Happy Number 60,my beloved Dolora Zajick

A FORCE OF NATURE!!!!  I always told Dolora we need to clone her...because there is NO ONE ELSE these days who sings like the "old-timers." 

                                               LOVE  from Charlie

                                                

Category:general -- posted at: 8:53pm EDT

HAPPY 102nd BIRTHDAY TO BELOVED MAGDA OLIVERO

    Bless the great lady who reaches 102 on Mar.25. She is a miracle in the world of music, and in her honor here are scenes from the Fanciulla del West from Venice, 1967 under Oliviero de Fabritiis, with Daniele Barioni and Giangiacomo Guelfi.  (70 min>).

    Words always fail me when I speak of this beloved lady, and i know she will express her usual greeting to you all in our yearly phone conversation.  I do not imagine a world without her.

                                                       Love to you, my dear Magda.

P.S.   Called her Monday and she sounds like a KID!!! Her voice is so clear, and that "Verismo Italiano" is something I treasure.She sends you all her love, knowing how many people appreciate her.

Direct download: Magda_Fanc.102.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:35pm EDT

MARTHA MODEL AT 100 !!!!!

In my opera-going experience, I cannot say any singer touched my heart more than the lady who would be 100 years old this day, March 22, 2012. This 1964 scene from Elektra tells only a tiny fraction of what she was onstage. It had nothing to do with a pure vocal tone, but it was a "total package" of beauty and excitement that opera lovers will remember if they were able to witness at least some of her career, as I did.

    I behold her right now, from 55 years ago, as Isolde, and the Brunnhildes, and will never forget her.   (19 min.)

Direct download: Moedl_100.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 5:17pm EDT

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY "MIMI"

 In honor of my dear Diana Soviero's 21st birthday, I present highlights from a 1980 Los Angeles Boheme under John Mauceri. This was the opera (in 1977) in which I first heard this very great artist, and you know the rest.

     In the cast are Riccardo Calleo, Frederick Burchinall, Robert McFarland (Schaunard),Stephanie Sundine, and Robert Hale.   (71 min.)

I follow this with the letter I wrote to everyone on this day.

                                                   She means so much to me.    Charlie

  Hello everyone,

                Every March 19 I celebrate the birthdays of two of the greatest divas in my life,those of Diana Soviero, and my ma. Ma didn't have much chest,but she could kick up  storm in the Follies in the 1920's. 
 
   I will never forget the first time (Mar.13, 1977) that I heard that glorious Soviero voice as Mimi ,and,coupled with the depth of emotion, the attention to phrase, the combination of what we term "Kunsst/Stimm divas (both voice and art divas). I wish my darlings,one in my memory forever, and one who has always been so appreciated by directors,colleagues,audiences and of course her students all my best on this day.
       Anyone who does not know her worth, just go to Youtube with 5 Pavarotti towels, and watch her Suor Angelica finale,which is an example of the kind of verismo singing you hear from Muzio,Favero, and Zeani,and does not exist today.

                                                  All my love to my two girls.

                                                                         Charlie

Direct download: Boheme_Soviero_1980_Birth..mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:20pm EDT

A Brilliant 1970 Scala Vespri

This is a magnificent Vespri Sicilani from Scala 1970 under Gianandrea Gavazzeni. It features Renata Scotto, Piero Cappuccilli, Ruggero and Gianni Raimondi (no relations) and I know you will enjoy it. The more I hear Scotto, the more I am captivated by her feeling for the line and the style.  (71 min.)

Direct download: Vespri_Scala_1970.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:00pm EDT

The Great Norman Treigle, Born 3/6/23

Treigle was born in New Orleans, the fifth and final child of a poor carpenter and his wife. Following his 1946 marriage to the former Loraine Siegel, the bass-baritone began vocal studies with the contralto Elisabeth Wood. In 1947, he made his operatic debut with the New Orleans Opera Association, as the Duke of Verona in Roméo et Juliette.

Between 1949 and 1951, he attended Loyola University of the South's College of Music, while performing various roles with the local opera company.

In 1953, Treigle made his New York City Opera debut, as Colline in La bohème. Three years later, the bass-baritone scored his first significant success, as the tormented Reverend Olin Blitch, in the New York premiere of Floyd's Susannah. He made his European debut in this same opera, at the Brussels World's Fair, in 1958.

