Great Stars of Opera - Telecasts from the Bell Telephone Hour 1959-1966
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DVD Cover Information
Baritone: Giuseppe Di StefanoBass: Renata Tebaldi
Composer: Leontyne Price
Composer: Joan Sutherland
Composer: Richard Tucker
Composer: Franco Corelli
Composer: Birgit Nilsson
Composer: Anna Moffo
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-11-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Video Artists Int'l
Movie Reviews of Great Stars of Opera - Telecasts from the Bell Telephone Hour 1959-1966
Movie Review: What a gift from "The Bell Telephone Hour"
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Bell Telephone Hour" ran from 1959 through 1968. I remember watching many of the programs in that time. A number of these featured operatic performance, some of which are captured on this DVD. As a result, this work is a nice historical time capsule of some of the best singers of that era. As a side note, it is interesting to observe that this was one of the first TV programs to feature color.
Here follow some exemplar cuts:
Renata Tebaldi sings "Un Bel Di," from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly." What a lush voice! This is one of the great sopranos of the 20th century. Clothed in appropriate garb, she does considerable justice to this aria. She also demonstrates a compelling portrait of her character.
Robert Merrill, the wonderful baritone, takes on "Largo al Factotum" from Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia." He has great fun with this well known piece. He sings it at the usual breakneck pace and shows great facility and agility with his singing. This is a most entertaining version.
Nicolai Gedda and Anna Moffo are featured in a cut from "La Traviata," the drinking song, "Libiamo." Gedda's wonderfully mannered voice is well displayed, as is Moffo's rich soprano voice. The two voices intertwine nicely. This is a very satisfying duet.
Leontyne Price demonstrates why she was so well acclaimed, with her version of Verdi's "D'Amour sull'ali Rosee." She displays a nicely textured soprano. She creates a character through her singing. This performance illustrates why she was so highly regarded.
Victoria de los Angeles sings a splendid version of "Si, Mi Chiamano Mimi," from Puccini's "La Boheme." Sweetly sung. She was a soprano with impeccable technique and taste, illustrated nicely here.
Franco Corelli and his wonderful instrument take on "E Lucevan le Stelle" from "Tosca." And what a magnificent instrument! He was one of the finer tenors of the 20th century. The final "la vita" is most poignantly sung.
Birgit Nilsson sings a far too attenuated piece of Brunnhilde's "Immolation Scene" (just a couple minutes" from Wagner's "Gotterdammerung"). What little there is is well sung by one of the best Wagnerian sopranos of her time.
Finally, a real treat. Joan Sutherland's "Mad Scene" from "Lucia di Lammermoor." This is a singer and a part that appear made for one another. From beginning to end, Sutherland sparkles here. Her version of the cabaletta, "Spargi d'amaro pianto" is iconic. It is all here in this 1962 performance. She shows off her wonderful coloratura technique. Trills, staccato singing, other ornamentation, and a final high note all work well. Dame Joan in her prime. . . .
In short, a great DVD in terms of portraying top singers of the 1950s and 1960s in the operatic repertoire.
Summary of Great Stars of Opera - Telecasts from the Bell Telephone Hour 1959-1966
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 Ris? 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 G?tterd?mmerung. 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
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