Caballe

We love this. I’m totally distracted now from annihilating every Ho-Ho in my apartment in a vain attempt to annihilate Donna Pescow from every corner of my psyche. My hips aren’t that big, are they? Well, she’s shorter than I am.

If Schiller & Verdi were the creative team behind “Dynasty”

If Montserrat Caballe was Krystle, Trapped In A Loveless Marriage To Blake But Actually Loving Her Stepson Stephen

If Grace Bumbry was Alexis, Forced To Choose Between Leaving Denver Forever Or Moving Into A Nunnery … Permanently

Then Dynasty Catfights Would Be Sung, Not Slugged

(And The World Would Be A Less Violent Place, Indeed)

dynasty

Damn. That Orange Stadium in Denver Is Windy As Hell

SALOME HEADS OFF TO SOUTH AMERICA

And Montserrat Caballe Moves Faster Than Ever Before

salome’s dance

Pair Montsy With The Herod Of Mario Lopez

And “Dancing With The Stars” Would Have To Shut-Down

“From the word go, there have been those who cannot handle watching two twins make violent love to each other on stage.” -William Berger, Wagner Without Fear.

No doubt there are far more who could not handle watching Montserrat Caballe and Richard Cassilly make violent love to each other on stage. That’s why God created “Act I of Wagner’s Die Walkure IN CONCERT.”

audio14 Act 1 of Walkure, “Du bist der Lenz” to the end (Wagner). Sieglinde: Monsterrat Caballe; Siegmund: Richard Cassilly (1977)

“E strano … Ah, fors’ è lui… Sempre libera!”, La Traviata (Verdi)

audio2

Violetta: Montserrat Caballe (1967)

One contemporary reviewer wrote that Caballe “is not a natural Violetta, and her first act proved it. Here she had to force in order to negotiate the florid passages, and the result was a coarsening of tone and good deal of breathiness.”

Perhaps. But considering the Violettas that have been foisted upon us in the intervening 40 years, all I can say is ….

“Montse, you’re fierce!”

Watching the Montserrat Caballe documentary “Caballe: Beyond Music” (Euroarts DVD), the NYC Opera Fanatic almost lost his Ben & Jerrie’s when our own Lois Kirchenbaum shows up to give her thoughts on Caballe’s 1965 Lucrezia Borgia at Carnegie Hall, Caballe’s sensational NYC debut. Lois is lookin swank too, in a Chanel-esque dark red suit with the skyline of Manhattan in the background. U go, girl.

For those of you living in ignorance, Lois Kirchenbaum is one of the few TRUE NYC Opera Fanatics. I’m merely borrowing this name until Lois needs it back. The woman goes to every performance of opera, ballet, theater, u name it. Plus Lois always meets & greets the stars at the backstage door. That’s New York hospitality {smirk}

Besides appearing frequently in Gotham opera lore, Lois is also a walking repository of New York opera history. Lois, u NEED to write your memoirs! You write stuff down and the NYC Opera Fanatic will host it on his blog, OK? We must make this oral history more than just oral. New generations of opera-lovers need to know what opera in Gotham was like before Levine!

Doesn’t our Lois look swank with Manhattan as her backdrop? Very “That Girl”. Or, rather, very “That Golden Girl”!

Bravii to two of my favorite divas! Brava Montsy! Brava Lois!

Lois on Lucrezia, 1965 (excerpted from the DVD)

So the night of the performance, I was in the lobby and there were 10’s of people selling their tickets because Marilyn had canceled. Finally we all get inside and we’re waiting for the performance and the performance begins.

I slumped in my seat (laughs) It was incredible. I had… I never thought I would hear singing quite like that. It was just … you had to be there to believe what you were hearing. … you couldn’t believe your own ears.

Just… it carried u away.. it transported you.. it was a very special sound…. a very special

Obviously Lois Kirchenbaum is one of the “many more” credited on the cover of the DVD. Domingo, Sutherland, Horne… and Kirchenbaum.