Sat, 15 March 2014
I know you just ADORE my compilations, so I present no.9,with a few choice comments. If you played any at parties, did anyone ever guess ALL of them? 1. Gigli, Rethberg, Pinza Attila trio (Need we say more?) 2. Carlo Bergonzi E lucevan le stelle (a veritable vocal lesson) 3. Jussi Bjoerling Romeo 1947 ensemble. (Did the C sound like that live?) 4. Alessandro Bonci Puritani aria 5. Clara Butt Lucrezia Borgia Brindisi (they would laugh today.I adore this!) 6. Karen Branzell Erda Warning (Das Rheingold) 7. Olga Borodina La Favorite aria 8. Montserrat Caballe Adriana Phedre Monologue (Totally wild!) 9. Piero Cappuccilli Luisa Miller aria ( A very great man) 10. Irene Minghini-Cattaneo Azucena aria (sadly killed when Allied bomb destroyed her villa in WW II) 11. Julia Varady Mme.Butterfly "Che tua madre." 12. Charles Dalmores Carmen Flower Song 13. Zinka Milanov (who?) "D'amor sull'ali rosee" (Trovatore) 14. Mario Del Monaco "No,pazzo son"(Manon Lescaut) (Example of subtlety) 15. Merrill/Bjoerling Don Carlo duet (pure gold) 16. Birgitte Fassbaender "Suicidio" ( even though she is a mezzo.) 17. Kathleen Ferrier "An die Musik" (Schubert) 18. