MO MARILYN: Last Friday evening, Marilyn Horne walked out onto
the stage of Carnegie Hall’s Zankel auditorium to a thunderous,
minutes-long standing ovation. Yes, it was her foundation’s 12
annual recital of extremely talented young singers, but, with the
public announcement that she was battling pancreatic cancer less
than a week old, the appreciative audience had more than music on
its mind.ð
“I know that you’ve heard,” she held up her hand, quieting the
ovation to a trembling silence, holding out the pause – the diva
toying with her audience: “Nathan Lane has laryngitis.”
The audience howled, and the tension broke.ð
The program, titled “Americans in Paris,” featured a range of
material from either French composers or others influenced by their
experiences in Gaul, including songs by Claude Debussy and Reynaldo
Hahn, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin and Leonard Bernstein, among
others.
Between numbers, Horne explained how her foundation funded
concerts both there in New York and around the country, not only to
give gifted singers the chance to sing in recital, but to bring
moving and beautiful material to audience who might otherwise not
be able to hear it.
“In fact, on this very night,” she said, a recital is taking
place “in Bradford, Pennsylvania!”ðThe crowd roared again.
“And there are some Bradfordians here in the audience tonight,”
she said, pointing to BCPAC president Jim Guelfi and Pitt-Bradford
faculty member, Tim Ziaukas, who represented their organizations at
the event (and RTS’s eyes and ears, too).
The singers included Nichole Cabell, who was a Horne Foundation
participant in Pitt-Bradford’s Spectrum Series last fall.
Mezzo-soprano and legend-in-her-own-right Frederica Von Stade
was the special guest artist. When she was finished, she turned to
Horne and asked: “Do you know how much we all love you, Jackie,”
causing another tumultuous eruption in the audience.
After the show, a few hundred on the concert attendees moved
down the street for a swanky reception and dinner in grand ballroom
of the Essex House on Central Park South. Surprise-guest Tyne Daly,
a friend of Horne’s, introduced the tireless star and brought her
up to the stage of the glittering ballroom.
Still looking great after a week of master classes and presiding
over the chief fund-raising event for the foundation, Marilyn Horne
thanked everyone for coming and announced that next year’s special
guest would by Russian star Dmitri Hvorostovsian. “And I will be
there!”
We have no doubt.
