"The little girl is a magnificent singer.
In prerevolutionary Iran, Googoosh was Iran's Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Edith Piaf and Madonna rolled into one: not just a magnificent singer but a fashion trailblazer and a symbol of modernity.
"He was a magnificent singer, and he covered for Pinza in 'South Pacific' when he was 29 years old," said actress Marjorie Lord, a longtime friend who met the actor when the pair performed in "Anniversary Waltz" in San Francisco in 1955.
Once over the hurdle of what to focus on – the montage of imagery, the surtitles (situated impossibly high in the third act), the magnificent singers positioned around the hall, the doughty instrumentalists placed centre-stage – what really gripped one's attention was the ebb and flow of Salonen's conducting and the insightfulness of the orchestral playing.
In its first staging of Norma in its 85-year history, English National Opera has secured two magnificent singers for these ambitious female roles: in the title part, the thrilling young American soprano Marjorie Owens has the voice, musicality, stamina and stage presence to match the many who have excelled before her, from Maria Callas to Cecilia Bartoli.
Jobs Lost Where do the fabulous orchestral musicians, composers, magnificent singers, stage crews, makeup artists, costumers, lighting designers, set designers and directors fit?
BETTYE LAVETTE The magnificent soul singer Bettye LaVette's latest album, "Thankful N' Thoughtful," is an anatomy of bitter desolation, plunging deep to transform songs like Bob Dylan's "Everything Is Broken," the Black Keys' "I Ain't the One," Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" and the title song, from Sly and the Family Stone.
Magnificent soul singer Charles Bradley and his band poured every ounce of sweat into their late Saturday afternoon performance.
The magnificent soul singer Charles Bradley and his band poured every ounce of sweat into their late-afternoon performance.
In this opera, too, you get that arch, tongue-in-cheek quality: this account keeps the fairy tale from attaining quite the profundity of Wagnerian archetype despite its Wagnerian scale (and, here, the magnificent Wagnerian singers).
Ensemble, the Stephens Singers and the Magnificent Visions Gospel Singers.
