From the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City comes a 1998 performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ SAMSON ET DALILA starring Barbara Dever and Placido Domingo. Genaro Sulvaràn is the High Priest, and Guido Guida conducts.
Watch and listen here.
Between 1992 and 2014, Barbara Dever sang nearly 100 performances with the Metropolitan Opera; I saw her excellent Amneris and Ulrica there. Genaro Sulvaràn sang the role of Count de Luna at he Met in 1999 and made a vivid impression.
Soprano Régine Crespin and baritone Carlo Meliciani (above) sing the father/daughter duet from Act III of Verdi’s AIDA; the performance is from Mexico City, 1962, with Nicola Rescigno conducting. Jon Vickers is heard as Radames.
Listen here.
Mr. Meliciani recently passed away at the age of 92. He was a popular star at La Scala, debuting there In 1959 as Ping in TURANDOT and continuing to sing there thru the 1970s, taking on the Verdi baritone roles. He performed at the major opera houses of Italy, where such roles as Scarpia, Tonio in PAGLIACCI, and Carlo Gerard in ANDREA CHENIER supplemented his Verdi list. Mr. Meliciani also appeared at Wiesbaden, Lausanne, in Greece, Mexico, and in the USA (Philadelphia and Hartford).
Above: basso Roberto Silva as Don Giovanni
Lots of opera lovers are familiar with recordings of the 1951 Mexico City AIDA because it includes an interpolated high E-flat from Maria Callas at the conclusion of the Triumphal Scene. Despite middling sound-quality, there’s actually quite a lot to sustain interest in the performance as a whole – not least the voice-risking, full-throttle Amneris of Oralia Dominguez. Dominguez was only 26 at the time, and singing her first Amneris; she spends the voice so recklessly, including some cavernous chest-tones, that it’s a wonder she was able to ever sing anything again. But in fact she had a career that lasted into the 1970s, and is best-remembered as Erda in the Karajan RING Cycle recording.
There’s another impressive voice to be heard in this Mexico City performance: basso Roberto Silva, who sings Ramfis. Silva sustains a powerful note in the phrase “Per tua man diventi ai nemici terror, folgore…morte!” during the Temple Scene. Silva holds his own against the Radames of Mario del Monaco.
Mario del Monaco & Roberto Silva – Temple Scene ~ AIDA – Mexico City 1951
I went in search of information about Señor Silva, though I could not find much in the way of biographical detail. He sang in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, RIGOLETTO and PURITANI with Callas during her Mexico City seasons, and there is a listing of him as Geronte in MANON LESCAUT (also at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, in 1951) opposite Clara Petrella. It seems he also had a career as a film actor.
The only other souvenir I could find of Roberto Silva is this rendering of Colline’s “Coat Aria” from BOHEME. It’s quite nice, actually.
Above: basso Roberto Silva as Don Giovanni
Lots of opera lovers are familiar with recordings of the 1951 Mexico City AIDA because it includes an interpolated high E-flat from Maria Callas at the conclusion of the Triumphal Scene. Despite middling sound-quality, there’s actually quite a lot to sustain interest in the performance as a whole – not least the voice-risking, full-throttle Amneris of Oralia Dominguez. Dominguez was only 26 at the time, and singing her first Amneris; she spends the voice so recklessly, including some cavernous chest-tones, that it’s a wonder she was able to ever sing anything again. But in fact she had a career that lasted into the 1970s, and is best-remembered as Erda in the Karajan RING Cycle recording.
There’s another impressive voice to be heard in this Mexico City performance: basso Roberto Silva, who sings Ramfis. Silva sustains a powerful note in the phrase “Per tua man diventi ai nemici terror, folgore…morte!” during the Temple Scene. Silva holds his own against the Radames of Mario del Monaco.
Mario del Monaco & Roberto Silva – Temple Scene ~ AIDA – Mexico City 1951
I went in search of information about Señor Silva, though I could not find much in the way of biographical detail. He sang in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, RIGOLETTO and PURITANI with Callas during her Mexico City seasons, and there is a listing of him as Geronte in MANON LESCAUT (also at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, in 1951) opposite Clara Petrella. It seems he also had a career as a film actor.
The only other souvenir I could find of Roberto Silva is this rendering of Colline’s “Coat Aria” from BOHEME. It’s quite nice, actually.
Oberon's Glade 