Victoria de los Angeles sang very few performances as Micaela in her illustrious career, so we are indeed fortunate to have a sample of what she sounded like. From a performance in the mid 50's, she sings perhaps the definitive version of this beautiful aria.

The exciting "Sleale" scene from Verdi's La Forza del Destino, as performed by Mario del Monaco and Ettore Bastianini, makes for incredibly thrilling listening. This scene was often omitted from performanes 40 or 50 years ago, due it's very demanding music for the tenor. del Monaco is at his best, as is the Italian baritone, Ettore Bastianin. Together they sing this scene with great slancio!!

 

Ed

Richard Tucker, in his second recording of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, sings the opening arias of this beautiful music with a combination of great vocal beauty, legato, and soaring ease in the many top notes. Price sings as glorious an entrance as I have ever heard

The great Giuseppe Di Stefano lavishes his golden voice on the famous aria, Che gelida manina, from La Boheme. To listen is to revel in this incredible sound!!

Three more tenors sing for us. Jussi Bjoerling sings an astoundingly gorgeous Amor ti vieta, from a 1957 recital, followed by the beautiful voice of Fritz Wunderlich, singing Dies Bildnis from Zauberflote, and Jon Vickers sings an interesting, non-Italianate Celeste Aida!

The beauty of Jose Carreras' voice is heard in these wonderful Italian song. His Core 'ngrato is full of fire and passion, and his Santa Lucia Luntana is meltingly gorgeous, with lovely high soft tones. Golden singing by any standard!!

The young Mario del Monaco, in some of his earliest recordings, sings arias from L'amico Fritz, Werther, and Lohengrin. He sings everything in his native Italian, and his voice and "ring" seem like young miracles of sound!!

The young Domingo sings a warmly vocalised Boheme aria from 1967, and a very moving Flower Song from Carmen in 1968.

The great prison scene, or the death of Margherita, as it is called in the score, of Boito's Mefistofele, is one of my very favorite scenes in all of opera. As sung by three of the geatest voices of the 20th century, it is  irresistible

This excerpt starts after the L'altra notte aria, so to fit in the space allowed. Tebaldi, Di Stefano, and Siepi are unequaled in this music.

Enjoy!!

Ed

The great, great Beniamino Gigli sings what I consider to be the definitive recording of Una furtiva lagrima. This was recorded in 1927, when Gigli was at the very pinnicle of his great powers.

The great Franco Corelli doing one of the many things that he did best: singing Italian canzoni. Here are "I te vurria vasa" & "Cor 'ngrato" from a live concert given in 1968. Amazing!!

From a gala concert, the great Leontyne Price sings a ravishing Depuis le jour from Louise. It's one of the most gorgeous things I have ever heard!!

This is a great baritone, who never, as far as I know, sang the role of Figaro in Barbiere. He did, however, sing the big aria, in English, at a gala concert. Here he is. Please name the voice, and tell us what you think of this performance!!

The great Richard Tucker gives his all in this thrilling rendition of the famous tenor aria from Martha. He sings it here in English, in a 1961 revival. At the final performance of the run, he sang this in the Italian that Met audiences were used to from his great predecessors , Caruso and Gigli!! I know. I was there!!!

Name the opera, and name the singers, if you can!!

Remarkable freshness of voice and joy of singing, the great Gigli give a lesson in sweet tenor singing in this beautiful aria from Elisir d'amore!!

You're good if you can name the mezzo singing the great aria from Verdi's Don Carlo, O don fatale! She is featured on many live performance recordings, but recorded very little commercially. BTW, although there is no audience, this is from a live performance done in a radio studio.

Carlo Bergonzi, well known for his great taste among Italian tenors, throws all caution to the wind, and delivers a Pazzo son that even outdoes Gigli and Tucker when it comes to sobbing, and emphasizing certain words for effect. It's great, and I love it!!!!

It doesn't get much better than this, ever in recorded history. The combination of Gigli/Rethberg/Pinza is certainly more than Golden Age. It is one of the greatest operatic recordings ever made. Listen to Gigli singing the two  high B naturals along with Rethberg, and both singers holding the notes to make it more exciting. The notes are written for the soprano, but not for the tenor. Caruso also sings these B's on his recording of this trio.

This one's for the ages!!

Ed

Here is the gorgeous trio from Verdi's I Lombardi, taken from a live broadcast of 1//31/43, with Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony, and soloists Vivian della Chiesa, Jan Peerce, and Nicola Moscona.

Name this tenor singing the cabaletta, O mio rimorso, from Verdi's La Traviata!

