DOCSLIB.ORG

The Autobiography of Birgit Nilsson Pdf, Epub, Ebook

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Autobiography of Birgit Nilsson Pdf, Epub, Ebook LA NILSSON : THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BIRGIT NILSSON PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Marja Van Oyen | 380 pages | 01 Mar 1999 | Baskerville Publishers | 9781880909577 | English | United States La Nilsson : The Autobiography of Birgit Nilsson PDF Book What emerges from these pages is a diva in the old mold: a giant voice matched by an oversize personality, a professional who expected the same level of perfection from others that she demanded of herself, and a woman who loved and lived life with joy and good humor. She married her first love, Bertil Niklasson, a veterinarian who later went into business on his own and frequently accompanied the soprano on her many trips abroad. She gained a fair amount of international attention in the opera world when she made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in in Britain, performing in Mozart's Idomeneo as Elettra. The casts Nilsson joined at Bayreuth were a who's who of postwar singers and conductors. At the National Library of Sweden also known as "KB" , located in Stockholm, one can find an extensive knowledge base about Birgit Nilsson, with material ranging from to approximately , when she passed away. A personal recollection: I discovered Nilsson — as it were — on my own. In My Memoirs in Pictures from , she tells about her career based on personally-chosen photographs. Inhalt My Debut at the Met. The Swedish edition of Birgit's memoirs is available as an audio book in the Museum shop. First published to wide acclaim in Sweden and in Germany , the autobiography of opera legend Birgit Nilsson — is finally available in an English translation. Three years later, she made her first appearance at Germany's Bayreuth Festival, the illustrious summer event founded by Wagner in as an annual showcase for his operas. The top notes flashed like drawn swords; the voice was steady and secure throughout a wide range. The noted operatic impresario and stage director, Lotfi Mansouri, with the professional help of writer Donald Arthur, has issued his memoirs under the title Lotfi Mansouri: An Operatic Journey. She examined the dish and discovered it was merely gold-plated. You're due to sing in a couple of hours, the man said with much alarm. In stock Usually despatched within 1 working day. Like many young singers, Nilsson survived early bad instruction and slowly learned how to take care of her technique when illness struck or the occasional vocal problem emerged. Wagner's operas were seemingly designed for only the heartiest of performers: They were lengthy events, with lead roles feared by singers as both difficult to master and punishing to the vocal cords. Human Verification:. Shipped from UK. She was stalked for nearly a decade by an American woman who, Nilsson believed, burglarized her room, stealing jewelry and gaining intimate knowledge of the soprano's upcoming dates, hotels and travel plans so she could follow Nilsson. Houston megachurch pastor guilty of multimillion-dollar scam. Skip to main content. City of My Dreams. First published to wide acclaim in Sweden and in Germany , the autobiography of opera legend Birgit Nilsson — is finally available in an English translation. Toggle navigation. Texas-sized taco festival is happening in the East End. Although her career stands as a major chapter in the history of opera, Nilsson nonetheless lived between major musical epochs. Feature Articles. Texas-sized taco festival is happening in the East End. Thank you. The four of us had retired from the Stravinsky performance to a Billy Wilder-themed bar in Berlin, the least horrible late-night option in the high end mediocrity of Potsdamer Platz. La Nilsson : The Autobiography of Birgit Nilsson Writer Verdi: Aida. Birgit Nilsson. The first record was made in London in , and contained both German and Italian arias. Or is it really just distracting, on top of all the coughing? From her humble roots in rural Sweden to her artistic triumphs in Stockholm, Bayreuth, Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera House, this candid and utterly charming memoir reveals the personality behind one of the great voices of the past century. The following year, she made her formal debut on the same stage in the Verdi opera Macbeth. In retaliation, Nilsson pulled the man's chest hairs. From her humble roots in rural Sweden to her artistic triumphs in Stockholm, Bayreuth, Milan and the Metropolitan