Word: rysanek
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...past the Lyric has put on many a fine, star-heavy performance, and last week's cast was again impressive: Viennese Soprano Leonie Rysanek as Aïda, Italian Mezzo-Soprano Giulietta Simionato as Amneris, Swedish Tenor Jussi Bjoerling as Radames, Italian Baritone Tito Gobbi as Amonasro. But the stage sets looked as though they had been resurrected from an early copy of the Victor Book of Operas: cluttered scenes with every temple, tower and palm frond rendered in tedious detail. And Paris Opera Conductor Georges Sebastian throttled the tempo to a crawl, once even goaded Tenor Bjoerling into...
...singing, which should have been the glory of the performance, was disturbingly uneven. Soprano Rysanek's warm, lambent voice was as beautiful as ever, but she displayed an alarming tendency to soar to high notes and then to wander around dazedly for several bars while she tried to come down again. Bjoerling's lyric tenor lacked the heroic style that the role of Radames demands, and Gobbi was far from his compelling best. Only Mezzo Simionato sang with the range, color and fire that her fans have come to expect of her. The voices of the supporting singers...
...grand tradition. Below the leaders there is a substantial reservoir of fine veteran singers, all of them capable of turning in consistently competent and often inspired performances. They include Victoria de los Angeles, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Antonietta Stella, Eleanor Steber, Sena Jurinac, Lisa Delia Casa, Irmgard Seefried, Leonie Rysanek, Risë Stevens. Backing them up is a promising and fast-rising crop of newer stars: Lucine Amara, Anna Moffo, Gloria Davy, Leontyne Price, Birgit Nilsson, Anita Cerquetti, Aase Nordmo-Lovberg, Rosalind Elias, Irene Dalis...
...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's Troilus...
...production's cast was youthful and predominantly non-German: Hungary's Sandor Konya as Lohengrin, Austria's Leonie Rysanek as Elsa, France's Ernest Blanc as Telramund, the U.S.'s Astrid Varnay as Ortrud, and Keith Engen, who sang King Heinrich (wearing his 1944 University of California class ring). While the principals were vocally uninspired, the chorus was in splendid form-despite severe hardships. Wieland's staging demands that the male chorus remain frozen-and conscious-for 70 minutes in the first act. In last week's premiere, several members retreated giddily...