[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Musical souvenir (fwd)
Not much queer content here, but simply for the enjoyment of
the opera queen among us! Regards. -- Vinh.
------------------------------------------------------------
Forwarded message:
From: Vinh Nguyen <email>
Subject: Chicago 3/97 & L. Price CD
To: <email> (list Opera-L)
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 03:26:20 -0400 (EDT)
Many thanks to the numerous listers who have kindly responded
to my query about operas in Chicago in mid-March. Disraught
as I understandably am to learn that the season will have just
ended the week before my arrival, I'm still very much looking
forward to this first visit to the Windy City.
Warm regards,
Vinh Nguyen
<email>
PS: On an opera-related note (lest I'd feel guilty for spamming
the list with this message), I guiltily confess to a reckless
spending spree today at Tower Records in not only Cambridge but
also Boston: detours into neighboring used-CD stores brought the
total of my new acquisitions to a dozen or so discs, which surely
make for quite an apalling burden for a subsistent grad student's
budget, alas! I will defer on commenting on the 3 recital dics
of Gruberova (which will surely yield much expected pleasure),
and 2 sets of live Norma (which seem excessive by all means!),
since I just want to share some of my impressions on something
quite personally special which has finally made it out on CD:
-- The long awaited Leontyne Price 1991 recital at Carnegie Hall.
A week or so after this concert, I had the great fortune to hear
Ms. Price for the first time in the flesh at Boston Symphony Hall
in what surely ranks among my most precious musical experiences.
Though the Boston program differred slightly from the New York
one, I'm still grateful for this recorded souvenir because the
reawaken memories from 5 years ago are no less overwhelmingly
powerful upon a second hearing. Of course, there were now and
then moments of blemish now revealed and reminded all the more
clearly in a recording, but how few and insignificant did they
stand besides those of unexpected wonderment and beauty from the
seemingly ageless diva (who was but 64 at the time) whose burnish
timbre exuded the added glow of passion as if every note she sang
might well be her last and therefore her best that she had left
to give ....
I could not remember when tears had started streaming down my face,
that evening more than 5 years ago, nor can I now, but I was and am
forever consciously thrilled by, grateful for, and humbly adoring of
this great artist as I continue to savor the inspirationally fitting
words which soar ever to high in a wisp to close Adriana Lecouvreur's
magnificent aria "Io son l'umile ancella":
un soffio e` la mio voce,
che al novo di` morra` ....
I'm all the more grateful that another unforgettable memory of this
great voice has been preserved for posterity ....
Okay, time to snap out of my sentimental mood of diehard fandom.
If I have to quibble, it's about the booklet: is is too much for
RCA to hire a more competent proofreader not only for the essay
but also the lyrics! Never mind the foreign languages, it's quite
inexcusable to be so sloppy with the English (and I'm not talking
about the colloquialism of the spiritual numbers either)! Oh well.
Here's the program of that Carnegie Hall recital for those who are
curious about it. And need I add that I highly recommend the CD
in spite of its booklet?
1. Handel (Julius Ceasar): "Se pieta` di me non senti"
2. Mozart (Idomeneo): "D'Oreste, d'Ajace!"
For the 1991 Boston program, she substituted the Idomeneo aria with
"Mi tradi`" from Don Giovanni. And it's only in 1996 that I got to
hear the Idomeneo aria in her only 2nd recital in 5 years here, alas!
The voice was clearly too heavy and therefore "wrong" for this type
of florid music, I'm afraid, even though it had plenty of fire for
the quasi-dramatic role of Elettra. The line, however, was not even
or pure enough, and it took her a bit to warm up the voice. I also
notice a rather odd balance for the recording which seems to equalize
abruptly down on the highest registers.
3: Marx: "Waldseligkeit"
4. Marx: "Marienlied"
5. R. Strauss: "Herr Lenz"
6. R. Strauss: "Befreit"
7. R. Strauss: "Ich liebe dich"
I confess to a near blind spot for German lieder. No comment on the
interpretation, except to note the technical accomplishment in these
miniatures. (Though my ill-informed undertanding suspects that she
might be overinflecting the text a bit).
8. Verdi (La Forza del Destino): "Pace, pace, mio Dio"
She replaced this aria with "Un bel di`" for the 1991 Boston program,
leaving it as an encore, which came across better on the whole than
the recorded version in New York to which I now make the comparison.
(She programmed it in the 1996 Boston program and it went quite well.)
Though the opening messa di voce fell a bit short on dynamic contrast,
it was breathtakingly long and well sustained. Much of the aria sounded
rather laborious and choppy (no help from the pianist either), but it
throbbed with commitment, in compensation for the decline in technical
mastery compared to her best days 2 decades back! As if to defy the
skeptics, out of nowhere came a pristine pure attack on the first high
Bb, and at the end of her feverish "Maledizione! Maledizione!" (I can
still picture her swinging those arms wide open in a dead-on dramatic
gesture that invariably knocks the audience off its feet!) she hit a
rock solid high Bb and held on to it for a stunner! This alone is
worth the price of the CD, never mind the uneven aria as a whole!
