Youtube thread

[Anne of Green Gables]

Another rare pearl from Carreras:

[Schigolch]

Sometimes two relevant historical singers of a given character perform together, but one of them in a still minor role.

Perhaps the best known example is the 1952 Covent Garden Norma, with Maria Callas as Norma, and Joan Sutherland as Clotilde:



But in this post, I would like rather to comment on Traviata, and a performance in Vienna, back in 1971, with Ileana Cotrubas being Violetta, and Edita Gruberova singing Flora.

This is a moving performance by Cotrubas, with all her strengths and weaknesses as Violetta, somewhat superior to her later studio recording with Kleiber and Domingo, in my view. A couple of examples:





Funny enough, neither Sutherland would sing years later Norma in a way resembling Callas (but both were great), nor Gruberova will take anything from Cotrubas's Violetta (though both were very good, but not great, Violettas):

[Schigolch]

Sometimes a not-so-great singer achieves such a rapport with a particular role, that it becomes his signature, and indeed the cornerstone of his career.

Ljuba Welitsch was also praised for her singing as Donna Anna or Minnie, but her dream role, one in which she certainly could compete with any other soprano, was of course Salome, that she rehearsed with Strauss himself in the mid 1940s.

Let's enjoy this superb singing:

[Aksel]

Here's a charming little ditty from Offenbach's La belle Helene. Also - Boobies.

[Schigolch]

Franco Margola was an Italian composer, disciple of Pizzetti and Casella, that composed a couple of operas just before the Second World War. This Il Mito di Caino was succesful, it's a nice piece, and we can watch it in youtube:

[Schigolch]

It's difficult for a succesful soundtrack composer, get the same recognition when writing opera. One of the few exceptions to this rule is perhaps Nino Rota, widely regarded as one of the best soundtrack composers of all times (I vitelloni, La Strada, Otto e Mezzo, Giulietta degli Spiriti, War and Peace, The Godfather,...) and also the author of ten operas, one of them the delightful Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze.

Premiered in Palermo, back in 1955, this is a brilliant comedy, an Italian opera buffa just in the middle of the 20th century.

We can watch it complete in youtube, with a young Juan Diego Flórez in the cast:

[Schigolch]

Italian tenor Dano Raffanti made a good career in the 1980s, when he was sometimes on the verge of stardom, but finally he never achieved lasting fame and success.

However, some of the roles he sung, were well served by Raffanti. Perhaps the best example is Rodrigo, from Rossini's La Donna del Lago:

[Almaviva]

he started the cooperation with Arrigo Boito, that will be continued in Otello and Falstaff

I believe that their work on Otello had already started (although it was very preliminary and was going very slowly thanks to an unconvinced Verdi) when they revised Simon, which was then how Verdi got finally convinced that Boito was suitable to the task of doing Otello, no?

[Almaviva]

Here's a charming little ditty from Offenbach's La belle Helene. Also - Boobies.

Not to forget some very beautiful legs. Me. Like. Me do!

[Schigolch]

Il vero melomane è colui che, udendo una donna cantare in bagno, si avvicina al buco della serratura e vi pone l'orecchio.
(E. Stinchelli)

So true...

But, hearing this heavenly voice, singing this heavenly aria, it's easier to believe one will only approach the ear!.

[Anne of Green Gables]

Makes me think that Callas shouldn't record only soprano parts on her studio recordings but prepare and record all characters of the opera by herself, transposed to her vocal range:



How about such cast:

Rigoletto - Callas
Duca - Callas
Gilda - Callas
Maddalena - Callas
Marullo - Callas
Monterone - Callas
Giovanna - di Stefano, to provide some diversity

[Almaviva]

Il vero melomane è colui che, udendo una donna cantare in bagno, si avvicina al buco della serratura e vi pone l'orecchio.
(E. Stinchelli)

So true...

I love the quote! Maybe I should dump the Stravinsky one and adopt this one! However, I don't think that *I'd* be refraining from peeking...

[Schigolch]

I believe that their work on Otello had already started (although it was very preliminary and was going very slowly thanks to an unconvinced Verdi) when they revised Simon, which was then how Verdi got finally convinced that Boito was suitable to the task of doing Otello, no?

Yes, this was the story.

Unfortunately, Boito couldn't help Verdi to write his beloved Re Lear, that will have been one of the highlights of the great composer's career.

It's not the same, but let's console ourselves hearing Aribert Reimann's Lear:

[Schigolch]

Gian Francesco Malipiero premiered his opera-trilogy L'Orfeide in 1925.

The first part, "La morte delle maschere", is a performance in the fiction of a troupe of actors playing 'commedia dell'arte'. Orpheus, that is part of the audience, masked, denounces the performance and introduces with several chords of his lyre seven characters, that will represent Mankind...

... in the second part, "Sette canzoni". Each of those 'songs' is a miniopera, based on the seven former characters. Perhaps the best one is the third, "Il Ritorno", about an old woman that had just received news of the death of his only son. This is false, but at his return, the son finds his mother cradling a doll, insane with sadness, unreachable. This is Magda Olivero singing:



The last part, "Orfeo, ovvero L'otavva canzone", is another performance, in this case from puppets, in a medieval Court. Orfeo makes everybody sleepy with his lyre and flees with a fascinated Queen.


Complete in youtube:

[Anne of Green Gables]

In 1982:



In 1986:



In both videos the Perduto ben... part begins precisely at 4:00, with argueable difference of less than one second. Karajan surely had his tempos precisely defined. That would explaing the story about that trick he did with his recordings (humming along with muted sound, then suddenly turning it on to find out that he is at the same place as the playback).