This is wonderful. And it goes to prove that Carol Burnett could show-up anywhere, anytime and in any show and be welcomed. She was and is one of a kind.

I love carol Burnett she always steals the stage !! That Tarzan yell is legendary !!

What a treat! I love Carol.....and Beverly. ❤️

I wonder if Carol Burnett ever watches this video, if she does, she should be very proud and happy to have put this all together and brought such happiness to millions and millions of people! Well done Carol!

@randysills4418

5 жыл бұрын

Carl Burnett did not put this all together! It was because Beverly Sills was retiring from opera. Sills and Burnett were very close friends. They had done a television special called "Sills And Burnett At The Met" in 1976. It is on U-tube...

Kitty Carlisle as the Prince? I wasn't expecting that. I'm amazed. I just remember her from game shows when I was growing up, and I knew she had a career besides that, and that she was married to a famous musician/producer; but this is a pleasant surprise. Always love Carol Burnett, and Beverly Sills certainly was a Queen.

@Sybil-RoxanneClemons

2 ай бұрын

Kitty Carlisle was an opera singer before she was on game shows

I really enjoyed this. Thanks. P.S. It is hard to believe that Kitty Carlisle is 70 years old in this.

@BethDiane

7 жыл бұрын

Well, she had been a soprano once upon a time--in the 30s! See "A Night at the Opera."

@TheVerbalVolley

7 жыл бұрын

And she sang beautifully, didn't she! God, how I miss her. She and I were friends from 1996-2007, and I saw many of her sold out concerts throughout the US when she was 90+ years of age. Gone was the confident soprano voice (it was just a bit tattered at the top range, but otherwise surprisingly strong), but in its place was this beautiful, low voice that I can't describe. It was beautiful that a woman her age could move an entire audience with just her singing voice. She even told me once that her late husband (Moss Hart, who passed on in 1961) preferred it when she sang in her low voice, rather than her operatic voice. She was an incredible lady...and I mean lady...a broad who was one of us! There was no snobbery about her at all. That is one of the reasons for her much admired charm. She treated everyone as her equal.

@BrianStarksgoogleprofile

4 жыл бұрын

@@TheVerbalVolley How was it you and Kitty Carlisle became friends, how wonderful!

@TheVerbalVolley

4 жыл бұрын

@@BrianStarksgoogleprofile Hi Brian. I was so lucky to have had her as a friend. I had always been a fan, and only watched "To Tell The Truth" to see her. My Uncle had an extensive record collection, and after he passed I found one with her singing on it. I wrote to the NYS Council on the Arts, where Kitty was Chairman Emeritus, and asked if she would sign the record album for me if I sent it to her. I also wrote of my great admiration for her. I received a handwritten note back from her stating that she would be delighted to sign it for me, and included her home address on East 64th Street in Manhattan. Our friendship grew from there. I would send her vintage costume jewelry (she loved "bling") and other gifts in the mail, and include my telephone #. We eventually started talking every week or two on the telephone. I think we got along so well because I made her laugh, which she loved to do more than anything else. Eventually, I started visiting her at her penthouse apartment. We would sit and talk and laugh and play cards. She loved gin rummy, so we played that quite often...and she insisted that we play for money! She was a bit eccentric, and I loved that side of her..

Gianna was a friend of mine, since 1979. So incredibly talented.

This was Beverly Sills farewell performance. She did not know that Carol Burnett was going to appear. This was her final performance at the nyc opera, in the same opera, die fledermaus, that she made her debut in.

@lanilindsey7693

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for saying so. I wasn't sure why it was "a sad night".

@BellaFirenze

Жыл бұрын

It was rehearsed. Carol didn't just "show up" at the performance. Are you insane?

@Perrosiutico

Жыл бұрын

As a member of New York City Opera for over 30 years, I can assure you that this farewell gala was very well rehearsed, including all the "surprise" guests, including Beverly's long-time friend Carol Burnett.

@BellaFirenze

Жыл бұрын

@@Perrosiutico I was a member of the chorus there and at the Met!

@SWSimpson

Жыл бұрын

Thank you. I did not know that so I was reading everything on this page to verify that is what was happening. You're the informative one, and I appreciate that.

It's very sad to learn that the great Gianna Rolandi (playing Adele, here) died, much too young, last week.

LOVE Gianna!!!! She was SO amazing in Cenerentola with Rocky Blake at City Op (and Alan Titus was Dandini in the same production 😊) 😎😎😎

Goodness, this is SO fun!

FABULOUS!!!!!! Thank you..........

Kitty Carlisle ❤

@MP-lq3xx

12 күн бұрын

Wow!

Carol, wonderful, as a;ways. ~ Beverly & Kitty, "I may vomit," as Sheridan Whiteside would say.

Television use to be so much better than it is now. With all the different channels available, and the amount of content being made, you'd think there would be better things now, but I don't see it. I have to look all over the place for something worth watching, and most of the time it's not as good. Weird phenomenon.

