Word: verdis
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...Giuseppe Verdi did not have to meet the press much; he made his comments about opera in his letters, not interviews. Some of those observations are still valid today, and if Verdi were alive, he wouldn 't have to change a word...
DIED. Mario del Monaco, 67, celebrated, booming-voiced tenor who was most renowned for his rendition of Verdi's Otello, which he played in 427 performances; of a heart attack; in Mestre, Italy. Blessed with a magnificent though sometimes unsubtle voice, the virtuoso proclaimed, "When I sang, people would not say they were going to hear Otello or Tosca, but Del Monaco." He was buried in his Otello costume while the funeral hymns were sung by his own recorded voice...
WITH THE GROUNDWORK thus laid out. Herzog sends Kinski and his crew up the river. They chug in a rickety steamship chiristened the Molly-Aida--a name which contains the symbolic kernel of film. The yoking of Molly (Claudia Cordinate), a brothel madame, and Fitzearruldo's mistress, and Verdi's opera is a neon sign for the Juxtapostio of Prostitution and Art. It's Imperialism and the Musc, strolling in hand up into the old Heart of Darkness. Unfortuantely, this potentialty interesting irony is crushed by the film's mass. P>Early in journey upstream. Herzog achieves one scene...
...gold curtain rises on Verdi's La Forza del Destino at the Metropolitan Opera this season, it does more than unveil the first act set: it also reveals a bright new star in rapid ascent. As Leonora, Soprano Leona Mitchell, 34, sings with smoldering intensity. Each performance mingles sweet lyricism with raw-edged emotion that brings audiences to their feet, shouting bravas and tossing bouquets. From a dutiful but passionate daughter to the pathetic, penitent recluse at the end of the opera, Mitchell recalls Leontyne Price in the quality and dramatic power of her performance...
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...