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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This recording of ELEKTRA – a very impressive performance – is the 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
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.
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.
Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (above, in a Stephanie Girard portrait) sings Maurice Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by James Gaffigan. The performance was recorded in September 2019, at Utrecht.
Watch and listen here.
Juan Pons sings the great aria “Nemico della patria!” from ANDREA CHENIER from a Met telecast in 1996. Watch and listen here.
Pons, always such a generous singer, gave more than 300 performances at The Met in New York City and on tour. His name still crops up from time to time, singing character roles at Eurpoean houses.
Oberon's Glade 