Word: sopranoes
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...somewhat imperfect articulation of the notes. Madame Schwarzkopf's historical curiosity got the better of her usually flawless taste when she chose to sing a version of Mozart's Voi che sapete "with embellishments noted down at a performance in Vienna at which Mozart was present." As the soprano explained, such frills and furbelows were usually improvised on the spur of the moment and then forgotten; this version of the aria, however, lay hidden in a German castle until it was discovered three years...
MARIO DEL MONACO, 42, has, over the years, built an unwholesome reputation succinctly summed up by Soprano Joan Sutherland when she recently canceled a performance with him. Del Monaco was, said she, "far too noisy a tenor." It is true that Del Monaco, who began his singing career in the Italian army and made his big-time debut at Covent Garden, likes to shout down the opposition, and that he is often tight and rasping in the middle and lower registers. But his top register can be glorious, and he often makes up in sheer strength and virility for what...
Sweeping around West Germany on a four-city concert tour. Soprano Maria Callas, 38, was guilty of not one prima donnybrook, seemed to be newly tranquilized. Though an eye inflammation bedded her down for a day in a Bonn hospital, she gamely went on with the show the next evening, restrained her storied temper even when flashbulbs popped during performances. Cooed her concert agent: "Maria has changed completely. She is a charming, amiable, friendly woman...
...tone row, was aglow with curving lyric lines but avoided any hint of romantic lushness, was sometimes reminiscent of Stravinsky. The lightly modern music at no point obscured the text, at many points sharply illuminated it, as in a moving second-act farewell duet of Alcestis (well sung by Soprano Inge Borkh) and Admetus...
...what did most to save the performance was Marilyn Miller's Dido. She unleashed her rich, vibrant soprano without jarring Purcell's carefully organized elaborations and achieved an intensity which is essential to a character as impassioned as Dido. Miss Miller's very lack of gestures or changes of expression conveyed her strength; her cry to Aeneas of "Away!" displayed how much Dido meant it. Mary Lou Sullivan was a brilliant contrast to her as Belinda, Dido's sister. Her voice had just the lightness and grace the part needs, and she did not burlesque her role as the traditional...