Well, we haven't done one of these recently (as I've frequently been reminded by our editor-in-chief), and there's no real excuse for it. However humble it may be, I hope to offer some apology with this clip (coming, as it does, from an old television show in order to curry favor with the boss).
We've talked in the past about the Bell Telephone Hour, which was a perennial in the 60s and early 70s on NBC. This clip is from, I would guess, some time in the early 60s. It features the great Joan Sutherland - not in her famed mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor, but as Ophelia in the less well-known (if no less impressive) mad scene from Thomas' Hamlet (which many of you may have seen in the theaters last season when the Met did it). I always say there's nothing like a good mad scene.
For comparison, in case you were wondering, here is the conclusion of Natalie Dessay's version, from the Hamlet production that wound at the Met (minus Dessay, due to illness):
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
