Word: mio
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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DIED. BURGESS MEREDITH, 89, chameleon-like actor who performed the highbrow and lowbrow with equal enthusiasm and success; in Malibu, Calif. His Mio in Winterset (1936) simmered with earnest indignation; his Penguin in TV's Batman was gloriously over the top. He played the gentle George in Of Mice and Men, the careworn coach in Rocky and even did a gravelly voice-over for Skippy peanut butter. Meredith defended his quirky choices, saying, "I'm a man moved by the rhythms of his time, so I'll just take amusement at being a paradox...
...other hand, Jamila A. Roos's Lauretta is winsome. She draws the first spontaneous applause of the evening as her voice rises to the challenge of the opera's most famous set-piece, the aria "O mio babbino caro." Unfortunately, as she sings in Italian, most of the audience misses her tender appeal to her dear father, and her vow to drown herself in the Arno if her love for Rinuccio is thwarted...
...limits of translation appear, however, inthe decision to leave Lauretta's famous aria inGianni Schicchi, the vocal gem of theevening, "O mio babbino caro" in Italian.Understandably, the translators have balked at therisk of mangling an operatic favorite, but thisentails a sacrifice of clarity and dramatic unity.As a result, the character of Lauretta remainsopaque...
Original compositions on this album tend to sound uneventful and sometimes unoriginal, and while it's admirable that Grisman and Rice included string versions of such diverse tunes as the Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grapelli jazz tune "Swing '42," and the perennial Italian wedding favorite "O Sole Mio," neither of these tunes have any relation to American folk music, nor do they sound particularly interesting performed on guitar and mandolin. Sometimes a jazz tune is just plain better when played by jazz musicians on traditional jazz instruments...