# Regina Resnik Documentary



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

An Opera-L member posted this a day or so ago. I hope you enjoy it.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I saw it a while ago and it was marvelous.


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

I found it on YouTube recently. Very interesting!


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## Aussie Verdi Lover (Jun 14, 2020)

I found it on YouTube and loved it! THANKS


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

I just finished the Resnik documentary, and shortly afterward, the Carmen documentary mentioned in the Resnik documentary popped into my recommendations. 

Perhaps you may also want to watch it: Carmen - The Dream and the Destiny


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

This documentary of Regina Resnik was astoundingly wonderful. It showed a talented, classy, consummate human being that tasted all corners of life.
It once again reminded me what a ___________(fill in the blank) Rudolf Bing could be -- such a gifted man in so many ways should be ashamed to have carried around with him such inappropriate inner prejudice against "certain types" of women singers. 

My viewing of this documentary interrupted my reading of the latest Opera News magazine about Divas, and one in which it should once again be proud. Unlike all the recent past issues of drivel this one stands proud as an example of what it was like in the old days when it was a decent magazine and not a "ragazine".
Well worth reading.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

The Opera-L community, or at least some of its members, were making disparaging remarks about Miss Resnik’s voice.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

MAS said:


> The Opera-L community, or at least some of its members, were making disparaging remarks about Miss Resnik's voice.


I've never heard the recording (people here know that I have listened to enough Carmen recordings), but it is generally panned for being a vulgar bawl-fest. (Del Monaco gets most of the flack, with Resnik being given that ultimate of half insults 'an acquired taste'.)

I only know her Klytemnestra and Madame Flora, both of which are excellent and her Sieglinde which I don't think she had the right timbre for, but I can forgive that due to her wonderful commitment in the role.

N.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

MAS said:


> The Opera-L community, or at least some of its members, were making disparaging remarks about Miss Resnik's voice.


Actually only 2 (they are friends by the way) felt that way.
To each his/her own. We cannot all love the same things. And how boring it would be.
Resnik wasn't the be all/end all of the opera world but she certainly deserved more from the Met than she got. Especially under the GM Bing.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

nina foresti said:


> Actually only 2 (they are friends by the way) felt that way.
> To each his/her own. We cannot all love the same things. And how boring it would be.
> Resnik wasn't the be all/end all of the opera world but she certainly deserved more from the Met than she got. Especially under the GM Bing.


I imagine she would have been superb in all the main Wagner and Strauss mezzo roles (I'm not sure about Octavian, but Venus and Ortrud would have been right up her street).

N.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

nina foresti said:


> Actually only 2 (they are friends by the way) felt that way.
> To each his/her own. We cannot all love the same things. And how boring it would be.
> Resnik wasn't the be all/end all of the opera world but she certainly deserved more from the Met than she got. Especially under the GM Bing.


I didn't read all of the attached comments that come with each email, too tedious by far, so I didn't count them!  I am not a fan of Miss Resnik's _per se_, but sometimes get incensed by the totally unnecessary unkind comments. And I'm definitely not a fan of *Carmen* ! I've read how unfeeling Rudolf Bing was to certain singers at the Metropolitan at the start of his reign there. He was building a stable of singers according to his tastes, and the ones he liked got very well treated. The others got one performance of a revival on an off subscription night...


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

MAS said:


> I didn't read all of the attached comments that come with each email, too tedious by far, so I didn't count them!  I am not a fan of Miss Resnik's _per se_, but sometimes get incensed by the totally unnecessary unkind comments. And I'm definitely not a fan of *Carmen* ! I've read how unfeeling Rudolf Bing was to certain singers at the Metropolitan at the start of his reign there. He was building a stable of singers according to his tastes, and the ones he liked got very well treated. The others got one performance of a revival on an off subscription night...


He was right about one thing (although he realised it too late), perhaps Callas should have been running the Met instead of him!

N.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

The Conte said:


> He was right about one thing (although he realised it too late), perhaps Callas should have been running the Met instead of him!
> 
> N.


Bing was a master of sarcasm, "... at the time, I thought *I* was running the Metropolitan." Beverly Sills realized it was not easy to run an opera company when she took on the (much smaller) NY City Opera. No, I don't think Callas would've be better than Bing.

For one, she was too blunt. Second, she was used to the _stagione_ system at La Scala (a single opera at a time until the number of agreed upon performances are exhausted). The Metropolitan's was a jumble; they could have 4 to 6 different operas in a week. The house was dark, I think, only one night per week in Bing's time. I don't think she could have handled it.

Bing was a perfectly cast _Intendant_, charming, but haughty, cold, ruthless. Someone said of him, "beneath that cold exterior, beats a heart of stone." His predecessor was a nice guy, everybody loved him, he was like a friend. Bing was The Boss through and through.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

You, of course were quite right MAS about Callas making a poor GM.
On pages 2 and 3 of Bing's successor GM, Schuyler Chapin's book, "Sopranos, Mezzos, Tenors, Basses and Other Friends" he relates a very interesting tale about the time in the winter of 1974 when George Moore, then president of the Met's board of directors, suggested that Callas should become the company's artistic director.
Knowing what a disaster it would be, Chapin devised a plan whereby he invited her to a meeting where he presented her with a detailed list of exactly what she would be getting into and when he had finished, he observed a startled look upon her face. He said, "at this point she smiled wanly and, rising from her chair, said she was flying back to Spain that evening and would report everything to George Moore...the car drove off, and I never heard another word on this subject."

Fascinating story.


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

Am I not seeing something, or does Resnik's discography seem lacking?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

adriesba said:


> Am I not seeing something, or does Resnik's discography seem lacking?


Here you are: mind you , she didn't record so much.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/search?search_query=regina Resnik&size=10&view=large


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

Rogerx said:


> Here you are: mind you , she didn't record so much.
> 
> https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/search?search_query=regina Resnik&size=10&view=large


I see. Many are live recordings and highlights albums. It seems like complete studio opera recordings she didn't do many of.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

MAS said:


> Bing was a master of sarcasm, "... at the time, I thought *I* was running the Metropolitan." Beverly Sills realized it was not easy to run an opera company when she took on the (much smaller) NY City Opera. No, I don't think Callas would've be better than Bing.
> 
> For one, she was too blunt. Second, she was used to the _stagione_ system at La Scala (a single opera at a time until the number of agreed upon performances are exhausted). The Metropolitan's was a jumble; they could have 4 to 6 different operas in a week. The house was dark, I think, only one night per week in Bing's time. I don't think she could have handled it.
> 
> Bing was a perfectly cast _Intendant_, charming, but haughty, cold, ruthless. Someone said of him, "beneath that cold exterior, beats a heart of stone." His predecessor was a nice guy, everybody loved him, he was like a friend. Bing was The Boss through and through.


I was talking in jest. Callas would have hated being GM (but would no doubt have changed things to the stagione system, it was one of her bugbears about the place. I don't think she had a thick enough skin to do it either. It was Bing's later joke about how Callas might have better managed the Met than he!

N.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Resnik was singing soprano at a time when it was a liability to be an American opera singer. By the time that situation improved with Price and her fellow black singers, Resnik's voice had darkened so that she had shifted to mezzo roles which is where most of her discography lay I believe. Her Klytemnestra is one of the greatest recording performances of the role. Where you can hear Resnik's soprano work is on Sirius Met Opera Channel if it still exists. They used to play her live performances from Sat. matinees regularly.


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