Tag: Met Opera

40 Years Ago: Fracci & Nureyev ~ GISELLE

~~~~ Note: I had originally planned to post this article on the 40th anniversary of my one-and-only experience of seeing the great Carla Fracci onstage. Today, news of the ballerina’s death has come, so I am posting it now, two months shy of the actual anniversary:

On this date, forty years ago, one of the greatest ballet performances of my experience took place at the Metropolitan Opera House, where the La Scala Ballet presented their production of GISELLE with Carla Fracci and Rudolf Nureyev in the leading roles.

I had spent the afternoon at The Met watching GISELLE with an alternate cast; it was a very pleasing performance. But the undeniable star-power of Fracci and Nureyev made the evening performance unforgettable.

This is my diary entry from that magnificent evening:

“GISELLE – 2nd performance – with the assumption on the leading roles by two great dancers, the whole production took on a new dimension. The corps seemed better than at the matinee, though again Renata Calderini was not a particularly impressive Myrthe. There was a very exciting Peasant Pas de Deux with Anna Maria Grossi and a very exciting Davide Bombana; they roused the audience to cheers.

But it was in the superstars that the real excitement lay – and that is why they are superstars! Rudolf Nureyev’s Albrecht was marred slightly by some rather ‘modern’ acting details in Act I where he failed to maintain the aura of manners of the period. But otherwise he caught the essence of the caddish young nobleman in Act I and the grief-stricken man of Act II. He danced with thorough command despite passing traces of stiffness. He interpolates many intricate steps and then challenges himself to bring them off…and always succeeds. His Albrecht was a full portrait – and it was very exciting.

In Carla Fracci we had the perfect Giselle. All this talk about her ‘capturing the essence of the Romantic Era’ felt absolutely true. There were times in Act II when she really did seem like the ghostly vision of another time and place. Here is a dancer so technically assured, so light yet bearing underneath great strength of character and of will. She was so charming in Act I, and her Mad Scene was brilliantly done – not overplayed but seemingly so real. Act II truly produced the feeling of seeing a phantom. Floating in her gossamer long tutu, Fracci evoked the remote mystique of the spectre. Her dancing throughout was so poised, with the steps always presented as a natural expression of the character and stemming completely from the drama. One had the feeling of really seeing Giselle herself, not of a ballerina portraying her.

At the end there was a tremendous ovation (20 minutes) with roses being thrown and Fracci & Nureyev called out repeatedly…bravi!!!”

~ Overon

May 26, 2021
Christa Ludwig Has Passed Away

April 25th, 2021 – Throughout the sixty years that I have been obsessed with opera, I have loved and admired many wonderful singers. But when people ask me, “Who was the greatest singer you ever heard?”, I must answer: “Christa Ludwig.” Today, news has come of her death at the age of 93.

Christa Ludwig made her Vienna State Opera debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s NOZZE DI FIGARO in 1955. She went on to give 769 performances of 42 roles in Vienna. At the Metropolitan Opera, her 1959 debut (also as Cherubino) marked the start of a 38-year association with The Met, where she sang 119 performances of 15 roles.

Christa Ludwig was my first Octavian, and also my first Dyer’s Wife in FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN (in a stellar cast with Leonie Rysanek, Irene Dalis, James King, and Christa’s then-husband, Walter Berry, with Dr. Böhm conducting), my first Dido in TROYENS, and my first Klytemnestra. Her other Met roles were Amneris, Brangaene, Ortrud, Fricka, Kundry, Charlotte in WERTHER, and Waltraute; and she gave a single performance as Leonore in FIDELIO.

My first experience of seeing Christa Ludwig onstage was as the Dyer’s Wife; my first FRAU was part of a thrilling weekend in February 1969 that also included my very first RHEINGOLD (with Herbert von Karajan conducting) and the now legendary Nilsson/Caballe TURANDOT. Christa’s Dyer’s Wife was a blazing creation, her voice spanning the wide range with complete command, the highest notes sailing into the Big House with stunning clarity and power.

