Performances (Garbo)
After a bit more Ouzo than usual, Garbo went over to his stereo and played Maria Callas : Casta Diva from Bellini’s Norma. His head was bowed and as it faded, he turned and said,
“I was there, I heard her sing this alive. It was a very moving moment. In Vienna where Beethoven shook boots off. In the great hall that Kokoschka painted. I walked up those gleaming marble stairs and waited for Maria. She brought Greek tragedy to the twentieth century and beyond. I don’t go to live concerts anymore; I have spoiled myself by listening to my favorite performances over and over.
You know I paint with the great music every day, every day all day for 40 or more years. So that now I have no leeway in the sound or feeling of it. Tempo tempo. There is only one tempo to Shostakovich 5th. I have to leave. Not that I am correct in my assessment of a performance. I have, as I said, denied myself the capacity to appreciate any other interpretation of Bach than Glenn Gould, and that is a very sad thing. I’m a poorer being because of it. But Gould it has to be.
But there was a time it was not so. When I heard Renata Tibaldi (Turandot) in Barcelona. You know they carried her limo as they cheered. I was speechless but she sat unruffled in the back seat and waved. Or Leontyne Price, a voice like rosewood or teak. In London I heard her make a sound like it had been resonating throughout the Universe forever.
I heard the great pianists as well: Rudolph Serkin, Richter, Gilels, Rubenstein, and Casadesus, on successive weeks in Florence during the May Music Festival. I heard Casals play in the great Cave in Rhondo. One of the enormous limestone caves in southern Spain. One cannot describe such a tremolo. I missed Toscanini but saw one of the last performances of Serge Koussevitzky. And Leonard Bernstein, I went in ready to see histrionics but found myself yelling for another curtain call. I love Lenny and prefer his Mahler to any other.
One thing more, Give me Di Stefano who makes me believe.”
Garbo was a little red in the cheeks as he finished and tossed his head as if to say ‘There I go again.’