Opera House, this candid and utterly charming memoir reveals the personality behind one of the great voices of the past century. In a note to Popper, Nilsson said she previously had looked at three different English versions but none satisfied her. The book details her rise to international stardom with behind-the-scenes recollections of her phenomenal triumph as Turandot at La Scala in and her headline-making Met premier in Tristan und Isolde the following year. Book Review: Opera in the British Isles, — Opera in the British Isles might seem a rather sparse subject in the period to When Nilsson got the third one, she happened to have the eyepiece she used to look at auction items. User Contributions:. Inhalt My Debut at the Met. Reach him at charles. Nilsson's reminiscences appeared several years earlier in Swedish and then German, but Doris Jung Popper 's new translation is the first in English. Meine Mediathek Hilfe Erweiterte Buchsuche. Verdi: Un ballo in maschera. Notoriously described as the land without music, even the revival of the native tradition of composers did not include a strong vein of opera. Puccini: Turandot. What emerges from these pages is a diva in the old mold: a giant voice matched by an oversize personality, a professional who expected the same level of perfection from others that she demanded of herself, and a woman who loved and lived life with joy and good humor. Stock Image. Hardcover Life Sciences Books. UPNE Amazon. Certainly, Bayreuth's casting can be dreary these days, as I know from hearing the Ring cycle there twice in the past decade. La Nilsson : The Autobiography of Birgit Nilsson Reviews Unlike many of her modern counterparts, she had very little formal training, save for some classes at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm in the early s. Texas-sized taco festival is happening in the East End. Like many young singers, Nilsson survived early bad instruction and slowly learned how to take care of her technique when illness struck or the occasional vocal problem emerged. Follow City-Data. She was stalked for nearly a decade by an American woman who, Nilsson believed, burglarized her room, stealing jewelry and gaining intimate knowledge of the soprano's upcoming dates, hotels and travel plans so she could follow Nilsson. But the journey is enlivened by the soprano's honesty and periodic twinkles of the eye. Each sang one act. Satisfaction Guaranteed! On the surface, it is an ordinary journey through a singer's life, ordered topically by key places in her career. Strauss, R: Ah! It would have been nice, though, to read something about the difficulties of studying music in Stockholm during World War II. Contents Wagner: Tristan und Isolde. Grieg: En svane No. Where Americans want to travel in This substantial book is one of the latest in the Ashgate series of collected essays in opera studies and draws together articles from a disparate group of scholarly journals and collected volumes, some recent, some now difficult to locate. I had a toupee in my hand! In a note to Popper, Nilsson said she previously had looked at three different English versions but none satisfied her. She leaves out some things, like the reason she was absent from the United States for a few years a tax dispute with the IRS. She examined the dish and discovered it was merely gold-plated. James Melton: The Tenor of His Times Those of us of a certain age have fond memories of James Melton, who entertained our parents starting in the s and the rest of us in the s and beyond on recordings, the radio, and films. But the journey is enlivened by the soprano's honesty and periodic twinkles of the eye. At the end, as I recall, she said, "I want to sing, too," with the innocent enthusiasm of someone who felt left out. Shipped from UK. La Nilsson : My Life in Opera. Inhalt My Debut at the Met. Tweets by LechMazur. Her New York Metropolitan Opera debut—as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde in —made the front page of the New York Times the next morning, and from that point forward Nilsson was heralded as the opera world's leading Wagnerian soprano. Inhalt My Debut at the Met. Skip to main content. To end another round of negotiating, the head of the Vienna State Opera promised her solid gold plates annually as part of her payment. Nilsson would be indelibly associated with Wagnerian music for much of her four-decade career, but she was masterful in other roles, too. Nilsson had little trouble with any of those formidable requirements, and remained the best-known Wagnerian soprano on the international circuit