Word: sopranos
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...silly music to a silly libretto about a fateful faro game and an old countess who is scared to death. That's right, scared to death by a mad gambler named Herman. In this recording, the role of the Countess is fairly well sung by Mezzo-Soprano Valentina Levko, and Herman is less well sung by Tenor Zurab Andzhaparidzye. The other principals validate Russia's pride in its bassos and baritones, and embarrassment for its screechy sopranos. Boris Khaikin conducts the Bolshoi's orchestra with conviction-which is not an attitude easily assumed for this opera...
...EARTH, PEACE (CBS, 10-11 a.m.). The Christmas music of Central and East ern Europe, with Baritone Igor Gorin, Tenor Jan Kiepura and Soprano Eva Li-kova. Repeat...
Even so, no company can long endure without a Carmen on its list, and last week, after six years' absence, Bizet's supple shocker returned to the Met in a new production. The Carmen was Grace Bumbry, a Negro mezzo-soprano from St. Louis; her Don Jose was Nicolai Gedda, a Swedish-Russian; the Escamillo was Justino Diaz, a Puerto Rican. The conductor was Zubin Mehta, an Indian from Bombay who now conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic-and who last week touched off a furor by denying that he was the least bit interested in conducting...
...Lied von der Erde was to have been the HRO's tour de force, as well as something of a swan song for Yannatos, who will be on leave next semester. The work requires a huge orchestra as well as mezzo-soprano and tenor soloists. Each of the six movements sets to music texts from a collection of Chinese poetry translated into German called Die chinesische Floete. Together they take an entire hour to perform. The work was thus the weightiest on the program, and received the bulk of rehearsal time since the HRO's last concert a month...
...Mezzo-soprano Mary Devenport was a disappointment. Her German was garbled and her voice murky, sounding more and more constricted as it rose in pitch. Her singing was four-square and monotonous, and she had the deplorable habit of sliding from high to low notes. The best one can say for her is that she has a fairly rich and well-controlled lower register...