Word: nilsson
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...Schein verlacht, wem die Nacht den Blick geweig't." Three of the 15 sing at Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera, a house that rightly prides itself on the size of its singing lineup. But last week, on the eve of a performance of Tristan starring new Soprano Birgit Nilsson (TIME. Dec. 28), the Met's three Heldentenore suddenly found themselves out of voice, the victims of winter colds. (The fact that two of them, Ramon Vinay and Karl Liebl, had been panned by critics after earlier appearances might have also affected their health.) Rather than cancel a sold...
Chilean-born Tenor Vinay, 46, had originally been scheduled to sing the role. At noon he called the Met to cancel. German-born Tenor Liebl, 44, who subbed for Vinay at the season's first Tristan, in which Soprano Nilsson scored her dramatic triumph, phoned the Met at 2 to say that he, too, was in no condition to go on. U.S.-born Tenor Albert Da Costa. 33, phoned in at 4 with the same report. With no other Wagnerian tenors available, Bing gave Vinay the first act, Liebl the second and Da Costa the third. Backstage was Throat...
...waiting to change costumes with him. Liebl sang the second act in adequate style, and Da Costa turned in some of the best singing of the evening during Tristan's third-act death delirium. All three took separate curtain calls and somewhat reluctantly posed for photographers with Soprano Nilsson, who can outthunder even a perfectly healthy Heldentenore. "I was just afraid to catch the bacillus." said she. "They were all really wonderful, my Tristans." Were the tenors all really ailing? "They said they were," said Dr. Reckford, "and you have to believe people like tenors...
...production as a whole was less exciting. German Tenor Karl Liebl, substituting as Tristan for the ailing Ramon Vinay, had neither stage presence nor the power to match the Nilsson salvos. Baritone Walter Cassel as Kurvenal and Bass Jerome Hines as King Mark both turned in workmanlike performances, and Soprano Irene Dalis was impressive as Brangaene. Conductor Karl Boehm led his orchestra through a methodical reading. As for the decor, with the world's best to choose from, the Met had again picked the second-rate. The sets by German Designer Teo Otto were pedestrian and confusing: starkly realistic...
...Soprano Nilsson's career has gathered slow momentum over the last decade. Born on a 'Swedish farm, she was still plowing fields when she was 18 ("My parents wanted I should be a good farmer") and singing in the local Lutheran church choir. Then a neighboring choirmaster started giving her vocal lessons, persuaded her to enter the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. Delayed by the war, she made her first real splash in 1947 with the Stockholm Opera singing Verdi's Lady Macbeth. Gradually she developed a repertory that now includes all the Wagnerian soprano parts...