In 1973, after I was 13, bass-baritone Norman Treigle got here to Portland, Oregon to carry out his, by then famed, 4 villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Kenneth Reigel sang Hoffmann, Portland soprano Gloria Marinacci Cutsforth was Olympia, Karan Armstrong was Giuletta, and Linda Prepare dinner was Antonia. Music Director Stefan Minde performed the James De Blasis manufacturing. Three performances bought out and Treigle agreed to a fourth efficiency.
The star arrived in dangerous form. There have been experiences that he was too unwell to carry out. My stepfather, who was Music Editor & Music Critic for the “Oregon Journal,” went to the Benson Lodge to interview him and got here again house saying that Treigle was painfully skinny to the purpose of emaciated, fairly frail, and appeared depressed. The star mentioned that he had a foul chilly however felt as much as performing. On opening night time, a physician good friend of my mother and father, whose spouse had sung with my mom with the Portland Opera, advised us that he had been requested earlier within the day to be backstage within the star’s dressing room earlier than Treigle went on to offer him “a vitamin shot.” The star requested them earlier than every efficiency.
What a efficiency it was. I vividly recall how Treigle used stillness to make a dramatic influence. In all 4 roles, he at all times appeared to have an economic system of motion. As Dapertutto, when he sang “Scintille diamant,” he stood fully nonetheless, holding a big diamond simply out of attain above the seated Giulietta, a voluptuous Karan Armstrong. She seemed up transfixed on the diamond as he saved it – by no means shifting. For him, the aria was not about fantastic thing about line, though he definitely displayed loads of it; it was about intercourse. Later, as Dr. Miracle, after pretending to play the violin in a demonic approach, Treigle employed a deadened gaze that appeared to leap into the viewers like a menacing ghost come to life. The influence was chilling. In direction of the tip of the trio with Dr. Miracle, Antonia, and the ghost of Antonia’s mom, Treigle stood immobile, extending his lengthy arms slowly upward, drawing a frantic Antonia in direction of him as if that they had a magnetic energy, till she collapsed onto the bottom at his toes. As she lay earlier than him, he continued to look forward as if in a trance. For Dr. Miracle, he remodeled the voice into one thing chilly, penetrating, and sinister.
I attended all 4 of Treigle’s performances. Via all of it, pals and co-stars who labored on the Portland Opera and have been pals of my mother and father, mentioned with concern that the star won’t solely need to cancel the remaining performances, however may have hospitalization. As an alternative, he rallied just like the legend he was, and, for every efficiency, delivered a musical and dramatic expertise that was match for the Gods. Lower than a 12 months and a half later, Norman Treigle was useless. He was 47. For Norman Treigle, genius got here with a value. I’ve by no means been capable of finding a recording of Treigle’s Portland Opera appearances. Under is a very outstanding efficiency from New Orleans in 1964. His co-stars are Beverly Sills, in her early prime, whose dazzling Olympia often is the quickest I’ve ever heard, André Turp, and Michael Devlin:
