Vocalist.org archive


From:  ODivaTina@a...
Date:  Thu Jan 31, 2002  12:02 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Handel arias?!

In a message dated 1/30/2002 2:41:49 PM Pacific Standard Time,
peggyh@i... writes:


> I think "Endless Pleasure" from Semele (officially an oratorio, though
> staged these days as an opera) is pretty well-known. It is even the title
> tune of one of Ruth Ann Swensen's recital CDs.
>
> I think it's great for an audition - it's in English, it's not too long, it
> has a memorable tune, and the singer can have a lot of fun with it, both
> musically nd interpretively (along with about everything else from Semele -
>

I couldn't agree more! What I love about that aria is that it is art
imitating the immediate real life, in that it is a self-absorbed beauty going
on and on about herself, displaying her vanity with cadenza after cadenza. I
just LOVE the parody of it.
And, truth be told, Ruth Ann's version of that last season in San Francisco
was one of the greatest things I have ever seen or heard. Ever. (Of course,
the most beautiful sound I have EVER heard in my entire life was her final F#
in "Always through the changing" in Baby Doe, listening from the wings.)
Unforgettable.
TinaO






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