throughout the s and '70s. First published to wide acclaim in Sweden and Germany , the autobiography of opera legend Birgit Nilsson is finally available in an English translation itself first published by Northeastern University Press in La Nilsson : The Autobiography of Birgit Nilsson Read Online Meine Mediathek Hilfe Erweiterte Buchsuche. Puccini: La fanciulla del West. She then offered a Swedish folk song with high notes as clear and controlled as at her peak. The preface was written by Concert pianist Lars Roos, for several years the accompanist to Birgit Nilsson. Nilsson would be indelibly associated with Wagnerian music for much of her four-decade career, but she was masterful in other roles, too.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Verdi Week on Operavore Program Details
    Verdi Week on Operavore Program Details Listen at WQXR.ORG/OPERAVORE Monday, October, 7, 2013 Rigoletto Duke - Luciano Pavarotti, tenor Rigoletto - Leo Nucci, baritone Gilda - June Anderson, soprano Sparafucile - Nicolai Ghiaurov, bass Maddalena – Shirley Verrett, mezzo Giovanna – Vitalba Mosca, mezzo Count of Ceprano – Natale de Carolis, baritone Count of Ceprano – Carlo de Bortoli, bass The Contessa – Anna Caterina Antonacci, mezzo Marullo – Roberto Scaltriti, baritone Borsa – Piero de Palma, tenor Usher - Orazio Mori, bass Page of the duchess – Marilena Laurenza, mezzo Bologna Community Theater Orchestra Bologna Community Theater Chorus Riccardo Chailly, conductor London 425846 Nabucco Nabucco – Tito Gobbi, baritone Ismaele – Bruno Prevedi, tenor Zaccaria – Carlo Cava, bass Abigaille – Elena Souliotis, soprano Fenena – Dora Carral, mezzo Gran Sacerdote – Giovanni Foiani, baritone Abdallo – Walter Krautler, tenor Anna – Anna d’Auria, soprano Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna State Opera Chorus Lamberto Gardelli, conductor London 001615302 Aida Aida – Leontyne Price, soprano Amneris – Grace Bumbry, mezzo Radames – Placido Domingo, tenor Amonasro – Sherrill Milnes, baritone Ramfis – Ruggero Raimondi, bass-baritone The King of Egypt – Hans Sotin, bass Messenger – Bruce Brewer, tenor High Priestess – Joyce Mathis, soprano London Symphony Orchestra The John Alldis Choir Erich Leinsdorf, conductor RCA Victor Red Seal 39498 Simon Boccanegra Simon Boccanegra – Piero Cappuccilli, baritone Jacopo Fiesco - Paul Plishka, bass Paolo Albiani – Carlos Chausson, bass-baritone Pietro – Alfonso Echevarria, bass Amelia – Anna Tomowa-Sintow, soprano Gabriele Adorno – Jaume Aragall, tenor The Maid – Maria Angels Sarroca, soprano Captain of the Crossbowmen – Antonio Comas Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona Uwe Mund, conductor Recorded live on May 31, 1990 Falstaff Sir John Falstaff – Bryn Terfel, baritone Pistola – Anatoli Kotscherga, bass Bardolfo – Anthony Mee, tenor Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Strauss Elektra Solti SC
    Richard Strauss Elektra Elektra: Birgit Nilsson; Klytemnestra: Regina Resnik; Chrysothemis: Marie Collier; Oreste: Tom Krause; Aegistheus: Gerhard Stolze Vienna State Opera Chorus and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Georg Solti Recorded June, September and November 1966 at the Sofiensaal, Vienna Recording Engineers: Gordon Parry and James Brown Producers: John Culshaw and Christopher Raeburn Remastered at Air Studios London by Tony Hawkins and Ray Staff Speakers Corner 2LPs Decca SET 354/5 Performance: 5 Strauss's Elektra was premièred in 1909 and marks the highpoint of the composers operatic career. Never again would he compose such searingly dramatic, concise music, replete with startlingly vivid orchestration, and a wealth of highly chromatic (and often atonal) thematic material, centred around decidedly Wagnerian sounding leitmotifs. It is isn't easy to cast. The title role needs a true dramatic soprano who is happy above the stave, and that of Klytemnestra a big-voiced mezzo- soprano. Chrysothemis is written for a lyric soprano, and Oreste for an heroic baritone. Elektra's don't come any better than Birgit Nilsson. She was 48 when the recording was made, and even the most exposed leaps and murderously high tessitura don't bother her. As the greatest Wagnerian soprano since Frieda Leider, she can effortlessly ride the orchestra, while still using a wide dynamic range in quieter passages. There are occasions when her intonation falters in the Recognition Scene, but this is a classic, thrillingly savage performance. Regina Resnik scales the same dramatic heights as Nilsson in her confrontation with Elektra, and her laughter at the end of the scene is gloriously OTT.
