Word: primae
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...libidinous bey) with a kind of fresh, provincial charm. A onetime pianist, Mezzo Berganza has toured Europe in recitals but has had little operatic experience. The Dallas News's Critic John Rosenfield noted that L'ltaliana in Algeri had "ended up as a love affair between prima donna and patrons." The whole season ended up as a love affair between Texas and Dallas' own grand opera...
...well in a provincial Italian opera house. Dimitri Mitropoulos, when he was not drowning out the singers with his orchestra, conducted as if afflicted by an overdose of Miltown. Soprano Zinka Milanov found her still-beautiful voice crumbling around the edges. Allowances are customarily made for inept acting in prima donnas, but Diva Milanov plunged beyond the point of tolerance as she flung herself about the stage clutching her ample midriff. She provided a fine argument for bringing back Callas at all costs...
Waking or sleeping, diplomatic Rudi Bing would rather stage the whole Ring Cycle with a company of midgets than publicize a preference among his three dazzling prima donnas. For sheer beauty of voice, the prize might go to Milanov, who at 52 still offers many a superb performance. For excitement, versatility and dramatic power, the apple would easily go to Maria Callas. But for sustained excellence of singing, it would go to Renata Tebaldi...
Such fighting words propelled Bing into the kind of operatic hassle usually reserved for prima donnas. San Francisco's Vienna-born Kurt Herbert Adler tore into Vienna-born Rudi Bing, pointed out that the San Francisco company has welcomed such artists as Tebaldi, Del Monaco, Christoff, Siminonato, Valletti, Gobbi, Schwarzkopf and Rysanek for their U.S. debuts, can boast a list of U.S. premieres that puts the Met to shame. Last week San Francisco gave the first U.S. stage performances of two short works by German Composer Carl Orff-Die Kluge and Carmina Burana. Other noted San Francisco firsts: Walton...
Stopping Paris traffic with her slim figure and undiminished stage presence. Old-time Operatic Soprano Mary Garden concealed all but the younger half of her 81 years. Stirring from retirement in Aberdeen, the Scots prima donna was reportedly in the city on business: to sign a contract for a motion picture and TV series based on her life. Trilled Mary Garden, who refused a similar proposal from Hollywood producers nearly five years ago: "None of those dumb blondes can play...