Here is the complete, uncut "Sleale" scene from Verdi's La Forza del Destino, as sung by those two paragons of Verdi style, tenor Carlo Bergonzi and baritone Piero Cappuccilli. The reason this duet was so often cut is mostly due is it's tremendously difficult tessitura, and dramatic outbursts by the tenor, Alvaro. He has at least 4 or 5 high Bb's, and two high B naturals near the end of the scene. And more A's and Ab's than I can count!! The conductor here is Lamberto Gardelli, who I usually like, but find quite slow in this scene.

From 1953, here is a rare recording of the final trio from Faust sung by a very young Roberta Peters, a very middle aged Jan Peerce, and a very old Ezio Pinza.

This RCA 10" LP release was taken from the soundtrack of the Sol Hurok film biography, "Tonight we sing."

Name the singer of this song. Hint: it's not Ethel Merman. She's a very famous opera singer.

Here is a wonderful rendition of the florid ending of La Sonnambula, complete with an incredible sustained high F. Who is this mystery soprano??

Here is THE great scene from Act 3 of Massenet's Werther, starting with the great tenor aria, Pourquoi me revellier. Both Villazon and Koch give their all in this exciting scene.

The best of Caballe. The lady doesn't believe in breathing it appears. This is being posted thanks to a request just received from the conductor!! A thrilling performance!!

Tenor Rolando Villazon sings an operatic concert in Paris on January 28 of this year. Presented here are four exertps.

1.  La dolcissima- Adriana

2.  L'anima stanca- Adriana

3.  Questa e quella- Rigoletto

4.  Quando le sera- Luisa Milller.

Villazon sounds wonderful in these selections. I am sure you'll enjoy this podcast!

Best wishes,

Ed

Two great duets from the Barcelona performance of Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani, from Barcelona in 1974, with Eve Queler conducting. First Domingo is joined by baritone Franco Bordoni in the exciting first tenor-baritone duet. This is followed by the soprano-tenor duet where Domingo is joined by Caballe.

Josef Schmidt sounds magnificent in this beautiful aria from Korngold's Die Tote Stadt. The recording dates from 1933.

From a recording of Carousel originally issued by RCA in 1955, the ever versatile Robert Merrill sings a glorious rendition of the great Soliloquy. Merrill was a great crossover artist long before there was such a word as crossover!! Great singing by any definition!!

It was my thrill to share the stage with the above named singers. In this scene, I, as Sciarrone, enters to give Scarpia the bad news, and Tucker laughs at me!! And then sings some Bb's that literally made my ears hurt!! What a thrill and how lucky I was to sing in a performance with my idol, Richard Tucker!!!

It was my thrill to share the stage with the above named singers. In this scene, I, as Sciarrone, enters to give Scarpia the bad news, and Tucker laughs at me!! And then sings some Bb's that literally made my ears hurt!! What a thrill and how lucky I was to sing in a performance with my idol, Richard Tucker!!! This performance was given at Hofstra College in Hempstead, NY on December 29, 1971.

The gorgeous voice of living legend Leontyne Price is heard at its pristine best is this rendition of the great aria from the last act of Verdi's Il Trovatore. This performance is from an operatic concert in 1971.

Cornell MacNeil sings the great baritone aria from Verdi's Ernani in a recital in 1975. MacNeil had been stopping the show with this aria since he first sang this opera in the late 50's in Italy, and stole the show from the likes of Price and Corelli at the Met in the 60's! Listen to the absolutely inbelievable ending!!

Cesare Siepi opened a 1975 recital with this piece, which is unfamiliar to me. I no longer have the program, and would appreciate it if somebody can identify this music for me. I believe it is from an early opera. Perhapa Monteverdi?? I really don't know. Please help me identify this selection. Siepi ends this on an incredible low D!!!

Thanks,

Ed

Name the Otello and Iago in this exciting performance of the Si! Pel Ciel duet from Act 2 of Verdi's Otello. Both had great fame in this opera!!

Name the four leading singers in this performance of the Sextet from Lucia. All were very well known, and three of the four had very long careers at the Met and other houses, and were super stars of their time. An unusual recording!!

Well, you asked for it, and here it is!! So what do you think???

Name the two singers in this performance of the Act 1 duet from Puccini's Tosca!

First we have the actual first notes sung in public by Villazon in many months, as he makes his first entrance in Werther on January 5,2008. The usually staid Viennese audience greets him with an ovation before he sings a note! Then we here him singing La Reve from Manon, on January 18, 2008.

Here is Richard Tucker officiating as Cantor for the Ya-aleh from the Kol Nidre service. I think this is incredible singing by any standard. The tremendous runs and leaps, musically, the trills, the tessitura, show why Tucker was such a great and celebrated Cantor.