Oberon's Grove

Scenes from LA GIOCONDA ~ Eva Marton

Above: Eva Marton and Margarita Lilowa in the opening scene of LA GIOCONDA

A rather odd collection of excerpts from a performance of Ponchielli's LA GIOCONDA given at Vienna in 1986 is available on YouTube. The principal roles are sung by Eva Marton (Gioconda), Ludmila Sementshuk (Laura), Margarita Lilowa (Cieca), Placido Domingo (Enzo), Matteo Manuguerra (Barnaba), and Kurt Rydl (Alvise). Adam Fischer conducts.

Watch and listen here.

I am not sure why some scenes were included, and others - more interesting - were not; the editing is haphazard. But it's nice to have a souvenir that recalls the performances of the opera at The Met with Marton and Domingo during the 1982-1983 season. Marton was a passionate Gioconda, and Domingo's dreamy falsetto at "...o sogni d'or" in his great aria is so pleasing to hear. 

Above: Margarita Lilowa

And I always enjoy Margarita Lilowa's performances.

Actually, as I watched the excerpts included in this YouTube presentation, I remembered that this performance was previously available on VHS, and later on DVD and BluRay. For now, the YouTube highlights will suffice.

Aragorn's Horse ~ Fanny Ara/Triskela

I fell in love with the bewitching Fanny Ara (above) when I saw her dancing on a mixed programme in 2012 at Joyce SoHo. Since then, I have been following her via her website and on YouTube.

Although it's a short work, I was much taken when I watched Aragorn's Horse, which Fanny performed with the Celtic harp trio Triskela for a Celtic & Flamenco Night at the La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley in August 2009. Watch and listen here.

Another aspect of Fanny's artistry here.

Happy birthday, Fanny!

75th Anniversary of the Verona Arena ~ 1988 Gala

An impressive line-up:

LEO NUCCI
GHENA DIMITROVA
PETER DVORSKY
SONA GHAZARIAN
GIACOMO ARAGALL
RUGGERO RAIMONDI
ELENA OBRATZSOVA
FERRUCIO FURLANETTO
NATALIA TROITSKAYA
LUCA CANONICI
MONTSERRAT CABALLE
SAMUEL RAMEY
APRILE MILLO
VINCENZO LA SCOLA
MARA ZAMPIERI
RENE KOLLO
SILVANO CARROLI
EVA MARTON
JUAN PONS
ANTONIO ORDOÑEZ
ILEANA COTRUBAS
JOSE CARRERAS

Watch and listen here.

Doori Na: Rhapsody

Doori Na plays Jessie Montgomery's Rhapsody #1 in an at-home performance during the pandemic. Watch and listen here.

Doori is the resident violinist of Miro Magloire's New Chamber Ballet. During this period of isolation, Doori has been producing a series of Laid Bach Concerts: watch them here.

Read about composer Jessie Montgomery here.

Verdi REQUIEM ~ Salle Pleyel 1969

Above: Martina Arroyo and Oralia Dominguez

A televised performance of the Verdi REQUIEM given at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, in June 1969. Martina Arroyo, Oralia Dominguez, Aldo Bottion, and Nicolai Ghiuselev are the soloists; Jean Martinon conducts.

Watch and listen here.

Isolation Wagner

The artists of the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck, led by Chief Conductor Ben Palmer, perform the prelude to Act III of Wagner's LOHENGRIN in isolation.

Watch and listen here.

White Swan ~ Makarova & Nagy

Natalia Makarova and Ivan Nagy dance the White Swan pas de deux from SWAN LAKE at the 100th anniversary celebration of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1984. Ivan Nagy came out of retirement to dance with Ms. Makarova on this occasion. The dancers are accompanied on-stage by violinist Itzhak Perlman and cellist Lynn Harrell.

Watch and listen here.

