Word: tenore
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When it was over, and everybody else was killed off too, the audience came back to reality and howled like the West Point cheering section while Maria Callas curtsied, hugged herself and blew kisses through 14 long curtain calls. Tenor Giuseppe Campora, who had given a vocally beautiful performance, doggedly appeared with her every time, although toward the end he began to look rather tired of keeping up with Callas...
...single performance of Aïda last week, the Met introduced three young newcomers. In the singing department, there were La Scala's big-voiced Soprano Antoinetta Stella, 27, and lyrical Tenor Carlo Bergonzi, 32. Both suffered from debutitis, but recovered, and will probably become Met regulars. Most spectacular newcomer was Trinidad's rangy (6 ft. 6 in.) Dancer Geoffrey Holder, who appeared in the big ballet that sprawls in the middle of the opera. Holder made a startling appearance, his long brown body bare except for a white bikini and a brilliant, feather-patterned headdress...
...most grippingly grisly melodrama in grand opera, is distinctly dated. Whenever Gilda has a spare moment, the orchestra lapses into a kind of soft-shoe accompaniment, leaving wide-open spaces for her graceful vocal glides and glitters. Soprano Dobbs sounded smooth as cashmere beside the tweedy textures of Tenor Jan Peerce and Baritone Leonard Warren. Her phrasing was always neat and true; in lyrical passages her voice floated with never an edge. In Verdi's showy old coloratura bits, e.g., Caro Nome, it glittered clear and bright as a glockenspiel in a football band. She was nervous at first...
...Rumor" (La Calumnia) stopped the show. William Nethercut sang and acted Figaro without straining, and the result was a characterization that helped hold the entire performance together. Robert Cortright looked noble as Count Almaviva, but found the role too high in pitch and too ornate for his basically sympathetic tenor voice. Arthur Anderson also has vocal difficulties as Doctor Bartolo, but he acts the old stodge convincingly. In smaller parts Laurence Chvany and Grace Lewis are excellent, and Noel Tyl adds a marvelous bit as a lout of a servant...
...energetic Met production, robust Tenor Mario del Monaco as Norma's lover sang loud enough to be heard from Gaul to Rome, and Mezzo-Soprano Fedora Barbieri, as Norma's rival, was adequate though often wobbly. Since she looks much the way Callas did before her celebrated slimming down, it was hard to see why the Roman governor would prefer her to Norma. But none of this mattered much with Callas on stage. As an actress, unlike most of her competitors, Callas radiates credibility even in the silliest situations. Her performance is not a mere recital with costumes...