“CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA / PAGLIACCI : Mascagni / Leoncavallo
Original Air Date: 12/07/1985
Cast: Navarro; Behrens, Moldoveanu, Clark / Pilou, Vickers, Milnes
Media: MOD Audio SID.18210428 Tags: Archive; 2018
New wave of Wagner singer (Behrens) meets older wave (Vickers) but it’s Cav/Pag, not Wagner. Behrens’ only run as Santuzza at the Met is a distant memory for me, and she doesn’t rise to one of the great Santuzzas (now Dimitrova, not always a favorite, DOES)
Vickers’ debuted in 1960 as Canio, and this 1985 broadcast performance is his final Canio at the Met. As always Vickers does it his way. He is not quite as demented as his Colon (Buenos Aires) broadcast but if you get his message (and I do), he does great honor to his farewell at the Met to this role in his antepenultimate broadcast.”