Darling Magda, a miracle, turns 100 on March 25. Recently a friend of mine spent a few hours with her in Milano..She said, "If you can breathe, you can sing!!" She sure BREATHED!!!!!

                                    With love   Charlie

Beniamino Gigli, Gianni Raimondi, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Cesare Valletti, Roberto Alagna, Carlo Tagliabue, Rosanna Carteri, Mafalda Favero, Angela Gheorghiu, Rina Gigli, and Mirella Freni   (72 min.)

.....because they want only "pretty singing' and Muti hates high notes.....Charlie

Alessandro Bonzi, Aureliano Pertile, Jussi Bjoerling, Giovanni Zenatello,
Tito Schipa, Enrico Caruso, Irene Minghini-Cattaneo, Ebe Stignani,
Elizabeth Retherbeg, Hina Spani, Esther, Mazzoleni, Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, Ezio Pinza, Nazareno De Angelis, Tancredi Pasero,
Alexander Kipnis, Ricardo Stracciari, Beniamino Gigli (w.Pinza and Rethberg.)                   (72 min.)

Just a reminder that I am uploading and also taking clips from Youtube .so many wonderful video clips.If you click on "Favorites" you will be presented with a wide variety of material, in  addition to what is there that I personally uploaded. Have fun!!!

http://www.youtube.com/mrfriendofopera#p/f

Rosanna Carteri (born December 14, 1930) was an Italian soprano primarily active in the 1950s through the mid-1960s.

Rosanna Carteri was born in Verona and studied with Cusinati and started singing in concert at the age of twelve. She won a RAI singing contest in 1948 which led to her operatic debut at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome as Elsa in Lohengrin in 1949, aged only 19. She made her La Scala debut in 1951. Other debuts were at the Salzburg Festival as Desdemona in Otello in 1952 under the direction of Wilhelm FurtwÃngler, San Francisco as Mimi in La BohÃme in 1954, the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Marguerite in Faust in 1955, the Arena di Verona as Mimi in 1958, Covent Garden as Tosca in 1960, OpÃra de Paris in 1961 as Violetta in La Traviata.

Carteri made a few recordings for Cetra early in her career, such as Matilde in Guglielmo Tell, opposite Giuseppe Taddei, La BohÃme with Ferruccio Tagliavini and Suor Angelica. She also recorded La Traviata for RCA Victor with Cesare Valletti and Leonard Warren under the direction of Pierre Monteux. She participated in several television productions for RAI such as Le nozze di Figaro, La Traviata, Otello and Falstaff.

Carteri also participated in the creation of some contemporary works such as Ifegenia by Ildebrando Pizzetti in 1950, Proserpine e le straniero by Juan Jose Castro in 1952, Calzare d'argento again by Pizzetti in 1961 and Il mercante di Venizia by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco also in 1961.

Rosanna Carteri decided to retire from singing in the mid-1960s while still only in her thirties to devote herself to her family.

Lili Pons, Mado Robin, Beverly Sills, Katya Ricciarelli, Gilda Cruz-Romo, Federica von Stade, Shirley Verrett, Antonietta Stella, Maria Chiara, Magda Olivero, Zinka Milanov, Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, Monserrat Caballe, Christina Deutekom, and Virginia Zeani.

                  ( 68 min.of carrying-on)

Maria Spacagna, Maria Dragoni, Linda Vajna, Anna de Cavalieri, Margherita Roberti, Maria Chiara, Emma Renzi, Gigliola Frazzoni,Nora de Rosa, Tiziana Fabbricini, Elena Suliotis (in photo), Clara Petrella,
Anita Cerquetti, Rosanna Carteri, and Caterina Mancini.  (68 min.)

Angeles Gulin, Lucia Aliberti, Luisa Maragliano, Josella Ligi, Mariana Niculescu, Rita Orlandi, Cesy Broggini, Ilva Ligabue, Gina Cigna (in photo), Maria Vitale, Margherita Grandi, Virginia Gordoni, Milena Dal Piva, and Maddalena Bonifaccio. (71 min.)

Maria Caniglia, Maria Nistor Slatinaru, Carla Martinis, Aprile Millo, Antonietta Stella, Leyla Gencer, AND two of the greatest "party tape divas" (Proceed at your own risk), Olive Middleton and Vassilka Petrova.

   The podcast concludes with three versions a sung by my all-time favorite singer, Zinka Milanov (1952, 1953, 1956).  (70 min.)

Eileen Farrell, Elizabeth Barbato, Stella Roman, Raina Kabaiwanska, Gre Browenstijn, Monserrat Caballe, Elinor Ross, Maria Callas, Leontyne Price, Adriana Guerrini, and Renata Tebaldi.   (71 min.)

                   More to come!!!!!!!!!!!

Mario Gilion, Eduardo Garbin, Antonio Paoli, Giovanni Zenatello, John O'Sullivan (pictured), Leon Escalais, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Bernardo De Muro, Galliano Masini, Mario Filippeschi, Gino Penno, Mario del Monaco, and Franco Corelli     (73 min.)

Piccolo Marat (w.Giuseppe Gismondo), Elisir d'amore (with Nicola Rossi-Lemeni),Mefistofele, La Boheme, La Rondine, Forza del Destino, Il Console, Tosca, and La Sonnambula, plus a brief interview.  (72 min.)

Highlights from Charpentier's "Louise." Featured are the following artists:

Georges Thill and Ninon Vallin (commercial recording) of act one opening.

Grace Moore and Raoul Jobin and Beverly Sills and John Alexander in act three scenes.

Grace Moore, Ezio Pinza, and Doris Doe In act four material.
Renee Fleming and Sam Ramey in the final scene.   (69 min.)

   Included here are selections  by:
 

      Beverly Sills, Leontyne Price, Renata Scotto,Kiri Te Kanawa, Elizabeth Grummer, Irmgard Seefried, Virginia Zeani, Diana Soviero, Renee Fleming, Renata Tebaldi, Mirella Freni, Eleanor Steber, and Bidu Sayao.
       I sincerely hope Beverly and all of you enjoy them.(65 min.)

Maxim Mikhailov  (Sadko)
Len Sibirjakov      (Prince Igor)
Fyodor Chaliapin   (Don Quixote)
Yvgenyi Nesterenko  (Life for the Czar)
Nicolai Ghiaurov (None but the lonely heart)
Paul Plishka   (Eugene Onegin)
Boris Gmyria   (Yolantha)
Mark Reizen (in photo)  Walkure
Alexander Kipnis (Tannhauser)
Alexander Pirogov (Tsar's Bride)
Sergei Aleksashkin  (Mazeppa)
                       (74 min.)

Il Trovatore, Mme.Butterfly, Manon Lescaut (with Beniamino Gigli at 60), La Forza del Destino, and many scenes from her recording of La Traviata with Paolo Silveri and Luigi Infantino.   (72 min.)

Klytaemnestra in Elektra with Inge Borgkh
Sieglinde in Walkure with Ramon Vinay and Astrid Varnay
Fricka in Die Walkure with Jerome Hines
Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera
     
        I am happy to present this podcast in honor of dear Regina Resnik"s birthday, and I know you will enjoy it as you have enjoyed my previous celebrations of her art.   (70 min.)

http://handelmania.libsyn.com

PICTURES ARE NOT PODCASTS UNLESS YOU SEE THE USUAL BUTTON AT LEFT!!!!!
(I thought it would be nice to add some photos to the site.Little by little I will delete some and add new ones.)

      (Unfortunately the role is no longer in my extensive repertory.)

 I failed to identify the first selections which are:

 "Batti,batti' from Don Giovanni, "Deh vieni,non tardar" from Le Nozze di Figaro, and an aria from Gomes' "Il Guarany."
     These selections are followed by five Brazilian folk songs, and then the Rigoletto finale w.Leonard Warren, "Mi chiamano Mimi," and the third act Mimi/Marcello Scene from la Boheme w.Giuseppe De Luca.
      Following are Juliette's Waltz song from "Romeo et Juliette," the Manon "Adieu,notre petite table" and the St.Sulpice duet with Charles Kullman.
        Concluding the podcast is the famous 1945 premiere recording (done in one take) of the Cantilena from Heitor Villa-Lobos" Bachianas brasileira," op.45.                   (74 min.)

    There are so many superb tenors in the opera world today,I thought you would like a sample of their art.They include:

Lawrence Brownlee, Eric Cutler, Jan Botha, Salvatore Licitra, Ben Heppner, Marcelo Alvarez, Ramon Vargas, Roberto Alagna, Juan Diego Flores, Jonas Kaufmann, Rolando Villazon, David Daniels (countertenor), Marcelo Giordani, Joseph Calleja, Piotr Beczala (in photo).        (70 min.)

  Arias from Tosca. Aida, Gioconda, Mme.Butterfly, Cavalleria Rusticana, Il  Trovatore.
  "Homing" by Del Riego
   "God save the King" with chorus from the live 1937 Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
     "In questa reggia" and the Riddle Scene from a live 1937 Covent Garden performance of Turandot, with Giovanni Martinelli, conducted by John Barbirolli>
         I sincerely hope you enjoy this miraculous voice.
 

Rita Streich, Hilde Gueden (in photo), Edita Gruberova, Ruth Welting, Natalie Dessay, and Beverly Sills (1912 version.)   (71 min.)

Included are Grayson Hirst, Enrico De Giuseppe, Alfredo Kraus, Luciano Pavarotti, and Juan Diego Flores.    (41 min.)

P.S. After you hear this, try it yourself...So what if your family disowns you!!!!!!

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6BLYCj3i28

   I have therefore presented a pot-pourri of mostly lyric mezzos singing some of the works tht Mme.De Vita is studying, plus some additional material I feel appropriate. The artists are:

Janet Baker, Magdalena Kozena, Joyce di Donato, Sonia Ganassi, Susan Graham, Sarah Connolly, Josephine Veasy, Elina Garanca, Viveca Genaux, Vesselina Kasarova, and (the only more dramatic mezzo), Shirley Verrett. 
      I sincerely hope this podcast will be a useful aid to Mme.De Vita's studies and we wish her our best for future success.    (70 min.)

Highlights from three recordings of Verdi's early opera, "La Battaglia di Legnano."  I wish they would perform this fine work more often. The three casts are as follows:

Caterina Mancini, Amadeo Berdini, Rolando Panerai
Antonietta Stella, Franco Corelli, Ettore Bastianini
Leyla Gencer, Giovanni Gibin, Ugo Savarese
                                 (56 min.)
                             

Enrico Caruso, Dino Borgioli (abridged), Jan Peerce, Jerry Hadley, Neil Shicoff, Rolando Villazon, Jose Carreras, Giacinto Prandelli, Giacomo Aragall, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Sandor Konya, Hipolito Lazaro, Giuseppe Lugo (In French), Gianni Raimondi, and Roberto Alagna.
                             (74 min.)

Mario del Monaco, Franco Corelli, Carlo Bergonzi, Jon Vickers, James King, Rene Kollo, Jonas Kaufmann, Wolfgang Windgassen, Peter Schreier, Lauritz Melchior, Set Svanholm, Stephen Gould, and Jose Carreras. (66 min.)
      
       Let us wish these young artists our best, and let us praise Mme.Zajick, one of opera's greatest treasures, for her efforts.
     

Die Meistersinger       Hannelore Bode, Karl Ridderbusch
Fliegende Hollander    Anja Silja, Franz Crass, Josef Greindl
Tristan und Isolde       Birgit Nilsson,Wolfgang Windgassen
Parsifal                       Peter Hoffman, Waltraud Meier
Lohengrin                   Anja Silja, Astrid Varnay, Ramon Vinay
Tannhauser                 Wolfgang Windgassen, Grace Bumbry
Das Rheingold              Theo Adam, Erwin Wohlfart
Die Walkure                 Leonie Rysanek
Siegfried                       Birgit Nilson, Wolfgang Windgassen
Die Gotterdamerung      Birgit Nilsson, Thomas Stewart, Josef Greindl
                                 (71 min.)

Best way to get this is to use this link!!!!!!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00159679S?ie=UTF8&coliid=&ref%5F=olp%5Ftab%5Fnew&me=&qid=1248454681&qid=1248454681&sr=1-1&sr=1-1&seller=&colid=&condition=new

        The selections are from Verdi's "Il Corsaro," Giordano's "Andrea Chenier," and Puccini's "Edgar."

   The album is on the KLEOS Classics label,Number KL5149 and you might search on Helicon Records Site.

  (I get NO commission!!!!)

Mme.Butterfly  1941  w. Armen Tokatyan, John Brownlee, and Lucille Browning.

Manon  1951  with Giuseppe Di Stefano

           All our best to this great lady!!!!!!!!!

                          (66 min.)

(**  without high notes) 

    This podcast, the second in his honor, features songs by Verdi, Caccini, De Curtis, Schubert, and Donizetti plus arias from Martha, La Boheme, Il Trovatore, Tosca, La Forza del Destino, L'Arlesiana, Mefistofele, and I Lombardi.
     Bergonzi always ended his recitals with "Non ti scordar di me," and we will surely never forget him!

                                      (71 min.)

Go to the above link to watch and listen to Stephen Costello, one of opera's finest young artists, as Romeo. Stephen will be the recipient of this year's Richard Tucker award, and will be singing in the Tucker Gala in November. Those of us who have followed his career,including his Met Edgardo, will attest to the fact that he is one of the brightest lights on the opera scene.  ENJOY!!!!!     Charlie

http://images.google.com/images?sa=4&imgc=&imgsz=&q=color+opera+source%3Alife

Sorry to report that Ms DiDonato slipped over on the raked stage last
night during Act 1 of Barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden and broke
the tibia bone in her leg. It was opening night and the
accident happened during a recitative with Figaro (after "Una voce poco
fa"). She was rushing over to the corner of the stage and just seemed to
fall without any obvious reason, landing in a heap. She
continued to sing the recit, although noticeably much more quietly than
usual and then got up afterwards, carrying on as normal but obviously
with something not right about the way she was walking
Before Act 2 started an announcement was made that she had sprained her
ankle, was in a great deal of pain but would bravely struggle on
nonetheless. She re-appeared on crutches, hobbling around the
stage with the help of her colleagues JDF and Ferruccio Furlanetto.
Ironically, the first line she had to sing in Act 2 was the recit
claiming that she had cramp in her foot - and the entire audience
exploded into laughter, clapping and cheering for almost a minute. Her
singing was flawlessly brilliant throughout and she kept on smiling - a
real trooper. She even negotiated a very difficult scene where
Rosina goes on a furniture-trashing rampage during the temporale
- knocking over a chair, a harpsichord, a music stand and a huge
cupboard. She used her crutch to violently smash one of the
stage lights - it was very funny.

