Word: scarpia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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DIED. George London, 64, commanding bass-baritone with a rich, dark-hued voice and the dramatic presence to convey the menace of Scarpia in La Tosca, the majesty of Wotan in The Ring and the elegance of Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro; after a long illness; in Armonk, N.Y. He found success quickly, with critically praised debuts at Europe's leading opera houses and New York City's Metropolitan. In 1960 he became the first American to sing Boris Godunov at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater. In 1967 a paralyzed vocal cord cut short his career; he turned...
...fiery, histrionic talent that, say, Maria Callas brought to her art. Instead, she unleashed a voice elemental in its passionate intensity. When Price sang the Forza Leonora's Pace, pace, mio Dio, it was the heartrending plea of a desperate woman begging God for surcease; when she cried O Scarpia, avanti a Dio! at the end of Tosca, it was a chilling curse delivered at the gates of hell. And when she sang Aida's anguished O patria mia, as she did last week, it was a radiant invocation of pathos...
DIED. Tito Gobbi, 70, Italian baritone considered one of the finest singing actors of his generation, best known for such operatic roles as the sinister Scarpia in Tosca, lago in Otello, and the title character in Rigoletto; of cancer; in Rome...