Interpreters

Interpreters

"C'est que le Beau est la seule chose qui soit immortelle, et qu'aussi longtemps qu'il reste un vestige de sa manifestation matrielle, son immortalit subsiste. Le Beau est rpandu partout, il s'tend mme jusque sur la mort. Mais il ne rayonne nulle part avec autant d'intensit que dans l'individualit humaine; c'est l qu'il parle le plus l'intelligence, et c'est pour cela que, pour ma part, je prfrerai toujours une grande puissance musicale servie par une voix dfectueuse, une voix belle et bte, une voix dont la beaut n'est que matrielle." Ivan Turgeniev to Mme. Viardot. THE career of Olive Fremstad has entailed continuous struggle: a struggle in the beginning with poverty, a struggle with a refractory voice, and a struggle with her own overpowering and dominating temperament. Ambition has steered her course. After she had made a notable name for herself through her interpretations of contralto rles, she determined to sing soprano parts, and did so, largely by an effort of will. She is always dissatisfied with her characterizations; she is always studying ways and means of improving them. It is not easy for her to mould a figure; it is, on the contrary, very difficult. One would suppose that her magnetism and force would carry her through an opera without any great amount of preparation. Such is not the case. There is no other singer before the public so little at her ease in any impromptu performance. Recently, when she returned to the New York stage with an itinerant opera company to sing in an ill-rehearsed performance of Tosca, she all but lost her grip. She was not herself and she did not convince. New costumes, which hindered her movements, and a Scarpia with whom she was unfamiliar, were responsible in a measure for her failure to assume her customary authority. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 32979
Author: Van Vechten, Carl
Release Date: Jun 26, 2010
Format: eBook
Language: English