Elsewhere in the cast, JDF turned in another stunning display of
technical virtuosity and his "Cessa di piu resistere" brought the house
down - the applause went on for nearly 5 minutes and everyone was
screaming for an encore that never happened. Alessandro
Corbelli and Furlanetto were also brilliantly funny as Dr Bartolo and
Don Basilio respectively and Pietro Spagnoli was a very respectable
replacement for an indisposed Simon Keenlyside as Figaro

It was a fantastic evening - really funny and the musical standards were
truly extraordinary. When I got home I read on Joyce's blog
that her leg was actually broken and is now in a plaster cast - but she
valiantly intends to go on with the rest of the performances regardless.
Brava!

   THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So many singers are up there sick or injured, and we never know...That is the miracle of these great artists and what they do for us!!!!

GO HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://parterre.com/2009/07/07/but-cha-are-joyce/

Songs by Borodin and Tchaikowsky
Falla's Siete Canciones Populares
Arias from:
            Semiramide, Favorita, Gioconda, Maid of Orleans,Les Huguenots, Samson et Delilah, The Damnation of Faust.
                                      (71 min.)

                Rita Hunter - Brunnhilde
                Norman Bailey -Wotan
                Margaret Curphey- Sieglinde
                Alberto Remedios - Siegfried
                Anne Collins - Erda
                Derek Hammond-Stroud -Alberich
                Aage Haugland - Hagen
                                  (75 min.)

Arias by Nelly Melba, Fernando de Lucia, Tancredi Pasero, Francisco Vinas (in photo.) (In Italian)
The Bridal Duet with Renata Tebaldi and Gino Penno (Italian)

  Emili Vendrell singing the farewell.  (Catalan).

  Marjorie Lawrence and Yvonne Brothier in act 2 scene (French)

   Scenes with Ivan Koslovsky, Elisaweta Schumskaya, and a great mezzo, Eugenia Smolenskaya.   (75  min.)

Ludwig Weber, Gottlob Frick, Erich Kunz, Paul Schoeffler, Hans Hotter, Julius Patzak, Anton Dermota, Rudolf Schock,Irmgard Sefried,Elizabeth Schumann, Maria Stader, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Erika Koth, Elizabeth Grummer, Maria reinging (in photo), Inge Borgkh, Sena Jurinac, Gre Brouwenstijn, and Leonie Rysanek. (75 min.)

   Mme.Eggerth is heard in "Mi chiamano Mimi," songs from Lehar's "Zarewitsch," "Die ganze Welt" (Lehar), and from a 1992 Vienna concert in 1992, at age 80, "Das Lied ist aus."(Stolz.).
    She is then heard in a Merry Widow Medley and "Wien,Wien" from a 2002 gala.(Amazing!!!).
      The podcast concludes with Eggerth and Kiepura singing the "Neapolitan Duet" from Lehar's "Der Zarewitsch," ending on a fabulous  piano  high C by the great tenor.   (68 min.)

        Virginia just told me this was released!!! I am so thrilled they added the great Zeani to their fabulous library of great artists. Go to Amazon.com..Only 14.99....TRUST ME!  You will love it!! Charlie

Bella siccome un angelo (Don Pasquale)
Cruda funesta smania and cabaletta  (Lucia)
Albert's aria from Werther
Avant de quitter  (Faust)
Scintille,diamant (Contes d'Hoffmann)
O Holy Night  (Adam)
Mamma, mamma  (Most Happy Fella)
Pierrot's Lied  (Tote Stadt)   
                         (36 min.)

Renata Scotto, Carlo Bergonzi,Mario Zanasi  (1970)
Renata Tebaldi, Giacinto Prandelli, Gino Orlandini  (1952)
Maria Callas, Alfredo Kraus, Mario Sereni  (1958)
Licia Albanese, Richard Tucker, Leonard Warren  (1954) 
Joan Sutherland, Giacomo Aragall, Sherill Milnes  (1970)
Diana Soviero, Carlo Bergonzi, Garbis Boyagian  (1983)
Virginia Zeani, Aldo Bottion, Franco Bordini  (1967)
                                    (75 min.)

Lohengrin   Wolfgang Windgassen
Elsa            Birgit Nilsson (age 36)
Ortrud         Astrid Varnay
Telramund   Herman Uhde
King Henry   Theo Adam

               I trust you will enjoy this podcast, and I will always select certain works to highlight for you. (72 min.)

Can you imagine that at 99 Magda Olivero can still sing??

 This is a brief scene from Francesca da Rimini.

    I am so touched.....  Cent'anni,Magda!!!!

 Maria di Rudenz:
             Mattia Battistini   "Ah! Non avea piu lagrime."

Linda di Chamounix:
              Rosina Storchio     "Oh luce di quest'anima"

Lucrezia Borgia:

               Carlo Albani       "Di pescatore ignobile"
Don Sebastiano:
                Alfred Piccaver    "Deserto in terra."

La Favorita:
                Aureliano Pertile  "Una vergine"
                 Giacomo Lauri-Volpi   "Spirto gentil"
                 Riccardo Stracciari   "Vien,Leonora"
                 Sigrid Onegin      "O mio Fernando"
                  Ezio Pinza         "Splendon piu bel in ciel."
                  Marcel Journet   " Balthazar Aria"(In French)
 L'Elisir d'amore:
                   Fernando de Lucia and Ernesto Badini  Duet,act one.
                    Tito Schipa "Una furtiva lagrima"
Don Pasquale:
                     Giuseppe Anselmi     "Sogno soave e casto"
                     Olympia Boronat      "So anch'io la virtu magica"
                      Lucrezia Bori and Giuseppe de Luca     Duet
Lucia di Lammermoor:
                      Luisa Tetrazzini   Act One arias
                                         (74 min.)

Birgit Nilsson        Isolde
Wolfgang Windgassen   Tristan
Grace Hoffman      Brangaene
Gustav Neidlinger   Kurvenal
Otto von Rohr        King Marke
                                                 (71 min.)

             From time to time, I glance at the stats and just feel so rewarded at your responses and interest in these podcasts. I guess it is the "teacher in me" that makes me feel  so glad that I am spreading the word as to what is out there..the great artists of past and present who make our lives so treasurable by virtue of their remarkable talent.
             Again, I wish to express my thanks to you, and will continue to honor your requests, while adding some of my ideas.

                                                 Love     Charlie

Salome, Ariadne, Elektra, Aegyptische Helena, Die Frau Ohne Schatten

   I know these excerpts will thrill you as much as they thrilled countless audiences for so many years.

                    (71 min.)

Piero Cappuccilli,Gino Bechi, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Cornell MacNeil (in photo), Sherrill Milnes, and Leonard Warren.

                                                      (75 min.)

                                            (50 min.)

    "Lasciate ogni speranza voi che ascoltate!"

       This is the party recording of all time, the second and third acts of Tosca, as recorded on Remington records in 1950. It was the dawn of the LP era, although this recording made things sem more like "Gotterdamerung."
          The Tosca is Vassilka Petrova, who paid for this recording, and the unsuspecting Eddy Ruhl and Piero Campolonghi complete the cast.
           If you are a purist and/or have any sensitive little animals in the room, I advise you not to listen;otherwise, please "enjoy" the great Petrova, whose high C's are almost as good as mine were.
                                   (69 stunning mintues)

  Sena Jurinac, Regina Resnik, Eugenio Fernandi, Ettore Bastianini, and Boris Christoff, and is conducted by Nello Santi.

                                      (72 min.)

Anne Evans and Siegfried Jerusalem (in photo)  (Barenboim)
Hildegard Behrens and Reiner Goldberg   (Levine)
Martha Moedl and Ludwig Suthaus    (Furtwaengler)
Nadezda Kniplova and Gerald McKee   (Swarowsky)
Helen Traubel and Set Svanholm       (Stiedry)
Birgit Nilsson and Hans Hopf  (Kempe)
                                  (73 min.)

Turandot, Medea in Corinto (photo with Charlie), Cavalleria Rusticana, Marin Faliero, Il Trovatore.
   The tenors are:   Harry Theyard (Turandot)
                            Jerry Lo Monaco (Trovatore)
                            Placido Domingo (Cavalleria)

                                      (70 min.)

           Nabucco, Salome, Ballo in Maschera, Medea

                                          (72 min.)

    Reminder: Volume One is in the archives on 12/28/07

                                    ( 67 min.)

Grace Bumbry/Jon Vickers
Regina Resnik/Placido Domingo
Rise Stevens/Mario DelMonaco
Rise Stevens/Giuseppe DiStefano
Giulietta Simionato/Franco Corelli (In Italian)
Ebe Stignani/Beniamino Gigli  (In Italian)
Irina Arkhipova/Mario DelMonaco (In Italian and Russian)
                              (70 min.)

Tosca,Tote Stadt, Oberon, Suor Angelica, Tales of Hoffman, Eugene Onegin, Aida,Turandot, Pagliacci, and Cavalleria Rusticana.

                                         (71 min.)

Zinka Milanov
Mario del Monaco
George London
Blanche Thebom
Jerome Hines

     Conducted by Fausto Cleva              (68 min.)

Martha Moedl- Isolde
Ramon Vinay-Tristan
Ira Milaniuk-Brangaene
Hans Hotter-Kurvenal
Ludwig Weber- King Marke
Herman Uhde- Melot

                                                (72 minutes)

Peter Anders  (1908-1954)
Josef Schmidt (1904-1942) (In photo)
Fritz Wunderlich (1930-1966)

Also, the great Richard Tauber (1891-1948)

                                   (68 minutes)

Elena Nicolai (Bulgarian mezzo with a HUGE voice!)

Elena Nikolaidi (Greek mezzo with a luscious voice.)

       I hope you enjoy this podcast, especially if you are as big a mezzo fan as am I.                         (71 min.)

                                                        My best  Charlie

(Note:In my narration, the Macbeth aria comes AFTER the Don Fatale.)

Lawrence Tibbett,Elizabeth Rethberg, Giovanni Martinelli, Ezio Pinza, and, in his debut season, Leonard Warren, conducted by Ettore Panizza.
                                           (70 min.)

As I indicated, please feel free to request any specific performances and I will surely comply with your wishes.
                                                  My best always,
                                                          Charlie
    

Meta Seinemeyer (1895-1929)
Conchita Supervia (1895-1936)
Claudia Muzio (1889-1936)
Maria Cebotari  (1910-1949)
Kathleen Ferrier  (1912-1953)
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954-1996)
Mado Robin  (1918-1960)
Arlene Auger  (1940-1993)
Lucia Popp  (1939-1993)
Tatiana Troyanos (In photo) (1938-1993)
Maria Callas  (1924-1977)
                                           ( 71min.)

  Cavalleria exc. 1957 w.Tucker,Valentino,Elias,Votipka (Cleva)

   Voi lo sapete from 1951
   
    Voi lo sapete, duets w.Giuseppe Gismondo and Benjamin Rayson from 1963 (Her last Santuzza)                   (71 min.)

Cari amici,

About 40 long years ago, I attended the first rehearsal of Donizetti's "Anna Bolena," at the home of our illustrious maestro and one of my mentors in life, Armen Boyajian. Marisa Galvany (one of her many phony names) was the Bolena (and I loved looking down her throat to see where those phenomenal E flats came from). Then there was this young dude named Sam Ramey, who opened his mouth and out came some of the greatest sounds we ever heard.

Gee... maybe he will make it some day, we all exclaimed! Now, as we celebrate Sam's 25th anniversary at the Met, and a 40 year professional career, singing an incredible range of roles and becoming one of the opera icons of our time, we feel so fortunate that he left Kansas to find an "Oz" of magic all over the opera world.

I therefore wish to celebrate with you Sam's Met anniversary, and a fabulous career. I still relish those old tapes of our Bartolo/Basilio and am so fortunate I was able to be in on a tiny part of an illustrious career.

I recall Sam once telling us about that skinny chain-smoking guy with the enormous voice by the name of Norman Treigle, and how he admired him. Well, they did so many of the same roles (Mefistofele, Boris,Blitch,Escamillo,

The Hoffmann villains,Don Giovanni, Figaro,etc.). Happily, Sam Ramey has been able to follow along in this tradition, with so many great performances of a huge number of roles,a remarkable number of recordings, and engagements in every important opera theatre in the opera world.

So..a happy 25th Met anniversary to a dear sweet and brilliantly talented guy and all my best to him and to his lovely wife and son (who also has a high F#...and more!)

With my sincerest best wishes       Charlie

Excerpts are from  Italiana,Lombardi,Rinaldo,Attila, Mefistofele, Comte D'Ory, Semiramide,Susannah, South Pacific.

                             (65 min.)

Giuseppe Anselmi, Enrico Caruso, John McCormack, Hipolito Lazaro,
Alessandro Bonci, Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa, Aureliano Pertile,
Andre D'Arkor, Dino Borgioli, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Josef Schmidt,
Giuseppe Di Stefano, Jussi Bjoerling, Carlo Bergonzi, Piotr Beczala.
                                        (71 min.)

Featured are songs, and arias from Otello,Germania,Samson et Delilah, Mme.Butterfly, Andrea Chenier, Pagliacci, and Martha.
                                         (73 min.)

