Word: puccini
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...verbal rhythms rather in the manner of The Rake's Progress, and the music also includes several hints of jazz, which generally end up sounding like the dull parts of Porgy and Bess. Most of the score, though, is unabashedly dramatic, or at least would like to be. Lacking Puccini's capacity for soaring anguish, Floyd can't pull his listeners out of themselves by their own heartstrings. Once the poisonous mediocrity of his characters' lives becomes vivid, one begins to long for relief from it, for an affirmative statement--any affirmative statement--a high flung vocal line...
...father loved classical music, symphonic music, especially Bach, Verdi, Puccini. He played the violin, and he was very glad to see that I started to play the piano. My father was very kind, very gentle with me..." A reminiscence by some young Einstein? Not at all. The speaker was Romano Mussolini, son of Italy's Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, arriving in New York on tour as a jazz pianist. Young Mussolini, who bills himself as "a legendary name in Italian jazz," says he is a disciple of Duke Ellington and offers a repertoire ranging from Summertime to a syncopated...
...singers when their peers and rivals are in the wings. Soprano Leontyne Price brings a chaste passion to Dove Sono from The Marriage of Figaro. Soprano Montserrat Caballe and Tenor Placido Domingo, turning to Manon Lescaut, ask each other Tu, tu amore? Tu?, and answer in the way every Puccini fan dreams of hearing but rarely does. Awesome is the word for Birgit Nilsson's portrayal of Salome's final 14 minutes on earth. As for the Act I love duet from Otello, Soprano Teresa Zylis-Gara sings with disciplined creaminess, but Tenor Franco Corelli, alas, gulps phrases...
...years, Voice Teacher Frederick Wilkerson took a deep breath and gave her his verdict: as a classical artist, she would make a good pop performer. Many young singers would have been demolished. Not Roberta Flack. Always fascinated with pop music, she took the advice, began lightening and loosening her Puccini-style soprano, soon was singing and playing piano for $20 a night at Mr. Henry's, a jazz joint in the Capitol Hill district of Washington, D.C. Her toughest adjustment was to the audiences, who were literally a far cry from politely attentive classical listeners. "Can we have...
...Gertrude Stein, pornography, Jesus Christ and W.C. Fields, all in a stylistic gamut that runs from Monteverdi to Montenegro. His favorite form is an extension of the turn-of-the-century ballad, on which he imposes anything that catches his fancy: tangos, hillbilly hymns, blues, echoes, jazz, gospel shouts, Puccini pastiches...