@daniellereed4022

7 жыл бұрын

Baxter

@mmjhcb

7 жыл бұрын

Baxter More is rarely better; in today's case, more is just cheap and watered down. Nor can we ever fill the shoes of the greats that were and are no more.

@hswinehart

3 жыл бұрын

Sunshine Cartoons were better too. Bugs Bunny singing Carmen was my first introduction to opera. The best!

@glummdelclitch451

3 жыл бұрын

Since about the time of this program, mankind has entered a phase of devolution. One can see the clear evidence of it, if one is not ideologically blinded, in all things. Which is why everything is now worse than it was, and will continue to get worse. That is the source of the weird phenomenon you have observed.

this is hilarious, what names, tutti grandi!!!!

Que maravilloso

Kitty Carlisle looked great but vocally she was no Regina Resnik or Jarmila Novotna

Is that Richard Fredericks as Falke?

@angusmcrandy

3 жыл бұрын

And Spiro Malas as Frank?

@Perrosiutico

Жыл бұрын

@@angusmcrandy And Alan Titus as Eisenstein and Jim Billings as the Major Domo.

@angusmcrandy

Жыл бұрын

@@Perrosiutico Thanks. And since I recognize you as old school NYCO, is that Maddie Mines on the ottoman at curtain?

Freaky. What was the gala occasion?

@aeichler

8 жыл бұрын

Beverly's retirement from singing.

@vino140

8 жыл бұрын

+Alan Eichler >>Thank you.

It's GIANNA Rolandi, not Gianni...thank you.

@aeichler

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks.

@deanbellais3649

3 жыл бұрын

Actually it's Carol...hah.

Wasnt Julie Andrews supposed to have been singing the laughing song? What a loss that we didnt hear her sing that song here! sniffle.

@franziskakre8309

5 жыл бұрын

It needs a real opera singer for that aria!

@rugby8-Philadelphia

4 жыл бұрын

No....she wasnt

@Shamsithaca

3 жыл бұрын

@@franziskakre8309 Julie Andrews is a classically trained coloratura she sang Polonaise from Mignon, materials from Rigelletto all over England, she was a hugely famous child prodigy even before stepping into the US. She also sang operetta pieces with MET bass Tozzi serveral time. hahahaha how little you know!

@Shamsithaca

3 жыл бұрын

@@rugby8-Philadelphia Julie Andrews and Domingo were to do a live televised version followed by San Francisco opera. It was all over the news at that time as a huge undertaking and people were on their toes waiting for it. Alas, it wasnt passed due to a difficult director and conflicting schedules. Domingo and Julie did a variation and cut version few bars of it as a duet for a concert and then an even shorter version for a TV show which won multiple emmys.

@rugby8-Philadelphia

3 жыл бұрын

@@Shamsithaca Yes, I know 😊

Kitty Carlisle was 71 at the time and she was terrible. A long, long way from A Night at the Opera (1935). Rolandi was exquisite. Sills and Burnett... it doesn't get better than that. They were fantastic.

@Perrosiutico

Жыл бұрын

Kitty Carlisle Hart was a trained soprano but she never had a stellar voice for opera. She did manage the not too demanding mezzo role of Orlofsky on Broadway and at the Metropolitan Opera (her only role there). She was much better suited to cabarets and nightclubs where her personality and style could make up for what her instrument lacked.

@BellaFirenze

Жыл бұрын

@@Perrosiutico I know that and more. At this performance she was terrible.

@Jasper7182009

Жыл бұрын

@@BellaFirenze … then I have a tin ear. I think Kitty Carlisle is wonderful. If you approach these types of productions with a critical eye- and ear - then you miss out on very nice and surprising performances.

@verak66

Жыл бұрын

I was suffering for her during this aria. May seem simple to sing but it needs a light, flexible touch and the comedy cannot be too broad. I always liked her but the 9I die ⁰0i995sprech stimme shouts at the end were painful. There are two verses bu⁸that which t we only heard one. A shame this is somri kill 8th gw2u tut ⁹

@MP-lq3xx

12 күн бұрын

@@Jasper7182009 agreed!

Whose idea was it to cast Kitty in a pants role? She's pretty bad.

@TheJTMcDaniel

6 жыл бұрын

Presumably Rudolph Bing, since she first sang it at the Met in 1966.

@aeichler

6 жыл бұрын

Prince Orlovsky is traditionally played by a woman.

@rugby8-Philadelphia

4 жыл бұрын

Do you have a clue? Do you know anything about performance practices of this opera? What Ms Carlisle's connection is? ......sigh.....lol

@rugby8-Philadelphia

4 жыл бұрын

@Astroboy ......shhhhhh....the grown ups are talking now

@coloraturaElise

2 жыл бұрын

It's a cameo role, and traditionally is cast with a famous person, often someone who's retired. Kitty had been an opera soprano who also sang in movies and was a panelist on a famous, long-running tv show. If you research her, you can see just who she was and what a good choice she was for this part. I think she sings a part much too low for her remarkably well for someone her age.