Word: traviatas
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Soprano Maria Meneghini Callas, 29-year-old Brooklyn-born U.S. citizen and currently undisputed prima donna of Italian opera, signed a contract last month to make her U.S. debut in La Traviata at the Metropolitan. Last week she canceled the contract. Reason: a clause which provided that her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini, an industrialist, would make the trip with her. The clause could not be fulfilled, despite the efforts of Met-Manager Rudolf Bing. The U.S. Consulate in Venice refused to give Giovanni a visa on the grounds that he could not prove intention to return to Italy...
...Oscar Hammerstein II, but between the parent operas themselves. Carmen has a vivid, earthy, human story; Aida's is unreal and faraway. Carmen, again, has the theater blood of the opera comique; Aida possesses both the stiffness and the elevation of truly grand opera. Where many operas-La Traviata, Tosca, La Boheme-might be at home on Broadway, not only must the story of Aida be revamped; the finer values of the music must be half destroyed...
Coco, like many a musical amateur, forgets how the songs go after the first phrases. The tricky grace note in the eighth bar of the drinking song from Traviata stops him every time; he pauses, squawks angrily, and switches to his favorite tune, Ciribiribin. Between arias, he amuses himself by watching for a pretty girl to come in, then gives a long, deliberate wolf whistle. If the girl's escort looks angrily around, Coco screams with laughter...
...Trovatore and La Traviata, one bad and one good rendition of opera on the screen at the Kenmore, Worth it, considering the price...
...will probably enjoy La Traviata if you can ignore the unsynchronized sound track and the incongruity of narration in English and singing in Italian. Gino Mattera, as Alfredo, is a fine actor with a big, impressive voice. Nelly Coradda, in the juicy role of Violetta, is devastatingly feminine. The settings are all effective, particularly the sparkling fountain where Violetta and Alfredo first acknowledge their love. Except for a few excessively sentimental scenes, the movie is a forthright attempt to reproduce the great moments of a great opera...