Richard Temple Savage in Royal Opera House - November, 1952

from A voice from the Pit: Reminiscences of an Orchestral Musician, page 141:

Gui conducted "Norma" for Maria Callas's first appearance in this country in November 1952. She was then still stout and bespectacled but her voice was never more splendid. I was playing in the stage band, which seemed to go on for most of the opera in spite of Gui's extensive cuts, and could see the floor of the stage for the first act marked out with luminous paint so that the myopic diva could make her way safely up and down the various levels through the sacred wood to cut the mistletoe. At this time Callas made no attempt to use her latent dramatic abilities, she just stood with folded …   more >>
cite as

Richard Temple Savage, A voice from the Pit: Reminiscences of an Orchestral Musician (Newton Abbot, 1988), p. 141. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1434827990079 accessed: 29 March, 2024

location of experience: Royal Opera House

Listeners

Richard Temple Savage
clarinettist music librarian, writer, music librarian, Clarinetist, Writer
1909-

Listening to

hide composers
Norma
written by Vincenzo Bellini
performed by Covent Garden Opera Company, Maria Callas, Vittorio Gui

Experience Information

Date/Time November, 1952
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by iepearson on Sat, 20 Jun 2015 20:19:50 +0100
Approved on Sun, 20 Dec 2015 16:12:27 +0000