Word: vocalization
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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From the beginning this project suffered from delusions of grandeur. Fidelio is traditionally a work of which even professionals are terrified. Beethoven was not one to let the physical limitations of the human voice restrict his compositional imagination, and Fidelio contains some of the most fiendishly difficult vocal and instrumental part-writing in the whole operatic literature...
...furthermore decided that the work would be performed in Sanders Theatre, which except for its size has very little to recommend it as an auditorium for music. Vocal sound, particularly when female, tends to get trapped in great pockets of space. The shape of the Sanders stage made it necessary to have the entire chorus stage right, facing stage left at right angles to the audience--a position not in the least conducive to projection. Moreover, Sanders is across the street from the fire station, and the wailing sirens interrupted the concert several times...
Mary Sindoni as Leonora-Fidelio was the musical heroine of the evening. As lovely vocally as in appearance, she sang the soprano role with taste, showing remarkably little strain in the high register and shifting effortlessly from one register to the other. James Parks as the wicked Governor Pizarro was dramatically the most successful of the soloists. He achieved a characterization where the others only sang well. This is not to slight his vocal capabilities--a bass-baritone, he took the high A in "Ha! Welch'ein Augenblick" and held it painlessly. The only singers supposed to be able...
...peace marchers [April 21] present their cause and their country with a dilemma. They are citizens who must take an unpopular and seemingly unpatriotic stand; they are a minority who must dissent from the will of the majority. To blame this loyal, perceptive and somewhat vocal minority, however, for prolonging the war is nonsense. The dilemma of majority rule with minority rights is one that, fortunately, a democratic people must always face. Those of us who are opposed to the war in Viet Nam should abide by the will of the majority, but we should not forfeit our rights...
...stage was bare, the costumes were rehearsal-type togs in grey, white and black. "If you combine sumptuous sets and costumes with Mahler," explains MacMillan, "you get something like jam on jam." A tenor and a mezzo-soprano sang the vocal parts from opposite sides of the proscenium, while onstage dancers representing such allegorical figures as Youth, Beauty and Everyman traced a melange of MacMillan movements that seemed to draw equally on classical, modern and Chinese dance styles...