Capital New York

grateful reader commented on Marilyn Horne, who ruled American opera in the 1970s, trains a new generation for a very different art

I have been a fan of Marilyn Horne since the 70s. I never had the opportunity to see her perform in person but I had her records and I saw her TV performances. But now, because of you-tube and articles such as this one that I found on the internet, I can see what a beautiful lady she is. She just glows and you can see it when she sang duets with Monserrat Caballe and when she did the duet from Mame with Federica von Stadt. You can see the warmth and the humor and you just know that if you had the good fortune to know her you would be very lucky indeed. And you can see the way she has such respect for her audience that she speaks to the people of Milan in Italian, telling them about the song that was probably the first one that Rossini wrote. So you-tube does mean a lot to me and I read the comments, although I've never participated in pretending to be a critic. And thank you Zachary for your good article and also for the excellent photo of Ms Horne.

Posted on November 18th, 2011 12:19am