    [Show full text]
  • Grand Finals Concert
    NATIONAL COUNCIL AUDITIONS grand finals concert conductor Metropolitan Opera Carlo Rizzi National Council Auditions host Grand Finals Concert Anthony Roth Costanzo Sunday, March 31, 2019 3:00 PM guest artist Christian Van Horn Metropolitan Opera Orchestra The Metropolitan Opera National Council is grateful to the Charles H. Dyson Endowment Fund for underwriting the Council’s Auditions Program. general manager Peter Gelb jeanette lerman-neubauer music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin 2018–19 SEASON NATIONAL COUNCIL AUDITIONS grand finals concert conductor Carlo Rizzi host Anthony Roth Costanzo guest artist Christian Van Horn “Dich, teure Halle” from Tannhäuser (Wagner) Meghan Kasanders, Soprano “Fra poco a me ricovero … Tu che a Dio spiegasti l’ali” from Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) Dashuai Chen, Tenor “Oh! quante volte, oh! quante” from I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini) Elena Villalón, Soprano “Kuda, kuda, kuda vy udalilis” (Lenski’s Aria) from Today’s concert is Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky) being recorded for Miles Mykkanen, Tenor future broadcast “Addio, addio, o miei sospiri” from Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck) over many public Michaela Wolz, Mezzo-Soprano radio stations. Please check “Seul sur la terre” from Dom Sébastien (Donizetti) local listings. Piotr Buszewski, Tenor Sunday, March 31, 2019, 3:00PM “Captain Ahab? I must speak with you” from Moby Dick (Jake Heggie) Thomas Glass, Baritone “Don Ottavio, son morta! ... Or sai chi l’onore” from Don Giovanni (Mozart) Alaysha Fox, Soprano “Sorge infausta una procella” from Orlando (Handel)
    [Show full text]
  • A Listening Guide for the Indispensable Composers by Anthony Tommasini
    A Listening Guide for The Indispensable Composers by Anthony Tommasini 1 The Indispensable Composers: A Personal Guide Anthony Tommasini A listening guide INTRODUCTION: The Greatness Complex Bach, Mass in B Minor I: Kyrie I begin the book with my recollection of being about thirteen and putting on a recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor for the first time. I remember being immediately struck by the austere intensity of the opening choral singing of the word “Kyrie.” But I also remember feeling surprised by a melodic/harmonic shift in the opening moments that didn’t do what I thought it would. I guess I was already a musician wanting to know more, to know why the music was the way it was. Here’s the grave, stirring performance of the Kyrie from the 1952 recording I listened to, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Though, as I grew to realize, it’s a very old-school approach to Bach. Herbert von Karajan, conductor; Vienna Philharmonic (12:17) Today I much prefer more vibrant and transparent accounts, like this great performance from Philippe Herreweghe’s 1996 recording with the chorus and orchestra of the Collegium Vocale, which is almost three minutes shorter. Philippe Herreweghe, conductor; Collegium Vocale Gent (9:29) Grieg, “Shepherd Boy” Arthur Rubinstein, piano Album: “Rubinstein Plays Grieg” (3:26) As a child I loved “Rubinstein Plays Grieg,” an album featuring the great pianist Arthur Rubinstein playing piano works by Grieg, including several selections from the composer’s volumes of short, imaginative “Lyrical Pieces.” My favorite was “The Shepherd Boy,” a wistful piece with an intense middle section.
    [Show full text]
  • The Blake Collection in Memory of Nancy M
    The Blake Collection In Memory of Nancy M. Blake BELLINI’S NORMA featuring CECILIA BARTOLI This tragic opera is set in Roman-occupied, first-century Gaul, features a title character, who although a Druid priestess, is in many ways a modern woman. Norma has secretly taken the Roman proconsul Pollione as her lover and had two children with him. Political and personal crises arise when the locals turn against the occupiers and Pollione turns to a new paramour. Norma “is a role with emotions ranging from haughty and demanding, to desperately passionate, to vengeful and defiant. And the singer must convey all of this while confronting some of the most vocally challenging music ever composed. And if that weren't intimidating enough for any singer, Norma and its composer have become almost synonymous with the specific and notoriously torturous style of opera known as bel canto — literally, ‘beautiful singing’” (“Love Among the Druids: Bellini's Norma,” NPR World of Opera, May 16, 2008). And Bartoli, one of the greatest living opera divas, is up to the challenges the role brings. (New York Public Radio’s WQXR’s “OperaVore” declared that “Bartoli is Fierce and Mercurial in Bellini's Norma,” Marion Lignana Rosenberg, June 09, 2013.) If you’re already a fan of this opera, you’ve no doubt heard a recording spotlighting the great soprano Maria Callas (and we have such a recording, too), but as the notes with the Bartoli recording point out, “The role of Norma was written for Giuditta Pasta, who sang what today’s listeners would consider to be mezzo-soprano roles,” making Bartoli more appropriate than Callas as Norma.
