I post this because whenever I recommend to anyone the Queen of Night, I always recommend it in the Lucia Popp rendition. It's a matter of personal taste, but what I love about this is that it is somewhat slower than the other versions and as a result, it would seem to me somewhat more difficult to perform and sustain--those high notes in which the Queen's voice becomes the Magic Flute itself are rounded, full, and deep while remaining light and airy. I have read some rather severe criticism of this ritardando; and while it may or may not reflect Mozart's intent, it is certainly within the options for staging. It creates a real vocal showpiece from what is already a magnificent example of same. It really is an amazing example of a virtuoso composition sung by a virtuoso voice. All of which should not be taken to mean that I do not truly appreciate the version posted earlier by Diana Damrau, it's just nice to see what a difference tempo can make. I think we can take
Steven,
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing the way some whackos get turned on by a weather balloon.
The best conspiracy theory that I have read is that it actually was an experimental nuclear-powered plane that crashed. Rather than give away military information to the Russians, military intelligence decided to play along with the UFO crowd by issuing contradictory or ambiguous information.
The alien was a chimp in a pressure suit. One of the problems was the radioactivity present in the craft. Appropriate shielding would have been very heavy, so they were testing the amount of exposure that the crew would experience during a flight.