The Silver Screen Oasis

Okay, enough already. This morning the news announced the death of another great operatic talent, Régine Crespin, at age 80. Noted for her skill in mastering and humanizing Wagner's women with her warm and sensuously lovely mezzo-soprano voice, her work in the Italian and modern opera repertory shone beautifully, and was especially memorable to me in the work of her fellow Frenchman, via Ravel's Shéhérazade. Her glistening voice was moving and had a indefinable and quite unforgettable grace and elegance. Here's a link to an Opera News article about the talented lady.

With Beverly Sills and Ms. Crespin joining the throng, that heavenly choir must be a fun and exciting place to be this morning!

Moraldo, mon vieux!
I heard this entire tribute to "Bubbles" on the way home from work on NPR last night and was gonna post about it, but thank goodness you posted it first. It's well worth a second listen.

Hi Sandy,
The link that Moraldo posted includes access to Beverly Sills singing "Willow" from The Ballad of Baby Doe and I believe there is a video portion from that role as well, (though being a mere dial-up peon I can only dream...).

Sandy, are you appearing in any current theatrical ventures? Thanks for posting--your absence was keenly felt.

Gee, I wasn't going to mention La Crespin as she never made a movie. She made some television appearances, but never found her way to the silver screen. But now that you have, Moira... thank you!

When I think of Régine Crespin, the first attributes that come to mind are regal bearing, very proper, best suited to French roles. But in actuality, this is misleading. In San Francisco, she was a big success in Berlioz' Les Troyens, but she also sang German -- Elisabeth in Tannhäuser , Sieglinde in Die Walküre, and The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier (well, the latter is pretty regal, but Sieglinde lives in a tree!) -- and Italian roles -- Tosca (regal), Santuzza (earthy).

My fondest memories of her both involved dramatic death scenes. As Mme de Croissy in Dialogues of the Carmelites (one of my all-time favorite operas), her death scene was so real as to be terrifying. This wasn't a pretty death, it portrayed agony and excrutiating pain before finding peace. And as the Countess in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, she was frightened to death and later appears as the ghost. She must have had a blast with that one. I hope her own passing was less dramatic than those she portrayed on stage.

If anyone is interested, she wrote her autobiography. La Vie et l'Amour d'une Femme was published in 1982, and was later expanded and revised and republished as On Stage, Off Stage: A Memoire in 1997.

Dear Moira & Marco,

Thank you for mentioning Regine Crespin. If you hadn't, I never would have known of her death. It was not mentioned here in Cowboyville (the Calgary Stampede just started yesterday).....

I know of her work in Europe but did not know she'd played San Francisco. Brava!!

R.I.P. Madam Crespin....

Larry

Marco, thank you for the clip from Baby Doe!!

Moira, thanks for the kind words. Summer is the busiest time of year for me. I am the camp director for 2 drama camps--one is a musical theatre camp with 94 students and the other is an acting camp for high school students with only 18 campers. I also choreographed a production of Forever Plaid, and now I'm playing Marmee in Little Women the musical that opens Friday. It's hectic, but I love it.

I'm very excited about Little Women because my mother took me to see the 1949 version at the Cleveland Museum of Art when I was 9 years old. I've been a big fan of the book and various film versions ever since. Especially poignant for me because I am the youngest of 4 girls and my father passed away when I was 9 years old. So, I always felt a special kinship with the story.

Sandy K