Word: scala
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Rossini: L'ltaliana in Algeri (Giulletta Simionato, Cesare Valletti; La Scala Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini; Angel, 2 LPs). A gay, foolish romp through romantic North Africa, featuring a harem, a love-bored bey and a high-spirited Italian girl. Hardly an ounce of musical passion, but plenty of pretty coloratura parts and some elegant singing by the principals...
Soprano Tebaldi's forte is her pianissimo. Daughter of a Pesaro cellist, she finished off her studies in Parma with famed Soprano Carmen Melis, who took her in hand and taught her how to float those vivid tones. She made her big-time debut the night La Scala reopened after the war, singing in a concert under Arturo Toscanini. Her specialty is igth century Italian pulse-bumpers, but Renata is a placid, hard-working woman who says she does not really like to sing passionate heroines. How will her Aida sound next week at the Met? Not too passionate...
...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...
...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...