"richer... at (no spam) hotnail.com" <richer... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote in message

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A friend let me listen to the MET broadcast of 1966 of Don G - I am
not sure it has been on Sirius yet - with Siepi, Evans, Stich-Randall,
Schwarzkopf, Peerce, Elias, Uppman and Ghiuselev under Joseph
Rosenstock.

The performance is well known because Schwarzkopf had been scheduled
for a whole series, apparently withdrew from all but the broadcast  -
she said in an interview I attended of hers that she'd aspirated a
grape -(Bing was said to have threatened that if she didn't do the
broadcast, he would make sure she wouldn't sing in the US again) - and
she was having some difficulties and ultimately took the mezzo
transposition for the Mi Tradi.

Notwithstanding all that, and that I doubt that she was going to be
booking many more Elviras by this time, it's a remarkably good
performance given the vocal limitations, with a still stong breath
line, good characterization and whatever the reason for her problems,
she isn't cheating for a moment, and in fact almost all the way around
it is a pretty satisifying afternoon (if not one with a great Mozart
style) with one important exception...the conducting of Joseph
Rosenstock, which is little sort of workaday (the last scene somehow
gets some life and Mozart feel into it) and frankly one of the least
distinguished Mozart opera performances I can recall ever.  I don't
know what he was doing there then. The orchestra plays as badly as he
conducts.

I think this is one of Siepi's greatest Don G's, and it seems worth
listening to for that reason alone.  Stich Randall is not really good
at all...she really does sound like Mercedes Capsir at moments, but
when she forgets to be arty, she's more than decent. Peece has a great
breath line, and it's not that he is not the possessor of a beautiful
voice...it's that he doesn't really seem to have the heart of a lover.
The lower men voices are all fine, and maybe Evans better than that.

The interesting one to me is Elias....I wasn't told who it was before
I heard it, and I thought it was a really good pefroamance both
vocally and interpretively....very lush, but not too mezzo-y, and
quite musical and disciplined.

'A friend let me listen to the MET broadcast of 1966 of Don G'

This performance was the subject of a fascinating artilce in Opera News
about ten years go and was the jumping off point for a discussion abnout how
it signalled in many ways the end of an era of a great operatic tradition..
Wagner fan- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

A friend let me listen to the MET broadcast of 1966 of Don G - I am
not sure it has been on Sirius yet - with Siepi, Evans, Stich-Randall,
Schwarzkopf, Peerce, Elias, Uppman and Ghiuselev under Joseph
Rosenstock.

The performance is well known because Schwarzkopf had been scheduled
for a whole series, apparently withdrew from all but the broadcast -
she said in an interview I attended of hers that she'd aspirated a
grape -(Bing was said to have threatened that if she didn't do the
broadcast, he would make sure she wouldn't sing in the US again) - and
she was having some difficulties and ultimately took the mezzo
transposition for the Mi Tradi.

Notwithstanding all that, and that I doubt that she was going to be
booking many more Elviras by this time, it's a remarkably good
performance given the vocal limitations, with a still stong breath
line, good characterization and whatever the reason for her problems,
she isn't cheating for a moment, and in fact almost all the way around
it is a pretty satisifying afternoon (if not one with a great Mozart
style) with one important exception...the conducting of Joseph
Rosenstock, which is little sort of workaday (the last scene somehow
gets some life and Mozart feel into it) and frankly one of the least
distinguished Mozart opera performances I can recall ever. I don't
know what he was doing there then. The orchestra plays as badly as he
conducts.

I think this is one of Siepi's greatest Don G's, and it seems worth
listening to for that reason alone. Stich Randall is not really good
at all...she really does sound like Mercedes Capsir at moments, but
when she forgets to be arty, she's more than decent. Peece has a great
breath line, and it's not that he is not the possessor of a beautiful
voice...it's that he doesn't really seem to have the heart of a lover.
The lower men voices are all fine, and maybe Evans better than that.

The interesting one to me is Elias....I wasn't told who it was before
I heard it, and I thought it was a really good pefroamance both
vocally and interpretively....very lush, but not too mezzo-y, and
quite musical and disciplined.


'A friend let me listen to the MET broadcast of 1966 of Don G'