"Throughout the afternoon, [Corelli] has been in remarkably fine voice. He will tear the opening aria to tatters, but few tenors can project a transport of anxiety as convincingly as he, and few can negotiate the several exposed top notes (which many a Carlo fails to reach) with comparable security. With Herlea and Corelli trumpeting the friendship duet, decibel rivalry rather than amity is the result; the tenor determines to emerge the victor, and adds a high C at the close; if Verdi has denied Carlo his place in the Spanish sun, Corelli will provide his own....the broadcast hosts a house debut. Romanian baritone Nicolae Herlea, veteran of a decade and a half on the stages of European capitals, is in the Bastianini line [although] his instrument more resembles that of Alexander Sved, a timber-shaking baritone of the Johnson era; what a wonderful noise he makes. When Rysanek grandly limns the arched phrase which concludes the first duet with Carlo, the superior quality of her musical-dramatic instincts registers strongly. And her Elisabetta is clearly a woman with feelings - one must be ever grateful for that. Even in the grand aria of the final act, Rysanek's vocalism is apt to burst the bonds of self-possession which sustain this queen....and when she can soar in the concluding phrases of the aria, the elevated spirit of Verdi's conception is realized."
"Nicolae Herlea is a Romanian operatic baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, especially the role of Rossini's Figaro, which he sang around 550 times during his career. He studied at the Bucharest Music Conservatory with Aurelius Costescu-Duca, and later at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Giorgio Favaretto. In 1951, he won first prizes in international singing contests in Geneva, Prague, and Brussels. He made his stage debut that same year at the National Opera of Bucharest as Silvio in PAGLIACCI, quickly establishing himself as the principal baritone there.
In 1958, he began appearing abroad, particularly at the Bolshoi in Moscow, to where he regularly returned. He also made guest appearances at London's Royal Opera House (1961), La Scala in Milan (1963) and the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1964-67), and also performed at the Liceo in Barcelona, the Berlin Staatsoper, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, La Monnaie in Brussels, and in the opera houses of Prague and Budapest. Herlea also had a successful career in the concert-hall. Now retired, he gives masterclasses at the Bucharest Conservatory."
ï¿½Irene Dalis, a versatile and fiery mezzo-soprano who starred at the Metropolitan Opera for two decades before building a second career as the director of Opera San Josï¿½, an innovative company she founded in her California hometown, did not set out to be a singer or an impresario. She studied piano and music education at what was then San Jose State College before earning a masterï¿½s degree at Columbiaï¿½s Teachers College in Manhattan in the late 1940s. The plan was to go back home and teach. Yet her instructors in New York were struck by her voice and encouraged her to develop it. She began taking lessons with the mezzo-soprano Edyth Walker. Instead of returning to San Jose, she went to Italy to study voice on a Fulbright scholarship in 1951. Just two years later she made her operatic dï¿½but as Princess Eboli in Verdiï¿½s DON CARLO in Oldenburg, Germany. Four years after that, she performed the same role at the Met. Her dï¿½but at the Met, on 16 March, 1957, was ï¿½one of the most exciting of the seasonï¿½, Howard Taubman wrote in THE NEW YORK TIMES. ï¿½By the time she reached the second-act trio she showed she could sing with temperamentï¿½, Mr. Taubman said. ï¿½And in the third-act, ï¿½O don fataleï¿½, one of Verdiï¿½s greatest dramatic arias, she was like a veteran. Her voice, which has range, security and brilliant top notes, was now under full control. She sang and moved with a total absorption in the emotion of the character. ï¿½Her singing had color and fire. In terms of sheer quality there may be more sumptuous voices at the Met in the mezzo-soprano division; Miss Dalis uses hers like an artistï¿½.
For the next two decades, Ms. Dalis was among the Metï¿½s most admired performers, appearing more than 270 times and singing virtually every major mezzo-soprano part written by Verdi, Wagner, Richard Strauss and others. She was nurtured by Rudolf Bing, the Metï¿½s formidable general manager, and performed with Birgit Nilsson, Jussi Bjorling, Robert Merrill, Leontyne Price, Plï¿½cido Domingo and Leonie Rysanek.
She sang on many other stages, including at the San Francisco Opera and at Covent Garden. One of her most acclaimed performances was in 1962, when she sang the role of Kundry in PARSIFAL at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany. She said later that, under stress from a grueling schedule, she had a revelation while she was there. ï¿½I asked myself if my talent, which I had always thought so sacred, was so special after allï¿½, she recalled in 1964. ï¿½I decided it wasnï¿½t. I realized that this was just my way of making a living. I began to see that I couldnï¿½t deliver my best all the time, nobody can, and that I shouldnï¿½t punish myself for my mistakes. ï¿½I have now approached the time of life where I want to enjoy what Iï¿½m doing. Does it seem silly? It seems to me a great discoveryï¿½.