Word: varnay
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...entire work-a rapid, stepwise up-and-down flourish that occurred again and again, eventually became Oedipus' climactic roar of agony. The work unfolded without set pieces or arias, and the staging by Director Günther Rennert was similarly spare, e.g., when Jocasta (Soprano Astrid Varnay) learned that she was the mother of Oedipus she threw her head back with mouth agape in a silence more horrifying than a scream...
...final scene the audience was deeply moved by Oedipus (Tenor Gerhard Stolze) staggering onstage before Designer Caspar Neher's abstract backdrop (it looked like a microphotograph of a germ culture) and raising his sightless eyes with a beatific smile. Soprano Varnay refused to watch from the wings because "I dream about such things." Reported TIME Correspondent Paul Moor: "For a non-German-speaking audience, this opera has long, boring stretches because the music is so subservient to the text. Nevertheless, Orff has created a theater work of gripping power...
Raffaello de Banfield: Lord Byron's Love Letter (Astrid Varnay. Gertrude Ribla, Mario Carlin. Nicoletta Carruba; Academy Symphony Orchestra of Rome, conducted by Nicola Rescigno; RCA Victor). An adventurous musical reading of Tennessee Williams' curdled little tale about a New Orleans lady of reduced circumstances who supports herself and her granddaughter, illegitimately descended from Lord Byron, by displaying a love letter she received from Byron in the "gold and azure days'" of their love affair. Italian Composer Banfield's score offers some green and willowy moments of vocal beauty, but its lush-styled orchestration is finally...
...production's cast was youthful and predominantly non-German: Hungary's Sandor Konya as Lohengrin, Austria's Leonie Rysanek as Elsa, France's Ernest Blanc as Telramund, the U.S.'s Astrid Varnay as Ortrud, and Keith Engen, who sang King Heinrich (wearing his 1944 University of California class ring). While the principals were vocally uninspired, the chorus was in splendid form-despite severe hardships. Wieland's staging demands that the male chorus remain frozen-and conscious-for 70 minutes in the first act. In last week's premiere, several members retreated giddily...
...luck than others have had. Somehow, the old seafaring legend failed to fit in with the stark, abstract staging technique that has been brilliantly successful with other Wagner operas. Musically, Bayreuth's Dutchman was superior. Listeners were especially pleased with the Metropolitan Opera's statuesque Soprano Astrid Varnay as Senta. Most popular opera of Bayreuth's season thus far: Tannhduser, with the role of Wolfram sensitively sung by Germany's young (30) Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, a rising new baritone...