From a commercial recording of the great Act III duet for Barak and his wife:

FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN ~ scene from Act III – Christa Ludwig – Walter Berry – Sieglinde Wagner – Hollreiser cond

I next saw Ms. Ludwig onstage on Valentine’s Day, 1970, as Octavian in DER ROSENKAVALIER. Karl Böhm was again on the podium, and the cast further featured Marion Lippert, Reri Grist, and Mr. Berry. The sight of Ms. Ludwig as Octavian entering the hall of the Faninal mansion, bearing the silver rose, left an indelible impression on my romantic heart. Over time, it became for me the iconic image of everything I love about opera.

Above: Nuit d’ivresse with Jon Vickers and Christa Ludwig; a Louis Melançon photo

On October 27th, 1973 – a red-letter day in my personal life – I saw LES TROYENS for the first time. Shirley Verrett and Louis Quilico as Cassandra and Chorebus had given glorious performances in PRISE DE TROIE. Then, as the scene shifts to Carthage, Christa Ludwig and Jon Vickers sang so poetically the quietly rapturous love duet, Nuit d’ivresse. Inspired by their ecstasy, I spent the night with Z – and I have ever since felt that life really began for me with that encounter.

More than a decade was to pass before I saw Christa Ludwig on the Met stage again: in 1984, she was a fascinating Klytemnestra in my first-ever ELEKTRA. Ute Vinzing, Johanna Meier, and Simon Estes were her co-stars, with Maestro Levine presiding. Ms. Ludwig’s singing, with an undercurrent of creeping madness, bore the stamp of a great lieder singer; her characterization sometimes veered endearingly to the melodramatic.

Above: Ludwig and Behrens in GOTTERDAMMERUNG

A four-year interval then passed before I saw Christa in opera again: the 1988 opening night of the Schenk/Levine GOTTERDAMMERUNG. This was a spectacular performance in every regard: Levine and his orchestra were on peak form, and Hildegard Behrens and Matti Salminen thrilled me to the core as Brunnhilde and Hagen. Christa, as Waltraute, looked spiffy in her Valkyrie gear – with black trousers and high black boots – and she moved about, restless as a caged panther, as she told her sister of their father’s frightening state of mind. Having failed in her mission, Waltraute rushes away. The curtain calls that night were fantastic: I think Ms. Ludwig truly didn’t expect the massive wave of applause and bravas that greeted her as she stepped out for a solo bow. It was so moving to watch her accept the audience’s loving appreciation.

I saw Christa Ludwig on the Met stage for the last time in April 1989 as Fricka in WALKURE. It was a cast of titans: Hildegard Behrens, Jessye Norman, Gary Lakes, James Morris, and Kurt Moll were Christa’s colleagues, and again Levine and the Met orchestra were beyond the beyond. The tension in the great argument between Fricka and Wotan was palpable; then Christa – having won – gathered her dignity and took her final parting shot at Brunnhilde with barely disguised contempt.

Christa Ludwig made her farewell appearance at The Met as Fricka in a Saturday matinee broadcast of WALKURE on April 3, 1993. Here is her scene from that performance, with Dame Gwyneth Jones as Brunnhilde, James Morris as Wotan, and James Levine conducting. I was listening at home, and as Ms. Ludwig exited the stage, I had a sense that the audience wanted desperately to burst into applause.

Christa Ludwig as Fricka ~ Met farewell performance with G Jones +J Morris – Levine cond – 4~3~93

While Vienna and The Met loomed large in the Ludwig career, she also appeared at La Scala, Covent Garden, Chicago Lyric Opera, and at the festivals at Bayreuth and Salzburg. In addition, she sang the great concert works of Bach and Mahler.

Christa Ludwig was a beloved recitalist; in 1984, I had the great pleasure of hearing her at Avery Fisher Hall with James Levine at the piano. The program of Strauss and Wolf lieder ended with a marvelous encore: the Brahms “Wiegenlied”.

