Word: verdis
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...lively start. Most of the critics cheered the new sets and the Margaret Webster staging for opening night's Aïda. Traditionalist Olin Downes-of the New York Times found the spectacle side "far from either the nature of the drama or of Verdi's score." But the Timesman seemed to be an exception, and even he liked the singing. Moreover, whatever the critics thought, a glittering audience, 3,840 strong, had a fine time...
Wobbling Sphinxes. To build the new production of Verdi's triumphal tragedy of the Nile, Bing had brought in the same crack team that gave Verdi's Don Carlo a new glow last season: Broadway's Maggie Webster and Designer Rolf Gerard. They soon found out what everyone from Bing to Conductor Fausto Cleva definitely did not want: "All those wobbling sphinxes, painted canvas temples, unrehearsed supers in ridiculous costumes, and four-footed beasts." They set out to make the new Aïda "as simple and uncluttered as possible...
...blues, greens, purples, pinks and yellows. Seldom in its history had the Met's old stage flashed with such brilliant array as in the second-act pageant where Radames returns in triumph from his campaign against the Ethiopians; the scene onstage comes close to matching the color of Verdi's music...
...Shakespearean Webster hoped "that the shade of Verdi may be heard to murmur 'I have not been betrayed.' " A first-rate cast was listed to do its part: Veteran Soprano Zinka Milanov as Aiïa, Elena Nikolaidi as Amneris, new Italian Tenor Mario del Monaco as Radames and George London as Amonasro. Some first-nighters might even hear Verdi's shade murmur,"In better shape than...
...Page's side almost as soon as the curtain went up. She had engaged top Spanish Designer Antoni Clave to do the sets, and he had turned out some breathtaking ones in melodramatic black, blue and crimson. Then the Gypsy Azucena (Sonia Arova) lashed into a dance to Verdi's crackling Stride lavampa music, and Page and the dancers were in full command. In the Anvil Chorus, the dancers whirled with so much gusto that the crowd could hardly keep from stomping out the rhythm with them. Standout scene: Azucena's duet with Manrico, her foster...