Word: wagnerians
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...came true for Brooklyn-born Soprano Klara Barlow, 45. In a dozen years of big parts with minor companies and substitute assignments in major houses, Klara never stopped believing. Now she was on the great stage of the Met, making rapturous musical love to handsome Jess Thomas, the reliable Wagnerian tenor. When at last she died by Thomas' side at the end of the Liebestod, the crowd went wild...
...truth, Barlow was a vibrant Isolde. Making the most of her ample bosom, well-turned hips and (rarity of Wagnerian rarities) trim waist, she played the Irish princess as an impetuous, headstrong woman. To New York audiences who have seen almost nothing for 15 years except Birgit Nilsson's cool, ruminative portrayal, Barlow's sexy Isolde came as a pleasant shock...
This tinny reworking of the end of Easy Rider is given almost Wagnerian overtones. It is staged in Monument Valley, whose landscapes of eerie majesty have graced many a John Ford film. The camera tracks slowly back along the white divider line of the highway for minute upon minute, while a rock group intones a suitable overorchestrated threnody. Here and throughout, Conrad Hall's photography is resourceful but a little fancy. Like Guercio, he seems more concerned with embellishing a scene than getting at its essence...
Solti today has a depth, a broader grasp and surer hand than ever. Still intense and energetic by any standards, he nonetheless is mellower, more at ease. Birgit Nilsson, the supreme Wagnerian soprano, notes: "In his early days he was so energetic, so impulsive. He built one climax on top of another. You felt like you were going to explode. Now he knows how to relax...
...some, the name of Melchior will always have a Wagnerian ring. Others will remember him singing The Star-Spangled Banner on opening day of baseball season-another of his passions-at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. But for most of the world, Lauritz Melchior will simply remain the grandest heldentenor in memory-a magnificent giant with a golden voice...