[LJ2ME] Perfumes of Arabia
After chancing upon and coming across Shirley Verrett's Lady Macbeth yesterday, the Sleepwalking scene and aria has been playing on loop in my head, while I attempted the treacherous tessitura and sang along silently in my mind.
If a poor transfer of the what-must-have-been blistering performance had this effect on me, I cannot fathom the impact first-hand in-person. All of us harbour not-so-secret fly-on-the-wall fantasies of moments in history we would give an arm and a leg to have witnessed.
The tip of the iceberg for me would be the Caballe Carnegie Hall Lucrezia Borgia and Orange Norma to warm up with, Leontyne Price's farewell Aida at The Met and the Callas Chicago Butterfly among many, many, many others, too heartrending in recollection to mention.
That said, history is history, and unless time travel were a reality, pointless to harp on. However, what one can wear with pride are events that one has lived and breathed. Of the hundreds of shows over the years, there are some that do warrant that little bit of lingering and savouring.
That first Phantom (with more to come), the Vienna State Opera's Figaro, the David Hare trilogy and Noises Off at The Rep back in Brum, the Collegium Vocale Gent and Bach's Mass, the Wild Rice Earnest. The mind boggles at the memories that flood back.
Now if you'd excuse me, let me return to Miss Verrett.
If a poor transfer of the what-must-have-been blistering performance had this effect on me, I cannot fathom the impact first-hand in-person. All of us harbour not-so-secret fly-on-the-wall fantasies of moments in history we would give an arm and a leg to have witnessed.
The tip of the iceberg for me would be the Caballe Carnegie Hall Lucrezia Borgia and Orange Norma to warm up with, Leontyne Price's farewell Aida at The Met and the Callas Chicago Butterfly among many, many, many others, too heartrending in recollection to mention.
That said, history is history, and unless time travel were a reality, pointless to harp on. However, what one can wear with pride are events that one has lived and breathed. Of the hundreds of shows over the years, there are some that do warrant that little bit of lingering and savouring.
That first Phantom (with more to come), the Vienna State Opera's Figaro, the David Hare trilogy and Noises Off at The Rep back in Brum, the Collegium Vocale Gent and Bach's Mass, the Wild Rice Earnest. The mind boggles at the memories that flood back.
Now if you'd excuse me, let me return to Miss Verrett.