DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Cecile Cooper newspaper clippings, 1966-1987 | 1981-04-14 ""UI alum Estes males Metropolitan Opera debut""

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Cecile Cooper newspaper clippings, 1966-1987

1981-04-14 ""UI alum Estes males Metropolitan Opera debut""

Arts and entertainment/The Daily Iowan 
Tuesday, April 14, 1981- Iowa City, Iowa 6

UI alum Estes makes Metropolitan Opera Debut

By Judith Green 
Arts/Entertainment Editor

NEW YORK - Simon Estes, the man with the velvet voice, made his Metropolitan Opera debut last Sunday in an all-Wagner concert, in which he sand "Wotans Abschied" the closing scene of Die Walkure

One of the foremost Wagnerian basses on the contemporary music scene. Estes has sung at Bayreuth, the Mecca of Wagnerian opera; but he has waited 10 years to make his Met debut in a part he considered substantial enough for his abilities. 
The scene from Walkure is the same work Estes sang with the UI Symphony in a benefit concert last December in Hancher. This time he was accompanied by the Met orchestra, conducted by the opera company's music director James Levine; and his duet partner was Birgit Nilsson the reigning Wagnerian soprano of international opera for 30 years. 

ESTES ATTENDED the UI from 1957-62 and has maintained an affectionate relationship with his alma mater ever since: membership in the Presidents Club, the endowment of a score of scholarships to music students, benefit performances for the music school. His sold out performance Sunday, which became a gathering of UI alumni under the sponsorship of UI Foundation, was attended by UI President Willard Boyd and Foundation officials.

Nilsson's presence in a concert virtually guarantees a sellout, and in fact, tickets for this one (at $50 for the best seats) were no longer available after the first day of sales, months ago. 
Estes sand the role of Oroveso in a 1976 Met touring production of Bellini's Norma, but the April 12 concert marks his first performance in Lincoln Center. His debut had originally been planned for an April 3 performance of Beethoven's Fidelo, in which he was to have sung the jailer; but the production was canceled when soprano Roberta Knie, the Leonore, became unavailable for the season. 

THE WAGNER concert, an unstaged performance that included vocal and orchestral selections from Meistersinger, Gotterdammerung and Tristan, was scheduled shortly after the Met resumed its 1980-81 season at the conclusion of last fall's 'musicians' strike to "add a bit of vocal glamoujr to an otherwise patchy season" as New York Times music critic Peter Davis noted. 
The Met house is an imposing box, much wider (five tiers of box seeds than it is either long or wide, outfitted in bronze and crowned with a gorgeous starburst chandelier, a gift of the Austrian government. The hall is kinder to voices than to instruments especially when as on this night, a swollen orchestra - 45 violins, eight horns, a Wagner tuba - was crammed onto the apron of the stage and backed by a shell that provided little acoustic assistance. 

ESTES AND NILSSON'S duet was a fine piece of workmanship. Like the professionals they are, neither used music, and they illustrated the text with economical but telling gestures: Wotan's outstretched hand to the daughter he must punish, which Estes sustained over 30 measures of music was a deeply moving suggestion of paternal helplessness. 
Estes's voice was its usual lustrous self, solid in the depth and brilliant on the the top - this despite his being only recently recovered from a cold. Davis praised the singer's "exceptional promise" and concluded "The magisterial tone and texture could not be more appropriate (to a Wagnerian bass-baritone)."
Nilsson's voice has never been a purely beautiful instrument, but in terms of projection - consistency of tone, the ability to cut through the orchestra and to deliver the emotional content of the text through every vowel and consonant to which it is anchored - she is matchless. The conclusion of the concert was the "Liebestod" from Tristan and Isolde, for which she is justly famed. After its sumptuous arched phrases, her final F sharp (not a high note, but a difficult one for sopranos, as it comes right at their vocal break) sustained molto piano seemingly forever, was miraculous. 

Simon Estes:
The man with the velvet voice. 

The Daily Iowan/Steve Zavodny

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Arts and entertainment/The Daily Iowan Tuesday, April 14, 1981- Iowa City, Iowa 6 UI alum Estes makes Metropolitan Opera Debut By Judith Green Arts/Entertainment Editor NEW YORK - Simon Estes, the man with the velvet voice, made his Metropolitan Opera debut last Sunday in an all-Wagner concert, in which he sand "Wotans Abschied" the closing scene of Die Walkure One of the foremost Wagnerian basses on the contemporary music scene. Estes has sung at Bayreuth, the Mecca of Wagnerian opera; but he has waited 10 years to make his Met debut in a part he considered substantial enough for his abilities. The scene from Walkure is the same work Estes sang with the UI Symphony in a benefit concert last December in Hancher. This time he was accompanied by the Met orchestra, conducted by the opera company's music director James Levine; and his duet partner was Birgit Nilsson the reigning Wagnerian soprano of international opera for 30 years. ESTES ATTENDED the UI from 1957-62 and has maintained an affectionate relationship with his alma mater ever since: membership in the Presidents Club, the endowment of a score of scholarships to music students, benefit performances for the music school. His sold out performance Sunday, which became a gathering of UI alumni under the sponsorship of UI Foundation, was attended by UI President Willard Boyd and Foundation officials. Nilsson's presence in a concert virtually guarantees a sellout, and in fact, tickets for this one (at $50 for the best seats) were no longer available after the first day of sales, months ago. Estes sand the role of Oroveso in a 1976 Met touring production of Bellini's Norma, but the April 12 concert marks his first performance in Lincoln Center. His debut had originally been planned for an April 3 performance of Beethoven's Fidelo, in which he was to have sung the jailer; but the production was canceled when soprano Roberta Knie, the Leonore, became unavailable for the season. THE WAGNER concert, an unstaged performance that included vocal and orchestral selections from Meistersinger, Gotterdammerung and Tristan, was scheduled shortly after the Met resumed its 1980-81 season at the conclusion of last fall's 'musicians' strike to "add a bit of vocal glamoujr to an otherwise patchy season" as New York Times music critic Peter Davis noted. The Met house is an imposing box, much wider (five tiers of box seeds than it is either long or wide, outfitted in bronze and crowned with a gorgeous starburst chandelier, a gift of the Austrian government. The hall is kinder to voices than to instruments especially when as on this night, a swollen orchestra - 45 violins, eight horns, a Wagner tuba - was crammed onto the apron of the stage and backed by a shell that provided little acoustic assistance. ESTES AND NILSSON'S duet was a fine piece of workmanship. Like the professionals they are, neither used music, and they illustrated the text with economical but telling gestures: Wotan's outstretched hand to the daughter he must punish, which Estes sustained over 30 measures of music was a deeply moving suggestion of paternal helplessness. Estes's voice was its usual lustrous self, solid in the depth and brilliant on the the top - this despite his being only recently recovered from a cold. Davis praised the singer's "exceptional promise" and concluded "The magisterial tone and texture could not be more appropriate (to a Wagnerian bass-baritone)." Nilsson's voice has never been a purely beautiful instrument, but in terms of projection - consistency of tone, the ability to cut through the orchestra and to deliver the emotional content of the text through every vowel and consonant to which it is anchored - she is matchless. The conclusion of the concert was the "Liebestod" from Tristan and Isolde, for which she is justly famed. After its sumptuous arched phrases, her final F sharp (not a high note, but a difficult one for sopranos, as it comes right at their vocal break) sustained molto piano seemingly forever, was miraculous. Simon Estes: The man with the velvet voice. The Daily Iowan/Steve Zavodny