The theme song 'You're Dead' to the FX show What We Do in the Shadows has fostered a new appreciation for the singular talent that was Norma Tanega. And it's high time, too…Norma was discovered while singing to Catskill summer campers by producer Herb Bernstein, who brought her to Four Seasons songwriter Bob Crewe. Crewe signed her to his New Voice label, and success was instantaneous: the title song to Walkin' My Cat Named Dog went to #22 on the charts. But, despite the album's folk-pop trappings, Norma Tanega was not an artist destined to stay at the top of the charts for long; her voice was unconventional, and her songs were too idiosyncratic, not sticking to typical song structure or even meter (for example, 'No Stranger Am I' is set to a 5/4 time signature).
Callas first sang Bellini’s Norma in 1948, when she was just 25. She went on to perform the role of the heroic, but vulnerable Druid priestess –the ultimate embodiment of bel canto – more frequently than any other. In this second studio recording her conductor was again Tullio Serafin (he originally tutored her in the role in 1948),and the venue was again La Scala – where the opera was premiered in 1831. By 1960, Callas brought a wealth of new nuance to her interpretation, and she is aptly partnered by the creamy-voiced Christa Ludwig (in a rare recording of an Italian role) and the towering Franco Corelli.
A grande dame of British jazz, Norma Winstone may be approaching her 70th birthday but the east London-born vocalist shows no signs of fading into well-earned retirement just yet. Indeed, the former Azimuth figurehead and veteran collaborator with everyone from pianists John Taylor and Mike Westbrook to Ian Carr and Kenny Wheeler, has made some of the best received albums of her lengthy career during the last decade; not least 2008’s Distances, which garnered a Grammy nomination and a clutch of European jazz awards.
Pavaroti is in great voice, Caballe is brilliant, Sutherland is OK,It doesn't have the excitement of other "Norma's", but is a good addition to a "Norma" collection.
-By Thomas E. Lawson-