Word: serafine
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Conductor Tullio Serafin threw up his job at the Metropolitan Opera 18 years ago and headed home to Italy; opera in the U.S., he said, was "dying." Last week, at 74, Conductor Serafin was back in the U.S., ready to admit that his pessimism may have been premature. After half a century of conducting in such world-famed opera houses as Milan's La Scala, Rome's Royal Opera and Buenos Aires' Teatro Colón, Maestro Serafin had signed up to lead the Italian wing at Manhattan's lively young City Opera...
...There is a flavor of music about this place," said Serafin after he had met other members of the company and taken a good look around the unpretentious hall. "It is a theater with the desire to make art." For two weeks he coached the singers in Italian bel canto, worked with the orchestra, sweetening a pianissimo here, strengthening an accent there, whipping up a tempo to a swirling climax. Last week, on opening night, he lowered his baton on Puccini's Tosca...
Conductor Tullio Serafin was pretty pleased too: Rossini might be difficult, but he was worth the difficulty. Said Serafin: "Rossini is the billionaire of musical ideas...
...large part, these brilliant performances draw added luminance from Enzo Serafin's photography and Menotti's direction. Menotti guides his characters, so that every motion is meaningful and fluid, erasing all the jerkiness and guachery usually associated with the gesturing of opera performers. Serafin's camera work creates the electric air and studied equilbrium through sharp contrasts and quick transitions. The Medium, in short, is a superb welding of acting, music, and photography into an integral entity...
...time: the Requiem (4 sides LP). The music has all the passion and dramatic impact of a Verdi opera, and the soloists, Beniamino Gigli, Maria Caniglia, Ebe Stignani and Ezio Pinza, were all able to do it justice when this version was originally recorded in 1939. Conductor Tullio Serafin does his share with the Royal Opera Chorus and Orchestra of Rome. The recording is good...