9. Poulenc: "Bleuet"
10. Berlioz: "Villanelle"
11. Duparc: "Extase"
12. Hahn: "Le printemps"
Gorgeous, though slightly overinflected, French singing: quite lithe
and witty for the Villanelle (from Les Nuits d'E'te'), darkly sensuous
for the Extase.
13. Hoiby: "Wild nights"
14. Hoiby: "Always it's spring"
15. Hoiby: "There came a wind like a bugle"
Much to my surprise (and so much for my bias), the American portion
of the recital was most charmingly winsome. She had such a wonderful
flair/rapport for Hoiby songs (which she once again programmed a new
set for the 1996 Boston recital, to even greater success!) The first
one was a beautiful setting of Emily Dickinson's poem -- my favorite,
and I'm so grateful to have it now on CD! Definitely a top candidate
for love-making music (though it's too short, alas)! :-) The second
was set to e.e. cummings' words and received a most witty rendition
that simply swept the audience into uproarious appreciation! The last
one was also set to Emily Dickinson's poem and closed dramatically with
repeated surges to the high registers: the way she rose to those taxing
hurdles and soar over them with such flying colors brought out the most
thunderous applause for the recital! After this magnificent cadence,
the spiritual which concludes the formal program only seemed to serve
as lead-on to the even more exciting and generous program of encores!
(I guess I had been spoiled in 1991, that's why the 4 encores in 1996
couldn't possibly seem nearly enough!)
16. Spiritual: "Ride on, King Jesus"
Who could ask for anything more?
But here comes the ... Encores:
17. Puccini (Madama Butterfly): "Tu, tu, piccolo iddio"
I guess I've always approached Madama Butterfly with the unsympathetic
attitude of anti-orientalism and can confess to be rather cold to the
surefire top-hits of the opera (with the exception of the arietta "Che
tua madre" which almost never fails to bring tears to my eyes upon the
desperate exclamations "morta, morta!"). But this is one of the few
occasions when I actually cried over the ending of Madama Butterfly ...
just a little while ago when I was listening to the CD. This version
is overinflected compared to what I remembered from the Boston recitals
-- but how overwhelmingly powerful it comes across here: wow, verismo
ne plus ultra, so it seems, and not bad either!
18. Gershwin: "Summertime"
Another of her signature piece. I'm so spoiled to have heard it twice
in Boston, and both times even better than this recorded version: the
high Bb floated before a mellismatic downard glissandi which exquisitely
closes the song were much better timed and more dreamy compared to the
slightly rushed (and premature attack) here. The effect is still quite
stunning, but not as sublime as I remember from the Boston recitals.
19. Puccini (Tosca): "Vissi d'arte"
A grand and magnificent rendition, sizzling with passion, to take its
worthy place along her studio and live efforts of over thirty years ago!
(Decca 1963 (?), and MET 1962)
20. Cilea (Adriana Lecouvreur): "Io son l'umile ancella"
How beautiful, fitting, and inspirational ... it made me cry then and
now ...
21. Spiritual: "This little light o' mine"
Her mother's favorite song, sung with all her heart and soul!
22. Puccini (La Rondine): "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta"
My breath was/is literally taken away when she floated (yes, floated
in an aching arc of pianissimo) those high C and Bb on that magical
line "Ah, mio sogno! Ah, mia vita!" Gosh, it's so unbearably beautiful,
what else is there to do but cry!
23. Puccini (Madama Butterfly): "Un bel di vedremo"
Another grand performance, with a rock solid close, but on the whole
a slight let down from all those preceding heights of sublimity (this
does sound like faint praise, isn't it? which it's not meant to be!).
Well, as I confessed earlier, I'm somewhat cold to this aria, that's
why! :-)
24. Spiritual: "Witness"
Another winsome spiritual, which elicited much amusement from the
audience.
25. Ward: "America the beautiful"
And this is the most sublime moment of all ... not so much on record,
but in my memory ... the lights had already been turned off, the flat
curtain had already been lowered, and the faint of hearts had already
resigned to the end of an already magical evening, but a good quarter
of the hall was still scattered with diehard fans who refused to budge
and continued to clapped and JUMPED UP AND DOWN in clamor for one more
return bow, and secretly hoping for one more encore ... and not in vain
indeed: out of that half dark stage came Ms. Price, all alone, like a
faint vision in that white gown, her voice hoarse with emotion (not to
mention more than 2 hours of singing!) ... and she lifted her trembling
voice in an unaccompanied rendition of America the Beautiful ... and
the song reached deep down into each and everyone who was there to feel
and witness that magical moment ... and we were all left stunned in
grateful silence: we could not have asked for anything more ... indeed
un soffio e` la [sua] voce,
che al novo di` morra`
But as a happy poscript, I got to experience the magic once again 5
years later, and that glorious voice hasn't left us yet, and it never
will for as long as we still have its recorded souvenir! Amen!
-------------------------------------------------------------------