From: vnguyen@husc8.harvard.edu (Vinh Nguyen)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: OPERA: Ghosts of Versailles & Teresa Stratas
Date: 16 Sep 92 01:55:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Sep15.215545.15620
Reply-To: vnguyen@husc8.harvard.edu

PS: Hmm, an earlier follow-up post of this one simply disappeared, so
here it goes again.

In article <92259.084514U58402@uicvm.uic.edu>, <U58402@uicvm.uic.edu> writes:
 
> I saw the PBS broadcast of "The Ghosts of Versailles" last night. It was
> very highly entertaining, even with subtitles :@) High points (for me)
> included Teresa Stratas' "I saw a bird in a golden cage" aria in the
> first act, and Marilyn Horne hamming it up as a Turkish fortune telling
> diva. (I think she may have been on Garrison Keillor's show one too many
> times :@)
> 
> I was wondering if anyone could help me out with some questions:
> 
> 1. What else would you recommend by Teresa Stratas? I know she has a
> couple of albums of Kurt Weill songs, but I am generally leery of
> classically trained singers performing what are, to my mind, more pop
> oriented material.
 
"Miss Cancellation" has recorded surprisingly little for a prima
donna of her stature.  But she has an interesting video discography.

-- Verdi, La Traviata.  This is the garish Zeffirelli film with
Domingo, MacNeil, and Levine conducting.  The cinematography is
simply gorgeous.  The singing excellent by video standards but
rather dull by audio recording standards.  Stratas is the star of
the show, acting very well, and singing sympathetically despite
the lack of bravura (which has never been her trademark -- and
so if you are looking for a smashing "Sempre Libera" you might
as well go elsewhere, esp. when she not only transposed the aria
down but also eschewed the Eb in alt, but the scena is dramatically
rendered).  Domingo is a bore -- both in acting as well as singing.
MacNeil is out of voice for the most part but can still act to
make Germont a bit more dignified and credible than the cardboard
character he is often made to be.  The opera is cut beyond the
traditional theater cuts -- which is a shame -- and a crime, 
considering that "Ditte a la giovine" is shorn of the whole
first stanza.  But then among the crop of Traviatas on video
this one is unsurpassable for a while to come.

-- Menotti, Ahmal and the Night Visitors.  Probably the most often
performed opera in the world (because it's short? and because it
plays to the holiday season?)  Stratas looks a bit "vicious" here
to make a sympathetic mother.  The child is an angel both in singing
and acting (I forgot his name).  The supporting cast is more than 
adequate.  Not Stratas at her best, she even sounds a bit shrill here.

-- Richard Strauss, Salome.  This is the german film with Karl Bohm
conducting (on of his last Strauss recordings)  I haven't seen this
particular one but having seen the Elektra of the same vintage (same
conductor, director, and supporting cast, but with Leonie Rysanek in
the title role) I can vouch for the impressive artistic value of 
this film series.  Stratas would have the temperament to make a
good (but perhaps not thrilling?) Salome even though I'm skeptical
about the requisite "heft" of the voice even though the role doesn't
really require a Wagnerian-sized voice, but Stratas' voice is often
on the thin side, but then she's not performing it live on stage
anyway.  It is on DG laserdisc I believe.  But then the competition
of Salome on video is much fiercer, with a recent entries from
Malfitano and Ewing who could conceivably out-act and out-sing
Stratas here  (But then Stratas made the Salome film some 10 years
ago and she might still be in top form then -- now her voice is
rather hollow at the top, especially when one hears her live as
I did last year at the MET Ghost and Turandot).

-- Lehar, Die Lustige Witve.  A surprising Stratas venture into
the light-hearted world of Viennese operetta.  This one is a new
DG recording (I don't know if there is a video, but I don't think
so).  It has been announced and reviewed lately.  I haven't seen
it in the stores in Boston yet.  Stratas doesn't play the title
role of the Merry Widow but instead that of Valencienne.  She is
up against the formidable competition of Hannie Steffek in the
magnificent EMI recording under Matacic (the 2nd Schwarzkopf's
Merry Widow).  

> 2. Are there plans for a recording of TGOV anytime soon?
 
I doubt it.  At least it was not done during the premiere season
at the MET, and you will have to wait a few more years to reassemble
a cast for its reappearance in Chicago, and then with luck it might
reappear in New York again, and a recording might follow.  But it's
highly unlikely that we will have any recording of it anytime in
the next 5 years, so hang on for dear life to the video broadcast.
Now let's hope that it would make it to laserdisc.

> Wilbur Pan
> (aka u58402@uicvm.uic.edu
>  at the ever so friendly and personal univ. of ill. at chicago)

Vinh Nguyen
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical