Ned Rorem in Staten Island - 29 January, 1963

from The Later Diaries of Ned Rorem 1961-1972, page 58:

There being a strong possibility that Farrell will be on my song record, I went at dawn to a rehearsal at her sunny Staten Island home. I hardly know her except as America's grandest soprano, as spouse of an Irish cop, and as devout Roman Catholic. Her approach to my songs is engrossing. Like many a last-generation diva she excels at rote more than solfège. As her accompanist plunks out the vocal line, Eileen grasps the notes independently of the text which she replaces with such personal phonetics as "Fuck your sister and your brother/ Fuck your father and your mother." Well, my …   more >>

cite as

The Later Diaries of Ned Rorem 1961-1972 (San Francisco, ), p. 58. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1420577084424 accessed: 11 December, 2024

location of experience: Staten Island

Listeners

Ned Rorem
Critic, essayist, Composer, Diarist […]
1923-

Listening to

hide composers
'The Lord's Prayer'
written by Ned Rorem
performed by Eileen Farrell
various art songs
written by Ned Rorem
performed by Eileen Farrell

Experience Information

Date/Time 29 January, 1963
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, in private, indoors

Originally submitted by iepearson on Tue, 06 Jan 2015 20:44:44 +0000
Approved on Sun, 20 Dec 2015 11:23:45 +0000