    [Show full text]
  • My Fifty Years with Wagner
    MY FIFTY YEARS WITH RICHARD WAGNER I don't for a moment profess to be an expert on the subject of the German composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner and have not made detailed comments on performances, leaving opinions to those far more enlightened than I. However having listened to Wagnerian works on radio and record from the late 1960s, and after a chance experience in 1973, I have been fascinated by the world and works of Wagner ever since. I have been fortunate to enjoy three separate cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen, in Bayreuth 2008, San Francisco in 2011 and Melbourne in 2013 and will see a fourth, being the world's first fully digitally staged Ring cycle in Brisbane in 2020 under the auspices of Opera Australia. I also completed three years of the degree course in Architecture at the University of Quensland from 1962 and have always been interested in the monumental buildings of Europe, old and new, including the opera houses I have visited for performance of Wagner's works. It all started in earnest on September 29, 1973 when I was 28 yrs old, when, with friend and music mentor Harold King of ABC radio fame, together we attended the inaugural orchestral concert given at the Sydney Opera House, in which the legendary Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson opened the world renowned building singing an all Wagner programme including the Immolation scene from Götterdämmerung, accompanied by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by a young Charles Mackerras. This event fully opened my eyes to the Ring Cycle - and I have managed to keep the historic souvenir programme.
    [Show full text]
  • Itunes Store and Spotify Recordings
    iTunes Store and Spotify Recordings Bach Musique Baroque a la Cour Royale, track 18, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: III. Allegro Assai (Wolfgang Bauer Consort, K&K Verlagsanstalt, 2011). iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/brandenburg-concerto-no-2-in-f-major-bwv- 1047-iii-allegro/447106718?i=447107158 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4QMATTkod4tud0vNYoCANt?si=eRIlE2KcQX6AxDwtW- Qq1Q Beethoven Favorites from the Classics, Vol. 5: Beethoven’s Greatest Hits, track 3, Turkish March (From “The Ruins of Athens”) (Charles Gerhardt, National Philharmonic Orchestra, The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 2005). iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/turkish-march-from-the-ruins-of- athens/75846662?i=75846543 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7qS7tnK86qiabeORPZ2qAy?si=oC0S1SEBTzGvMidbLG2I ng Chaminade Bernstein: Chaminade: Piano Music, track 15, 6 Romances sans paroles, Op. 76, 1. Souvenance (Mark Viner, Brilliant Classics, 2018). iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/6-romances-sans-paroles-op-76-i- souvenance/1438094819?i=1438095092 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4k499jK6NeGqwXckmYbZ0H?si=m- WHnckPS8SqqzPE2OWOMQ Falla Guitar Duet Recital: Rost, Monica – Rost, Jurgen – Sor, F – Granados, E. – Albeni, I. – Moreno Torroba, F. – Tarrega, F. – Ruizz-Pipo, A., track 15, La ida breve: Danza Espanola No. 1 (arr. for 2 guitars) (Monika Rost & Jurgen Rost, Capriccio, 1989). iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/la-vida-breve-danza-espanola-no-1-arr-for- 2-guitars/401010055?i=401010183 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6edhckDUfAjGt9iSv7nqxd?si=_OoJMcLxQR2pQdUIM9G WlA 1 Handel Handel: Messiah, disc 2, track 9, 42. Chorus” “Hallelujah” (Sir Georg Solti, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus & Margaret Hillis, Decca Music Group Limited, 1985).