Viorica Ursuleac/Margarit Bokor/ Alfred Jerger  (the 1933 creators of their roles.)
Lotte Lehmann Kate Heidersbach (Act One duet only.)
Karita Mattila/Barbara Bonney ( Act One duet only.)
Kiri Te Kanawa/Gabrielle Fontana/Franz Grundheber
Lisa Della Casa/Elfride Trotschel/Herman Uhde
Lisa della Casa/ Hilde Gueden/George London
Montserrat Caballe/Oliviera Miljakovic/Siegmund Nimsgern
Eleanor Steber/Hilde Gueden/George London In English)
                            (63 min.)

Riccardo Stracciari, Giuseppe Danise, Paolo Silveri, Heinrich Schlusnus,
Mario Sereni, Aldo Protti, Richard Paul Fink, Renato Bruson,
Giuseppe Taddei, Cornell MacNeil, Piero Cappuccilli,
Ettore Bastianini, and Leonard Warren In photo).
                                        (70 min.)

1.Softly and gently  (Elgar:The Dream of Gerontius)
2. Where corals lie   (Elgar:Sea Pictures)
3.The Enchantress (Hatton)
4.The Leaves and the Wind (Cooper)
5.The Sweetest flower that blows (Hawley)
6. Barbara Allen (Traditional)
7. Kathleen Mavourneen (Crouch)
8. Ye Banks and braes (Scottish air)
9.The Promise of life (Cowen)
10.En priere (Faure)
11.The Birth of the flowers(Lehmann)
12. Lusinghe piu care (Handel:Alessandro)
13. Rend'il sereno (Handel:Sosarme)
14. Ombra mai fu (Handel:Serse)
15, In questa tomba oscura (Bethoven)
16.Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix (Samson et Delilah)
17. Che faro senza Euridice (Orfeo)
18.  Brindisi from Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti)
                       ( 66 min.)

Zinka Milanov(in photo),Giangiacomo Guelfi,Franco Corelli
Renata Tebaldi, Tito Gobbi, Ferruccio Tagliavini
Renata Tebaldi, Ettore Bastianini, Giuseppe Di Stefano
Renata Tebaldi, Leonard Warren, Richard Tucker
Diana Soviero, Tony De Paolo, Harry Dworchak
Olive Middleton, Ed Watts, Chi Sa??

                        (73 minutes)

Maria Zamboni/Francesco Merli
Licia Albanese(Met farewell)/Richard Tucker
Berthe Montmart/Alain Vanzo
Adriana Guerrini/Beniamino Gigli (at 60)
Raina Kabaiwanska/Giuseppe Giacomini
Renata Tebaldi/Placido Domingo
Magda Olivero/Richard Tucker

   (Photo: Daniela Dessi and Fabio Armiliato)

                                      (63 min.)

Renata Tebaldi.Mario Del Monaco
Virginia Zeani/Richard Tucker
Pilar Lorengar/James King
Raina Kabaiwanska/Placido Domingo
Dorothy Kirsten/Carlo Bergonzi
Hoerdis Schymberg/Jussi Bjoerling
Renata Tebaldi/Richard Tucker
                                       (The photo is from the Met,featuring Marcello Giordani and Karita Mattila.)                (69 min.)

 Tenors:  Boris Slovstov, Yvgenyi Vitting, Lev Klement'yev,
     Vasily Damayev, David Yuzhin(and wife), Dmitri Smirnov (in photo), Leonid Sobinoff.

Baritones:Nikolai Shevelyov, Oscar Kamionsky, Maximian Maksakov

    The International artists are:
Emile Scaramberg, Giuseppe de Luca, Antonio Magini-Coletti
(with Giannina Russ), Adamo Didur, Francesco Vignas, and
Leon Escalais.               ( 66 min.)

Beverly Sills, Gina Cigna, Montserrat Caballe, Joan Sutherland,
Zinka Milanov, and Maria Callas.

                                    (74 min.)

Rosa Ponselle, Elena Suliotis, Christina Deutekom, Renata Scotto, Shirley Verrett, and Anita Cerquetti.

                                      (73 min.)

Nabucco, Giovanna D'Arco, Attila, Ernani, Ballo in Maschera,
Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra, La Traviata, Il Trovatore,
Don Carlo, Luisa Miller, Vespri Siciliani, Aida, and Falstaff.
                                 

                                     (74 min.)

Lucia,Traviata,Barbiere,Werther, Manon, Rigoletto, La Favorita,
Romeo et Juliette, Don Giovanni, and Faust.
                                 (73 min.)

    Werther, Luisa Miller, Le Roi D'Ys, Forza Del Destino (original version), Elisir D'amore, L'Arlesiana, Martha, Mefistofele, the Verdi Requiem, and several songs.
     
     Bergonzi always ended his recitals with "Non ti scordar di me," and that is appropriate because he will NEVER be forgotten!

                                (73 min.)

Astrid Varnay,Helen Traubel, Lotte Lehmann, Nanny Larsen-Todsen,
Rita Hunter, Johanna Meier, Margaret Harshaw, Martha Moedl,
Birgit Nilsson, and Kirsten Flagstad.
                                             (73 min.)

Magda Olivero,Renata Tebaldi, Aprile Millo, Diana Soviero, Montserrat Caballe,Mafalda Favero,Renata Scotto,Leyla Gencer(Phedre only), and
Nelly Miricioiu (Phedre only.).

                                 70 min.)

Renata Scotto/Frank Guarrera
Luisa Maragliano/Giangiacomo Guelfi
Mirella Freni/Calvin Marsh
Victoria de los Angeles/Robert Merrill
Victoria de los Angeles/Renato Capecchi
Trude Eipperle/Karl Kronenberg(In German)
Raina Kabaiwanska/Matteo Manuguerra
Bidu Sayao/Giuseppe Valdengo
Renata Tebaldi/Frank Guarrera
Diana Soviero/Allan Monk
Rosetta Pampanini/Gino Vanelli
Licia Albanese/Afro Poli
Rosanna Carteri/Giuseppe Taddei
                             (70 min.)

Victoria de los Angeles, Montserrat Caballe, Conchita Supervia, Maria Barrientos, Hina Spani, Maria Galvany, Mercedes Capsir, Pilar Lorengar, Oralia Dominguez, Ramon Vinay, Miguel Fleta, Placido Domingo, Jose Palet, Hipolito Lazaro, Emile Vendrell, Antonio Cortis, Francisco Vinas, and Jose Mardones.

                               (73 minutos)

Thomas Hampson,Bryn Terfel, Kip Wilborn, Dorothy Kirsten, Rise Stevens, Sumi Jo, Maureen Forrester, Dorothy Bishop, Thomas Quasthoff, Rene Fleming, Federica Von Stade, Placido Domingo,
Diana Soviero (at 17), Regina Resnik, Renata Tebaldi,Cesare Siepi, and the famous Burnette/Horne/Farrell trio.

                       (72 min.)

         Magda Olivero,Virginia Zeani, Maria Farnetti, Rosetta Pampanini,
         Pia Tassinari, Claudia Muzio, Maria Zamboni,
          Bianca Sciacciati, Hina Spani, Mafalda Favero, Rosanna Carteri,
          Licia Albanese, Angela Gheorghiu, Renata Scotto, and Diana 
          Soviero.   (64 min.)

   Do you like the idea of my sending you to some sites to sample some of the great clips tht exist? Let me know,because it is a nice feature, and you get to become jealous of what I saw live!!!!
    Mario del Monaco had a "bronze column of sound" that in my view was unmatched by any tenor I ever heard. Bottom to middle to top...the man was a phenomenon;he never faked it, gave 1000%, and remains one of the great tenors of my generation.

                               Charlie

P.S. He once almost deafened me for life when he came out the stage door and said, "Hello,boys!" Imagine what it was like to rehearse with him (without earplugs.)

Frieda Leider, Lauritz Melchior, Friedrich Schorr, Emil Schipper, Margarete Klose, Florence Austral, Florence Easton, Walter Widdop, Germaine Lubin, Charles Rousseliere, Andre Verdiere, Ludwig Hoffmann, Ludwig Weber, Maria Olzsewska .
                               (69 min.)

1. Arlene Saunders/Gianpiero Mastromei
2. Olivia Stapp/Mastromei
3.Johanna Meier/Cornelius Opthof
4 .Eleanor Steber/Giangiacomo Guelfi
5. Marilyn Zschau/John Shaw
6. Magda Olivero/Guelfi
7. Aprile Millo/Marco Chingari
8. Gigliola Frazzoni/Tito Gobbi
9. Renata Tebaldi/Guelfi  (RAI)
10.Renata Tebaldi/Anselmo Colzani

Link to the Youtube video featuring Irina Rindzuner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvx5irtKov8

                   (59 min.)

A reminder of my video site for those who have not visited it.

                          As ever   Charlie

     DelMonaco  1951-1960
     Corelli          1961-1976
     Tucker         1951-1975
       
    They sing in Tosca,Fanciulla,Trovatore,Turandot,and Pagliacci

                I saw them a total of about 150 times, and my memories are vivid and clear. I will tell you that audiences were astounded by their brilliant voices, and as much as I like many tenors of today, no one has come along with this "brand" of squillo!!!!!    (70 min.)
               

  The operas represented are:
     Werther,Luisa Miller, Rigoletto, La Boheme, Tosca.
                                    (71 min.)

Orfeo,Tristan und Isolde, Alceste, Samson et Delilah, Don Carlo, Gotterdamerung, Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, Lohengrin, Elektra, Die Walkure     (64 min.)

Leonie Rysanek, Birgit Nilsson, Regina Resnik, Christa Ludwig,
Leyla Gencer, Shirley Verrett, Maria Callas, Rita Hunter, and
if you go to the following link, you can see the CBC video of this scene with Marisa Galvany.    (71 min.)

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Maria+Galvany&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=Marisa%20Galvany&hl=en&emb=0

P.S. On the Marisa Galvany page,you will hear some excerpts from the soprano Maria Galvany, whose rapid-fire staccati are legendary, if also rather strange.

Giulietta Simionato, Ebe Stignani, Fedora Barbieri, Regina Resnik,
Shirley Verrett, Ketty Lapeyerette, Fiorenza Cossotto, Gloria Scalchi, Vesselina Kasarova, and Rise Stevens.
         
               So, who is your "favorita?"               (68 min.)
  

Rosa Ponselle,Giovanni Martinelli, Enrico Caruso, Sigrid Onegin, Ernstine Schumann-Heink, Beniamino Gigli, Lotte Lehmann, Emmy Destinn, Lawrence Tibbett, John Charles Thomas, John McCormack, Alma Gluck, Elizabeth Schumann, Richard Crooks, and Claudia Muzio

                                      (59 min.)

                                   (68 min.)

Romeo et Juliette, Fidelio, Zauberflote, Die Meistersinger,
Lohengrin, The Demon (Rubenstein), Das Rheingold, and
Tristan und Isolde. (Who goes to a Tristan for a King Marke???)
                                      (50 min.)

Leonie Rysanek,Hilde Konetzni, Rita Hunter, Lotte Lehmann,
Regina Resnik, Marjorie Lawrence, Helen Traubel, Regine Crespin,
Margaret Curphey.

                                 (72 min.)

                     The selections are from:
Ernani, Queen of Sheba, Cavalleria, Fidelio    (soprano repertory) Carmen, Walkure, Falstaff, Le Cid, Pique Dame, Boris Godunov,
The Medium, Ballo in Maschera, and a hilarious "Chacun a Bing's Gout"
at the Farewell Gala for Rudolf Bing.

                               (72 min.)
      
   

Amfortas:  Paul Schoeffler, George London,Thomas Stewart, Thomas Quasthoff.

Gurnemanz and Parsifal:    Hans Hotter/Jon Vickers,
  Franz-Josef Selig/Placido Domingo, Franz Crass/Sandor Konya
  Ludwig Weber/Wolfgang Windgassen, Alexander Kipnis/Rene Maison.

                                   (74 min.)

Erie Mills/Kristin Sigmundsson
Licia Albanese/Ezio Pinza
George Hann/Margarete Teschemacher
Italo Tajo/Dorothy Kirsten
Bryn Terfel/Angela Gheorghiu
Samuel Ramey/Diana Soviero
Cesare Siepi/Victoria de los Angeles
Jerome Hines/Hilde Gueden
Nicolai Ghiaurov/Mirella Freni
                    
                                 Have fun!!!!!   (71 min.)

                                   My best   Charlie

                              (63 min.)

                                  My best   Charlie

                                         (73 min.)

Emile Marcellin, David Devries, Agustarello Affre, Jose De Trevi,
Jean Anzani, Paul Goffin, Guy Cazavena, Cesar Vezzani,
Jose Luccioni, Raoul Girard, Gaston Micheletti, Rene Verdierre,
Louis Delaguerriere,Eugene De Creuse, Maurice Capitaine,
Edmond Rambaud, Josef Rogatchewsky, Miguel Villabella (in photo),
and Georges Thill.

                     I sincerely hope you enjoy these wonderful artists!

                                  (73 min.)

Selections are from:   Cavalleria Rusticana, Rienzi, Lohengrin,
   Elijah, Samson et Delilah,Adriana Lecouvreur, Andrea Chenier,
   Manon, Carmen (w.Resnik), Iris, Otello, Luisa Fernanda, El Trust ,     and a beautiful rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

       Our most sincere congratulations to Mr.Domingo for all he has
        achieved in the music world.

                                    (73.min.)

                     I know you will enjoy this album as much as I did. If you have any comments, please forward them to me and I will forward them to Mr.Beczala.                         My best   Charlie
P.S.  GO HERE:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Handelmania&emb=0&aq=f#q=Handelmania%20Beczala&emb=0

Renato Bruson, Gian-Giacomo Guelfi, Carlo Bergonzi, Mirto Picchi, Leyla Gencer, Margarita Castro-Alberty, and Linda Vajna. (71 min.)

