Word: sopranoes
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...City Opera. He reinforced Koanga's quality of poetic make-believe and pantheistic sultriness perfectly by using slides and films (photographed especially in the Louisiana bayous), as well as surrealistic light patterns. So well did production and opera blend, so superb the singing of Baritone Eugene Holmes and Soprano Claudia Lindsey in the lead roles, that sellout audiences erupted into shouting ovations...
Vocal Heart. A thoroughly proper success it was, too. Böhm gave Beethoven's orchestral writing a brassy surface excitement that had a celebrity-filled audience cheering to the chandeliers. Save for a shaky Abscheulicher! in Act I, Soprano Leonie Rysanek as Leonore rescued her mate Florestan from Pizarro's dungeon with a heroinism that any latter-day Women's Lib leader would envy. Tenor Jon Vickers gave glorious vocal heart to Florestan's piteous degradation. Austrian Stage Director Otto Schenk clothed the production in medieval-dungeon darkness that gave way brilliantly...
...disappointment of the first act is Mabel's air, Poor Wandering One. This is the most stunningly impressive piece for soprano Sir Arthur Sullivan ever wrote, and usually acts as the bellwether of a performance. The last time I saw Pirates, it stopped the show for more than five minutes. The directors of this production...
...decades later, with a change in architectural belief. Obsessed with the idea that everything in G and S has to be funny, they have transformed a soprano showpiece into a mindless burlesque. Barbara Menaker, as Mabel, goes along with the gag, and gives an adequate but useless performance...
...work depends upon a great singing actress for its ultimate effect. Emilia Marty should be beautiful, venomous, sinister and finally tragic. Her music is strident and etched in acid but when Marty accepts death, it soars toward the sublime. California-born Soprano Maralin Niska, singing her twelfth role with the New York City Opera, was almost up to her demanding role. Niska's voice is bright and well cultivated rather than monumental, but at her best she left no doubt what Janáček had in mind. She is a superb actress who lacks only a measure...