    [Show full text]
  • COLORATURA and LYRIC COLORATURA SOPRANO
    **MANY OF THESE SINGERS SPANNED MORE THAN ONE VOICE TYPE IN THEIR CAREERS!** COLORATURA and LYRIC COLORATURA SOPRANO: DRAMATIC SOPRANO: Joan Sutherland Maria Callas Birgit Nilsson Anna Moffo Kirstin Flagstad Lisette Oropesa Ghena Dimitrova Sumi Jo Hildegard Behrens Edita Gruberova Eva Marton Lucia Popp Lotte Lehmann Patrizia Ciofi Maria Nemeth Ruth Ann Swenson Rose Pauly Beverly Sills Helen Traubel Diana Damrau Jessye Norman LYRIC MEZZO: SOUBRETTE & LYRIC SOPRANO: Janet Baker Mirella Freni Cecilia Bartoli Renee Fleming Teresa Berganza Kiri te Kanawa Kathleen Ferrier Hei-Kyung Hong Elena Garanca Ileana Cotrubas Susan Graham Victoria de los Angeles Marilyn Horne Barbara Frittoli Risë Stevens Lisa della Casa Frederica Von Stade Teresa Stratas Tatiana Troyanos Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Carolyn Watkinson DRAMATIC MEZZO: SPINTO SOPRANO: Agnes Baltsa Anja Harteros Grace Bumbry Montserrat Caballe Christa Ludwig Maria Jeritza Giulietta Simionato Gabriela Tucci Shirley Verrett Renata Tebaldi Brigitte Fassbaender Violeta Urmana Rita Gorr Meta Seinemeyer Fiorenza Cossotto Leontyne Price Stephanie Blythe Zinka Milanov Ebe Stignani Rosa Ponselle Waltraud Meier Carol Neblett ** MANY SINGERS SPAN MORE THAN ONE CATEGORY IN THE COURSE OF A CAREER ** ROSSINI, MOZART TENOR: BARITONE: Fritz Wunderlich Piero Cappuccilli Luigi Alva Lawrence Tibbett Alfredo Kraus Ettore Bastianini Ferruccio Tagliavani Horst Günther Richard Croft Giuseppe Taddei Juan Diego Florez Tito Gobbi Lawrence Brownlee Simon Keenlyside Cesare Valletti Sesto Bruscantini Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
    [Show full text]
  • Ian France - Opera Favourites from the Romantic Era
    Ian France - Opera Favourites from the Romantic Era With suggestions of what versions to search out Bellini’s “Norma” “Mira, o Norma” Norma & Adalgisa, rivals in love, come to an understanding in this poignant duet CD: Montseratt Caballe &Fiorenzo Cossotto, cond.Cillario/LPO/RCA Caballe and Cossotto sing with great control and mostly softly (unlike Callas) YouTube: Anna Netrebko & Elina Garance Adalgisa (Garanca) pleads for Norma’s children to stay with her. In this concert version we don’t have to worry about Norma’s boys acting sensitively-our focus is on the heavenly music. As was customary in Italian operas at the time there is a fast, joyous cabaletta to round off the scene with Norma and Adalgisa promising to be lifelong “comrades”. Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” “Sulla tomba” Edgar reflects on the tombs of his ancestors, Lucia joins him (turning his solo into a duet) and then the “big tune” is sung 3 times (listen out for a celebratory “wiggle” in the orchestra as they finish singing!) CD : Pavarotti & Sutherland cond.Bonynge/ROH/Decca Pavarotti and Sutherland were at their best in the Bel Canto repertoire. YouTube: Beczala & Netrebko In this extended scene Edgardo (Beczala) sings of his impending journey to France in the Stuart cause. Lucia (Netrebko) begs him to keep their love secret from her brother Enrico. Edgardo has sworn by his father’s grave to gain vengeance, but the music softens, the lovers kiss (cue applause!) Lucia sings “Verrano a te sull’aure” which Edgardo takes up and after her maid warns them to be on their way, both sing the “big tune” in unison.
