| When I was a young boy I went and heard Gwyneth | | | | it is like in fantasia when the Elephants do the ballet |
| Jones. She was singing at the Metropolitan opera and | | | | dancing. I know the metaphor is weak, but it was like |
| it was Gotterdammerung by Richard Wagner. I will | | | | this enormous animal that had the ability and |
| never forget the feeling of when I first heard her voice. | | | | coordination to do the most amazing feats of |
| It was the most rich, enormous tone I have ever heard. | | | | dexterity. I hope that she is in a happy place. |
| I ran to Tower records and other purveyors of opera | | | | My impression of Birgit Nilsson was formed not so |
| cds. What I came up with was a little disappointing. It | | | | much from her studio recordings but from her live |
| was a recital of Giuseppe Verdi. I found her voice | | | | opera recordings. I found that I especially appreciated |
| beautiful but it was not the same experience as in the | | | | the ones from handheld mics that people snuck into |
| opera house. The opulence of tone and the size were | | | | the theater. Now, you may ask why would I prefer a |
| lost. | | | | recordings by some amateur to a state of the art |
| Perhaps this is a trait specific to large voices. I never | | | | recordings. I feel that they render the most authentic |
| heard Richard Tucker, Renata Tebaldi, Franco Corelli, | | | | experience of being in the theater. You are able to get |
| or Cornell MacNeil live in the opera house due to the | | | | a sense of what it was like when Leontyne Price |
| fact that I was unfortunately born too late. (Many of | | | | went for the High C in Aida. |
| my older friends how did see them do not see my | | | | I do however acknowledge that they are not for |
| relative youth as unfortunate. I suppose the grass is | | | | everybody. Opera CDs of live performances invariably |
| always greener.) The one singer I did get to see live | | | | have sneezing of the guy in the next seat. Technical |
| was Birgit Nilsson. It was in 1996 and she was a guest | | | | glitches often abound as well. I liken the experience to |
| speaker at the James Levine gala, She gave a nice | | | | reading an old scroll or some other historical document. |
| tribute to him replete with her signature witticisms and | | | | Of course it would be wonderful to walk around |
| quips and then she walked to the middle of the stage | | | | ancient Rome but we can't. We do have the power of |
| and sang the hojotohoes from Die Walkure. I had been | | | | imagination and those who have the curiosity have the |
| a fan of hers for years and had resigned myself to | | | | ability to consult old documents to try to recreate that |
| the fact that I would never hear her live. Obviously she | | | | experience. The imagination has a wonderful ability of |
| was way past her prime but the instrument was like | | | | filling in holes. |
| nothing I had ever heard. The only way I can describe | | | | |