Ms. Ludwig left us with a large and lovely catalog of recordings; among my favorites are Bartok’s BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE, the Kempe LOHENGRIN, the Solti TANNHAUSER, the Böhm TRISTAN from Bayreuth with Nilsson and Windgassen, scenes from Strauss operas with Walter Berry…and her SAMSON ET DALILA with James King holds a special appeal for me. She created a stir in 1986 by recording Schubert’s Winterreise with James Levine; they had performed the great Schubert cycle together on the Met stage in 1983.

Above: Christa in the recording studio with Maria Callas and Franco Corelli for the EMI NORMA

Christa Ludwig sings Strauss’s “Morgen” with Charles Spencer at the piano. Watch and listen here.

Listen to more from Christa Ludwig:

Christa Ludwig – Es gibt ein reich – ARADNE AUF NAXOS

Christa Ludwig – MACBETH – Act I scena – Vienna 1970

Christa Ludwig – Liebestod ~ TRISTAN UND ISOLDE

Christa Ludwig – Mahler ~ Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen

Christa Ludwig – Der Engel from Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder

A lovely note I received from Christa Ludwig after I wrote to her on the occasion of her Met farewell in 1993:

Christa Ludwig ~ An die Musik

~ Oberon

April 25, 2021
Alessandra Marc’s Met Debut ~ 1989

Alessandra Marc made her Metropolitan Opera debut on October 14th, 1989. My friend Paul and I were there. Soon after, another friend sent me a recording of parts of the performance.

AIDA ~ duet – Alessandra Marc & Stefania Toczyska ~ Met 10-14-89

Alessandra Marc – Met debut as Aida – excerpts – w Martinucci & Toczyska – 10~14~89

Here’s my diary entry, written late on the evening of the date; despite the excitement of the Marc debut, Stefania Toczyska’s Amneris was the afternoon’s masterpiece:

“Overall, a good performance and better-than-good much of the time. Audience most distracting (candy wrappers at their worst!). The settings are grand and it’s a Met-sized production, but very little happens dramatically – it falls to the individual singers to create theatrical sparks.

Christian Badea favored slow tempi in general – but his support of the singers, in allowing them time to breathe and to sustain the vocal line, was admirable. The orchestra played very well, though there were times when their volume threatened to swamp even this big-voiced cast. The ballet was rather silly, though well-danced.

While the Marc debut was the afternoon’s focal point, it was the superb Amneris of Stefania Toczyska who topped the cast. She sang with tremendous authority and passion, and she alone of the principals had a grasp of the drama. Her upper range has grown more secure over time, whilst maintaining a strong chest voice; her lovely entries in the opening passages of the Boudoir Scene were especially fine. And Toczyska is ever alert to the situation in every scene, creating a wonderfully feminine portrait of the ultimately distraught princess.

The Judgement Scene was her crowning glory, a tremendously thrilling twenty minutes. After her beautifully sustained “Io stessa lo gettai…” the audience broke in with sustained applause. She concluded the scene with a fiery verbal assault in the priests, followed by a sustained final note before rushing off in a fury. Toczyska is a very attractive singer and her Amneris was deeply satisfying to experience. To top it off, she graciously pushed the debuting Aida, Alessandra Marc, forward during the group bow and started applauding her!

Marc made a highly successful Met debut. Her voice has a curiously stimulating throb; at times it lacks resonance in the lower range, but the top has a lovely, almost girlish quality (such as we sometimes hear on recordings of sopranos from the early days of audio documentation): Marc’s voice blooms as it ascends.

Although lacking the ultimate cresting power in ensembles that some sopranos can muster, the soprano’s singing abounded in gorgeousness: starting with “Ritorna vincitor“, she won the audience with her opulent tone and marvelous turnings of phrase. The unaccompanied descending phrase in the Triumphal Scene was especially superb, and in the Nile Scene she proved herself with a splendid “O patria mia“, rising to a sustained, glowing high-C, and phrasing magically.

