Customer Reviews

Floyd: Susannah

5 star:		(1)
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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Phyllis Curtin's voice is impeccably suited to this music. Listen for yourself to the opening sample from "Ain't It A Pretty Night?" and let the idiomatic quality of her clear diction convince you. It's like the homespun spoken voice of Aunt Eller or Auntie Em applied to the stylings and technical expertise of a master singer (who was responsible for some phenomenal master classes, by the way). The atmospheric qualities of a live recording add to the spontaneous, incidental, convincing delivery of her words. It is truly as though we are looking in. I never tire of listening to this recording.

This recording of Floyd's Susannah is one of only two available. The other recording, which stars Cheryl Studer, is a studio recording. This one, however, was recorded live. This is the main cause for the lack of quality sound. You can still hear everything, but it's not the most pleasent sounding all the time. Ms. Curtain gives a nice performance of the title role, although her vocal quality doesn't seem to fit the character. The orchestra is almost never with the singers - this even includes the climatic moment in Susannah's beautiful "Ain't it a Pretty NIght?", which leads to great dissapointment on the listeners part. It's a nice recording to have perhaps for it's historical context, but for overall enjoyment of one of the most beautful American Opera scores ever written, I highly recommend the other recording starring Cheryl Studer and Jerry Hadley. Even with Ms. Studer's consistant flatness in pitch, her performance is exhilerating.