Word: thebom
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...Philadelphia last week, Mezzo-Soprano Blanche Thebom declaimed the bitter story of Medea to the subdued accompaniment of the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was the world premiere of a 20-minute musical monologue by Atonalist Ernst Krenek, based on Poet Robinson Jeffers' version of the old Greek masterpiece-and one more sample of the broad and busy range of roles that falls to the Metropolitan's Soprano Thebom (pronounced Thee-bom) these days...
...woman. Gradually, with ever-widening vocal leaps and roller-coaster plunges, she worked up to her thoughts of revenge and-with a piccolo shrilling-to the murder of her own and Jason's children. The piece ended in a gloomy postlude. When it was over, the orchestra gave Thebom a concerted "Bravo!", and the audience, once it recovered its composure, called her back five times...
Like most Met stars, handsome Blanche Thebom, 35, spends more of her time making personal appearances than on the Met stage (36 concerts and recitals this season). Unlike most of them, she is always on the lookout for a distinctive score. Two years ago, she met Composer Krenek and suggested to him that Medea was an ideal subject for the dark tones of the mezzo-soprano voice...
...Says Thebom: "Most composers, and that includes the ones who are considered to write very well for the voice, make demands upon singers that are impossible." This time she was in on composition's ground floor. She corresponded steadily with Krenek, working over many details of vocal usage. In general, the Thebom-Krenek collaboration put lyrical passages in the low range, declamatory ones in the middle and dramatic outbursts up high. Now she thinks Medea sings as well as any concert work she knows...
...suppose The Rake's Progress will remain on the Met roster after this season. I can't imagine Blanche Thebom with a beard...