Marc did not make the most of the dramatic phrases of the duet with Amonasro, as some Aidas do, but in the seductive passages of the duet with Radames (“La tra foreste virgini…”) she sounded truly alluring. Likewise, the opera’s final duet showed the Marc voice at its distinctive best. Applause for the soprano was enthusiastic throughout the evening, and at the end the audience showered her with enthusiastic bravas.

Nicola Martinucci was a far more than capable Radames: his bronze-tinged voice has a nice metallic edge when needed, with strong tops – one or two of which were almost imperceptibly a hair’s breadth flat. Martinucci’s “Celeste Aida” went very well, with a sustained conclusion that won a vociferous response from the crowd. His voice cut thru the ensembles of the Triumphal Scene, and he found his lyric side in the Nile Scene before ending with a prolonged, ringing “Io resto a te!” Together with Toczyska, Martinucci made vocal sparks fly in the Judgement Scene, and he finished the opera strongly. Throughout, his slender, masculine figure looked great onstage, and his authentic Italian sound was more than welcome.

Juan Pons really sang Amonasro – no barking or hectoring. His warm sound and exemplary phrasing gave his singing a wonderfully noble sense of humanity…really impressive.

Margaret Jane Wray sang beautifully as the Priestess, and Mark Baker strongly as the Messenger. Franco de Grandis sounded rough and effortful as the King, but even so he outshone the sadly out-of-voice Ramfis of Stephen Dupont.

Despite the audience distractions, Paul and I were glad to have been there, and we enjoyed talking over the performance on the drive home.”

~ Oberon

March 27, 2021
Alessandra Marc’s Met Debut ~ 1989

Alessandra Marc made her Metropolitan Opera debut on October 14th, 1989. My friend Paul and I were there. Soon after, another friend sent me a recording of parts of the performance.

AIDA ~ duet – Alessandra Marc & Stefania Toczyska ~ Met 10-14-89

Alessandra Marc – Met debut as Aida – excerpts – w Martinucci & Toczyska – 10~14~89

Here’s my diary entry, written late on the evening of the date; despite the excitement of the Marc debut, Stefania Toczyska’s Amneris was the afternoon’s masterpiece:

“Overall, a good performance and better-than-good much of the time. Audience most distracting (candy wrappers at their worst!). The settings are grand and it’s a Met-sized production, but very little happens dramatically – it falls to the individual singers to create theatrical sparks.

Christian Badea favored slow tempi in general – but his support of the singers, in allowing them time to breathe and to sustain the vocal line, was admirable. The orchestra played very well, though there were times when their volume threatened to swamp even this big-voiced cast. The ballet was rather silly, though well-danced.

While the Marc debut was the afternoon’s focal point, it was the superb Amneris of Stefania Toczyska who topped the cast. She sang with tremendous authority and passion, and she alone of the principals had a grasp of the drama. Her upper range has grown more secure over time, whilst maintaining a strong chest voice; her lovely entries in the opening passages of the Boudoir Scene were especially fine. And Toczyska is ever alert to the situation in every scene, creating a wonderfully feminine portrait of the ultimately distraught princess.

The Judgement Scene was her crowning glory, a tremendously thrilling twenty minutes. After her beautifully sustained “Io stessa lo gettai…” the audience broke in with sustained applause. She concluded the scene with a fiery verbal assault in the priests, followed by a sustained final note before rushing off in a fury. Toczyska is a very attractive singer and her Amneris was deeply satisfying to experience. To top it off, she graciously pushed the debuting Aida, Alessandra Marc, forward during the group bow and started applauding her!

Marc made a highly successful Met debut. Her voice has a curiously stimulating throb; at times it lacks resonance in the lower range, but the top has a lovely, almost girlish quality (such as we sometimes hear on recordings of sopranos from the early days of audio documentation): Marc’s voice blooms as it ascends.

Although lacking the ultimate cresting power in ensembles that some sopranos can muster, the soprano’s singing abounded in gorgeousness: starting with “Ritorna vincitor“, she won the audience with her opulent tone and marvelous turnings of phrase. The unaccompanied descending phrase in the Triumphal Scene was especially superb, and in the Nile Scene she proved herself with a splendid “O patria mia“, rising to a sustained, glowing high-C, and phrasing magically.

