Word: mozarts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
These tinkly lyrics are not from a vintage operetta but from one of the best-and in a sense most modern-productions ever accorded Mozart's Don Giovanni. For all the Met's fine performances this year, the NBC Opera Company's TV version last week stood out as a high point of the opera season. Usually, English translations of opera have the incongruous effect of a grey flannel suit at a fancy dress ball, but this time Poet W. H. Auden and Collaborator Chester Kallman managed to provide language that was not ridiculed by the music...
Throughout the rehearsal sessions, Toscanini's voice can be heard explaining, correcting, cajoling, scolding. Sometimes, when he attempts to convey his feelings for the music, language fails him. "Mozart," he cries, "must be allegro. It must smile! Allegro not only with the tempo but with this!"-and he resoundingly slaps his face. At times he speaks like a counseling father: "I don't believe that to be a great man one needs to play only Wagner or Beethoven. Play also Traviata as you are best able to play. I like this music as I like Mozart...
...Included are the Overture to Mozart's The Magic Flute (Nov. 5, 1947): the Finale to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (March 27, 1952); the Brindisi, or drinking song from Act I of Verdi's La Traviata (Nov. 28, 1946); and assorted other excerpts from Acts I and II of Traviata (Nov. 28, Nov. 30, 1946). Released by the conductor's son Walter, the disk is not available in record stores, can be bought only with a contribution (minimum: $25) to the Musicians Foundation, Inc., 131 Riverside Drive, New York City 24-a charitable organization to which...
...Opera Company (2-4:30 p.m.). Mozart's masterpiece, Don Giovanni, with an English libretto by Poets W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, with Cesare Siepi, Leontyne Price, Helen George and Judith Radkin. Color...
...High C. In his long career at the Met, Leonard Warren sang some 650 performances of 22 roles. He knew no German or French, nor did he sing Mozart in any language; he was largely limited to the big Italian works. But within that grateful range he created a whole gallery of careful portrayals infused with a passion and authority no baritone of his time could surpass...