                    )

1.Silvano Isalberti  "Stelle d'oro" (Denza)
2.Carlo Dani   "Le Reve"  (Manon)
3.Giulio Crimi  "O mio picciolo tavolo" (Zaza)
4.Carlos Mejia  "Ecco ridente"   (Barbiere)
5.Wilhelm Herold   Fra Diavolo Aria  (Auber)
6.Bjorn Talen    Barber of Bagdad aria  (Cornelius)
7.Carl Martin Oehmann  "Prize Song" (Meistersinger)

 8.Karl Jorn     "Ah quel plaisir"  (La Dame Blanche)
 9.Karel Burlan (in photo)  "My colleague Caruso" (Burlan)
10.Stanislaw Gruszczynski  "Eternamente"  (Mascheroni)
11.Petra Raitscheff     "E canto il grillo"
12.Ignacy Dygas    Aria from "Haunting Manor"     
13 Giuseppe Krismer   Damnation of Faust Aria (Berlioz) 
14.Tadeusz Liliwa       Aria from "Halka" (Moniusko)
15.Andrei Markovitch Labinski    Dubrovsky Song
16.David Juzhin     Le Prophete aria  (Meyerbeer)
17.Alexander Bogdanovich   "Love is a delightful dream (Bleichman)
18.Alexander Davydov         "Leave me"  (Davydov)
19.Modest Menzinsky          "Barcarolle"
20.Ivan Erschov          Tannhauser Act One Aria  (Wagner)

  (If you can spell every name without looking, I will give you a gift of
     all my Sarah Brightman CD's.)

.                                   (74 min.)

Just to remind some new members of my videos on Google (Handelmania)

My best  Charlie

          I am happy to be back with you after some problems with the new computer,and I promise to make it up to you. I think you will enjoy these 17 versions of the Otello act two final scene featuring some of the great artists who sang Otello and Iago.

                   I sincerely thank you for your patience.

                             ( 62 min.)

Lea Piltti, Gitta Alpar, Lucia Popp, Rita Shane, Cynthia Sieden, Aline Kutan, Roberta Peters, Sumi Jo, Erika Koeth, Wilma Lipp, Natalie Dessay, and (an oddity), Maria Galvany.

                                    (45 min.)

Nabucco(in photo), I Lombardi, Macbeth (2 versions),
Iris, Mefistofele, War and Peace, Boris Godunov, Prince Igor,
Parsifal, Gotterdamerung, Meistersinger, Fidelio, Les Troyens,
Romeo et Juliette, and Peter Grimes.

                            (74 min.)

                                       (66 minutes)

                                  (67 min.)

Maria Cebotari(in photo), Gertrude Runger, Viorica Ursuleac, Gertrude Bindernagel, Maria Reining, Martha Moedl, Emmy Leisner, Karen Branzell, Elizabeth Schumann-Heink, Herman Uhde, Alexander Kipnis, Julius Patzak, Lauritz Melchior, Michael Bohnen, Joseph Schwartz,
and Willy Domgraf-Fassbaender.     (72 min.)

Marcel Wittrisch,(in photo), Richard Tauber,Herbert Ernst Groh,Franz Voelker.
        (These tenors are featured in several selections each.)

  In addition, I added one selection as sung by Peter Anders, Rudolf Lustig, and Rudolf Schock.

               (73 min.)

(73 min.)

                                 (73 minutes)

M.Price/Domingo             DeLos Angeles/Del Monaco
Albanese/Vinay                 Milanov/McCracken
Rethberg/Martinelli            Millo/Atlantov
Tebaldi/Vickers                 Crespin/Del Monaco
                       Steber/Vinay  
                         

                             (74 minutes)

                                       (72 minutes)   

                              (72 minutes)

Forza del Destino,Maria di Rohan, I Puritani, Tosca,
La Boheme, Turandot, La Traviata, La Rondine,
The Consul, Elisir D'Amore, Vespri Siciliani,Mefistofele,
and The Merry Widow.
            
       I sincerely hope you will enjoy listening to one of the
great artists in opera history, and a very dear friend as well.

                            (72 minutes)  

     Finally, the legendary Ring Analysis as performed by the hilarious Anna Russell. ("She's not making this up, you know!"

                                 (68 min.)
 

George London, Bryn Terfel, Friedrich Schorr,Ferdinand Frantz,
Herman Uhde, Hans Herman Nissen, Jose Van Dam, Michael Bohnen,
Rudolf Bockelmann, Heinrich Schlusnus, Paul Schoeffler, Joel
Berglund, and Emil Schipper.

                                      (70 minutes)

                                 (73 minutes)

(28 min.)

ONE ZINKA MOMENT?????? You KEEEEDING???? We usually would make the famous "Enzo adorato" B flat in Gioconda our favorite..In fact, do we know of ANY ONE SINGER who was "known for a single note?" As the supreme authority(???) on this forum on the Milanov career, a career I can readily "hear in my head," I will give you the gospel according to me. (This is a follow-up to a thread on Opera-l on "Milanov Moments.")

BURROUGHS...Where's the book already????????????????????????

So,my friends, let me give you my impressions of a lady whose career "shaped my opera life." First of all, I agree nthat her recordings usually do not do her total justice, unless you have every Met broadcast. She screams the C's in the Aida and Tosca on RCA, and in the 40's I found too much vibrato in the tone. She had a more secure top then, but despite the problematic C's in the 50's and 60's (they did improve to some extent after she worked with her brother, Bozidar Kunc), the pure voice was something I will treasure forever.

As a sixteen year old, I wore out the end of side three of the RCA LP set of the Trovatore because of the phenomenal "D'amor sull'ali rosee";however, the RCA "Orthophonic Sound' technique gave a kind of echo effect that even as a youngster I felt was not giving me a true picture of the voice. My question to the first Milanov nutcases I met on the standee line waiting for a Forza in 1953 was, "How does she sound live as compared to the records?"

Within a few minutes of the curtain rise at the Forza, I found the answer! That voice was absolutely glorious, as she started the "Me pellegrina," and by the incredible "Pace," I was in Milanov heaven...and so it goes from there, 85 performances later, I never changed my mind (even despite some screamy Ballos).

So now here are 5 of my 1000 Milanov "moments"' in addition to THE moment..the Gioconda B flat ppp:

1. Ernani:Final trio w.Del Monaco and Siepi,where she starts with that "Ferma" as she comes onstage and then sings in the most noble and powerful manner, with rich mixed low notes that are as thrilling as the high notes.

2. The double attack on the pianissimo on "Ora soave' during the Act 2 Chenier duet.

3. Chenier again:The high A flat (or A if the duet is in key) on "abbracciami, aMANTE" as the final duet was sung with fairly good tenors like Tucker,Bergonzi,Tucker, and DelMonaco.

4. The way she always swelled on the B flat "Maledizione' at the end of the "Pace."It was her "trick" of not hitting the note dead on forte, but giving it a swell that knocked you off your seats..I mean stands.

5. The section at the end of act three scene one Gioconda beginning, "O made mia..nel isola fatale,." with that glorious high b flat and then the lush low on "per lui che l'aaaaaama."

So you see, I think I have a fairly good idea of why no other singer in my life ever could thrill me like Zinka, and remember, she would agree with me in her utter modesty (!!!)

Thanks, Zinka, and i hope they let you kick your train wherever you are......

 (See,I once had hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

                                      (72 minutes)

 Birgit Nilsson, born May 27, 1918

Zinka Milanov, born May 17, 1906

               The Nilsson photo is separate,as you see, and the Milanov
           photo is very early, from Croatia.

        Our lives would be far less enriched without these two great ladies.

                                           (78 minutes)

Go to YOUTUBE and type her name..and you will see ASTOUNDING performances!!!!!!

Placido Domingo,Aureliano Pertile, Roberto Alagna,
Thomas Hampson, Tommi Hakala, Giuseppe Taddei,
Anselmo Colzani, Renata Tebaldi, Angela Gheorghiu,
Virginia Zeani, Margarita Sheridan, Licia Albanese,
Joan Sutherland, Anita Cerquetti, Angela Maria Blasi,
Diana Soviero.

                                        (69 minutes)

We feature Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek,Regina Resnik,
Olivia Stapp,Martha Moedl, Inge Borkh, Gwyneth Jones,
Margarete Klose, Johanna Meier, Ute Vinzing, Herman Uhde.

                               (71 minutes)

                                   (65 minutes)

           Lowlights from the Die Walkure performance at the
     legendary La Puma Opera Company, circa 1965. The
          great Olive Middleton stars as Sieglinde and the inevitable
     bass-baritone Mario Leone is the Wotan.

REMEMBER!  I WARNED YOU!!!!

 (33 glorious minutes)

      Aida, Tosca, Norma, Nabucco, Aroldo, Armida,
      Gianni Schicchi, Abduction from the Seraglio,
       Andrea Chenier, Lucia, Tristan und Isolde, Gioconda,
        Vespri Siciliani, plus the Proch Variations and Callas"
          Farewell to her Julliard Students

(73 min.)

                            (60 minutes)

Pertile,Martinelli, Gigli, Bjoerling, Schipa, Thill, Slezak,
Devries, Bonci, Tauber, Zanelli, Patzak, Sobinov,
Smirnov, Tamagno, Clement.

                            (67 minutes)

(63 min.)                                        

I am too ancient to remember exactly what most singers sounded like to my virgin ears when I first heard them live. Remember, we had very few recordings..no "pirates" and were extremely limited, so when a fabulous voice was heard for the very first time, in some cases there was an indelible impression. For me, the totally "unknown' voices were those of Antonietta Stella (Aida), Daniele Barioni (Tosca), Diana Soviero (Boheme). Also, although we had heard only a few early Tebaldi recordings, and NO ONE was prepared for what that voice sounded like live.

More recently, I was captivated by soprano Irina Rindzuner (in photo) as Santuzza in the City Opera Cavalleria. As she began the "Innegiamo" my ears perked up and i said to myself.."Mamma mia!!!" (Go to her Fanciullas at Da Capo in April.).

Can you recall your first impression of some of the great voices and give us some details? Also, can you recall the exact opposite (i.e. a voice you adored on recordings and in person with which you were much less impressed (Jan Peerce for me.)

Best Charlie

Trovatore, Fanciulla, Rusalka, Andrea Chenier, Luisa Miller,
La Gioconda, Adriana Lecouvreur,Tosca, and I Lombardi.
     Also joining Mme.Millo in these scenes are Dolora Zajick,
     Marcello Giordani, Vladimir Atlantov, Taro Ichihara,and
     Vladimir Chernov.

                                   (67 minutes)

       The opera world mourns his passing and we present him in scenes from live performances of:

 La Favorita, Faust, Andrea Chenier, Turandot, Iris, Pearl Fishers, 
Ballo in Maschera (w.Maria Callas), La Boheme,
Tosca, Werther, Manon, Mignon, and two Italian songs.

(72 min.)

Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Joan Sutherland, Martha Moedl,
Kirsten Flagstad, Leonie Rysanek, Nina Stemme, Marilyn Horne,
Conchita Supervia, Elena Suliotis, Maria Caniglia, Zinka Milanov,
Edita Gruberova.

                                       (74 minutes)

Barbiere di Siviglia, Cenerentola, Viaggio a Rheims,
William Tell, L'Italiana in Algeri, Semiramide
L'Assedio di Corinto, and Armida. Featured artists are:

Marilyn Horne, Conchita Supervia, Vesselina Kasarova,
Ewa Podles, Montserrat Caballe, Beverly Sills,
Nicolai Gedda, Marcello Giordani, Fernando di Lucia,
Norman Mittleman, Juan Diego Florez, Maria Callas,
 and Ruggero Raimondi.

                                  (73 minutes)

Anita Cerquetti, Leontyne Price, Zinka Milanov, Grace Bumbry,
Leyla Gencer,Caterina Mancini, Gino Penno, Mario del Monaco,
Placido Domingo (past and also present), Flaviano Labo,
Leonard Warren, Mario Sereni, Ettore Bastianini, Leonard Warren,
Cornel MacNeil, Piero Cappuccilli, Lando Bartolini, Cesare Siepi,
Nicolai Ghiaurov.

                                           (76 minutes)

                                 (78 minutes)

                                   (44 minutes)

Here are scenes from this great opera featuring some great artists:

Leonie Rysanek, Birgit Nilsson, Elizabeth Rethberg, Astrid Varnay,
Lauritz Melchior, Helen Traubel, Marjorie Lawrence,Ninon Vallin,
Wolfgang Windgassen, Rita Gorr, Emmanuel List, Leonard Warren,
Elizabeth Grummer, Eleanor Steber, Nicolai Gedda, Barbro Ericson,
Lotte Lehmann.

                                        (66 minutes)

Rosa Ponselle, Claudia Muzio, Virginia Zeani, Licia Albanese,
Margherita Sheridan, Edith Mason, Nelly Melba, Lucrecia Bori,
Magda Olivero, Montserrat Caballe, Mattia Battistini,Titta Ruffo,
Beniamino Gigli, Enrico Caruso, Aureliano Pertile,Tito Schipa,
John McCormack.

                                   (73 minutes)

                                    (73 minutes)

                                   (66 minutes)

Ramon Vinay, Cesar Vezzani, Albert Vaguet, Alessandro Valente,
Franz Voelker, Rene Verdiere, Francisco Vignas, Miguel Villabella,
Ramon Vargas, and (in photo), Rolando Villazon.

                                  (66 minutes)

IN RESPONSE TO THE COMMENTS THAT I LEFT OUT THE WONDERFUL VALLETTI,VICKERS,AND OTHERS, WHAT I HAD DONE WAS JUST GO TO A SHELF THAT HAD THOSE RECITALS. NO CRUELTY INTENDED!!!!!

Boheme,Tosca,Tales of Hoffmann,Vespri Siciliani,
I Puritani,The Pearl Fishers, Faust, La Sonnambula
Don Giovanni, Le Roi d'ys,La Traviata,Mignon,
Yolanta.                     (72 minutes)

  Richard Tucker, Mario del Monaco, Franco Corelli,
  Helge Roswaenge, Jussi Bjoerling, Carlo Bergonzi,
  Licia Albanese, Diana Soviero, Marilyn Horne,
  Hilde Scheppan, Victoria de los Angeles, Robert Merrill,
  Leonard Warren, Ettore Bastianini, Frank Guarrera,
Giovanni Martinelli(in photo)  Manuel Lanza, and
Teresa Stratas

(66 min.)

