Word: toscas
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Mitchell's triumph has come just in time. In any generation, the number of sopranos who can superbly handle the most demanding dramatic roles in the Italian repertory (Verdi's Leonora or Aida, Puccini's Tosca or Madama Butterfly) is always small; these days it is minuscule. Montserrat Caballe, 49, has the right combination of fire and ice to make for a memorable Tosca, for example, but she often cancels performances. Price, 55, still makes occasional forays into what was once her strongest territory, but she wisely no longer sings as frequently as she once did. Enter...
...when the Emperor Franz Josef invited her to join the Vienna Royal Opera. At the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang from 1921 to 1932, the director reported that the largest ovation he had ever heard followed her "Vissi d'arte, "the great second-act aria in Tosca; she sang it prostrate on the floor. A tempestuous diva onstage and off, Jeritza gathered three husbands, prompted whispers of affairs with composers and feuded audaciously with tenors and other sopranos...
...term singing actress was virtually made for her. She opened up the territory of bel canto that was to be explored by Sills and Sutherland. An equal achievement was her interpretation of the war-horses-Lucia, Tosca-so that the weariest ear could hear them as new works of art. Her musical values were the strictest and most scrupulous. She sang with complete fidelity to the composer and his idiom; yet the human essence of each heroine shone through her interpretation. Audiences felt that they were seeing Norma or Violetta. Hers was not a conventionally "beautiful" voice, like that...
...after her splendid performances of Pace, pace from Verdi's La Forza del Destino and He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. Price knew her audience, and knew it was not to be patronized. Announcing her encore, Vissi d'arte from Puccini's Tosca, she was engulfed by cheers of recognition. The program then moved from Tosca to toe-tapping, as Gospel Superstar Betty Perkins swept onstage and picked up a microphone. The Philharmonic percussion section laid down a heavy beat, and Perkins brought the evening to a bluesy, rousing finale with three gospel...
...being a waiter in (Verdi's) La Boheme. The singers go to a cafe and walk off without paying the bill, so the waiters look outraged, another tricky emotion. Verdi's Tosca is a great opera for extras. In the Met production, the extras get to be secret police, and in the end about ten of them get the firing squad. They get to kill the tenor...