RIP Evelyn Lear

[migueldeltoro]

I was just reading Opera News today and discovered that Evelyn Lear passed away last month. Very sad. All the golden voices are passing away. Thankfully, we still have their recordings.

 

http://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2012/7/News/Evelyn_Lear.html

[BgMstr4u]

Thank you, Miguel, for flagging this. A great voice. Was she the definitive Lulu? Many prefer Stratas, but Stratas was better served in her recording, and it was the complete version. How many other singers have had the guts to make a career singing so much twentieth century, contemporary opera? Was her Marschalin ever recorded?

[migueldeltoro]

Thank you, Miguel, for flagging this. A great voice. Was she the definitive Lulu? Many prefer Stratas, but Stratas was better served in her recording, and it was the complete version. How many other singers have had the guts to make a career singing so much twentieth century, contemporary opera? Was her Marschalin ever recorded?

 

Well, unlike Stratas, I'm sure she at least showed up to the performances :-P Not to put down Stratas though, I'm a fan. Just canceled a lot and retired way before I could ever hear her live.

 

Rosenkavalier was recorded in 1976 with Carreras and Von Stade. I have not had a chance to hear it, but it's on my wishlist on Amazon. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

[whipped guy]

I too just learned about this a day or so ago when reading Opera News. Evelyn Lear was a singer about whom I always had the greatest respect. The fact that I was never really a fan had more to do with the fact that her repertory did not include many operas that were among my favorites as she concentrated mostly on 20th Century and German operas etc. Still, I always admired her for her intelligence and recall the many times that she appeared along with her husband baritone Thomas Stewart during the intermissions of the Saturday afternoon MET broadcasts... in the days when there was more substance as opposed to fluff in the intervals between acts.

[migueldeltoro]

Not to take attention away from Lear, but I'm also surprised there's no thread about the passing of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. I love his lieder recordings. Such amazing legato and such crisp diction.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/arts/music/dietrich-fischer-dieskau-german-baritone-dies-at-86.html

 

His many recordings of Winterreise are second to none.

[whipped guy]

I don't recall a D F-D thread from when he passed last May. Again a very talented and intellectual singer who concentrated mostly in the German rep, especially lieder, and specifically Schubert leider... so again not a singer to whom I was overly attracted... but an artist who I greatly respected. Still, I do have a recording of D F-D in the buffo role of Geronio in Dominico Cimarosa's 1792 comic opera Il Matrimonio Segreto... something more than off the beaten path for him... but surprisingly he pulls it off with flying colors... Incidentally the conductor is Daniel Barenboim... quite the odd couple in this sort of repertory!

[+ WilliamM]

Well, unlike Stratas, I'm sure she at least showed up to the performances :-P Not to put down Stratas though, I'm a fan. Just canceled a lot and retired way before I could ever hear her live.

 

 

Stratas cancelled twice --both at the Met-- the only times I had tickets to see her perform in person. The second time was the most disappointing moment of my opera life because I had been looking forward to seeing her for many months. But, her "Lulu" is in my top three opera recordings of all time. Sorry to take time attention away for Ms. Lear!

[whipped guy]

Well since Stratas was mentioned again... I did not see her as Lulu (not exactly my favorite opera)... but rater as Liu in Turandot (more my cup of tea) at the MET in 1992... incidentally and surprisingly that was the role she performed most frequently at the MET.

 

 

Getting back to Lear... I always did enjoy her Mozart... again more my cup of tea.

[+ Charlie]

Stratas cancelled often in later years because of her fragile health, but I never saw her give a performance that wasn't excellent. I especially remember a Nedda in Pagliacci at the Met, when she was fairly young, that was riveting.

 

I never saw Lear in person, but I, too, remember those Met broadcast intermissions with her husband that were always a pleasure to listen to.

[whipped guy]

One more thought regarding Stratas... in the Franco Zeffirelli La Traviata film I was floored by the fact that she took the E-flat in alt at the end of "Sempre libera". At any rate, if there is ever an interpolated high note that fits both musically and dramatically it is that high E-flat... I always feel cheated when the lower alternatives are taken... and I have always wondered if Stratas interpolated the note in her live performances.

[operalover21]

Thank you, Miguel, for flagging this. A great voice. Was she the definitive Lulu? Many prefer Stratas, but Stratas was better served in her recording, and it was the complete version. How many other singers have had the guts to make a career singing so much twentieth century, contemporary opera? Was her Marschalin ever recorded?

 

I don't know if she was definitive but she was up there in an opera that I really hate but that a riveting actress/singer can make you watch.