Word: wagnerians
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Many vocal connoisseurs regard Ben Heppner, 42, as the real tenor of his generation. A beefy, shambling Canadian whom conductor James Levine rightly calls a "phenomenon," Heppner is the first singer in years who has the vocal heft needed for the massive Wagnerian roles that were once owned by Lauritz Melchior. No operatic appearances in 1998 were as eagerly awaited as Heppner's Lohengrin at the Met and Tristan und Isolde at the Seattle Opera, and the critical verdict was passionately positive. Small wonder: the Wagner excerpts included on his latest CD, Ben Heppner Sings German Romantic Opera (RCA Victor...
DIED. RICHARD CASSILLY, 70, American tenor and operatic star of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s; of a cerebral hemorrhage. A pure heldentenor, Cassilly possessed a booming, heroic voice that ideally suited grand Wagnerian roles. Debuting at New York City's Metropolitan Opera in 1970, he sang in more than 100 performances there...
...first politicians to adopt that strategy, and gave substance to grass-roots politics. Stymied by a Republican legislature, he wound up spending much of his time blocking urban sprawl, and in his third term, he warned about the dangers of runaway deficits and entitlement spending with such Wagnerian brio that he came to be known as Governor Gloom...
What the opera world needs most right now is a new Wagnerian soprano or a hefty heldentenor, but that is not what the fans are looking for. What they fret about is, Where is the next Pavarotti going to come from? Who will replace Domingo? These two supersingers have raised tenor worship to extraordinary levels, and even they admit that they can't go on forever. There are many claimants for the rich prize of tenor dominance, but the one taken most seriously is a young French-born Sicilian named Roberto Alagna. He is 32, handsome, slender and blessed with...
...date something). Tristan takes to cutting out the hearts of fallen prey to free their spirit and develops a lifelong, mutually unhealthy relationship with a grizzly bear. He never fully escapes the call of the primitive, but at a certain point he does begin carrying on like his Wagnerian namesake, giving himself over to romantic brooding, hopeless love, careless violence and long sea voyages. When Samuel gets himself killed in World War I, Tristan, of course, blames himself, curses God and scalps a few Germans in order that they may share his pain. After that, he and Alfred...