10 Comments

Eroica:Beethoven as Rigoletto:Verdi.

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Enchanting.

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Sorry not 4 me as never likes neither Pavarotti or Sutherlamd as singers!!!

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don't be sorry! that's the beauty of this all - we all don't have to like the same things/singers! thank you for sharing your thoughts!

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I like the story of when the choir was rehearsing Va Pensiero from NABUCCO, workers who had been hammering and working on the interior of the opera hous, all stopped and listened to the enchanting beautiful sound. This music became the anthem of resistance and independence.

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I've performed lots of Verdi operas, and those operas brought tears to me while singing more than any other composer. Singing "Va Pensiero" from Nabucco was supremely moving every time.

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One of the supreme gifts opera brought to the world was this ability to characterize in music the personality or inner thoughts of the characters even, and perhaps especially, when what one sees on the stage or hears in the text is incongruent with what characters are thinking or feeling. Perhaps only Sondheim could do this as well as the great opera composers. Thus I especially love the trios and quartets of Mozart (Figaro, Giovanni, Cosi) Rossini (Barber), Donizetti (Lucia & that incredible sextet), Verdi, Puccini (Boheme Acts 2 & 3), and Strauss (the glorious Final Trio of Rosenkavalier perhaps my most favorite moment in all opera).

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Thank u ! Having say that I was lucky enough 2 b at Glynbourme in 1973 4 Josephine Barstow 'lady Macbeth' performance!!! And follow her career ever since crowned with Gloriana ! And i'm not a B. Britten fan!What a fantastic singer !

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I cannot figure out how to start a new thread

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Hi Margo welcome! What are you looking to do - a comment on this Rigoletto post? If yes looks like you figured it out! Let me know if I can help.

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