1/ Tellya what, I own a copy of the Met Opera Record Club version of this, starring the great buffo Salvatore Baccaloni ("Some enchanted evening/I will look like Pinza/And my double chinza/Will surely disappear...") and then-young comprimario Charles Anthony as the tenor lead....
https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/1305628612905885696
2/ and also the great baritone Frank Guarrera, and I'll always value that recording. As to the opera, tho - I saw it @MetOpera starring Fernando Corena and (our reason for being there) Beverly Sills. At the famous "slap moment," Corena showed such poignant humiliation that...
3/ I immediately sympathized with silly old Pasquale and hated all the other characters. Since we're supposed to sympathize with those others and consider Pasquale nothing but an example of "no fool like an old fool," I'm outta here. That said, that evening was not a loss...
4/ bc, when we went backstage afterward, being on Bev's guest list, I also got Corena's autograph! I had seen him so many times in his Pantaloon roles in bel canto comedies, including the 1st time I was ever at the met, 15 yrs before that PASQUALE. I said "Grazie!" and....
5/his "Prego!" in response was so resounding, it made me realize that the line between a basso buffo and a basso cantante is thinner than I had thought. - So tonight, instead, I'm listening to a 1963 BARBER OF SEVILLE on @metoperaradio that happens to have been my 1st time...
6/ever at the Met. And Corena was in it! So was Frank Guarrera! Good times.
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