Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Sublime and Spellbinding Singing

On Sunday evening, the Metropolitan Opera produced a Gala event designed to celebrate its 125th year and honor tenor Placido Domingo, who has sung for 40 years(!) with the company. Sadly, I didn't have the gelt required in order to attend, so I listened on the computer, via Sirius radio. The evening was mixed bag vocally, but was partly redeemed in the end by this absolutely gorgeous bit of singing from Renee Fleming. The aria is "Marietta's Lied" from the opera Die Tote Stadt, (The Dead City) by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Korngold was only 23 years old at the premiere of this opera, in Germany in 1920. You needn't know the story to enjoy this perfect moment in time, conducted by James Levine and played beautifully by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

WELL, Folks, the Metropolitan Opera pulled all of the Gala content off of YouTube, including the video I originally linked to. I have a sound clip, and post it here. Hope you enjoy it!

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