss was working with a strange...
Sheherazade (Columbia) is a passionate performance of Maurice Ravel's coldly exciting music, with Mezzo-Soprano Jennie Tourel sharing the enthusiasm built behind her by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. Berlioz' Cléopátre, on the other side, is less remarkable music...
...Gary, Ind., where his father was fire chief. But after a year in the Roxy Theater chorus (four shows a day for 291 days running), some brief bad luck on Broadway, and a distant whiff of glory at the Met, he was wholly devoted to opera. He and his mezzo-soprano wife, Sandra Warfield. moved off to Bonn for a year, then to Milan for two, in search of the experience the Met had denied him. Europeans were quick to recognize the value of McCracken's voice, but though he sounded just right for lyric romantic roles, his size...