A bad day for sopranos and a sad one for the rest of us.
RIP.
-
A bad day for sopranos and a sad one for the rest of us.
RIP. -
I was just about to post this news. Sad indeed.
RIP -
A very sad day indeed.
Vishnevskaya's interpretation (with Rostropovich) of Mussorgsky/Shostakovich Songs and Dances of Death and some fragments of Tchaikovsky operas opened those worlds for me.
Her Lady Mtzensk is simply unforgettable.
RIP
Galina Vishnevskaya
Comment
-
A bad day indeed
A great artist
Comment
-
Della Casa and Vishnevskaya in one fell swoop?
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
Comment
-
Yes, indeed, a deeply sad day with news about the death of Lisa della Casa and Galinina Vishnevskaya. Alas, I never heard della Casa in live performance, although I treasure several of her recordings. However, in the late 70s, I did manage to attend several Vishnevskaya performances in lieder and opera. The sheer power of her performance as Lady Macbeth and the energy quotient between stage and pit in the RSNO production with Alex Gibson in the pit remains foremost in my mind. I think the diva had a fiery temperament! Later she sang Tosca in the umpteenth revival of the Zeffirelli production at the ROH but although she was wearing a replica of the Callas costume, this particular lady was no carbon copy. She went on to record her performance for DG and, after several decades of waiting for a CD transfer from vinyl, I did my own copy from LP only a few months ago. Her singular stance of independence registers clearly on the boxset cover. Ironically, the same stance of individuality is also used in her 1984 autobiography, "Galina" - how could it be otherwise? This, really is a testament to the stamina she must have developed after spending most of her life in a totalitarian state. And the depiction of life under wartime siege is also particularly sobering. Did any other forum member attend her St. John's, Smith Square, recital - 1978ish? I remember the hush, the sudden intensity of silence when she sang Rachmaninov's, O, Do Not Grieve, and reached for a copy of 'Galina' to read her comments:
"I will sing Rachmaninov's 'O, Do Not Grieve'. I began to sing in a hushed, disembodied voice:
"O, do not grieve for me,
For there where ends all sadness,
My past with all its pain,
Shall be as vanished dreams..."
"The voice of a dead woman addressing the man she loved...An ethereal sound, with almost no vibrato...
I sensed that the audience was holding its breath. Later in my career, Kromchenko (tenor) would
recall that he literally felt a chill." RIPComment
-
I saw Vishnevskya just once at a 1983 performance in the RFH of Britten's War Requiem with Rostropovich conducting. It must surely have been one of the last times (the last?) she sang the part and I was lucky indeed to meet both her and Slava after the concert when they signed my programme.
What a sad time this is with so many people from our world leaving it."The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard HaitinkComment
-
Very sad - I remember not just the War Requiem and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk but also the Prokofiev War and Peace with Rostropovitch conducting and the Bolshoi Eugene Onegin. A memorable singer.
RIP.Comment
Comment