Opera Antiqua
Dec. 19th, 2003 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenfeetI am currently listening to an old recording of Dido and Aeneas. Its the Mermaid theatre production from, I think, the early 50s. Anyway Kirsten Flagstad is singing Dido, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is Belinda and Thomas Hemsley is Aeneas.
By modern standards the tempi are incredibly slow and the rhythmic pointing heavy in the extreme. Add to that voices that are much 'bigger' than would typically be cast in these roles (especially KF) and the whole thing loses much of its drama . Dido is one of my favourite operas and ES one of my all time favourite singers but this just does not work!
By modern standards the tempi are incredibly slow and the rhythmic pointing heavy in the extreme. Add to that voices that are much 'bigger' than would typically be cast in these roles (especially KF) and the whole thing loses much of its drama . Dido is one of my favourite operas and ES one of my all time favourite singers but this just does not work!
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Date: 2003-12-19 08:22 pm (UTC)