Film director Norman Jewison died the other day at the age of 97. What a varied career he had. Here's a cute and rather cheesy tribute to him from 1998.
And Polish contralto Ewa Podles died the other day at the age of 71. I heard her in person once, in a concert performance of Orfeo ed Euridice. There are two things I remember from that performance - - first, her virtuosic, Gattling gun aria was awe inspiring. The speed and clarity of her coloratura displayed her world class technique, one in a million. And clearly she thought the conductor's tempo was too slow for her mournful aria "Che farò senza Euridice" because she turned around and started conducting the conductor, to get him to speed things up. Don't mess with Miss Podles.
Here she is singing an aria from Rossini's Ciro in Babilonia, For a soprano the money notes are above the staff - - for a contralto they're below the staff. She sings a juicy low E sometime around 3:00.
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