Kuchta and Resnik in ELEKTRA

UPDATE: My longtime friend Peter Randsman has located the film on YouTube. Here is the link.

~~~~~ I purchased this recording of ELEKTRA some time ago, but had never listened to it. Earlier this month, I finally took the time: it's a very impressive performance.

It is the recorded soundtrack of a Rolf Liebermann film (released in 1970 but now apparently out-of-print). Klytemnestra's manic laughter and her horrific death cries are not part of the recording; I suppose they were dubbed in later for the film.

Leopold Ludwig paces the opera marvelously, and the orchestra plays very well. The cast is a strong one, right from the start when Cvetka Ahlin asks "Wo bleibt Elektra?" with her rich, ripe contralto tones. Her fellow serving maids are a classy lot: Inger Paustian, Ursula Boese, Regina Marheineke, and Ingeborg Kreger. Edith Lang (who I saw as Mother Goose when Hamburg brought THE RAKE'S PROGRESS to The Met in 1967) is the Overseer. Together, these six singers make the most of the opera's opening scene, which I used to hate, but I've come to love.

Franz Grundheber, who went on to a great career, takes the small role of the Old Servant, and Helmut Melchert is a strong-voiced, vivid Aegisth. Hans Sotin, who was my first full-Cycle Wotan in 1989, is a very bass-oriented Orestes and is very effective in the recognition scene. I've always loved Ingrid Bjoner, and she's a very fine Chrysothemis here, her voice silvery and powerful.

Gladys Kuchta (above) is one of the most impressive Elektras I have ever heard. Her monolog is superbly delivered, with the top notes clean, clear, and sustained. Later in the opera, some of the highest notes are approached from just slightly below; but they always tonalize...and are exciting. The Kuchta voice is powerful, and her occasional nods to subtlety are telling. Overall, Kuchta's Elektra - on this evidence - is one of the best.

Regina Resnik (above) gives one of her greatest performances ever here as Klytemnestra. She's in perfect voice, and really sings the music (some of which is incredibly beautiful) without resorting to cackling or other sound effects. Her way with the words is wonderfully canny, and the lyricism that can be found in the vocal writing of the part is engagingly brought forth; we can begin to understand this woman and what she has gone thru. The trademark Resnik chest voice is on vivid display, In sum, a magnificent interpretation. ~~~~~

~ Oberon

Nathalie Stutzmann ~ Ombra mai fu

Nathalie Stutzmann conducts and sings Handel's immortal "Ombra mai fu" from SERSE at a performance with the ensemble ORFEO 55 given at the Salle Gaveau, Paris, in 2010.

Watch and listen here.

Backstage at the Kirov

I've just been re-watching a favorite ballet video of mine...this article was originally published in 2008!

Now that the ballet season at Lincoln Center has ended, we've been watching some videos from the Library of the Performing Arts. Unfortunately, I have found that many of the DVDs in their collection turn out to be badly scratched; it's a shame that people who are sophisticated enough to want to to watch SLEEPING BEAUTY or GISELLE are not correspondingly considerate enough to take good care of the library's property. I've actually been having better luck with VHS tapes, since they are not in plastic sleeves and thus you can check their condition before signing them out. The library has quite a substantial VHS dance collection.

The 1982 film BACKSTAGE AT THE KIROV starts out as a run-of-the-mill (though interesting) documentary but soon the story starts to revolve around two Odettes: the established prima ballerina Galina Mezentseva and the (then) rising young Altynai Asylmuratova. Performance footage is interspersed with specially recorded passages where the camera actually takes us into the midst of the Kirov's corps. This produces an especially vivid effect in such moments as the Cygnets where we follow the four girls around the stage. Later, when Asylmuratova and her husband Konstantin Zaklinsky are performing a segment of the adagio, the camera magically circles around them, catching the attendant Swans in their long rows as a swirling backdrop.

Wei and I both thought Mezentseva was an exceptional Odette. Against the sustained slowness of the tempo set for the adagio, Mezentseva's dancing - her fluent upper body, long arms and elegant legs - has a timeless, suspended quality. Asylmuratova's youthful candor - she says she'd rather have slept in than attend class - is slyly sweet; she is a beautiful girl and we can already see emerging the ballerina who was to be such an impressive Nikiya in the filmed version of the Royal Ballet's 1991 BAYADERE.

BACKSTAGE AT THE KIROV (now available on DVD) also shows some very young students in class, and the hard-working corps of Kirov swans, some of whom come in for sharp reprimands from the ballet masters. It's an intriguing view of SWAN LAKE from the inside: I ended up watching it four times in a week.