Marc did not make the most of the dramatic phrases of the duet with Amonasro, as some Aidas do, but in the seductive passages of the duet with Radames (“La tra foreste virgini…”) she sounded truly alluring. Likewise, the opera’s final duet showed the Marc voice at its distinctive best. Applause for the soprano was enthusiastic throughout the evening, and at the end the audience showered her with enthusiastic bravas.

Nicola Martinucci was a far more than capable Radames: his bronze-tinged voice has a nice metallic edge when needed, with strong tops – one or two of which were almost imperceptibly a hair’s breadth flat. Martinucci’s “Celeste Aida” went very well, with a sustained conclusion that won a vociferous response from the crowd. His voice cut thru the ensembles of the Triumphal Scene, and he found his lyric side in the Nile Scene before ending with a prolonged, ringing “Io resto a te!” Together with Toczyska, Martinucci made vocal sparks fly in the Judgement Scene, and he finished the opera strongly. Throughout, his slender, masculine figure looked great onstage, and his authentic Italian sound was more than welcome.

Juan Pons really sang Amonasro – no barking or hectoring. His warm sound and exemplary phrasing gave his singing a wonderfully noble sense of humanity…really impressive.

Margaret Jane Wray sang beautifully as the Priestess, and Mark Baker strongly as the Messenger. Franco de Grandis sounded rough and effortful as the King, but even so he outshone the sadly out-of-voice Ramfis of Stephen Dupont.

Despite the audience distractions, Paul and I were glad to have been there, and we enjoyed talking over the performance on the drive home.”

~ Oberon

March 26, 2021
Julius Huehn

Born at Revere, Massachusetts in 1904, bass-baritone Julius Huehn’s career centered at the Metropolitan Opera, where he sang over 225 performances with the Company in New York City and on tour. He also appeared with the opera companies of San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

His Met debut took place in 1935, as the Herald in LOHENGRIN. His Met roles included Wagner’s Wotan/The Wanderer, Donner, Gunther, Wolfram, Amfortas, Kothner, Kurvenal, and Telramund; Strauss’s Orestes, Jochanaan, and Faninal; Pizarro in FIDELIO, Escamillo, Sharpless, and the High Priest in SAMSON ET DALILA.

Huehn left the Met in 1944 to serve in the Marine Corps during the final year of World War II. He returned in 1946 for a single performance as Wolfram. He subsequently taught at the Eastman School for many years, and passed away at Rochester, New York, in 1971.

Julius Huehn as Kurvenal, with Lauritz Melchior:

Julius Huehn & Lauritz Melchior – TRISTAN UND ISOLDE ~ scene from Act III

Listen to Julius Huehn sing Wotan’s Farewell from WALKURE here, and the duet of Telramund and Ortrud (with Kerstin Thorborg) from the opening of Act II of LOHENGRIN here.

February 23, 2021
Ming Cho Lee Has Passed Away

I was very sorry to read this morning of the passing of the great scenic designer Ming Cho Lee. A native of Shanghai, he died on October 23rd, 2020, at the age of 90.

He designed award-winning sets for dozens of operas and plays, including eight productions for the Metropolitan Opera. Among his Met credits were his classic BORIS GODUNOV (1974); the Sutherland/Pavarotti PURITANI (1976), a controversial but often striking LOHENGRIN (1976), and the 1985 KHOVANSCHINA with it’s stunning final tableau.

Ming Cho Lee also designed thirty productions for Joseph Papp at The Public Theatre. A wonderful article about his life and work, with images of his designs, may be found here.

During the years that I worked in the opera room at Tower Records, Ming Cho Lee was a frequent (and favorite) customer. Upon coming into the room, he would bow to me – and I to him – and then he would spend an hour or more browsing the shelves. We hardly ever spoke, but he would sometimes hold up a disc and I would shake my head, “yes” or “no”. He would stack up his selections on the counter, one by one, and when the piles got teeteringly high, he would do a sort-thru. I would then help him carry his purchases to the cashier. I always stood by until he left, so that we could bow to one another – “…until next time!” he would say quietly. I will always remember his twinkling eyes and wry smile.

