A fascinating black & white film of Puccini’s IL TABARRO presented by BBC Roma in 1966 stars Tito Gobbi as Michele and Marie Collier as Giorgetta.
Watch and listen here.
Michele:Tito Gobbi
Luigi: Charles Craig
Il Tinca: John Lanigan
Il Talpa: Eric Garrett
Giorgetta: Marie Collier
La Frugola: Elisabet Bainbridge
Young Lovers: Nicholas Curtis and Joanne Brown
Bowles Bevan Singers
The New Symphony Orchestra
Conductor| Edward Downes
A fascinating black & white film of Puccini’s IL TABARRO presented by BBC Roma in 1966 stars Tito Gobbi as Michele and Marie Collier as Giorgetta.
Watch and listen here.
Michele:Tito Gobbi
Luigi: Charles Craig
Il Tinca: John Lanigan
Il Talpa: Eric Garrett
Giorgetta: Marie Collier
La Frugola: Elisabet Bainbridge
Young Lovers: Nicholas Curtis and Joanne Brown
Bowles Bevan Singers
The New Symphony Orchestra
Conductor| Edward Downes
Soloists Dame Margaret Price, Della Jones, Stuart Burrows, and Robert Lloyd (above) are featured in a 1987 performance of the Verdi REQUIEM given at Cardiff, with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Cardiff Polyphonic Choral, Cantorian Ardwynm, and the Swansea Bach Choir. James Lockhart is the conductor.
Watch and listen here.
Tuesday August 22nd, 2023 – One of the most pleasant days, weather-wise, I have ever spent at the US Open. In recent years, my enjoyment of the matches has been compromised by extreme heat; the sun beats down on the courts, and there’s no escaping it. I sometimes wonder why more people – and especially the players and ball-boys – don’t faint. But today, clouds allowed the sun to make only passing appearances, and there was a lovely breeze.
I watched two matches: Taro Daniel of Japan (seeded 4th in the qualifying tournament) facing India’s Samit Nagal, and then the 18-year-old Chinese “rising star” (according to Wei) Shang Juncheng dueled the Argentine Genaro Alberto Olivieri.
Tall and lean, Taro Daniel dominated the first set of his match against Samit Nagal. Nagal is a talented and energetic player, but despite some fine moments, he had few answers for Taro, who took the set 6-1. But Nagal fared much better in the second set, winning the crowd’s acclaim for some brilliant shots. Nagal pulled ahead at one point, and it seemed that we might be headed to a third set, but then Taro’s years of experience took hold and he swept to victory.
Above and below: Taro after the match.
I had expected to go directly from the Daniel/Nagal match to watch the Shang/Olivieri contest, but the women’s match on court 15 was running late. I took a long walkabout, checking out several matches in progress; very few of the players were familiar to me. They all seemed terribly young.
Shang Juncheng (above) opened his match with a perfectly placed ace. His Argentine opponent fought ardently but most of the first set was all about China. Olivieri stepped up his game in set 2, and the momentum shifted somewhat. Shang Juncheng’s serve could be erratic – there were a couple of double faults – but in the end he prevailed.
Each year, I think: “This will be my last Open!” In fact, I almost didn’t go today. But in the end, I was glad that I did.
~ Oberon
Soprano Susan Dunn (above) sings Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder from a concert given in 1986 by the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Günther Herbig. Listen here.
While it was the voice of Renata Tebaldi that initiated my lifelong obsession with opera, it was her compatriot, Gabriella Tucci, who was my favorite soprano during the 1960s when I was glued to the radio for every Met matinee radio broadcast. Tucci’s singing of Aida, both Leonoras, Violetta, Desdemona, Cio-Cio-San, Alice Ford, and Marguerite in FAUST on these broadcasts captivated me, and thru her I developed a love for hearing the words sung with such colour and feeling.
Seeing Gabriella Tucci in TROVATORE at the Old Met was a very special experience for me. I went on to see her in more roles – Liu, Elisabetta, Mimi – at the New Met, and enjoyed her so much, yet it was those formative Old Met broadcasts that linger in my mind to this day: I was learning these great operas at the time, and she taught me how beautifully they could be sung.
I’ve just come upon this video of Ms. Tucci singing Tosca’s “Vissi d’arte” on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1962, and it reminds me of everything I loved about her.
Watch and listen here.
Soprano Christiane Karg (above) sings Maurice Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Stanisław Skrowaczewski conducting the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. The performance took place in September 2013.
Watch and listen here.
German basso Lukas Lemcke sings Franz Schubert’s Der Wanderer, with Manfred Schiebel at the piano.
Watch and listen here.
While best-remembered as an interpreter of the great Rossini mezzo-soprano roles, Lucia Valentini-Terrani here shows another facet of her artistry, singing Johannes Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody. Peter Maag conducts.
Lucia Valentini-Terrani – Brahms ~ Alto Rhapsody – Peter Maag cond – RAI 1979
Valentini-Terrani, born in Padua, sang at all the major Italian opera houses, as well as at Paris, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Chicago, and Washington DC. She debuted at The Met as Isabella in L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI in 1974, and had a huge success at Covent Garden in 1976 in LA CENERENTOLA. Beyond Rossini, her repertoire extended to such diverse roles as Eboli, Carmen, Charlotte in WERTHER, and Jocasta in OEDIPUS REX.
Diagnosed with leukemia in 1996, Lucia Valentini-Terrani passed away in 1998 at the age of 51.
“Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.
Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: –
So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love.”
~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
Oberon's Glade 