13 September 2007

perche un di nella reggia, m'hai sorriso

With the recent death of Pavarotti following a year in which so many other great singers have died it is starting to seem as if an entire generation is passing into history, the generation that had just retired or was edging off stage around the time I started my concert-going. As a result some of these people I knew only by recordings or a rare live performance. Pavarotti I heard live only once. He gave a recital in Boston in the late 1980s and it was already considered something of an event for him to do so. The Globe always had thorough and high-quality arts coverage, so in addition to the usual review there were some articles before and after, most of them commenting on the bond he had with the audience. There was an older black woman who survived cancer and felt that his recordings helped her to do so; she met with him after the recital and from the Globe report it sounded like a warm and, if the expression makes sense, very human meeting. The recital itself was not the singer at his best; even by then there was some bloom off the voice, and he had his music in front of him, which I have never seen at any other vocal recital. But I was still glad for a chance to hear his remarkable voice live and feel his charismatic presence. It’s too bad that in later years he became more clownish; I wonder if the magnitude of his natural gift was more than he could really bear. I remember Ms. S and I back in Boston joking that there was something morbid about our annual ticket purchases; some of them were definitely “see them while you can” shows. I heard Anna Russell once, in what was apparently her farewell tour, though of course if Anna Russell had announced a farewell tour everyone would have assumed it was a diva joke. She went through just about every one of her classic routines and gave us three hours. I was with someone who said, “Wow! She’s like the Bruce Springsteen of whatever it is she does!” And when Horowitz came to town I knew there was just not going to be another chance, so I didn't care how pricey the tickets were. He was a tiny, frail-looking man; I can still hear the thundering octaves at the end of the first half and then a very long intermission so he could lie down backstage. At some point the last person to hear Horowitz live will also pass into history. I doubt I will be that person, but I’m glad I had at least a glimpse of these remarkable performers; it’s like seeing a sketch or fragment and knowing that it gains significance from its connection with an artist’s whole body of work.

5 comments:

Civic Center said...

Wow, it's a whole new fabulously morbid genre, Dead Performers Seen Soon Before Their Deaths.

Mine: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Mstislav Rostropovich.

Love your friend's "She's like the Bruce Springsteen of whatever it is she does!" quote.

vicmarcam said...

When I was 12, I saw Bobby Sherman just months before his career died. Does that count?

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Mike, it was your entry on Rostropovich's last appearance here that made me kick myself for missing it -- I don't know how it slipped by, but some things do. No more chances now. By the way when he died I asked my god-daughter in Moscow if there was much comment there -- no, they were all absorbed in Latvia tearing down some WWII statue the Russians put up. Sad, confused world. I'm actually in the in-between generation for a lot of the 60s stars (when I was in high school and college Dylan, the Who, the Beatles, etc., were vaguely respected but in sort of a lull with the kids) but I did love Janis Joplin's voice. But the last time I tried to listen to her, a few years ago, I still loved her voice but the horrible 60s guitar and drum thing was too much for me. I think I just don't particularly like electric guitar, which is why I've never really gotten the Hendrix thing.

Vick, since you also saw Michael Jackson back when he was still a black man, I'm starting to think you're like Poe's Red Death stalking into the careers of teen idols. Here come the brides indeed.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Ha!

I saw Horowitz in the mid-70s when he made one of his reappearances. I remember the extent to which everything seemed under a microscope, but it was amazing playing.

I had an opportunity to see de los Angeles at her last SF appearance and then it got cancelled. One never knows whether it's worth going to see a 70+-year-old singer, of course. But I regret not having seen Price on her final swing through or, dammit, her last opera performances here in the early 80s. Or Nilsson's.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

When I look back, I'm surprised that during my time at Berkeley (or earlier, since I grew up in this area) I didn't even think about going to the opera. And I didn't think of going down to the Met when I lived in Boston -- I used to go down to the "legitimate" theater or musicals but not the opera house. It kills me to think of all the greatness I missed. (It's also funny to think how much time I spend now watching baseball and opera, and I never did either till years after college.) I came close to hearing Montserrat Caballe in recital in Boston, but she canceled. Catch them while you can. . . .