One winter day, a couple of years after Tower closed, I took the train to New Haven to meet friends for lunch. Coming out of Union Station, I saw Ming Cho Lee, all bundled up, hailing a cab (he had taught at Yale for several years). I greeted him, and after a moment he remembered me. Surprisingly, as we had always been bowing acquaintances, he extended his hand and shook mine cordially.

Ming Cho Lee was such a calm, dignified gentleman; it was an honor and pleasure for me to have known him in this rather formal capacity.

October 26, 2020
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.

August 21, 2020
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.

August 20, 2020
Gabriella Tucci Has Passed Away

Above: my favorite photo of Gabriella Tucci, costumed as Leonora in TROVATORE and posing at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. I cut it out of Opera News and pasted it on shirt-board; she signed it for me in 1968 after a performance of TURANDOT at The Met. It has been ‘borrowed’ by other websites, but this is the original.

Soprano Gabriella Tucci passed away on July 11th, 2020, in Rome, the city of her birth. She was 90 years old. In recent days, I had been listening to Ms. Tucci a lot, unaware of her death.

Gabriella Tucci was the first soprano I called “my favorite”. She sang in some of the earliest Met broadcasts I heard from our house in the little town – AIDA, OTELLO, FAUST, FALSTAFF, MADAMA BUTTERFLY, TRAVIATA, FORZA DEL DESTINO, and TROVATORE – and her voice, a blooming lyrical and wonderfully feminine sound, always seemed to get to the heart of the character she was portraying.

Ms. Tucci studied at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and made her operatic debut at Lucca as Violetta in 1951. After winning a voice competition at Spoleto, she appeared in LA FORZA DEL DESTINO opposite Beniamino Gigli. In 1953, she sang Glauce in Cherubini’s MEDEA at the Maggio Musicale with Maria Callas in the title-role.

Thereafter, the Tucci career then took off: she made her La Scala debut in 1959 as Mimi, and appeared at Rome, the Arena di Verona, Vienna, Berlin, Moscow, Tokyo, San Francisco, and Buenos Aires.

Among Ms. Tucci’s notable evenings at La Scala was a 1964 production of TROVATORE where her co-stars were Piero Cappuccilli and Carlo Bergonzi (photo, above).

Gabriella Tucci sang 260 performances with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and on tour. In 1964, she was Desdemona (photo, above) in a new production of OTELLO that featured the return of James McCracken to The Met.

Also in 1964, Ms. Tucci sang Alice Ford in a new production of FALSTAFF conducted by Leonard Bernstein. In the above photo, she and colleagues Regina Resnik (Dame Quickly) and Rosaline Elias (Meg Page) attempt to hide Falstaff (Anselmo Colzani) in a laundry basket.

She opened the Met’s 1965-1966 season in a new production of FAUST, and sang ravishingly in the love duet on a broadcast of that opera the following year. Her singing of “O silence! ô bonheur! ineffable mystère!” is pure magic:

FAUST ~ scene – Gabriella Tucci – John Alexander – Justino Diaz – Met 1966

On October 23rd, 1965, Ms. Tucci was heading to her dressing room after a matinee of FAUST when she was asked by Sir Rudolf Bing if she would be willing to step in for an ailing colleague in that evening’s performance of BOHEME. She did, with great success. And on April 16th, 1966, she was (officially) the last soprano to be heard at the Old Met when she sang the final trio from FAUST with Nicolai Gedda and Jerome Hines as the closing number at the gala that bade farewell to the venerable house.

My first experience of hearing Gabriella Tucci live was at the Old Met in November of 1965; she sang – gloriously – the music of Leonora in TROVATORE, one of her most felicitous roles.

