Word: sopranoes
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...people have been rude about Hector Berlioz," says English Conductor Colin Davis, and he wishes they would quit. Alas, poor Berlioz has suffered more than his share. In 1829, when he was 25, he submitted his passionately theatrical piece for soprano and orchestra, Cléopâtre, to the Prix de Rome committee. It was rejected with a scolding from one of the judges, who said, "You refuse to write like everybody else. Even your rhythms are new. You would invent new modulations if such a thing were possible." The story goes that when Gioachino Rossini was shown Berlioz...
...excellently proportioned among the voices. As for the seven soloists, the men were more distinguished than the women in regard to vocal blend if not phrasing, with Daniel Collins, the countertenor, David Evitts, the baritone, and Mark Pearson, the bass-baritone, producing the finest singing. The mezzosoprano and soprano, Jan Curtis and Susan Stevens, sounded totally alien, much as if one were simultaneously listening to a barrel-organ and a celeste. The choir was improperly overbalanced by the women, except in the Gloria, who smiled eloquently but sang somewhat carelessly. The contrabass continuo was consistently too loud and intermittently coarse...
Mozart's Vesperae was much more exciting and slightly less well-done. The major problem was the grim Carl Orff assault which soprano Donna Newman made on the sacred coloratura aria Laudate Dominum: all the notes were there, too many of them flat, all of them invested with a Donizettian apocalyptic bravura, Mozart may have been only one year away from great operatic achievement in Idomeneo, but at the moment he was still close by the altar. Miss Curtis seemed intimidated by this Salome-like display but still bettered her prosaic performance in the Schutz. The two male soloists sang...
GIRL FRIENDS AND NABORS (CBS, 8-9 p.m.). Jim Nabors hosts Debbie Reynolds, Vikki Carr, Carol Burnett and Metropolitan Opera Soprano Mary Costa in a variety of tunes ranging from Row, Row, Row Your Boat to the waltz from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette...
Corsaro also concluded early on that he was not going to be influenced by Gounod's score, either. "It's sweet, it has charm and grace, and it's romantic -but it can bend any number of ways," he explains. Fortunately, Soprano Beverly Sills (Marguerite), Tenor Michele Molese (Faust), Bass Norman Treigle (Mephistopheles) and Conductor Rudel were on hand to see that it did not bend too much. Some traditionalists felt that it was going too far to deprive Marguerite of her usual departure for heaven in full view of the audience. But Corsaro decided that angels...