Frieda Leider (in photo), Margarita Perras, Alexander Kipnis,
Lotte Lehmann, Tiana Lemnitz, Friedrich Schorr, Maria Ivogun,
Johanna Gadski, Franz Voelker, Marcel Wittrisch,Wilhelm Hesch,
Maria Olzewska, Lauritz Melchior, Maria Cebotari,Richard Tauber,
Gerhard Huesch, Elizabeth Schumann

                                     (78 minutes)

          This is a re-doing of a previous Galvany podcast, with
       the deletion of three items, but the narration remains the
        same, so references to Macbeth, Ernani, and the Aida
         "Ritorna Vincitor"  are to be ignored.

                  Let me know all is now well!!!!!!!!!

                                 (54 minutes)

                                   (78 minutes)

I strongly recommend you go to:                              http://www.collup.com   

             Donald Collup has prepared four fabulous volumes of these "oddities" and I think you might want to purchase one or more of  them.

(70 min.)

      Macbeth ( 2 versions), Luisa Miller, Rigoletto, Trovatore,
      Traviata, Vespri Siciliani, Simon Boccanegra, Ballo in Maschera,
      Forza del Destino, Don Carlo, Aida, Otello, and Falstaff

      (All casts announced)         (71 minutes)

Included here are the finales of:
  Nabucco, I Lombardi, Gerusalemme, Ernani, I Due Foscari,
  Giovanna D'Arco, Alzira, Attila, I Masnadieri, Il Corsaro,
   La Battaglia di Legnano, Stiffelio, and Aroldo.

               (Cast details announced)     ( 62 minutes)

Dmitri Hvorostovsky(in photo), Hugo Hasslo, Bernd Weikl,
William Walker, Pavel Lisitsian, Ettore Bastianini,
Heinrich Schlusnus, Vladimir Chernov, Nikola Mitic,
Andrei Fedosoyev, and Hans Herman Nissen.

                             (53 minutes)

(67 minutes)

                                      (55 minutes)

  Zinka Milanov, Leonard Warren, Cesare Siepi, and Richard Tucker

                                  (74 minutes)

Astrid Varnay(in photo),Margarete Klose, Janis Martin,
Mignon Dunn, Eva Randova, Nadine Denize, Gwyneth Jones,
Janina Baechle, Linda Watson, Margaret Harshaw,
Kerstin Thorborg, Marjorie Lawrence, Edith Walker

                              (53  loud minutes)

.

                                 (56 minutes)

     ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!         Charlie

                                   (73 minutes)

                               (26 minutes)

                                  (84 minutes)

                     You will enjoy the selections.

                                  (72 minutes)
   

William Tell, Norma, Trovatore,Faust,Ernani,
Don Carlo, Gotterdamerung, Beatrice di Tenda,
Cosi Fan Tutte, Tales of Hoffmann, Vespri Siciliani,
 Forza del Destino, I Lombardi ,Rosenkavalier.

   (73 minutes)

After the delightful City Opera performance of Handel's "Agrippina" on Sunday,I must repeat my usual pun that I am fast becoming more of a "Handel-man." I am growing to appreciate the importance and infuence in music history of this composer, having now seen Rinaldo, Alcina, Julius Caesar,etc. and the Agrippina, which featured four debuts, was a fine experience for me as I am beginning to "branch out' more and more in my musical tastes. One regret my friends and I have at this moment is that our new City Opera director wishes to present ONLY 20th century works next season, leaving us bereft of this kind of music.

Nelly Miricioiu (the hardest name for me to learn to spell) is a favorite on so many live tapes, and we were interested in how this 55 year old diva, the "poor man's Leyla Gencer" would fare in this music. I do not think it fair to judge her on a role that does not really show off what I preceive to be her true talents, in the Donizetti and Rossini,etc.material. The voice is rather non-descript, and she could have "been anyone." She did well,looks fine on stage, and save for some "muddy" coluratura in the first aria, nothing was in any way objectionable,. I just did not find the role and her singing anything special, especially next to some of the other debutantes. Some of the glottalized attacks(still no Leyla) were effective and the top of the voice is clear and bright, but I just do not feel the role goes anywhere.

Despite some early "noise" in the tone, Jennifer Rivera proved to be absolutely delightful in the comic role of Nerone. The bedroom scene (one bed) reminded one of a Marx Brothers comedy, but on the R-rated side, and if you accept the fact that cigarettes and pistols were not really in vogue 2000 years ago, her work was a true delight, and the lovely lyric mezzo is quite beautful, with amazing agility in her big aria in act two.

David Walker was tuly magnificent as Ottone. As much as I love David Daniels, Walker has a more substantial tone, with some chest tones reminiscent of some our our best sopranos, and he is a true delight on stage. His voice is truly seamless and what a wonderful era we are experiencing with the likes of Daniels, Walker, Mehta, Scholl, and others. However,there might be some confusion among some audience members, as a lady next to me wanted to know if Rivera was a real man or a real woman. (What would she do with Octavian is Rosenkavalier?)

In fact the "sexual identity problem" can be a bit confusing, with counter-tenors, sopranistas, male sopranos (what is the difference?) and mezzos in trouser roles in vogue these days more than ever, especially in Handel operas.

In this vein, David Korn, a counter-tenor, debuting as Nasciso (with a cheering section upstairs) did well vocally as was adorable on stage,although the voice seemed to lack volume. We shall see what the future brings.

Soprano Heidi Stober's voice is rather edgy, although she appeared to improve after possible debut jitters. The best part of her voice is the top, which is quite brilliant. However,the best of the debuts was a magnificent baritone from Zaire, Joao Fernandes, who is a really superb artist and his voice (as Claudio) was positively ravishing. I was a bit confused, since Derek Jacobi never showed an upper naked body quite that sexy.

Baritone Marco Nistico,even in the smallish role of Pallante, was just fine, but another 'find" for me was the bass-baritone Jeffrey Tucker as Lesbo, who was hilarious on stage with a gorgeous and rich voice.

I am growing to accept the fact that playing Russian Roulette, grabbing cigarettes all night (Rivera is a RIOT!), and acting more like Brad Pitt in bed than the historical Claudius work very well. It was a delighful day and I am so glad i was there. I think you will enjoy it as much as the audience did..but if our new director thinks he will sell out the upper gallery (pretty empty as usual), he better think again about his choice of repertory, as they never sell out Bohemes and Toscas. Glad to be a Handel Man. Charlie

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Bulent+Bezduz&search=Search

It is like this: At a party in 1955, she grabbed my hand and said, "Dammi il braccio mio piccino"(Boheme quote with a gender change). I then said,
" Obbedisco,signoraaaa."  (Even then I knew the words.).Someone happened to snap our picture. This experience will live in my heart forever as a happy memory of one of the sweetest people I ever knew.  

  Jussi Bjoerling/Bidu Sayao, Roberto Alagna/Angela Gheorghiu,
  Marcello Giordani/ Nora Ansellem, Raoul Jobin/Patrice Munsel,
  Ramon Vargas/Anna Maria Martinez, Rolando Villazon/Anna Netrebko

                                   (79 minutes)

Beverly Sills, Maria Jeritza, Stephanie Sundine, Emily Magee,
Marilyn Zschau, Ilona Steingruber, Ellen Faull.Stella Roman,
Angela Denoke, Carol Neblett, and Eileen Farrell.

                                 (63 minutes)

Orfeo(in photo), Aida, Troyens, Walkure, Tristan und Isolde,
Samson et Delilah, Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.

                                  (77 minutes)

Gilda Cruz-Romo, Anita Cerquetti, Monserrat Caballe,
Elinor Ross, Regine Crespin, Gina Cigna, Celestina Boninsegna
Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, Emmy Destinn, Eugenia Burzio,
Rosa Ponselle, Lucille Udovick, Eileen Farrell, Birgitte Fassbaender,
Elena Suliotis, Renata Tebaldi, Zinka Milanov, and Maria Callas

                                    (85 mintues)

Beverly Sills/Placido Domingo, Frieda Hempel/Herman Jadlowker,
Jussi Bjoerling/Robert Merrill/, Benita Valente/Tatiana Troyanos,
Giovanni Martinelli/Lawrence Tibbett, Thomas Stewart/Evelyn Lear,
Joyce Di Donato/Patricia Ciofi, Thomas Hampson/Jerry Hadley,
Leontyne Price/Mario Sereni, Renata Scotto/Jose Carreras,
Camilla Williams/Lawrence Winters, Ivan Koslovsky/Pavel Lisitsian

                                       (74 minutes)

Mary Garden (pictured), Rosina Storchio, Cesira Ferrani,
Gemma Bellincioni, Richard Temple,
Enrico Caruso, Giuseppe Anselmi, Medea Mei-Figner,
Giuseppe de Luca, Angelica Pandolfini, Eduardo Garbin,
Victor Maurel, Francesco Tamagno, Fernando de Lucia,
Celestina Boninsegna, and Mario Sammarco

        ( 60 minutes)

Traviata,Lombardi,Fedora,Lucia,Rigoletto, Elisir d'Amore,
Fille du Reggiment, Manon, La Favorita, Luisa Miller, and
The Verdi Requiem.Also included is the Tosti "Ideale."

Rest in Peace, Luciano,  one who brought so much to so many!

                                      (71 minutes)

Fedora, L'Arlesiana, Turandot, La Rondine, Macbeth,
Mme.Butterfly, Boheme (Leoncavallo).

                               (31 minutes)

Pavel Lisitsian (in photo), Joel Berglund, Paul Schoeffler,
Gino Bechi, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Ferruccio Tagliavini,
Raoul Jobin, Cloe Elmo, Ebe Stignani, Blanche Thebom,
Erna Berger, Rosetta Pampanini, Dorothy Kirsten,
Joan Hammond, Sena Jurinac, Sarah Scuderi, Dorothy Maynor,
 and the late Rose Bampton.

                                       
         (77 min.)

Eva Turner (pictured), Hina Spani, Marcella Sembrich, Maria Gay,
Elvira de Hidalgo, Maria Ivogun, Olympia Boronat, Lotte Schoene,
Elizabeth Rethberg, Kathleen Ferrier, Lucrezia Bori, Clara Butt,
Francisco Vinas, Francesco Tamagno, Sergei Lemeshev,
Dmitri Smirnov, Ezio Pinza, Alesander Kipnis, Riccardo Stracciari,
 and Enrico Caruso.               ENJOY!!!!!

                                      (84  minutes)

Lauritz Melchior and the late Rose Bampton
Ramon Vinay and Regina Resnik
Max Lorenz and Martha Moedl
Rene Maison and Marjorie Lawrence
Placido Domingo and Deborah Polaski
Paul Althouse and the Met debut of Kirsten Flagstad
Set Svanholm and Birgit Nilsson
Rene Verdiere and Germaine Lubin
Lauritz Melchior and Lotte Lehmann
Max Lorenz and Margarete Teschemacher
John Vickers and Leonie Rysanek

                                    (82 minutes)

NOTE:Libsyn was down for 2 days but is working now.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=handelmania&num=50&so=0&start=50

and all is well...ENJOY!!! Charlie

Elene Filipova and Frederic Kalt
Magda Olivero and Mario Del Monaco
Leyla Gencer and Renato Cioni
Ilva Ligabue and Ruggero Bondino
Elena Suliotis and Giorgio Merighi
Raina Kabaiwanska and Placido Domingo

                               (85 minutes)

Emilia di Liverpool, Som Sebastien de Portugal, L'Assedio di Calais,
Gabriella di Vergy, Chiara e Serafina, Maria di Rudenz,
Maria Padilla, Rosmonda D'Inghilterra, Ugo,Conte di Parigi,
Alfredo Il Grande, and Zoraida di Granata.

 (79 min.)                                     

Emma Calve(pictured), Rosa Ponselle, Mafalda Favero, Tito Schipa,
Beniamino Gigli, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Alfred Piccaver,
Erna Berger, Tiana Lemnitz, Selma Kurz, Gilda Dalla Rizza,
Lauritz Melchior, Bernardo de Muro, Adamo Didur, Lawrence Tibbett,
Titta Ruffo, Heinrich Schlusnus, John McCormack,Emmy Destinn,
Luisa Tetrazzini,Frances Alda.

                                        (79 minutes)

...and a special note of thanks for your wonderful responses to these,my
  "labors of love." Our average audience is now over 900!!!!

                                  (83 minutes)

   If you can guess the 20 sopranos singing my favorite
   opera aria (No cheating!!), you will be permitted to
    run madly through my apartment with a giant shopping
    cart and grab whatever you wish in one minute!

        I rarely get to play anything anyway so I will
       not mind!          

  (78 minutes)

SO!  HOW DID YOU?  I HOPE YOU WILL ADD
YOUR COMMENTS AND TELL US HOW MANY
YOU GUESSED AND/OR WHICH ONES YOU LIKED MOST. I ASSUME MY COLLECTION
IS SAFE AT THE MOMENT BECAUSE NO ONE
HAS WRITTEN ME THAT YOU WILL BE
VISITING ME. (CHEATERS NOT WELCOME)

BY THE WAY...DO YOU WISH A VOLUME TWO??????

   Photo: Renata Tebaldi as Marguerite

    (75 minutes)

Bjoerling, Roswaenge,Mazaroff, Gigli, Jeritza, Lehmann, Nemeth,Schumann, Kipnis, Nikolaidi, Kiepura, Piccaver,
Sved, Runger, Nikolaidi, Voelker

                                   (58 minutes)

                                        Sincerely  Charlie

Parsifal, Aida, Walkure, Troyens, Cavalleria, Dutchman, and
                                 Les Nuits d'ete.

                             (64 minutes)

Norma,Aida,Semele,Roberto Devereux,Coq D'Or, Maria Stuarda,
Lucia,Assedio di Corinto,Ballad of Baby Doe, Fille du Reggiment,   
and Louise.