In succeeding seasons, Treigle became one of the top bass-baritones in North America, and was acclaimed as one of the world's foremost singing-actors. He sang in many experimental productions and participated in several important premieres, in operas by Einem, Copland, Moore, Floyd, Orff, Dallapiccola and Ward (The Crucible). Perhaps his greatest roles were in Faust (as Méphistophélès), Carmen (as Escamillo), Susannah, Il prigioniero, Les contes d'Hoffmann (the four Villains), Boris Godunov and, especially, Mefistofele.

Strange Child of Chaos: Norman Treigle.

In the autumn of 1974, Treigle made his London debut at Covent Garden in a new production of Faust. On February 16, 1975, Treigle was found dead in his New Orleans apartment. He had been diagnosed as a chronic insomniac and it was determined that he had consumed an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. By his first wife, he had a son (who died in 1993) and a daughter, Phyllis. He had also adopted the daughter of his second wife, from whom he was separated at the time of his death.

Category:general -- posted at: 10:32am EDT

Saving $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ at the Met

Mr.Gelb MUST cut corners at the Met since he spent 500 zillion dollars on the new Ring...so he has to cut down on the chorus...He will therefore use a new chorus for some spectacles.

Will the audience know??????

Direct download: Bad_Puma.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:32pm EDT

VIVA LATONIA!!!!!

So,we had the Talmud, the Koran, War and Peace, Don Quijote (I had to read ALL of it), but now comes my review of the wonderful Latonia Moore's Met debut!!! (Do not worry,it will be somewhat shorter than the above.).For me, the most important element of the Aida was that the DUMB theory, totally dispelled by the marvelous low register of Latonia, that you cannot sing chest because "it shortens the top range."  Just take the phrase in act three " O patria,patria,quando mi costi,etc.) or the opening of "Ritorna Vincitor" where unlike every Aida I have heard in recent years cannot say "parola" like a true Italian. (Sweet said, "parowwwwwlah).
           Will Gelb understand the importance of someone who today joined "minor" artists like Varnay,Flagstad, and te Kanawa in making a fabulous debut on the eadio? Is it possible that perhaps he will decide that this was a special event and do some cast changing for next season?
            Latonia has a luscious voice, with all the elements of a great soprano, as I thought years ago at the "Elgar" performance at Carnegie. I am so happy for her...and did you ever hear such a prolonged ovation after "Ritorna Vincitor," which was in some ways "Zeani-like" in temperament and the lower register (and Virginia loved it, by the way.)
              Blythe sang magnificently, but I hate when Armiliato rushes the very end of the Judgement Scene, not allowing the kind of thrills that,for example, Antonino Votto gives with Simionato. Morris is getting on,but he surely has paid his dues. Ataneli sounded excellent with Madama Moore in the duet, and of course Marcello sang as brilliantly as always, with the "squillante" sound I love so.
                 So you see, the review was not as long as you thought,but at least I expressed what I felt about the "new star" who might end up as famous as that guy on the Knicks...that could be very Linteresting.

                                                                    VIVA LATONIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                       Chesty Charlie

Category:general -- posted at: 10:05pm EDT

Latonia Moore to make Met debut as Aida

        At a Licia Albanese gala years ago, and then in the complete Puccini  "Edgar" at Carnegie Hall, I heard the magnificent voice of Latonia Moore,who brought the house down, and when I met this sweet and lovely lady, I threatened to picket the Met if they didn't grab her up!!!!
         Well, now she joins Astrid Varnay,Kirsten Flagstad, Kiri te Kanawa and others I cannot think of now, making a Met debut on a broadcast (March 3). I am wishing this superb lady all my best for the Aida, and hope and pray the Met will learn something and give her more material over the years.
         I have some arthritis these days, so I am glad I do not have to walk around at Lincoln Center with my "Latonia Belongs at the Met" sign.
          I wish this beautiful diva all my best!!!!!!!!!!
     
                                                       Sincerely,

                                                                    Charlie

Category:general -- posted at: 8:08pm EDT

Rigoletto with Alfredo Kraus

This is the Met debut (1966) of the fabulous Alfredo Kraus (including a D natural). Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducts, with Cornell MacNeil, Roberta Peters, and Ruza Baldani. (71 min.)

Direct download: Rig.Kraus_deb..mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:17pm EDT


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