Mary Costa - Bellini: LA SONNAMBULA, Final scene, High E-flat скачать в хорошем качестве

Mary Costa - Bellini: LA SONNAMBULA, Final scene, High E-flat

THE SONGBIRD: Mary Costa was born in Knoxville in 1930. When she was a teenager, she moved to California with her family and entered the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. She began singing professionally in concerts, on radio, and in commercials. She was cast as the voice of Princess Aurora in the 1959 Disney animated film "Sleeping Beauty." Costa stepped in for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at a gala concert in the Hollywood Bowl, which led to an offer for her first staged operatic production, "The Bartered Bride." She made her debut at The Met as Violetta in 1964 and continued singing there into the 1970s (Alice Ford, Manon, Vanessa, Marguerite, Rosalinde, and Musetta). Other operatic appearances included Glyndebourne, Covent Garden, and San Francisco (as Tytania in the American premiere of Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1961). In 1971, she sang Cunegonde in the inaugural production of the Kennedy Center Opera House. Her versatility, glamour, and appealing personality made her a successful guest on many television specials alongside Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis, Jr. THE MUSIC: Bellini's "La Sonnambula" is a gem in the sub-genre of sentimental Italian opera semiseria. The opera premiered in Milan in 1831 with Giuditta Pasta as Amina, the sleepwalking character referred to in the title. The role is long and contains bel canto music demanding both aching lyricism and florid fireworks. The opera culminates with an exquisite final scene that has the shape of a bel canto mad scene, but here Amina has not lost her mind -- she is merely in a melancholy trance due to her sleepwalking. The plaintive aria "Ah, non credea mirarti" is arguably Bellini's most beguiling melody. When Amina wakes up and realizes all is well, she launches into a bouncy and joyful cabaletta, "Ah, non giunge."