Word: angelically
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MENDELSSOHN: ELIJAH (Angel). In a superb recording, Sir Malcolm Sargent conducts the Royal Society Orchestra in highlights only, but the cuts are not really missed: Sir Malcolm wisely opts for the graceful Mendelssohnian airs; Soprano Elizabeth Harwood gives a limpid account of "Hear ye. Israel"; John Shirley-Quick delivers "Is not his word like a fire" in an opulent basso style. The only low points, in fact, are the hammer-heavy choruses, which remind the listener that this florid form was not really suited to the urbane Mendelssohn, and that when he essayed heroism he often made only noise...
ELGAR: THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS (Angel). Sir Edward Elgar pondered Cardinal Newman's noble poem for fully a decade before finally setting it to music, and the result is an unusual confluence of religious and musical feeling. In his last agony an old man is guided past the demons of hell by a protecting angel, who then sadly reveals that he must "dip in the lake of Purgatory" before he can see God. Janet Baker gives a warm performance as the angel, and Richard Lewis' exceptional gifts for phrasing carry him through a very wordy role...
With his fallen-angel band...
...version of La Traviata at the same time. And as his wife says, "When Alfred is working with the Met, I'm really sort of squeezed out. I'm delighted to be, but it really can be rather boring. So the show will be my angel of deliverance...
Marlene Dietrich in von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel," and Chaplin's "Shoulder Arms...