Gianna D'Angelo

First off this is a live broadcast from 1966, Trieste. The picture is a nice black and white, and sound is in digital and DTS and is good. As for the cast, D'Angelo is very touching as Elvira, she is more of the stand and deliver singer of the old school, but that is not distracking for myself. She is a colortura soprano with a light sound, she was a student of Toti dal Monte and had a span at the MET from 1961 to 1968, where she shared productions with singers like Sutherland, Scotto, and Peters. If you like your belcanto with plenty of high notes (plenty of high d's and e's)you will enjoy her performance. Her mad scene (only slightly cut) is a high point in the performance as are all the scenes she's in. The rest of the cast is good and the Arturo Luciano Saldari sings well minus a high note or two. The main drawback here is the score is cut by over 40 mins. I am guessing that is was the tradition of the time. Overall a nice vintage performance.

“The Bell Telephone Hour” was a musical variety show that aired on “NBC” TV from 12 January 1959 to 14 June 1968 that showcased the best in Broadway, Classical, Concert, Jazz and Popular music each week. The series had its’ own house band appropriately named the “Bell Telephone Orchestra”. The show also had its’ own theme song being the “Bell Waltz” composed by “Donald Voorhees” who was also the show's Orchestra conductor. Some of the greatest violinists of the 1960’s performed on this show that aired in the old “Black & White” format. Some of these great violinists included “Erica Mornin”, “Isaac Stern", "Michael Rabin", "Ruggiero Ricci", "Yehudi Menuhin" and "Zino Francesacatti". From time to time some of the great singers and bandleaders of the 1960’s would perform on the show as well. Some of these were “Bing Crosby”, “Gordon MacRae”, “John Gary”, “Leslie Uggams”, “Mary Martin”, “Nelson Eddy”, “Patti Page” and “Roy Rogers”. The TV show followed on the heels of its’ predecessor with the same name on “NBC” radio that aired from 29 April 1940 to 1958 on Monday nights at 8 PM. The name of the show was derived from its’ Major sponsor “Bell Telephone Laboratories”. The TV version began airing on Friday nights at 8:30 PM once a month. It later was given it’s same time slot now airing every other week alternating with another show on the other weeks such as News shows and specials. The show time slot changed quite often over the years. In September 1960 it aired at 9 PM and in September 1961 it moved to 9:30 PM. In October 1963 it moved to Tuesday nights at 10 PM, September 1965 it moved to Sunday night at 6:30 PM and in September 1967 it made its' final move back to Friday night at 10 PM.