Word: monteux
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Peerless French Conductor Pierre Monteux, 78, made the Metropolitan orchestra sound like the first-rate instrument it can be, blending Debussy's music in a luxurious veil of sound, building subtly from the elusive sighings of the first scenes to the full-blooded climax near the end. Onstage, Baritone Theodor Uppman sang and acted Pelléas asif he believed him. Baritone Martial Singher (as the half brother), Basso Jerome Hines (as the half-blind grandfather) and Martha Lipton (as Pelléas' mother) all sang like fine anti-Wagnerians. And though the delicate voice of Soprano Nadine...
Back to conduct, after an absence of 34 years, was 78-year-old Pierre Monteux, who will head the Met's French wing (Faust, Pélleas et Mèlisande, Carmen) this season. Nothing about the new production startled him: "Everyone knows all of it, no? The music, it is très aimable. There can be no surprises...
Although Faust is one of the Met's most popular shows,* it has not had its face lifted since Papa Monteux made his Met debut with it in 1917. So this year it got a $75.000 rejuvenation: new sets and costumes by Rolf Gerard, new staging by Britain's Peter Brook, and a cast of the Met's brightest stars. Director Brook listened to the music carefully, decided that its sentimental tunes and melting harmonies belonged in a French romantic setting, despite the fact that Goethe's dramatic poem was laid in 16th century Germany...
Soprano Victoria de los Angeles, though she is only 30, made a matronly-looking Marguerite, but her singing was faultless as a flute. For a man who has just been rejuvenated by the devil, Swedish Tenor Jussi Bjoerling looked pudgy, but he sang with Gallic smoothness. Conductor Monteux. with no apparent effort, achieved a nearly perfect balance between orchestra and singers...
World Music Festivals (Sun. 2:30 p.m., CBS). Berkshire Festival; Pierre Monteux conducting Tchaikovsky...