Word: scala
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Still, the Municipal Opera made out, and when the rival companies mounted simultaneous productions of, say, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, it was a tossup which was superior (although neither achieved the standard of the old Berlin State Opera, New York's Metropolitan or Milan's La Scala...
Puccini: Tosco (La Scala Orchestra, chorus and soloists conducted by Victor de Sabata; Angel, 2 LPs). The familiar, gaudy music bursts into flame when Soprano Maria Callas digs into...
...fragile leading lady and carry her offstage. The visitor was fascinated. "You must come and do it with me in Florence," she burbled. Then and there, Del Monaco earned a reputation more for force than for artistry. After a heavy workout in Florence, he moved to La Scala. His first season at the Met (1951-52) caused some terrible word-hurling. Wrote one New York Times critic of his acting in Otello: "His chop-licking, heart-clasping, tooth-gnashing, narrow-glancing, head-wagging, threatening, tottering behavior had the audience snickering in embarrassment." Critics admired his powerful voice, but found...
...Verdi, who discovered Egypt some 80 years ahead of Hollywood, set the yarn to some of the finest music ever to come out of Italy. Director Clemente Fracassi has put it in the mouths of Top Singers Renata Tebaldi, Ebe Stignani and Giuseppe Campora (with supporting singers from La Scala and the Rome Opera). He has had his visible actors synchronize their lips and slow-motion movements with the music. Unfortunately, his $3,000,000 budget apparently made no allowances for up-to-date recording equipment. Too often Aida rasps and burbles as though it were being played...
...Technicolor. Chicago's top-hatted, diamond-sprinkled audience enveloped Soprano Callas in a hailstorm of applause. To land such a diva was a major operatic coup for Chicago. Maria had left her native Manhattan to live in Greece when she was 13, by 1948 was engaged by La Scala. Married to an Italian millionaire (building materials), she has unabashedly let it be known that she would not sing in a company where another artist was higher paid. The Metropolitan Opera, with its $1,000-a-performance limit, cannot afford her. But two young Chicago music lovers decided that Chicago...