Word: sopranos
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...Further, it lacks a single memorable melody, the essential ingredient that keeps a relic like Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur on the boards. Its plot, however, is operatic gold. Based on a play by Gabriele d'Annunzio, it recounts an episode from Dante's Inferno. Francesca (Soprano Renata Scotto) is tricked into marrying the deformed Gianciotto (Baritone Cornell MacNeil) when his handsome brother Paolo (Tenor Placido Domingo) comes courting in his place. Inevitably, though, wife and brother-in-law fall into an adulterous embrace and are discovered by Gianciotto, who murders them...
Divided into two parts, the film first focuses on the eccentricity of the characters who have come to pay tribute to the fallen star. Vain opera celebrities upstage one another while rehearsing for Tatua's memorial concert, a foppish conductor reveals his obsession with the dead soprano while an English lord is cuckolded by a member of the ship's crew. The film moves without direction, as scene after scene of extravagant dinners and meaningless tete-a-tetes follow one another and avoids any serious character or plot development. Instead it concentrates upon painting a picture of the rich...
...Rivera has been blowing his horn since the age of five, when his father gave him a custom-made soprano sax. He played with a Cuban symphony orchestra at the age of eleven and made his first trip to New York when he was twelve. By then, he had already plunged into the swift currents of bop by listening hard to Charlie Parker records his father had bought...
...music," says Lundvall, who has moved on to become president of Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch Records. "You hear that Latin fire. He has a sound that is totally identifiable." Paquito's easy access to the American jazz mainstream is largely attributable to his zest and finesse on the alto and soprano sax, and partly ascribable to the fact that he is playing in a familiar groove, which may stray in a friendly fashion from the melody but never moves entirely out of the neighborhood...
Still, the production, conducted by Mario Bernardi, has its attractions. No one can match Home in her nimble negotiation of the florid vocal line; she overwhelms its difficulties with an awesome display of rapid-fire articulation. As Al-mirena, Rinaldo's lover, Valente's limpid, graceful soprano contrasts appealingly with Ramey's dashing, formidable bass...