Word: wagnerians
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...contrast between Kiefer and Polke couldn't be sharper, of course. Kiefer (whose drawings were recently shown at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art) is oratorical, Wagnerian; he is a flat-out mythomane, dedicated to the Sublime, the Enormous and the Ultra-German; a marvelous artist at his best and at his worst a Black Forest ham. Polke is thinner, weirder and more elusive. His work--whose basic nature developed during the period covered by this show, from 1963 to 1974--is a hard-to-read image haze formed by the overlay of Pop art on Germany...
Many vocal connoisseurs regard Ben Heppner, 42, as the real tenor of his generation. A beefy, shambling Canadian whom conductor James Levine rightly calls a "phenomenon," Heppner is the first singer in years who has the vocal heft needed for the massive Wagnerian roles that were once owned by Lauritz Melchior. No operatic appearances in 1998 were as eagerly awaited as Heppner's Lohengrin at the Met and Tristan und Isolde at the Seattle Opera, and the critical verdict was passionately positive. Small wonder: the Wagner excerpts included on his latest CD, Ben Heppner Sings German Romantic Opera (RCA Victor...
...Wagnerian heldentenors have rarely stirred the hearts of more than a minority of opera buffs, though, which is where Jose Cura and Marcelo Alvarez come in. Alvarez, 36, is a light lyric tenor whose high notes are fresh sounding and secure; Cura, 36, is a weightier lirico-spinto with an impressive touch of baritonal muscle. Alvarez made his Met debut last month in Franco Zeffirelli's bloated new production of La Traviata, in which his engaging singing was overshadowed by the spectacularly vivid Violetta of Patricia Racette. Cura's turn comes with next season's opening night, when he will...
DIED. RICHARD CASSILLY, 70, American tenor and operatic star of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s; of a cerebral hemorrhage. A pure heldentenor, Cassilly possessed a booming, heroic voice that ideally suited grand Wagnerian roles. Debuting at New York City's Metropolitan Opera in 1970, he sang in more than 100 performances there...
...first politicians to adopt that strategy, and gave substance to grass-roots politics. Stymied by a Republican legislature, he wound up spending much of his time blocking urban sprawl, and in his third term, he warned about the dangers of runaway deficits and entitlement spending with such Wagnerian brio that he came to be known as Governor Gloom...