Gabriella Tucci – D’amor sull’all rosee ~ TROVATORE

In the late Summer of 1966, I traveled to New York City alone for the first time and joined the ticket line for the first performances at the New Met. I had been on the line for about five minutes when a woman next to me casually asked, “What singers do you like?” and I replied, “Gabriella Tucci!” She called some other friends over, and we discussed the soprano and her various roles in detail. Finally, I had found some kindred spirits after years of being a lonely opera-lover in my hometown.

Ms. Tucci was my first Aida and my first Elisabetta in DON CARLO. I saw her again in TROVATORE, and as Liu and Mimi. But as the 1970s arrived, Tucci’s star had begun to fade; after years of singing roles like Aida and Amelia in BALLO that – in truth – extended her beyond her natural lyric realm, time seemed to catch up with her voice. She gave her last performance at The Met on Christmas Day, 1972, in FAUST.

Many years later, while I was working at Tower Records, a lively woman of a certain age came in; her hair was done in curls with a reddish tinge, and she wore a mini-skirt. I could not immediately place her, but her speaking voice gave me a clue: “Do you have the live performance of AIDA from Tokyo,1961?” I handed her a copy. “Have you heard it?” she asked. “Yes, it’s very exciting…but…I am not sure it’s Mario del Monaco.” She smiled: “I am Gabriella Tucci, and I assure you it’s him!” I kissed her hand and after telling her she had always been a great favourite of mine, she smiled, and then returned to the topic of the Tokyo AIDA. “Why do you think it is not del Monaco?” I gave my reasons. She thought for a moment. “Well, who do you think it is, then?” and I replied “Gastone Limarilli.” “Hmmmm…you know your stuff. I did sing Aida with Gastone and I can understand your impressions of del Monaco’s performance…he was ill during that tour, and dropped out of the CAVALLERIA. I agree, he was not his best in the AIDA. But…he definitely sang that day!” She gave me a big hug, and swept from the room.

Oddly, just the day before I learned of her passing, I was listening to that AIDA which includes her impressive “O patria mia“:

Gabriella Tucci – O patria mia – AIDA – Tokyo 1961

And then there’s the scene of the sighting of Pinkerton’s ship from Act II of MADAMA BUTTERFLY. Helen Vanni is Suzuki. Tucci elicits a burst of applause after her “…ei torna e m’ama!“. Listen to it here.

It’s had to choose favorite Tucci items from among so many, but she and baritone Ettore Bastianini are superb in a scene from Act III of ANDREA CHENIER. Listen to them here.

…and she sings a beautiful “Pace, pace mio dio” from FORZA DEL DESTINO:

Gabriella Tucci – FORZA aria – Met 1965

~ Oberon

July 13, 2020
Judith Raskin

American soprano Judith Raskin (above) began taking voice lessons while attending Smith College. She began concertizing, and in 1957 sang Sister Constance in a televised performance of Poulenc’s DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES. She made her New York City Opera debut as Despina in 1959, and enjoyed a personal success there in the title-role of Douglas Moore’s BALLAD OF BABY DOE.

Ms. Raskin made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1962 as Susanna in NOZZE DI FIGARO and went on to give more than a hundred performances with the Met company over the next decade. Her roles included Marzelline, Nanetta, Sophie in ROSENKAVALIER, Zerlina, Pamina, and Micaela.

I first saw Judith Raskin onstage as Pamina in the Marc Chagall production of THE MAGIC FLUTE. She made such a beautiful impression in Mozart’s sublime music. Later I saw her in her signature role as Susanna in NOZZE DI FIGARO. Her last Met performance was as Marzelline in 1972.

Judith Raskin sang with the opera companies of Chicago and San Francisco, and appeared as Pamina at the Glyndebourne Festival, She also performed frequently in concerts, most notably with the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell. And she once said, ““In my heart of hearts, I have always been a recitalist.”

After retiring from the stage, Judith Raskin taught at the Manhattan School of Music. She passed away in 1984.

Judith Raskin sings Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 here.

~ Oberon

June 22, 2020