LETTERS.(Letter to the Editor)

LOW RATINGS FOR "THE SOPRANOS"

How sad for a critic of Richard Dyer's astuteness to fall into the trap of confusing recorded performance with opera-house reality ["The Sopranos," March]. Montserrat Caballe's appearances as Aida at the Met were a vocal disaster; nary a hand was raised after "O patria mia," and she sang only two of five scheduled performances in the role. She received scathing reviews at Covent Garden and got booed in the part at La Scala, after which, to my knowledge, she never sang it again. Does that make her less of an Aida than Milanov, Rethberg, Destinn and Price? I should say so!

Alan Willig Little Falls, NJ

I was very disturbed after reading "The Sopranos," by Richard Dyer. How could anyone with an ounce of unbiased responsibility exclude one of the great sopranos of the twentieth century, Renata Tebaldi?

At one point, Dyer focuses on Verdi's Aida. Well, Tebaldi performed thirty-eight Aidas during her career, including the famous three at the Met during the fall season in 1955. Tebaldi's ringing power, coupled with her gorgeous pianissimo singing, created a thrilling experience. Also excluded from the article were Gabriella Tucci and Martina Arroyo. Their Verdi performances were superb. How fortunate we were to have had all these great voices during the '50s and '60s. Anyone who has the guts to tackle a complex subject such as "what makes a Verdi soprano" should cover the whole spectrum and not just spurt out some personal favorites.

Barry D. McCall Lancaster, PA

By a curious coincidence, I chose "D'amor sull'ali rosee" as one focus of a party celebrating the centenary of Verdi's death. The March issue of OPERA NEWS arrived well after I'd listened repeatedly to fourteen sopranos in this most difficult aria, many of them overlapping Richard Dyer's choices. My fourteen were Gadski, Destinn, Muzio, Raisa, Ponselle, Leider, Spani, Turner, Nemeth, Hammond, Milanov (1946), Gencer, Price (1971) and Te Kanawa.