Word: mezzos
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...most popular works during Cesti's lifetime, and last week's La Piccola Scala performance suggested why. From start to finish, it was a singer's opera. The orchestration for the most part was slender, graceful, beautifully designed to give space to the principals (Mezzo-Soprano Teresa Berganza, Tenor Alvino Misciano), who sang aria after aria in serene, long-breathing lines. Bright with sentimentally colored melodies, Orontea scored a hit even with the critic of the Communist L'Unita, who conceded that "it really is beautiful music." The audience did not quite hail the composer...
Applauding Feet. Sharing the applause with Composer Cesti was Spanish Mezzo Berganza, 27, who combined some fine acting with effortless singing in the title role. Fast emerging as one of Europe's top divas, Berganza originally studied piano at the Madrid Conservatory, took up singing as a joke, hit the concert circuit after unexpectedly winning the conservatory's singing prize, and married her accompanist...
...guest conductors that "if these jokers can do it, it's got to be easy." From Juilliard, where his early attempts at conducting were roundly panned, he graduated to conducting jobs with the Symphony of the Air, the American Ballet Theater, the New York City Center. Married to Mezzo-Soprano Gloria Lane (TIME, March 28), he is still astounded at being so much in demand for guest appearances. "A few years ago, if I wanted expense money for a taxi, I had to fight for it. Now they...
...Gluck's Alcestis (TIME, Dec. 19), Soprano Eileen Farrell, 40, left her fans cheering a reputation instead of a performance: the fabled power and warmth were there, but the voice wobbled shrilly in the upper registers. Last week, appearing in some of the Met's fastest company (Mezzo Nell Rankin, Tenor Richard Tucker, Baritone Robert Merrill), Singer Farrell made her second Met start-the title role in Ponchielli's La Gioconda. Blonde-wigged and almost wobble-free, she supplied the spectacular singing her audience had come to hear...
...role of Ruggiero, Mezzo Blanche Thebom flawlessly handled the difficult vocal and dramatic task of portraying a knight who, bewitched by a Circe-like enchantress, has forgotten his past but is gradually regaining his memory. British Mezzo Monica Sinclair, also making her U.S. debut, displayed a fierce, darkly colored voice, matched at every turn by the other principals-U.S. Soprano Joan Marie Moynagh, Italy's Luigi Alva and Nicola Zaccaria. The star of the evening, though, was Sutherland, and she amply lived up to the reputation that had preceded her (TIME, June 13). Her range was wide, secure...