I am listening to Piangero la mia sorte at this very moment. Sena Jurinac's farewell recital in London, 1981.No argument from me about Figaro either, although it is only #2 on my all-time great list. (#1 is Guilio Cesare.)
That's so funny. During an intermission, another singer, who I did not recognize, came over and they chatted briefly. The other singer asked if Graham had ever sung Hoffman, and she said, "No," but then added that she "covered Nicklausse" briefly.^ I've seen Susan Graham herself in Hoffmann. Nicklasse, years ago.
I guess it's my word against hers!That's so funny. During an intermission, another singer, who I did not recognize, came over and they chatted briefly. The other singer asked if Graham had ever sung Hoffman, and she said, "No," but then added that she "covered Nicklausse" briefly.
Oh, I figured you must have seen her when she covered the role.I guess it's my word against hers!
I think I mixed her up with Susan Quittmeyer. Sorry!
Given how many times I've seen Hoffmann at the Met (esp in the Shicoff years) I may well have, but I do think I have mixed up the Susans for years and only now realized it. I dont like the Nicklausse part anyway so that probably contributed to my confusion (not sure I saw either of them in anything else). Thank you for helping me realize at last that they are two different singers!Oh, I figured you must have seen her when she covered the role.
Surely you mean Elisabeth Söderström or Renee Fleming or someone else. Schwarzkopf was from an earlier era.The performance I saw was the Met at the Kennedy Center with Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, Frederica Von Stade, and Kathleen Battle.
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George London!!! I absolutely love him. Some time in my life I was obsessing over the recording of Strauss's "Arabella" with London and Lisa della Casa.@Spun Silver,
**Family boasting coming up. Feel free to ignore. I'm tone deaf and can't carry a tune, as I said. Likewise my late mother. 99% of the musical talent in my family was inherited by my mother's cousin, the great bass baritone, George London. One of my uncle's got the other 1%. It's ironic that with such a great talent in the family line, I struggle so with opera. My grandmother, a sibling of George's father, maintained that the real talent in the family resided in the generations of their father and grandfather; the men of the family in those generations were all cantors back in their Lithuanian shtetl.
Ah, I have never listened to that one because it was her last role.... I was very fortunate to live in NYC and see her often during almost her whole post-European career. If you look at her Wikipedia article, obviously written by a very knowledgeable fan, it tells another touching story about her final day in the hospital. She and George London were friends, I think -- she was one of the singers who banded together to put on a fundraising concert for him when he was ill. It is available on CD with the addition of him singing An die Musik..
@SpunSilver. Troyanos. Also times infinity. Never heard her live, but another of my early opera obsessions was DVD of "Capriccio" (also Strauss) from San Francisco/93. I heard that Troyanos was already sick at that time, and then in the final days in the hospital she kept watching this DVD...
Onegin is such a shameless asshole, and I love how he gets his in this Met production .