(84 minutes)

         If you are faint of heart and/or have digestive problems, I recommend you do NOT listen to these lowlites from a performance of Wagner's Die Walkure from the La Puma Company in the 1960's.

   Cast:   Olive Middleton (Sieglinde), Mario Leone (Wotan),
              Walter Ulrich (Siegmund), Marjorie Brown (Brunh.)
                        Conducted(?) by Ralph Zeitlin

                                   (56 glorious minutes)

   William Matteuzzi, Jose Sempere, Grayson Hirst,
   Marcelo Alvarez, Roberto Alagna, Alfredo Kraus
   Juan Diego Flores (pictured), Luciano Pavarotti

                            (50 minutes)

     I do recognize the aria as "Dein ist mein Ganzes Herz" from
     Lehar's lovely operetta, "The Land of Smiles," but I am
     having a slight problem figuring out  in what LANGUAGE
     this most amazing dude is singing.

       ........and you thought YOU couldn't sing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lend me a WHAT.......????????

Bruna Castagna, Ebe Stignani, Irene Minghini-Cattaneo,
Elena Nikolaidi, Regina Resnik, Cloe Elmo, Grace Bumbry,
Irene Kramarich, Dolora Zajick, Elena Obratsova,
Fiorenza Cossotto, Fedora Barbieri, (pictured) Shirley Verrett,
Giulietta Simionato, and finally, the great Sylvia Sawyer.

    Assisting artists include Leonard Warren, Franco Corelli,
    Carlo Bergonzi, Luigi Ottolini, Roberto Alagna,Gino Sarri,
    and Matteo Manuguerra.

                                 (88 minutes)
    

Olga Borodina, Elena Suliotis, Adriana Guerrini, Renata Tebaldi,
Magda Olivero, Ebe Stignani, Theresa Stich-Randall,Gina Cigna,
Marisa Galvany, Zinka Milanov, Shirley Verrett. Claudia Muzio,
Virginia Zeani, and Olive Middleton.

                                    (78 minutes)

Luisa Tetrazzini,Emma Calve, Clara Butt, Conchita Supervia,
Eugenia Burzio, Mafalda Favero, Maria Callas and Fedora Barbieri,
Martha Moedl, Leyla Gencer, Beverly Sills, Regina Resnik,
Oralia Dominguez, Birgite Fassbaender, Rosa Ponselle,
Rita Hunter, and Lina Bruna Rasa.

                                   (74 minutes)

Merritt, Gedda, Bonisolli, Araiza, Hadley, G.Raimondi,
Carreras, Martinucci, Bergonzi, Cerquetti, Chiara,  L.Price,
Ricciarelli, Cruz-Romo, Deutekom, Galvany, MacNeil,
Ramey, Verrett.

                                 (72 minutes)

Caterina Mancini, Rosanna Carteri (in photo), Cesy Broggini,
Giuseppe Taddei, Carlo Tagliabue, Maria Caniglia,
Galliano Masini, Tancredi Pasero, Adriana Guerrini,
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Carlos Guichandut, Jose Soler, 
Renata Tebaldi, Giulietta Simionato, Mario Filippeschi.
Amedeo Berdini, Gianni Poggi, Giacinto Prandelli

                             (57 minutes)

 Ghiaurov/Nesterenko
 Ghiaurov/Talvela
 Hann/Grosmann
 Hines/Wilderman
 Plishka/Hines
 Siepi/Hines
 Rossi-Lemeni/Neri

                                  (73 minutes)

Merrill, Warren, L.Quilico, Vinay, Gobbi, Bastianini,
Schoeffler, Hann,Tibbett,Stracciari,Granforte,London
Weede, G.Guelfi, MacNeil, Silveri, Taddei

                              (75 minutes)  

Regina Resnik, Hanna Schwarz, Margarete Klose, Ebe Stignani,
Elena Obratsova, Rise Stevens, Fiorenza Cossotto, Frances Bible,
Astrid Varnay.             

NOW, BE NICE!!

(61 mintues)

PLEASE NOTE:

If you see a sick comment from a sick person named Adolf, do not worry.I delete these comments immediately. I must be doing something right!

Eileen Farrell (pictured), Jussi Bjoerling, Robert Merrill,
Lotte Lehmann, Claudia Muzio, Gottlob Frick, Ruby Helder,
Riccardo Stracciari, Christa Ludwig, Walter Berry,
Clara Butt, Enrico Caruso, Janet Baker, Herman Prey

                               (72 minutes)

Sumi Jo (pictured), Zinka Milanov, John McCormack,
Beniamino Gigli, Claudia Novikova, Enrico Caruso,
Janet Baker, Dorothy Kirsten, Robert Merrill, Virginia Zeani,
Luisa Tetrazzini, Giusepe Anselmi, Ebe Stignani,
Cesare Siepi, Eleanor Steber, Pavel Lisitsian,
Mafalda Favero, Vassilka Petrova (I think)

                                     (84 minutes)

Callas,Tebaldi, Fleming, Stoyanova, Schymberg, Cotrubas,
Radvanovsky,De Los Angeles, Soviero, Galvany, Scotto,
Carteri, Zeani, Sayao, Guerrini, Albanese

                                 (77 minutes)

Trovatore:  Renata Scotto,Louis Quilico
The Medium:  Regine Crespin
Semele: Beverly Sills
Jenufa: Gre Brouwenstijn and Frans Vroons
Salome: Lili Djanel and Tito Gobbi
Otello: Joan Sutherland and Angelo Marenzi
Manon Lescaut:  Leontyne Price
Eugen Onegin:    Margaret Price
Forza:       Julia Varady
Don Giovanni: Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson (Don't ask!  (74 minutes)

Giuseppe Anselmi,Georges Thill, Josef Schmidt, Giovanni Malipiero,
Galliano Masini, Jan Kiepura, Richard Tauber, Helge Roswaenge,
Mario Del Monaco, Mario Lanza, Franco Corelli, Alfredo Kraus,
Marcello Giordani, Richard Tucker, and Nicolai Gedda.

                                    (72 minutes)

  I found the error,but rather than redo the narration, here are the selections,not in the correct order, as I could not recover the order,but you can get more information at least:

Gigli:Marechiare, Core'n grato,Sorrento

Corelli:  Addio a Napoli, O paese da sole,I'te vurria vasa

Tucker:  Fenesta che lucive,L'alba separa,Senza nisciuno

Bergonzi: I te vurria vasa,Sorrento, Dicitincello vuie

Caruso:  Pecche, O sole mio, Vieni sul mar, Tu che non chiagne,
Santa Lucia, L'alba separa

 (65 minutes)

             

          (Maybe you can NOT LOOK BELOW!)

Tamagno, Vickers, McCracken, Ralf, Giacomini,Corelli
Di Stefano (his first and last Otello), Martinelli in 1938,
Martinelli's last Otello in 1948. three by Mario DelMonaco:
Buenos Aires 1950 (his first ever), then 1958 and 1971.
Atlantov, Domingo, Frank Porretta III, Vinay, and finally
John Frederick West.

                                 (35 minutes)

                                   (83 minutes)

Marisa Galvany, Gilda Cruz-Romo, Julia Varady,
Mara Zampieri, Maria Krikorian, Caterina Mancini,
Tiziana Fabbricini, Rita Orlandi, Linda Strummer,
Antonietta Stella, Marilyn Zschau, and (in photo)
Dimitra Theodossiou.

                                         (83 minutes)

Milanov/Warren               Welitsch/Merrill
Callas/Taddei                   Zeani/Guelfi
Scheppan/Hotter               Stella/Guelfi
Rysanek/London              Cerquetti/Guelfi
L.Price/MacNeil                Galvany/Quilico

  Plus,as a bonus, if you can handle it, the same scene
  featuring Vassilka Petrova and Olive Middleton,but
  be sure not to eat before or during this section,
  although you may need a stiff drink.

                               (96 Minutes)

Georges Thill, Charles Dalmores, Fernand Ansseau,Raoul Jobin,
Richard Tucker, Nicolai Gedda, Mario Chamlee, Beniamino Gigli,
Jon Vickers, Placido Domingo, Rolando Villazon,Enrico Caruso,
Franco Corelli, Giuseppe di Stefano, Jussi Bjoerling, and
Mario del Monaco (pictured).

                                  (70 minutes)

Richard Tucker, Giovanni Martinelli, Franco Corelli,
Jose Carreras, Helge Roswaenge, Mario del Monaco,
Raoul Jobin, Galliano Masini, Jussi Bjoerling, and
Carlo Bergonzi.

                             (66 minutes)

 Elektra, Salome,Siegfried, Parsifal, The Flying Dutchman,  
 Pagliacci, and Don Carlo.
       The songs are by Schubert, Brahms, and Pfitzner

    (67 minutes)

Lotte Lehmann, Gertrude Bindernagel, Nanny Larsen-Todsen,
Maria Muller, Maria Reining, Lilly Hafgren, Karin Branzell,
Maria Olszewska,Margarete Arndt-Ober, Hans Hermann Nissen,
Alexander Kipnis, Joel Berglund, Michael Bohnen, Emil Schipper,
Heinrich Schlusnus, Set Savanholm, Gotthelf Pistor, Curt Taucher,
Erik Enderlein, Franz Voelker.

                               (83 minutes)

Richard Tucker, Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli,
Neil Shicoff, Georges Thill,Giuseppe Di Stefano
Rolando Villazon, Nicolai Gedda, Jussi Bjoerling,
David Devries,Miguel Villabella, Lucien Muratore,
Cesar Vezzani, Alfredo Kraus, Gaston Michelettti,
Albert Lance, and Charles Rousseliere

                              (93 minutes)

    Kathleen Ferrier       Janet Baker         Stephanie Blythe

                                 (88 minutes)

Ceclia Bartoli, Olga Borodina, Ewa Podles, Maria Callas,
Veselina Kasarova, Agnes Baltsa, Marilyn Horne, Conchita
Supervia, and Joyce di Donato. 

     I sincerely hope you enjoy the podcast!

                                   (68 minutes)

Tito Schipa, Aureliano Pertile, Bernardo de Muro,
Beniamino Gigli, Alessandro Valente, Giuseppe Taccani,
Ferrucio Tagliavini, Riccardo Stracciari, Titta Ruffo,
Mafalda Favero, Maria Farneti, Licia Albanese,
Pia Tassinari, Gianna Pederzini, Cloe Elmo

 (73 minutes)

Friedrich Schorr (Heger)            Mikhail Kit (Gergiev)
Albert Dohmen  (Thielemann)    Allan Titus   (Fischer)
George London (Leinsdorf)        Robert Hale  (Sawallisch)
Hans Hotter    (Keilberth)           Ferdinand Frantz (Furtwaengler)
James Morris  (Levine)               Donald McIntyre  (Boulez)
                       Sigurd Bjoerling (Von Karajan)

                                   (56 minutes)

Traviata, Tosca, Risurrezione, Adriana Lecouvreur,Fedora
Fanciulla, Gianni Schicchi, Lodoletta, Jenufa, Mme.Butterfly,
La Rondine, Manon, Mefistofele,plus "O del mio amato ben."

                                    (81 minutes)

Featured are:

             Regine Crespin, Kirsten Flagstad, Julia Varady,
             Leonie Rysanek, Astrid Varnay, Birgit Nilsson,
             Lotte Lehmann, Regina Resnik, Martha Moedl,
             Natalie Secunde.

                                 (75 minutes)

Trovatore, Due Foscari, Assassino nell Catedrale, Saffo,
Gerusalemme, Roberto Devereux, Rigoletto, Belisario,
Battaglia di Legnano, Simon Boccanegra, Rigoletto,
Werther, Macbeth, Idomeneo, Dialogues of the Carmelites,
Abduction from the Seraglio, Lucrezia Borgia

                                   (88 minutes)

Rosa Raisa (in photo), Iris Adami-Corradetti, Hina Spani,
Eugenia Burzio, Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, Bianca Scacciati,
Rosetta Pampanini, and Celestina Boninsegna

(66 minutes)

Antonietta Stella, Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, Claudia Muzio,
Meta Seinemeier, Bianca Scacciati, Lina Bruna Rasa, Rose Raisa,
Regina Resnik, Raina Kabaiwanska, Gilda Cruz-Romo, Aprile Millo,
Diana Soviero, and Zinka Milanov

                                (87 minutes)

 Feraldy/Rogatchewsky               Sills/Gedda
 Gallardo-Domas/Sabbatini          Fleming/Giordani
 Zeani/Oncina                             Freni/Pavarotti
 De Los Angeles/Valletti              Albanese/Di Stefano
     Sayao/Rayner

     (87 minutes)

    Aida, Simon Boccanegra,Attila, Aroldo, Tosca, Don Carlo,
     Il Trovatore, Vespri Sicilani, Andrea Chenier,Luisa Miller
     Gianni Schicchi, Fanciulla del West, Mme.Butterfly

                                 (85 minutes)

   Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland, Mariella Devia, Beverly Sills,
   Edita Gruberova, Maria Callas, Mirella Freni, Anna Moffo,
   Gianna D'Angelo, Virginia Zeani, Nicolai Gedda, Paul Plishka,
   Louis Quilico, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Luciano Pavarotti,
   Alfredo Kraus, and William Matteuzzi (and his high "F.")

(83 minutes)

Mario DelMonaco, Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Nelly Melba,
Josep Palet, Francisco Vignas, Cesar Vezzani, Paul Franz,
Fernando de Lucia, Giuseppe de Luca, Mattia Battistini,
Germaine Lubin, CloeElmo, Aureliano Pertile, Edward Johnson,
Victoria de Los Angeles, Riccardo Stracciari, Emili Vendrell,
 and Ivan Koslowsky.

                              (85 minutes)

Karita Mattila(in photo), Edita Gruberova, Hei-Kyung Hong,
Krassimira Stoyanova, Olga Guryakova, Anna Netrebko,
Sumi Jo, Deborah Voigt, Rene Fleming, Natalie Dessay,
Angela Gheorghiu, and Rebecca Evans.

