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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A new generation can fall in love with Beverly Sills!, January 5, 2000
This review is from: Moore / LaTouche: The Ballad of Baby Doe (Audio CD)
... and not just with Sills, but with a fine American opera as well. This is one recording which Sills fans have demanded be reissued for years. She's in glorious form here and in radiant voice throughout, (her high D natural in the "Willow Song" will knock your socks off), and the moving final scene could bring a rock to tears. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent, and though it is 30 years old now, the engineers have made this recording sound fresh and new again. This was the recording that made me fall in love with Sills many years ago, and led me to explore other operas as she recorded them. I hope that people (especially younger people) who may be put off by opera as an "alien" art form will give this set a try and listen to how wonderful a "show" this is. My money says it will lead newbies to other American classics such as Barber's "Vanessa"--but the big bucks says Sills will win you over from her entrance scene, and the effect of her dramatic characterization and beautifully unaffected singing will stay with you long after the opera's stunning final scene. This release proves once more why "Bubbles" is a national treasure!
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sills IS Baby Doe!, January 6, 2000
This review is from: Moore / LaTouche: The Ballad of Baby Doe (Audio CD)
I fell in love with this opera through this recording. I have another which claims to be the original cast ( for those who don't know, Beverly didn't create the role ), and as fine as it is, this one stole my heart. The impersonation are wonderful, and you really feel that the singers actually identify with the real historical characters on which the opera is based. This isn't just a rags to riches story, but a rags to riches to rags story. Moore's music is simply wondrous, and unlike so many English operas where the music seems at odds with the words, or extremely artificial, the words and music work perfectly with each other. I have to agree that the newer version has a better reproduction of the orchestra, but the singers are nowhere near as involved with making believable characters out of the story. This cast is one of those miracle casts that so seldom show up. Each piece is so moving and I found myself in awe from the beginning of the Willow Song clear to the lullaby that ends the opera. This later piece will leave you in tears. If one has never experienced American Opera, start with this wonderful work. It is far more delightful and melodious than Barber's Vanessa, or his Anthony and Cleopatra. Moore also wrote other works that are every bit as lovely as this. It is a super buy!
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb...this is the recording we have been waiting for!, August 11, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Moore / LaTouche: The Ballad of Baby Doe (Audio CD)
Listening to this recording again, I think back on the many wonderful roles that Beverly Sills performed/recorded...Manon, Violetta, the Donizetti heroines....but this is a "must-have" recording for opera fans. She truly owns the role, and the cohesivenss of the original production comes through very clearly. Supposedly the composer auditioned many, many sopranos for this role and after hearing Sills exclaimed "I have found my Baby Doe." When we lost her to cancer earlier this year, we lost a brilliant singer, a prima donna for the people, and a humanitarian--she used her stardom to support causes such as infantile autism, multiple sclerosis, and the education of the hearing impaired. She will be greatly missed.
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