Word: mezzos
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Beethoven: Fidelio (Mezzo-Soprano Christa Ludwig, Tenor Jon Vickers, Basses Gottlob Frick and Walter Berry; the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Otto Klemperer; Angel, 3 LPs). An easy-breathing, expansive performance notable for the clarity of its orchestral effects. There are more dramatic Fidelias but none with quite the same air of authority that Klemperer musters here. Mezzo Ludwig's singing is pure, true and warm; she creates a Leonora that is consistently moving and everywhere credible...
...stage last week a Barnum-sized bushel of musical talent. On opening night, Conductor Bernstein used not only the Philharmonic but also three choruses (the Juilliard, Schola Cantorum, and Columbus Boychoir) and twelve top-priced soloists, including Tenors Richard Tucker and Jon Vickers, Soprano Eileen Farrell and Mezzo-Soprano Shirley Verrett-Carter. The Philharmonic was followed in later programs by the Boston, the Philadelphia and the Cleveland orchestras, by the New York Pro Musica, the Juilliard String Quartet, the Metropolitan Opera, assorted pianists (including Van Cliburn), and by Adlai Stevenson, who, in excellent voice, provided the narration to Aaron Copland...
...Falla displayed in such earlier compositions as The Three-Cornered Hat. Where Falla departed from his familiar style was in the sparing use of folk material and in the skillful use of a descriptive chorus. Atlantida has only three major singing roles: Narrator Corifeo (Baritone Lino Puglisi), Queen Pyrene (Mezzo Giulietta Simionato), and Queen Isabella (Soprano Teresa Stratas). Much of the action is either pantomime or dancing...
...Maschera (Birgit Nilsson, Carlo Bergonzi, Cornell MacNeil, Giulietta Simionato, Sylvia Stahlman, Fernando Corena; Chorus and Orchestra of L'Accademia di Santa Cecilia conducted by Georg Solti; London). A rather studied approach and over-resonant sound take some of the flash out of this performance, but Soprano Nilsson and Mezzo Simionato remain joys to the ear, and Tenor Bergonzi sings with distinction...
Jackie Kennedy had extended the invitation after hearing from friends of Mezzo Bumbry's triumphs in Europe. The daughter of a St. Louis railway clerk, Grace Bumbry began her career the way American Negroes often do: singing in the choir of a colored Methodist church. She studied with Lotte Lehmann in Santa Barbara, Calif. But her career did not really get under way until she took the $1,000 in prize money she won as Metropolitan Opera Auditions finalist and departed in 1959 for Europe. There she got opera engagements in Paris, Brussels and Basel, last summer became...