Brand: Video Artists Int'L

Format: classical

Release Date: 28-11-2000

Details: Amazon.ca The most spectacular of the 21 operatic excerpts on this two-hour collection of Bell Telephone Hour telecasts is the last and longest--Joan Sutherland singing the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor--more than 13 minutes of incredible vocalizing, still as fresh and technically dazzling as it was when it was televised in 1962, shortly after her Metropolitan Opera debut in that role. In a sense, video recording was not Sutherland's best medium. She was not a great actress or a conventionally beautiful woman, but the video representation of her slightly awkward stage presence makes her vocal grace and agility sound all the more impressive. Equally historic is a scene from Boris Godunov melodramatically sung by George London shortly after his triumphant Bolshoi debut in that role (though one wishes he had been allowed to sing it in Russian for his American audience). A discovery of sorts is Risë Stevens's performance of a long monologue from Natoma, a long-forgotten opera by Victor Herbert. Leontyne Price looks very young and extraordinarily talented in selections from Il trovatore and Aida; Birgit Nilsson produces great sounds in music from Turandot and Götterdämmerung. The list could go on much longer. The names on the cover of this disc are (except for the unfortunate absence of Maria Callas) virtually a who's who of the leading Metropolitan Opera singers of the late 1950s and early '60s. It would be pleasant to have Galina Vishnevkaya, Christa Ludwig, Cesare Siepi, and Walter Berry as well, but their careers blossomed elsewhere and we must be thankful for what is here--thankful, in particular, that there were once programs on commercial network television that presented material of deep and permanent value. --Joe McLellan From the Back Cover Giuseppe di Stefano (1963) - Manon (Massenet) Je suis seul...Ah, fuyez, douce image Renata Tebaldi (1959) - Madama Butterfly (Puccini) - Un bel di and Con onor muore Rise Stevens (1959) - Natoma (Herbert) - Beware of a hawk, my baby...Lonely am I Robert Merril & Roberta Peters (1962) - Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini) - Largo al factotum and Dunque io son Anna Moffo & Nicolai Gedda (1962) - La Traviata (Verdi) - Libiamo...Un di felice Leontyne Price (1966) - Il Trovatore (Verdi) - D'amor sull'ali rosee Leontyne Price (1966) - Aida (Verdi) - Ritorna vincitor! Giulietta Simionato & Jon Vickers (1964) - Aida (Verdi) - Gia i sacerdotti adunansi Richard Tucker (1965) - Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) - Recitar!...Vesti la glubba George London (1964) - Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky) - Farewell, my son Regine Crespin & Franco Corelli (1964) - Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi) - Teco io sto! Victoria De Los Angeles (1960) - La Boheme (Puccini) - Si, mi chiamano Mimi Regine Crespin (1965) - Tosca (Puccini) - Vissi d'arte Franco Corelli (1962) - Tosca (Puccini) - E lucevan le stelle Birgit Nilsson (1963) - Turandot (Puccini) - In questa reggia Birgit Nilsson (1963) - Gotterdammerung (Wagner) - Immolation Scene (Finale) Eileen Farrell (1959) - Tristan und Isolde (Wagner) - Mild und leise (Liebestod) Joan Sutherland (1962) - Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) - Mad Scene 120 Minutes.

UPC: 089948420194

EAN: 0089948420194

Languages: English

Binding: dvd

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood