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| John R. Pierce My e-mail address: johnrpierce@yahoo.com |
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Die Zauberflöte DVD: Davis, Keenlyside, Röschmann. Alphamusic.de |
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| In the Boston Herald of December 5, 2003, T. J. Medrek wrote, "At the top of any voice-lover's list should come a gorgeous new release, 'Susan Graham at Carnegie Hall' (Erato). This disc of Graham's April 14 Carnegie recital, accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau, finds her in fabulous voice in a program of music of Brahms, Debussy, Berg and others." |
| What a bizarre picture! What is she sitting on? At first glance it looks as if she is sitting with her knees three feet apart.--JRP |
| "The opera world is seeing an abundance of good mezzo-sopranos these days, and one of them, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who made her Twin Cities [Minnesota] debut Thursday night, has risen to the top. * * * "The whole evening was an exercise in unerring taste, musicianship and well-honed skill. Lieberson's voice is the slender, sensuous type of mezzo, rather like that of Frederica von Stade. It's so well-produced, though, that she can sing softly, as she did in the first Brahms song of the night, and still be heard. She handles words in many languages with care, and she has what every recitalist needs, the ability to seize upon the central mood of a song and sustain it. She has great stage presence and an assured sense of theatricality, though her communication is always direct, without artifice." --from a review by Michael Anthony for startribune.com, December 5, 2003. --- "If Lieberson is given more opportunities like Wednesday's to demonstrate her astounding skills, she'll be more than the mezzo of the moment: She may become the next great singing star of the classical world," wrote Rob Hubbard for Pioneer Press. --- "What a voice, and how many things she can do with it! And how much more of it you get to hear live. After last night, I feel that the recordings I have are only a shadow of the real thing. From the smallest still pianissimo to that incredible forte, and such gorgeous, gleaming sound."--Chris Mansfield at lieder-l. |
| "'Let It Snow' may be short, but five songs are just enough to create a magical Christmas mood. Listening to older Christmas songs evoke memories of the past better than newer, more obscure tunes do, and Buble brings out those memories in his music while providing a new flair at the same time."--Natasha Chilingerian for the Oregon Daily Emerald. |
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| Although two feet of snow had fallen where I live, I ventured out last Sunday December 7, 2003, to attend a recital by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano, and Peter Serkin, piano, at Jordan Hall in Boston. My walk to the train station took me forty minutes instead of the ususal twenty. The train was twenty-five minutes late and was routed onto a different track so that it could not stop at Ruggles Street, but I was still able to get to Jordan Hall half an hour before the recital was scheduled to begin. I would guess that thirty to forty percent of the seats were empty because ticket-holders had decided not to leave their homes. I certainly would not have driven with such road conditions. The recital was a delightful experience. --JRP "Astounding Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Boston 12/7," by Gerald Waldman, opera-l "Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in Boston Recital," by William Fregosi, opera-l |
| December 10, 2003 "The Vienna State Opera could save a lot of money: instead of creating new productions, it might just as well make one set which can be employed for every opera ever written and plug in the same stage direction and nobody would be any the wiser. "It would also spare a different creative team from being booed at every premiere. "Christine Mielitz's new production of Der fliegende Holländer fits this generic prescription: the set possibly suggests a ship, but then it might be a gymnasium or a coal mine (it is so darkly lit it hardly matters)." --from an article by Larry L. Lash at ft.com. Very seldom do I see the need for the sets used at the opera. I'd be happy with a painted backdrop and a few props. |
| "American mezzo Vivica Genaux is one of the hottest young singers in opera, and her album of famous 'Bel Canto Arias' showcases what critics and audiences love -- peppery, precise coloratura passages, a voice that is warm and creamy in all registers, and that extra-special sparkle that elevates fine singers to the company of superstars," wrote Chris Schull for the Wichita Eagle. |
| December 18, 2003 "The vocal album of the year has to be that of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s pairing of the Bach cantatas 'Ich habe genug' ('I have enough') and 'Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut' ('My heart swims in blood'), on the Nonesuch label, with the Emmanuel Music Orchestra, conducted by Craig Smith. . . . The sentiments of these devotional masterpieces are penitential yet joyous, and this great dramatic singer makes the journey from torment to spiritual release riveting, drawing on all the emotional colors in her radiantly melancholic palette to mark each harrowing step of the way. Perhaps no singer since Callas has cut so deeply to the heart of the matter. In the case of Ms. Hunt Lieberson, she takes you in with a natural intimacy that is all-enveloping." --Charles Michener in the New York Observer. |
| In an article for guardian.co.uk about the musical high and low points of 2003, Andrew Clements named Lorraine Hunt Lieberson the outstanding individual of 2003. "Outstanding individual Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - there is no better mezzo-soprano in the world today. British audiences had two chances to hear her at her glorious best in 2003: as Irene in Theodora at Glyndebourne, and at the Proms, singing Britten's cantata Phaedra and Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex." |
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| December 24, 2003 The Metropolitan Opera's Merry Widow has improved, writes Ronald Blum for an Associated Press article. "Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and baritone Bo Skovhus are chiefly responsible. They sparkled in the season premiere Monday night, adding zest and sex appeal to Lehar's operetta." |
| Charles Michener has written an interesting article about Lorraine Hunt Lieberson for the New Yorker of January 5, 2004. |