                  (60 minutes)

Vivica Genaux, Stephanie Blythe, Elina Garanca, Dolora Zajick,
Maddalena Kozena, Susan Graham, Joyce di Donato, Judith Forst,
Olga Borodina, Vesselina Kasarova, Ewa PodlÃÂs (in photo),
Lisa Gasteen, Ruth Ann Swenson, Christina Gallardo-Domas,
and Barbara Bonney

(62 minutes)

Cappuccilli/Bonifaccio      Quilico/Wise      MacNeil/Gencer
Tipton/Koeth                Schlusnus/Berger  MacNeil/Scotto
Campolonghi/Callas       MacNeil/Peters    Warren/Peters
Vargicova/Grundheber           Milnes/Sutherland

              (45 minutes)

Ezio Pinza, Robert Merrill, Rise Stevens, Dolora Zajick,
Shirley Verrett, Oralia Dominguez, Rita Gorr, Christa Ludwig,
Ebe Stignani, Giulietta Simionato, Fiorenza Cossotto,
Jose Luccioni, Ramon Vinay, Jon Vickers, Robert Massard,
Rene Maison, and Richard Tucker

                                (70 minutes)

De Los Angeles, Schumann, Muzio, Schumann-Heink,
Onegin,Thill, Schiotz, Tucker, Kussevitsky, Robeson,
Maynor, Weede, D'Arkor, Tauber, Destinn,Gedda, Erb

                          (68 minutes)

Tetrazzini (in photo), Muzio, Ponselle, Cobelli, Bruna Rasa,
Nordica, Patti, Neshdanova, Kurz, Hempel, Galvany, Jokl,
Poli-Randaccio, Spani, Leider, Ljungberg, Austral, Scuderi,
Arangi-Lombardi, De Hidalgo

                                    (84 minutes)

Andrea Chenier, Fanciulla Del West, Forza del Destino
Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, Ballo in Maschera,
Floridante, La Juive, Turandot, Tosca, Luisa Miller,
Manon Lescaut, Trovatore, and songs.

                              (75 minutes)

(P.S. She got mad when I asked her to sign this..it VAS NOT a "posed' picture!)

La Gioconda, Aida, Louise, Tosca, Mme.Butterfly,
 Tristan und Isolde,  and Andrea Chenier.

                                    (102 minutes)

Tiana Lemnitz,Lotte Lehmann, Maria Reining, Charles Kullmann, Koloman Von Pataky, Sigrid Onegin,Marcel Wittrisch,
Alexander Kipnis, Michael Bohnen, Ludwig Weber,
Selma Kurz, Julius Patzak, Hans Hotter, Dino Borgioli,
Maria Cebotari, Ljuba Welitsch, Set Svanholm, and
Alfred Piccaver.

                              (80 minutes)

Richard Tucker, Leonard Warren, Robert Merrill, Jussi Bjoerling,
Samuel Ramey, Thomas Hampson, Cornell MacNeil, Piero Cappuccilli, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Giorgio Tozzi, Ezio Flagello,
Sherrill Milnes, Karl Ridderbusch, Carlo Tagliabue, Galliano Masini,
Mario del Monaco, Helge Roswaenge, Heinrich Schlusnus,
Ettore Bastianini,Jerome Hines

                                    (55 minutes)

Favorita, Manon, Romeo ,Huguenots, Gioconda, Ballo,
William Tell(with a BIS!!), Adriana Lecouvreur.

                             (85 minutes)

A comparison (quiz) of 13 sopranos singing the heartbeaking
second act scene "Che tua madre" from Puccini's Mme.Butterfly.

                                 (54 minutes)

Callas, Sills, Cigna, Milanov, Hunter, Cerquetti, Deutekom,
Galvany,Goerke, Flanigan, Scotto, and Suliotis

                             (60 minutes)

In the Attila compilation, the following artists are featured:

Gilda Cruz-Romo, Mara Zampieri, Caterina Mancini, Rita Orlandi, Lauren Flanigan, Elizabeth Rethberg,Marisa Galvany,Julia Varady,
Antonietta Stella, Igor Gorin, Piero Cappuccilli,Vladimir Chernov,
Nicolai Ghiaurov, Ezio Pinza, Gianfranco Cecchele,Beniamino Gigli,
Enrico di Giuseppe, Francisco Casanova,Sam Ramey (in photo)

                                (77 minutes) 

Selections are announced on the podcast for your edification.

Artists include:  Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Viorica Ursuleac,
 Regine Crespin, Lotte Lehmann, Eleanor Steber,  Helge Dernesch, Renee Fleming, Elizabeth Grummer, Lisa della Casa (in all three roles),
Gundula Janowitz, Elizabeth Soederstrom, Rise Stevens,
Sena Jurinac, Tiana Lemnitz, Susan Graham, Frances Bible,
Jarmila Novotna, Birgitte Fassbaender, Erna Berger, Lucia Popp,
Hilde Gueden, Marita Farell, Judith Raskin, Anne Elgar,
Ileana Cotrubas, Anneliese Rothenberger, and Barbara Bonney

                               (74 minutes)

    This podcast features scenes from Mussorgsky's great work,
     "Boris Godunov." The artists include:

Cesare Siepi, George London, Norman Treigle, Sam Ramey,
Alexander Kipnis, Ludwig Weber, Mark Reizen, Ezio Pinza,
Martha Moedl, Eugenia Zareska, Kerstin Thorborg,
Nicolai Gedda, Leonard Warren, and Benno Kusche

   Let me know if the "Una Furtiva" quiz sounds all right. I published it in a different speed,and want to make sure it is still fine as to sound.

                       I missed you...but those things occur!!!!!!!!

                                       My best  Charlie

   A comparison of 12 sopranos singing the great aria,

    "D'amor sull'ali rosee" from Il Trovatore

               (75 minutes)

(58 minutes)

   (68 minutes)

  A Comparison of 11 sopranos singing "COME SCOGLIO"
from Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte."

I am not listing the names below,since some listeners wish to try to guess them from the podcast.

 (68 minutes)

Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, Mahler, Schumann,
             Bizet, Ibert, R.Strauss  

(74 minutes)

 Janet Baker,one of the world's greatest artists, was
 born on August 21, 1933. I present a tribute to her
 featuring songs and arias by Handel, Mozart, Pergolesi,
 Schubert, Donizetti, Wagner, and Elgar.

(43 minutes)

BY THE WAY; PLEASE CHECK THIS OUT ON YOUTUBE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61qq0V73ehQ                            

Julius Patzak, Leo Slezak, Franz Voelker,Margarete Klose,
Maria Olszewska, Karen Branzell, Wilhelm Rode,
Emil Scipper, Hans Hotter, Heinrich Schlusnus,
Michael Bohnen, Georg Hann, Hilde Gueden,
Frida Leider, Erna Berger, Tiana Lemnitz,
Maria Cebotari.

(78 minutes)

You might enjoy using this podcast for an opera party in
order to test your fellow opera buddies!

       (44 minutes)

Leon Escalais     8/8/1859
Cesare Vezzani   8/8/1886
Ferruccio Tagliavini   8/14/13
Leo Slezak           8/18/1873
Helge Roswaenge  8/29/1897
Ramon Vinay        8/31/1911

(57 Minutes)

Elisir d"amore, Macbeth, Forza del Destino, Traviata
Don Pasquale, Barbiere di Siviglia, Gianni Schicchi,
Cosi Fan Tutte, Wozzeck Nozze di Figaro, Vanessa
Tales of Hoffmann. 

(64 minutes)

Renata Scotto(in photo), Diana Soviero, Renata Tebaldi,
Virginia Zeani, Julia Varady, Krassimira Stoyanova,
Beverly Sills, Christina Gallardo-Domas, Magda Olivero,
Leontyne Price, Dorothy Kirsten, Richard Tucker,
Placido Domingo, Jerry Hadley, and Giovanni Inghilleri

(72 minutes)

Maria Reining                  Born 8/7/03

Gundula Janowitz            Born 8/2/37

Margarete Klose (photo)   Born 8/7/1899

                           (43 minutes)

Some of the most affecting scenes from various operas:

Walkure, Siegfried, Peter Grimes, Nozze di Figaro,
Saint of Bleecker Street, Elektra, Rosenkavalier,
Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Ariadne, Arabella,
Parsifal, and Porgy and Bess

(69 minutes)

Apollo Granforte         7/29/1886

Ludwig Weber  (in photo)    7/29/1899

Gottlob Frick               7/28/06

Olga Borodina              7/29/63

                               (68 minutes)

A birthday tribute to the very great tenor, Mario del Monaco.
Included are selections from:

Aida, Carmen, Ernani, Andrea Chenier, Otello, Pagliacci,
Fanciulla, Turandot, Il Tabarro, Macbeth.

                                 (62 minutes)

A tribute to the magnificent Regine Crespin, one of the
finest divas in opera history. Selections from:

Walkure, Aida, Hoffmann, Dutchman, Troyens,
Carmen, Tosca, and several songs 

(75 minutes)

Eugenia Burzio, Olympia Boronat, Maria Nemeth,
Dusolina Giannini, Germaine Martinelli, Rosetta Pampanini
Margarete Teschemacher, Gertrude Grob-Prandl,
Claudia Novikova, Rosanna Carteri, Ellen Faull,
Luisa Maragliano, Lois Marshall, Irene Jordan,
and Rebecca Evans

                           (57 minutes)

   (Photo: Puccini statue at Lucca)         (64 min.)

A series of scenes and arias from Donizetti's "Lucrezia Borgia,"
featuring some very fine artists such as:

Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, Mariella Devia,
Clara Butt, Tatiana Troyanos, Montserrat Caballe, Alain Vanzo,
Giuseppe Filianoti, Gaetano Scano, Jose Carreras, and
Bonaldo Giaiotti.

                              (52 minutes)

Herman Uhde  (July 20, 1914)

Licia Albanese  (July 2, 1913)

Susan Graham  (July 23, 1960)

Giuseppe Di Stefano  (July 24, 1921)

                             (77 minutes)

Iris, Risurrezione, L'Amico Fritz, Piccolo Marat, Gloria,
Loreley, Francesca da Rimini, L'Amore de Tre Re,
and the Leoncavallo Boheme.

 ( 72 minutes)

 Also included are some rather delusional people who have cracked up
 even the most serious opera enthusiast.

Whether you like it or not, you cannot say this boring!!!!!!

PHOTO:  Tim Rogerson's painting, "Over the Top."

                                  (71 minutes)

Frau, Ernani, Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Tosca,
Seraglio, Arabella, The Telephone, Mignon, Idomeneo,
and the "Alleluja" from the Esultate Jubilate

(55 minutes)

Callas/Di Stefano                   Welitsch/Picchi
Castellani/Del Monaco            Milanov/Bjoerling
Nilsson/Tucker                      Crespin/Bergonzi
***Galvany/Molese

                               (76 minutes)

*** You have expressed interest in Galvany..so go to my Youtube site and see more Nabucco!!

                   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAniKAKLw4c

July 11: 

            Mattiwilda Dobbs (1925)
            Nicolai Gedda  (1925) (in photo)
            Ludmilla Dvorakova (1923)
            Herman Prey     (1929)
            Ebe Stignani  (1903)

July 12:

            Kirsten Flagstad  (1895)
            Gloria Lane   (1925)

                                    (71 minutes)

The artists featured include:

Giulietta Simionato (in photo), Fedora Barbieri, Rita Gorr,
Elena Obratsova, Marisa Galvany, Fiorenza Cossotto,
Barbro Ericson, Oralia Dominguez, Bruna Castagna,
Shirley Verrett.

(83 chesty minutes)

  Aida, Trovatore, I Lombardi and Jerusaleme, Attila, Nabucco,
   Don Carlo, Luisa Miller, Simon Boccanegra, Ernani, and
   La Forza del Destino.

                            (Not a bad "trio" in the photo.)

                                      60 minutes

          Let me know your comments so I can tell her if she is a good teacher up there (or down there...) 

(8 delusional minutes of pleasure)

P.S. Birgit got very angry at me when I told her I spliced in the great Petrova high unnatural B that ends "La Mamma Morta' into her "In questa reggia." (I will someday podcast it)

 (44 minutes)

Peter Anders  7/1/08     Bianca Scaciatti  7/3/1894
Birgitte Fassbaender  7/3/39 Herman Jadlowker 7/5/1877
Willy Treffner  7/5/03  Matti Salminen 7/7/45
Eberhard Waechter 7/9/29  Sergei Lemeshev 7/10/02
Josephine Veasey 7/10/30  Ljuba Welitsch(photo) 7/10/13

(53 minutes)

 (15 glorious minutes)

The selections are from:  Thais, Fanciulla, Rondine, Butterfly,
 Louise, Tosca,La Rondine and she also sings Gershwin's
 "Someone To Watch Over  Me." Kirsten had an uncanny
  ability NOT to sound 'operatic' in pop music!

   (38 minutes)

Selections by 12 famous baritones:

Robert Merrill, Hugo Hasslo, Gabriel Bacquier,
Theodore Uppman, Heinrich Schlusnus,
Giuseppe Danise, Ettore Bastianini,Igor Gorin,
Mattia Battistini, John Charles Thomas,
Riccardo Stracciari, Pavel Lisitsian (in photo)
(50 minutes)

Montserrat Caballe, Arlene Auger, Maria Callas,
Kiri Te Kanawa, Virginia Zeani, Eda Moser,
Maria Chiara, Regine Crespin, Renata Scotto,
Catherine Malfitano, Margaret Price,Rene Fleming,
Anita Cerquetti, Pilar Lorengar,Ileana Cotrubas 

(73 minutes)

  Included are arias from Traviata, Ballo, Sonnambula,
  Les Huguenots, La Perle du Bresil, Semiramide, Vespri,
  Rosalinda (Veracini), and the Proch Variations.
 

                                   (37 minutes)

 Scenes from : Macbeth, Parsifal, Walkure, Gotterdamerung,
    Pirates of Penzance, Elektra, Tristan und Isolde, and songs.
    

