Re: What's the best CD of Boris Godunov to buy???

VAD(?): No apology necessary. Yes...he was all over the stage...as I said
before like watching an animal on the prowl. Yes...thanks...you've made my
point exactly...he WAS larger than the chorus...the stage...than life. But
if you hadn't actually seen him in live performance...you simply cannot
understand what his art was about. Period!

Who is VAD?

Jon E. Szostak, Sr.


"David Melnick" <dmelnick@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fybqg.28727$cd2.24779@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Richard Loeb wrote:
<david7gable@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1151937448.656641.239320@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Richard Loeb wrote:



But what matters to me is the theatrical effect it has on the audience
and
the way his portrayal of this character moves and stirs the public.

"The" audience? "The" public? Are you saying that no member of the
audience or the public could possibly not be moved and stirred by his
performance? The part of a singer's acting that matters the most to me
is not the visual side but the musical side, and nothing about
Christoff's barking and grunting and "emoting" and distortion of what
Mussorgsky wrote could possibly move or stir me.

-david gable


"The part of a singer's acting that matters the most to me
is not the visual side but the musical side, and nothing about
Christoff's barking and grunting and "emoting" and distortion of what
Mussorgsky wrote could possibly move or stir me."


Ummm yes I got that impression and that means we see performances
differently, very differently - not a matter of right or wrong is it????
And do you think its proper to predict how you would react to Christoffs
performance since you never saw him live- very different from watching a
film or listening to a recording Richard




I saw Christoff in the same Chicago production Jon Szostak
was in. All I can say is that Christoff seemed to be bigger
physically than the whole chorus taken together (sorry,
Jon!), not to mention bigger in voice. For a long time I
thought it was because the LOC stinted on its production
compared to the SFO productions I'd seen in the early '50s,
but in retrospect I realized that it was Christoff's doing.
He was all over that stage, and if he was all over the score without
attention to every pitch or note value, so be it. I
knew the Dobrowen recording at the time (as well as the
Pinza LP and the Chaliapin excerpts, plus the early Bolshoi
movie). I agree with Richard Loeb about the total perf
being what counts.

Didn't we go through this discussion at length in 2001, and
again a couple of years later? I guess it's always relevant,
or at least as relevant as many others on rmo, and D7G's
citations of opinions on the history of the bugger are fun.

vad


.

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