Word: tenoritis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most grippingly grisly melodrama in grand opera, is distinctly dated. Whenever Gilda has a spare moment, the orchestra lapses into a kind of soft-shoe accompaniment, leaving wide-open spaces for her graceful vocal glides and glitters. Soprano Dobbs sounded smooth as cashmere beside the tweedy textures of Tenor Jan Peerce and Baritone Leonard Warren. Her phrasing was always neat and true; in lyrical passages her voice floated with never an edge. In Verdi's showy old coloratura bits, e.g., Caro Nome, it glittered clear and bright as a glockenspiel in a football band. She was nervous at first...
...Rumor" (La Calumnia) stopped the show. William Nethercut sang and acted Figaro without straining, and the result was a characterization that helped hold the entire performance together. Robert Cortright looked noble as Count Almaviva, but found the role too high in pitch and too ornate for his basically sympathetic tenor voice. Arthur Anderson also has vocal difficulties as Doctor Bartolo, but he acts the old stodge convincingly. In smaller parts Laurence Chvany and Grace Lewis are excellent, and Noel Tyl adds a marvelous bit as a lout of a servant...
...energetic Met production, robust Tenor Mario del Monaco as Norma's lover sang loud enough to be heard from Gaul to Rome, and Mezzo-Soprano Fedora Barbieri, as Norma's rival, was adequate though often wobbly. Since she looks much the way Callas did before her celebrated slimming down, it was hard to see why the Roman governor would prefer her to Norma. But none of this mattered much with Callas on stage. As an actress, unlike most of her competitors, Callas radiates credibility even in the silliest situations. Her performance is not a mere recital with costumes...
Robert A. Cortright '58, a Glee Club tenor, thought it could be done. So did Lewis M. Steel '58, the production's producer, while most of the University's best voices were extremely enthusiastic...
...grabs solo curtain calls whenever she can, even after another singer's big scene. Backstage in Rome. Basso Boris Christoff once seized her with one big paw, forced her to stand still. "Now. Maria," he decreed, "either we all go out there together, or nobody goes out." Tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano says: "I'm never going to sing opera with her again, and that's final." Said a close acquaintance: "The day will come when Maria will have to sing by herself...