Also see Youtube Pique dame Clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcZsI6pBpQg

                                  (53 minutes)

 Todd Duncan, Anne Brown, Camilla Williams, Avon Long,
Helen Jepson, Lawrence Tibbett, Robert Merrill, Inez Matthews,
Cynthia Clarey, Willard White, Leontyne Price, Renee Fleming,
Kiri Te Kanawa, and Paul Robeson

 (52 minutes)

     Songs, scenes, and arias as sung by Lotte Lehmann, one of
     the greatest artists in opera history. A tribute to a great lady!

(55 minutes)

Georges Thill, Paul Franz, Giuseppe Lugo, Jose Luccioni,
Leon Escalais, Cesar Vezzani, Leon Campagnola,,
Marius Corpait, Jose de Trevi, Charles Friant,
Gaston Micheletti, Rene LaPelletrie, Rene Verdiere,
Josef Rogatchewsky, and Emile Marcellin

(62 minutes)

Caruso, Gigli, Martinelli, Slezak, McCormack, Pertile,
Tamagno, Escalais, Jadlowker, Roswaenge, Ershov,
Lemeshev, Sobinov, Widdop, Tauber, Schmidt,
Bonci, De Muro, Cortis, Piccaver.

                            (60 Minutes)

Yolanta:     Galina Vishneskaya, Michaela Gurevich,
                      and Galina Gorchakova

King Rene:     Nicolai Ghiaurov, Sergei Alexashkin,                         
                       and Gheorghi Seleznev

Vaudemont:       Nicolai Gedda and Gegam Grigorian 

Robert        Dmitri Hvorostovsky

                                   (50 minutes)

Alfredo Kraus, Beniamino Gigli, Robert Lasalle,
Giuseppe Anselmi, Luciano Pavarotti, Giulio Neri
Mattia Battistini, Piero Cappuccilli, Marcello Giordani,
Giuseppe Di Stefano, Franco Corelli, Regina Resnik,
Fiorenza Cossotto, Giulietta Simionato, Ebe Stignani
 

(64 Minutes)

La Traviata, Aida, Walkure, Norma, Luisa Miller,
Louise, Nozze di Figaro, Turandot, Manon,Rigoletto

Norma, Aida, Nabucco, Medea, Traviata, Attila, Ballo,
Trovatore, Anna Bolena, Turandot

We thank Mme.Galvany for so many years of very great singing!!!!

                                  ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sondra Radvanovsky, Montserrat Caballe, Aprile Millo,
Antonietta Stella, Nelly Miricioiu, Richard Tucker,
Jose Carreras, Giuseppe Anselmi, Alessandro Bonci,
Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, Vladimir Chernov,
Vladimir Galouzine, Piero Cappuccilli,& Giorgio Tozzi

   Words have always failed me when I attempt to describe the
depth of my admiration...idolization...for this remarkable tenor
who left us all too soon, but whose legacy will remain with us
all our lives.

You have to guess who is singing, so I will not post the names.

Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                  

  (Photo:Ponselle,Caruso,Mardones)

(Photo: Rise posed with every single member of her music club at our last gathering out on the island at Westhampton Beach, New York..This was followed by everyone being thrown into the swimming pool.(Except me..I never learned to swim!)

Fedora Barbieri-6/4/20     

Joel Berglund-6/4/03
Roberto Alagna- 6/7/63    

Jose Palet- 6/7/1877
Mario Filippeschi- 6/7/07  

John McCormack-6/14/1884
Helen Traubel-6/16/1898  

Eugenia Burzio-6/20/1882
Giuseppe Taddei- 6/26/16  

Riccardo Stracciari-6/27/1875
Anna Moffo-6/27/32         

Elena Nikolaidi-6/29/09
Luisa Tetrazzini 6/29/1871
                  

  A podcast in which we hear examples of Shakespeare's influence
  on (mostly) opera. We feature selections from:

Hamlet,Falstaff, Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, 
Antony & Cleopatra, I Capuletti ed I Montecchi,
The Otellos of Verdi & Rossini, The Romeo of Gounod,
The Romeo of Berlioz, West Side Story & Kiss Me Kate.

   The great Bellini opera "Norma" surely lends itself to
    performances by some of our most memorable artists.
    Here are some scenes which feature a number of them:

Maria Callas, Montserrat Caballe, Shirley Verrett,
Lauren Flanigan, Marisa Galvany, Zinka Milanov,
Gina Cigna, Rita Hunter, Beverly Sills, Renata Scotto,
Joan Sutherland, Leyla Gencer, Lili Lehmann,
Marilyn Horne, Ebe Stignani, Gino Penno,Kurt Baum,
Carlos Cossutta, Lamberto Furlan, Carlo Bergonzii, Franco Corelli,  Elena Nicolai, Roberto Francesconi,
AND Olive Middleton (well, nobody's POIFEKT!)

          Truly wonderful singing by La Scala artists who
                 visited Russia in 1964. Included are:

Mirella Freni, Bruno Prevedi, Renata Scotto,
Birgit Nilsson, Carlo Bergonzi, 
Fiorenza Cossotto, and Gianni Raimondi

Kirsten Flagstad
Frida Leider
Margaret Harshaw
Erna Schleuter
Nadezna Kniplova
Johanna Gadski
Helene Wildbrunn
Gertrude Grob-Prandl
Gertrude Kappel
Pelage Greef-Andriessen

Bonus: the great La Puma Opera Company's version. (Please proceed at your own risk on this last one!)

AS LONG AS WE ARE IN A "RING MODE," 
ON "UNNATURAL ACTS OF OPERA,
LA CIECA IS CURRENTLY PRESENTING
A COMPLETE RING PODCAST



Kirsten Flagstad sings "Hojotoho!" in The Big Broadcast of 1937.

Jacques Urlus, Nan Merriman, Elizabeth Ohms,
Elly Ameling, Maartje Offers, Jard Van Nes,
Cora Canne Meijer, Gre Brouwenstijn (in photo),
Christina Deutekom, and Jo Vincent

Tenors:  Jacques Urlus, Richard Schubert, 
Albert Reiss, Fritz Soot                 

Bassos/Baritones:  Georges Baklanoff, 
Desider Zandor, Robert Vom Scheidt,
Heinrich Knote, Adolf Schoepplin

       Sopranos: Frida Leider, Helene Wildbrunn, and 
     Meta Seinemeyer. 

              Peace be with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Photo:Renata Tebaldi as Leonora)

    An exciting comparison of various sopranos singing the
    great aria from Turandot, "In questa reggia." I am not
    going to list the sopranos here because some of you like
    to play guessing games. Each soprano will be named after
    each group of selections.

        Remember:  "Gli enigmi sono tre...Charlie à una!!"

Shirley Verrett, Montserrat Caballe, Virginia Zeani,
Virginia Zeani, Elena Suliotis, Beverly Sills,Mado Robin
Giulietta Simionato, Marilyn Horne, Christa Ludwig,
Antonietta Stella, Joan Sutherland, Nicolai Gedda,
Luciano Pavarotti, Alfredo Kraus, Franco Corelli,
Piero Cappuccilli, Nicolai Ghiaurov,Sherrill Milnes,
Carlo Bergonzi, and Richard Tucker

   In tribute to this great artist, I present scenes from:
        Mefistofele, Boris, Coq D'or, Susannah, Faust,
                           and Markheim.

If you are interested in Brian Morgan's fine new book,
   which is entitled, "Norman Treigle, Strange Child of Chaos, " 
   it may be obtained from www.iuniverse.com or call the store at:
1-800-288-4677

Beniamino Gigli, Jussi Bjoerling, Daniele Barioni,
Giacinto Prandelli, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Piero Pauli
Giuseppe Di Stefano, Galliano Masini, Saturno Meletti,
Giuseppe Giacomini, Diana Soviero, Renata Tebaldi, 
Mirella Freni, Magda Olivero,  and Elena Nicolai

 Exciting music from some of Verdi's early operas such as:

   Attila, Aroldo, Stiffelio, Alzira, Il Corsaro,Oberto,
   I Lombardi,Gerusalemme,Un Giorno di Regno,
   I Masnadieri, I Due Foscari,Giovanna D'Arco,
    and La Battaglia Di Legnano.

Among the artists featured are:

  Renata Tebaldi, Marisa Galvany, Leyla Gencer,
  Luisa Maragliano, Montserrat Caballe, Justino Diaz,
  Piero Cappuccili, Renato Bruson, Renato Cioni,
  Aprile Millo, Antonietta Stella, and Angeles Gulin

 Songs and arias as performed live by the brilliantly
    talented young tenor, Rolando Villazon, who has 
endeared himself to so many operalovers,
by nature of his brilliant voice, ans his
totally captivating personality.

Eva Turner, Janet Baker, Josephine Veasey, Heddle Nash,
Isobel Baillie, Kathleen Ferrier, Tano Ferendinos,
Florence Austral, Miriam Licette, Gerald Davies,
Muriel Brunskill, Gerald Davies, Peter Dawson
Alexander Young, Lisa Perli (aka Dora Labette),
Elsie Suddaby, and Redvers Llewellyn

Giuseppe Verdi wrote some of his most remarkable music
for baritone and soprano. This podcast features duets from
eleven of his works, and features baritones such as:

Cornell MacNeil, Piero Cappuccili, Leonard Warren,
Roberto Frontali, Gino Bechi, Sherrill Milnes,
Antonio Boyer, Ettore Bastianini, and
Gian-Giacomo Guelfi.

The sopranos include:  Montserrat Caballe, Virginia Zeani,
Zinka Milanov, Leyla Gencer, Renata Tebaldi,
Renata Scotto, Maria Callas, Shirley Verrett, &
Sondra Radnovsky

(Photo: Maria Guleghina and Renato Bruson in Nabucco)

   Part Two of the 100th anniverary tribute to the
      great Zinka Milanov,born on May 17,1906

        (Photo: Zinka and guess who? circa 1960)

   Highlights from one of the most exciting recordings
   of Verdi's opea. The cast includes Caterina Mancini,
   Gino Penno, Giuseppe Taddei, and Giacomo Vaghi,
   conducted by Fernando Previtali   (1951)

    A comparison of various renditions of Strauss' Four Last Songs,
   including the world premiere (1950) as sung by Kirsten Flagstad.

    Since many people like to test themselves on a podcast  
like this, I am deliberately not listing the
artists here. The artists' names will be
provided after each group of three selections.

                                       ENJOY!!!!!

                       
    I

Zinka Milanov, Antonietta Stella, Leyla Gencer, Josela Ligi,
Christina Gallardo-Domas, Elizabeth Rethberg, Carlo Bergonzi,
Richard Tucker, Giovanni Martinelli, Lawrence Tibbett,
Leonard Warren, Giuseppe Valdengo, Jose Van Dam,
Cesare Siepi, Leo Nucci, Frank Guarrera, Tito Gobbi,
Nicolai Ghiaurov, Sesto Bruscantini, Franz Grundheber,
Giuseppe Taddei,Andre Turp, and Gwynne Howell

OWING TO THE ORIGINAL GLITCH,MY NARRATION DID NOT COME THROUGH. YOU MIGHT PLAY A GUESSING GME OR SCROLL DOWN AND SEE THE SELECTIONS.

These are Italian operas sung in German and German operas sung in Italian:
(1-9 in German.Rest in Italian)

 

1. Cavalleria Duet:Astrid Varnay,James Pease

2. Figaro Finale: Erich Kunz, Hilde Gueden,
Elizabeth Grummer, Paul Schoeffler

3/4. Tosca act two scene: Hildegard Ranczak and Georg Hann and then Leonie Rysanek and Josef Metternich

5. Forza Duet:Gottlob Frick and Carla Martinis

6. Rigoletto Duet:Rita Streich and Josef Metternich

7. Turandot: Gertrude Grob-Prandl

8. Macbeth aria:  Martha Moedl

9.Aida Nile Duet:Leonie Rysanak and George London

10. Rienzi aria:Francesco Vignas

11. Brangaene's Warning: Cloe Elmo

12. Parsifal Act Two Scene  Maria Callas and Africo Baldelli

13/14. Renata Tebaldi in Tannhauser and in Lohengrin(w.Gino Penno)

15. Edward Johnson(Former Met General Manager) in Parsifal Finale.

Sorry for the problem.All will be resolved soon.

NOTE: On earlier podcasts,you will see a note at the end of the podcast that you click on so you can download it.

 

 

 

   (Photo: The Very Great Karita Mattila) 

Included are scenes from Zaira, Zaza, and an opera by
Zandonai, plus scenes and arias as sung by:

Zeani, Zamboni, Zajick, Zednik, Zschau, Zanasi,
Zinetti, Ziliani, Zenatello, Zylis-Gara, Zakharova,
plus Zinka Milanov, Zarah Leander, and even
Zubin Mehta conducting.

I zinzerely hope you will not fall azleep while
lizening to these zelections.

                     Zounds like fun!!!!!

Franco Corelli, Richard Tucker, Anselmo Colzani,
Giuseppe Taddei, Nino Puglisi, Mario Chingari,
Daniele Barioni, Gian-Giacomo Guelfi, Clifford Harvuot,
Renata Tebaldi,Aprile Millo, Magda Olivero,
Dorothy Kirsten,Gigliola Frazzoni, Antonietta Stella,
 and Johanna Meier.

Frau Ohne Schatten,Tristan und Isolde,Walkure,
Macbeth, Lohengrin, Nozze di Figaro, and songs
by Wagner and Mahler.

MARIO DEL MONACO

        FRANCO CORELLI

                  RICHARD TUCKER

  (Photo: Mario del Monaco as Otello)

Bryn Terfel, Richard Tucker, Ewa Podles, Marilyn Horne,
David Daniels, Janet Baker, Samuel Ramey, Beverly Sills,
Norman Treigle, Kathleen Ferrier, Kathleen Battle,
Joan Sutherland, Fritz Wunderlich, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

 Well,let us see how this works, and if it does, in the words of my friend Arnie, "I'll be bach."

Download this episode from the April Podcast Archive.

Download this episode from the April Podcast Archive.