Word: vanessa
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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NICOLAI GEDDA, 31. born in Stockholm of Russian-Swedish parents (his father was a baritone in the Don Cossack Chorus), did well in his Met debut as Faust, outdid himself as Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Anatol in Vanessa. Tall for a tenor-his pressagent, measuring with a basketball coach's rubber ruler, claims 6 ft. 3 in. -Gedda offers a clear, sweet voice that may lack warmth ("Champagne rather than Chianti," says one critic), but has strength and purity. His acting is intelligent, his pronunciation unusually correct for the opera stage; he is a linguist, speaks seven languages...
...Lowell, Mass., she began singing the Metropolitan's smallest roles four years ago, rose to starring parts through a combination of good looks (she is the Met's youngest, prettiest leading singer) and a warm, full-timbered voice. Her latest success: Erika in Samuel Barber's Vanessa (TIME, Jan. 27). Although a good singer, she is not yet a great one, and her voice must gain weight and authority before she can conquer such big mezzo roles as Amneris (Aïda) or the Princess Eboli (Don Carlo...
...Europe, last summer toured as Emile de Becque with Mary Martin in South Pacific. A onetime baritone, Tozzi has a deep, warm voice in which much of the baritone quality persists, also has fine stage presence and plenty of humor (as he demonstrated as the Old Doctor in Vanessa). Tozzi ought to make a good Don Giovanni in time...
With last week's opening-night audience, at least, it was a direct hit. Composer Barber's Vanessa failed to be intensely moving or to spring any musical or dramatic surprises, but it could still lay claim to being the best U.S. opera yet staged at the Metropolitan...
...words for his own rousing operas, this time undertook to serve as librettist to his longtime friend Sam Barber. Menotti's yarn is like a pulse-bumping 19th century melodrama that lacks the courage of its afflictions. The lover, when he finally arrives, is not the man Vanessa was waiting for, but his son Anatol, a fatally charming young man who promptly seduces Vanessa's niece Erika. From there on the plot seems to thunder toward a traditional deathbed climax: Vanessa falls in love with Anatol, they announce their engagement, and pregnant Erika rushes out into the bitter...