Mozart: Scenes from Cosi fan tutte & The Impresario

Sung in English

Eleanor Steber (Madame Warblewell), Jacquelynne Moody (Madame Heartmelt), Phyllis Curtin (Fiordiligi), Jane Hobson (Dorabella), David Lloyd (Ferrando), Mac Morgan (Guglielmo), Kenneth Smith (Don Alfonso)

Arnold Gamson, Wolfgang Schauzer

Catalogue No: DVDVAI4385
Label: VAI

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Mozart: Der Schauspieldirektor, K486 (highlights)

1961; arias sung in German, dialogue & ensembles in English
Eleanor Steber (Madame Warblewell), Jacquelynne Moody (Madame Heartmelt)
Arnold Gamson

Mozart: Così fan tutte, K588 (highlights)

1956
Phyllis Curtin (Fiordiligi), Jane Hobson (Dorabella), David Lloyd (Ferrando), Mac Morgan (Guglielmo), Kenneth Smith (Don Alfonso)
Wolfgang Schauzer

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53 minutes, black & white.

These productions of Mozart’s The Impresario (1961) and scenes from Act I of the same composer’s Così fan tutte (1956) are precious mementos of an era when Opera in English opened a new frontier for American opera companies. In New York, the Metropolitan Opera increased their audience for classic operas, the New York City Opera took the lead in presenting American works, while the New York-based NBC Opera television series presented English-language productions of both old and new works from the international repertoire. Those three companies were the training-ground for the performers on this DVD, who uniformly exhibit a firm understanding of opera as theater.

The two best-known singers of the group are the esteemed American sopranos Eleanor Steber and Phyllis Curtin. Both sopranos favored a tightly focused vocal production which facilitated clear diction and dramatic thrust. Each was closely associated with and premiered works by important contemporary composers, most notably Samuel Barber (for Steber) and Carlisle Floyd (for Curtin). And they both sang Fiordiligi in the Metropolitan Opera’s landmark English-language production of Così fan tutte: Steber in the production’s premiere in 1951, and Curtin ten years later, making her company debut.

Mozart: Scenes from Cosi fan tutte & The Impresario

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