I'm so glad to have attended this performance and hear and see my former student, Florence Quivar. I think I've seen every revival of this marvelous production at the MET. I hope they never replace it.
This was a fantastic performance which I was fortunate to attend. Besides Norman and the wonderful Quivar (highly underrated), the cast included Régine Crespian (I believe it was her final role at the house), Maria Ewing, Jean Kraft, Charles Anthony, etc. Conductor Manuel Rosenthal (18 June 1904 - 5 June 2003) was a French composer and conductor who held leading positions with musical organizations in France and America.
The great Norman should have never sung this role in this production. Her diction is Sutherlandian by any account. In this pivotal scene Dexter required the New Prioress kneeling and lying prone which she could not do. Norman walked out the stage which destroyed the dramatic impact that portrays the fact that when all the nuns lie down they are the same in rank before God. In retrospect, one has to wonder if JN was already suffering from the back problems that eventually crippled her.
How amazing that you can't get past her diction and staging details to see the depth of her spirituality and sincerity in this role. How can Jessye Norman walking onto a stage destroy any dramatic impact, when her very presence is so dramatic? I just saw the most recent production of Dialogues at the Met last weekend, and the cast was positively anemic compared to the powerhouse of emotion delivered by Maria Ewing, Florence Quivar and Jessye Norman. I made both audio and video taped the 1987 performance, which I am now pleased to report can be seen on the Met Opera HD channel (if you have Apple TV). It floors me that the Met never released a DVD of the performance, but that may have something to do with the fact that it was sung in English. I am a hard core atheist, but this particular production really moves me, and leaves me in tears at every viewing. Let me take a moment to quote the letter that Ruth Gordon sent to the company after seeing the original 1977 production: "What a great experience, what a touching of the heights, and not in a theater, in an opera house. I would not believe such feeling could happen amidst crystal chandeliers up top and gold silk curtains waiting to come down. But no, nothing cam between us and faith."
Régine Crespin qui avait créé le rôle, magnifiquement repris par Jessye Norman, chantait ici le rôle de Mme de Croissy pour la dernière fois
I'm so glad to have attended this performance and hear and see my former student, Florence Quivar. I think I've seen every revival of this marvelous production at the MET. I hope they never replace it.
This was a fantastic performance which I was fortunate to attend. Besides Norman and the wonderful Quivar (highly underrated), the cast included Régine Crespian (I believe it was her final role at the house), Maria Ewing, Jean Kraft, Charles Anthony, etc. Conductor Manuel Rosenthal (18 June 1904 - 5 June 2003) was a French composer and conductor who held leading positions with musical organizations in France and America.
Do you have Regine Crespin's death scene, from this production?
The great Norman should have never sung this role in this production. Her diction is Sutherlandian by any account. In this pivotal scene Dexter required the New Prioress kneeling and lying prone which she could not do. Norman walked out the stage which destroyed the dramatic impact that portrays the fact that when all the nuns lie down they are the same in rank before God. In retrospect, one has to wonder if JN was already suffering from the back problems that eventually crippled her.
How amazing that you can't get past her diction and staging details to see the depth of her spirituality and sincerity in this role. How can Jessye Norman walking onto a stage destroy any dramatic impact, when her very presence is so dramatic? I just saw the most recent production of Dialogues at the Met last weekend, and the cast was positively anemic compared to the powerhouse of emotion delivered by Maria Ewing, Florence Quivar and Jessye Norman. I made both audio and video taped the 1987 performance, which I am now pleased to report can be seen on the Met Opera HD channel (if you have Apple TV). It floors me that the Met never released a DVD of the performance, but that may have something to do with the fact that it was sung in English. I am a hard core atheist, but this particular production really moves me, and leaves me in tears at every viewing. Let me take a moment to quote the letter that Ruth Gordon sent to the company after seeing the original 1977 production: "What a great experience, what a touching of the heights, and not in a theater, in an opera house. I would not believe such feeling could happen amidst crystal chandeliers up top and gold silk curtains waiting to come down. But no, nothing cam between us and faith."
@@423jmhouchin I completely agree with you!