    [Show full text]
  • Decca Discography
    DECCA DISCOGRAPHY >>V VIENNA, Austria, Germany, Hungary, etc. The Vienna Philharmonic was the jewel in Decca’s crown, particularly from 1956 when the engineers adopted the Sofiensaal as their favoured studio. The contract with the orchestra was secured partly by cultivating various chamber ensembles drawn from its membership. Vienna was favoured for symphonic cycles, particularly in the mid-1960s, and for German opera and operetta, including Strausses of all varieties and Solti’s “Ring” (1958-65), as well as Mackerras’s Janá ček (1976-82). Karajan recorded intermittently for Decca with the VPO from 1959-78. But apart from the New Year concerts, resumed in 2008, recording with the VPO ceased in 1998. Outside the capital there were various sessions in Salzburg from 1984-99. Germany was largely left to Decca’s partner Telefunken, though it was so overshadowed by Deutsche Grammophon and EMI Electrola that few of its products were marketed in the UK, with even those soon relegated to a cheap label. It later signed Harnoncourt and eventually became part of the competition, joining Warner Classics in 1990. Decca did venture to Bayreuth in 1951, ’53 and ’55 but wrecking tactics by Walter Legge blocked the release of several recordings for half a century. The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra’s sessions moved from Geneva to its home town in 1963 and continued there until 1985. The exiled Philharmonia Hungarica recorded in West Germany from 1969-75. There were a few engagements with the Bavarian Radio in Munich from 1977- 82, but the first substantial contract with a German symphony orchestra did not come until 1982.
    [Show full text]
  • Strauss' Four Last Songs
    Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs A discographical survey by Ralph Moore I consider forty-six recordings of the Vier Letzte Lieder here, which is a goodly number, but by no means the total of all of those released in the nearly seventy years since their premiere in 1950. A survey cannot hope – or even want – to encompass every version but I have tried to include the most notable and have deliberately missed out a few which I know to be less than premium quality but have also reviewed one or two in the “caveat emptor” category as best avoided (see also MWI review index). These songs feature frequently in lists of personal nominations for favourite recordings, such as in the BBC radio programme “Desert Island Discs”. They are not a cycle as such, but all deal with the readiness for death and emanate a sense of calm, resignation and even transfiguration; I quote unashamedly from Wikipedia: “Towards the end of Im Abendrot, after the soprano's intonation of ‘Ist dies etwa der Tod?’ (‘Is this perhaps death?’), Strauss musically quotes his own tone poem Death and Transfiguration, written 60 years earlier. As in that piece, the quoted seven-note phrase (known as the ‘transfiguration theme’) has been seen as the fulfilment of the soul through death.” They are amenable to successful performance by a range of soprano voice-types, from the mezzo- tinged soprano falcon of Jessye Norman to the light, lyric sopranos of Lucia Popp or Anneliese Rothenberger, and although one or two sopranos have come a cropper in attempting them, there are many more admirable and even superlative recordings than failures.
    [Show full text]
  • The Blake Collection Click on Item Titles Or in Memory of Nancy M
    (Scroll to the end of this document for an Index to all items. Please note that this Archive contains Live Links: The Blake Collection click on item titles or pictures to go to the In Memory of Nancy M. Blake Library’s catalog, and click on citations to see full articles.) BELLINI’S NORMA featuring CECILIA BARTOLI This tragic opera is set in Roman-occupied, first-century Gaul, features a title character, who although a Druid priestess, is in many ways a modern woman. Norma has secretly taken the Roman proconsul Pollione as her lover and had two children with him. Political and personal crises arise when the locals turn against the occupiers and Pollione turns to a new paramour. Norma “is a role with emotions ranging from haughty and demanding, to desperately passionate, to vengeful and defiant. And the singer must convey all of this while confronting some of the most vocally challenging music ever composed. And if that weren't intimidating enough for any singer, Norma and its composer have become almost synonymous with the specific and notoriously torturous style of opera known as bel canto — literally, ‘beautiful singing’” (“Love Among the Druids: Bellini's Norma,” NPR World of Opera, May 16, 2008). And Bartoli, one of the greatest living opera divas, is up to the challenges the role brings. (New York Public Radio’s WQXR’s “OperaVore” declared that “Bartoli is Fierce and Mercurial in Bellini's Norma,” Marion Lignana Rosenberg, June 09, 2013.) If you’re already a fan of this opera, you’ve no doubt heard a recording spotlighting the great soprano Maria Callas (and we have such a recording, too), but as the notes with the Bartoli recording point out, “The role of Norma was written for Giuditta Pasta, who sang what today’s listeners would consider to be mezzo-soprano roles,” making Bartoli more appropriate than Callas as Norma.
    [Show full text]