Posted by BillEpstein [ 12.75.71.162 ] on March 13, 2005 at 03:59:15:
In Reply to: Re: Today's Recommendation: Opera posted by lon on March 13, 2005 at 00:23:38:
I've been an on-again, off-again opera lover since dad shlepped us to the Met to hear Moffo, Tucker and Merrill sing La Traviata when I was 7. The Met came to Cleveland every Summer and I also heard Tosca with Callas and Bergonzi and La Boheme and of, course, Cav/Pag. Always a family affair.
Besides listening I also played in Summer Theatre pit orchestras for more performances of Gilbert & Sullivan than I care to remember.
Then came the Beatles!
But somehow I also acquired my own copy of Turandot and Rigoletto after I happened to hear Joan Sutherland sing to my kids while watching Sesame Street! Her voice blew me away, even on the little 8" Fisher speakers I had at the time.
Present day; I find that Horns and Opera were made for each other. Nowhere else does the range of dynamics come in to play with such high contrast. A great Soprano, and to a lesser extent, a Tenor can "load" whatever hall they're in, no matter the size, so as to actually cause the hall to "clip"! That's thrilling and needs to be reproduced as faithfully as the whispers of a dying Liu for us to really appeciate the music.
A really great feature of re-acquiring Vinyl at thrift stores and record shows is that I come across Opera's I wouldn't have tried. And they're really cheap 'cause hardly anyone wants them. I recently bought Bellini's Norma with Sutherland for just a few dollars in really clean condition. So now I'm listening to something I had always heard about but never understood: Bel Canto Singing. With Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne both "beautiful singing", Norma is a great find.
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