Word: sopranos
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...Soprano Mirella Freni, 56, will not sing Madama Butterfly onstage. The part is so heavily emotional that she feels it could upset the vocal balance she has spent a lifetime achieving. Luciano Pavarotti has just won acclaim for his first Otello, and most musical experts think he was right to wait until age 55 to try the heroic role. The list of parts that tenor Alfredo Kraus, 63, will not touch reads almost like a chart of opera's greatest hits, including Cavaradossi in Tosca and Rodolfo in La Boheme. Kraus sticks strictly to lighter parts that do not strain...
...initial years onstage are crucial, and according to their elders, many of today's young singers are in too much of a rush. Leonie Rysanek, 64 and still a shimmering soprano, says, "The first word to learn is no, if you want a career." Says Pavarotti: "Go easy. One new role a year is plenty." Before his Otello, sung in a concert version with the Chicago Symphony, music fans speculated that he lacked the declamatory heft for the part. But Pavarotti not only had it; he was able to sing three out of four performances with a bad cough...
...array of gospel songs, jubilees and other numbers in the African-American tradition. Although the male vocals lacked strength, the female members provided some of the most stirring solos of the night. Most notable were Leslie Callahan's passionate alto in "Ride on King Jesus," Jamylle Carter's beautiful soprano in "Ride the Chariot" and Paitra Russell's spectacular voice in "Didn't It Rain...
...Myles McDonnell's solid male lead and Dawn Yip's oozing, soulful female lead turned a potentially boring song into a pleasurable experience. And the Veritones' signature song--"Ride My Harley," a spiritual gone astray--was spunky and assumed an absurd dimension with Blasko Ristic's hilarious male soprano...
...WILBER/KENNY DAVERN: SUMMIT REUNION (Chiaroscuro). Rarely has a musical marriage been so harmonious. Wilber and Davern first teamed up back in the '70s in a highly touted jazz sextet called Soprano Summit. That group is no more, alas, but this studio rematch, featuring Wilber on soprano sax and Davern on clarinet, scales a new peak...