METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE DE NUEVA YORK . SIR GORGE SOLTI DIRIGE . BORIS GODUNOV -- M. MUSSORSKY .......POR RITA AMODEI

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Jerome Hines is Boris and Giorgio Tozzi is Pimen.. Two of the great basses of the 20th century in the same opera. Metropolitan Opera House April 6, 1963 Matinee Broadcast In English BORIS GODUNOV Boris Godunov...........Jerome Hines Prince Shuisky..........Paul Franke Pimen...................Giorgio Tozzi Grigory.................Nicolai Gedda Marina..................Rosalind Elias Rangoni.................Walter Cassel Varlaam.................Lorenzo Alvary Simpleton...............George Shirley Nikitich................Louis Sgarro Mitiukha................Vladimir Chistiakov Woman...................Elinor Harper Shchelkalov.............Calvin Marsh Innkeeper...............Janis Martin Missail.................Andrea Velis Officer.................John Macurdy Xenia...................Lynn Blair Feodor..................Helen Vanni Nurse...................Lili Chookasian Khrushchov..............William Stanz Lavitsky................Edward Ghazal Chernikovsky............William Zakariasen Boyar in Attendance.....Robert Nagy Dance...................Harry Jones Conductor...............Georg Solti Just look and listen at the cast. Today there are no such comparable casts. The only weak link is Lorenzo Alvari as Varlaam. In other casts of this production, Fernando Corena played Varlaam and was terrific. Even Walter Cassel who sings Rangoni would be a great Boris today. In 1963 I was just a sophmore in High School in rural Misouri, knowing nothing of opera. But in 11 years I would be friends with Jerome Hines and a member of his opera company. How strange is that? I am often asked what is the difference between the Caruso-Ponselle Generation which extended itself in Callas, Corelli, Del Monaco, Tebaldi, Siepi, Tozzi, Hines, et. Al. and the current generation of opera singers. Most critics have described tonal differences, namely that the earlier generation had better voices. While I don't disagree with that I would like to point out something more. If you listen to this Met broadcast of 1963 you will be moved by the commitment of the singers to the raw emotional force of their characters. Hines's Boris is astonishingly raw in its primitive power and the forcefulness of bringing the voice to bear on these emotions. The same could be said of the other major characters; the raw impassioned forcefulness of Gedda's Grigory for example. Artists create their characters in a higher dimension of mind which then filters down to this physical level. This is the Platonic truth of art. What is lacking today is artistic involvement in that higher level of mind. Therefore we cannot care about a word they say or a note they sing. There are some exceptions of course--thank God-- and some of them are even my students. But as a whole the opera world today is lacking the emotional commitment and the believability of the former generation, in addition to the greatness and beauty of voices of the earlier generations.