Word: windgassen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...control. He attacked at a slower than usual tempo, underscored the sensuous quality of the music without letting his orchestra wallow in it. There were the usual first-night flaws. During the second-act love duet, the word über-mächtig "vanished without trace" from Tenor Wolfgang Windgassen's memory. With a series of semaphore cues that almost sent him clambering on the stage, Sawallisch brought order out of chaos while Soprano Birgit Nilsson improvised for several measures. But the third act went off with well-oiled precision, and the audience responded with cheering, stamping...
...occasion: Florence's Maggio Musicale. In charge: eccentric, peripatetic Conductor Artur Rodzinski (born a Pole in Yugoslavia, he is a longtime U.S. citizen, now lives in Italy). Among leading singers: Swedish Soprano Birgit Nilsson as Isolde, Cleveland's Mezzo-Soprano Grace Hoffman as Brangane, German Heldentenor Wolfgang Windgassen as Tristan...
Rodzinski has conducted Tristan more than 40 times, spent weeks before the Florence rehearsals restudying the score. He drilled his temperamental Italian orchestra mercilessly, rehearsed his cast, chorus and orchestra from 9 a.m. till midnight. Ruthlessly he excised musical sentimentalities, toned down the deathbed exuberance of handsome Tenor Windgassen ("You're practically dead. You can hardly talk, let alone sing"). On opening night last week, a big share of the applause went to Soprano Nilsson, who was compared to the great Kirsten Flagstad. But the star of the occasion was Rodzinski himself. Perched on a high stool...
...lacked at the Met, according to Wagner fans, has been heroic-voiced singers to fill its gargantuan roles. But the present Ring succeeded with sporadically fine singing and occasional bursts of orchestral brilliance. For the occasion, Bing imported Bayreuth's Martha Moedl (as Brünnhilde), Wolfgang Windgassen (as Siegmund and Siegfried), and Marianne Schech of the Munich Staatsoper (as Sieglinde and Gutrune). All three gave occasionally fine performances, but no one of them dominated the stage in the spacious manner of a Kirsten Flagstad, a Helen Traubel or a Lauritz Melchior. The most consistently good performances, both vocally...