Strauss: Die Fledermaus San Diego 1980 Sutherland Sills Resnik Titus Campora Bonynge BETTER SOUND

[@davidhansel897]

Thank you for posting this! Overture: 0:00 Act 1: 08:06 Act 2: 49:57 Laughing Song: 1:05:41 Czardas: 1:22:51 Entracte: 1:39:30 Act 3: 1:40:28 Talent Aria: 1:54:51 Sherrill Milnes' Special Appearance: 2:18:41

[@davidphipps4528]

I went from Vancouver Canada specifically for the performance. The only tickets I could get were the benefit performance. And I knew Chester from the Sutherland/Bonynge years in Vancouver so we had a private backstage pass before everyone was allowed in.

[@petelovesbevsills]

Congratulations to you Akai for making this historic recording a lot more 'listenable'. If this had occurred earlier before Beverly became the general manager of the NYCO there would have been two commercial recordings of this performance. Angel and Decca were both poised and ready to record the opera with their respective leading lady singing Rosalinde with the other in the role of Adele. In the Time magazine article Beverly commented she would have to speak with Joan first before this venture took place. Sadly because of time restrictions and commitments, it didn't.

[@joshuamcpherson007]

Thank you for sharing this fun musical evening, and working to clean the recording up. This was a very special performance...I wish I had been there!

[@samueljaramillo4221]

Wonderful treat. The two great coloratura masters on the same stage.👏👏

[@elisecurran9497]

My two divas.....I would have been beside myself, had I been present!

[@wotan10950]

They were originally supposed to switch roles. Sutherland, in her memoirs, says that she and Bonynge developed a deep respect for Sills, not only musically, but because she was shuttling back & forth to New York every other day for union negotiations at the NYC Opera. Sills, in her memoirs, said that they became good friends, and that she was relieved not to rehearse two roles. Sutherland was relieved that she didn’t have to take on a new role. This really was historic, two of the bel canto queens of the 1970s

[@wotan10950]

I just realized that Leonard Frey played Frosch. He was Motel in the Fiddler on the Roof movie, and tragically died young from AIDS.

[@sutherland9]

While Sills was running the NYC Opera she engaged Richard Bonynge to conduct Norma with Olivia Stapp in the title role (if I remember correctly). That was genius. Artists who made it to the Met generally were above performing at NY City Opera.

[@wotan10950]

@@sutherland9 Yes, now I remember that! She also invited Grace Bumbry and Victoria de los Angeles to sing there. She also invited Sherrill Milnes to sing Hamlet, if I recall.

[@sutherland9]

@@wotan10950 Sills was able to get Bumbry who wanted to sing Medea and Nabucco before the New York audience and the Met was not going to stage those operas for her. Milnes sang Hamlet at City Opera. He also sang Falstaff at City Opera but that may have been after Sills had left the company. I heard that Victoria de los Angeles had sung Carmen at NY City Opera but I thought that was before Sills had become General Manager.

[@SpecialtyHorseTraining]

I was there. Sutherland, marvelous as always (I saw her several times including her fantastic Lucia di Lammermore ). Sills very shrill.

[@lukasmiller486]

I loved this performance. I wish they could have sung Turandot and Liu together in an earlier time of Sills’ career. That would have been epic and amazing.

[@blessOTMA]

Thank you!!

[@sutherland9]

I wish I had been at this performance - the sense of fun is infectious. Sills knew it was time to retire. Do you notice the tremulous quality her vibrato had taken?

[@AkaiGX]

@sutherland9 Ah yes! It started around the mid 70s. Her high D in Mein err marquis is very wobbly. But it turns out to be fine at the end of the 1st champagne area??????. Most likely the reason she didn't sing the high D in Adele's Act 3 aria.

[@samueljaramillo4221]

Must people criticize and analyze the performance. Just sit back and enjoy it.

[@sutherland9]

@@samueljaramillo4221 How does somebody who knows a great deal about the art of singing just sit back and enjoy bad singing?

[@samueljaramillo4221]

@@sutherland9 Criticizing and analyzing is nothing but self gratification. Who cares that you noticed the tremulous quality her vibrato had developed in her voice. She was in her fifties when she retired. Who cares what her voice sounded like at that time in her life after the wonderful years she brought us pleasure. Either sit back and enjoy, or don’t listen at all.

[@sutherland9]

@@samueljaramillo4221 So in your cosmos there is no difference between first rate and third rate. One should go through life with no hierarchy of values. If criticizing is only self gratification am I incorrect in criticizing a serial killer or rapist?

[@ChrisStockslager]

Such a wonderful, historic recording! It's a great shame they didn't video record it! The Alfred, Giuseppe Campora, is absolutely horrendous, though. I'm noticing how extremely flat he is in the entire first scene. Was he sick? Hired years before when he was a good singer? Shockingly bad. I'm sure Joan and Bubbles had thoughts. Lol.

[@hankcollier205]

Giuseppe Zampora? Do you mean Campora?

[@kbhprinsesse]

Sills was pretty awful.