Word: sopranoes
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...pantsuit or flowing, ankle-length skirt, does not merely walk out on the stage, she takes possession of it, just as she did during her last public performances in 1965 (Tosca at the Met and Covent Garden). With each student, she proceeds as she did last week with Korean Soprano Kyu Do Park. She let her sing all of Mi chiamano Mimi (They call me Mimi) from La Boheme, then went to work, singing phrases back to show how to put meaning into them. When Callas came to the word "Mimi," her rich, smoky voice swelled with emotion. "Have...
Christopher Gable, the boy friend to be, comes over to remove Twiggy's owlish spectacles. Pause. Gasp. "Why Polly!" he gulps, "You're beautiful." Beautiful she is not. She dances wonderfully; she sings the light pseudo-twenties songs with just the right lilting soprano, but her acting puts her back in the assistant stage manager position where she started. Ms. Jackson, who appears for a few short minutes as the show's erstwhile star, does not shine here as an actress either. The film belongs entirely to director Ken Russell, who has her appear leg first--sporting an enormous white...
...dance scenes. These had a scalp-tingling power. The gorgeous A Real Slow Drag ended the opera with a ceremonious eroticism that nearly matched Joplin's music. Alpha Floyd, in the title role of a foundling whose book learning propels her into civic leadership, produced a bright, reedy soprano but had stiff presence. Simon Estes, as Treemonisha's father Ned, draped Joplin's curvaceous melodies in rolling voluminous sound. But with surprisingly lackluster support from Conductor Robert Shaw, Treemonisha's effect was blander than the score deserved...
Typical of the tricks played is a passage near the beginning where oboe and double bass are in the usual baroque soprano-to-bass opposition. Suddenly the bass drops away but a listener cannot but help hear the implied harmonies in the highly regular resolution. More lighthearted is the duet between trombone and double bass just before the final trio. The two glissandi in the trombone theme are terribly funny and the audience appreciated it. In general, the orchestral playing was of consistently high calibre, belying the technical difficulties of Pulcinella...
...three singers were at times a trifle overcome by the power of the orchestra, but with such unimportant texts the loss was negligible. The woodwind trio preceding the soprano entrance was beautifully played, as were the string harmonics in accompaniment. No contrast could have been stronger than that of the soprano's aria to the basso's. All three singers sounded best in their first trio: the combined volumes and timbres fitted perfectly with the orchestra. The concert had opened with Glinka's Kamarinskaya, a pleasant diversion which showed off the Orchestra's abilities admirably. The central section...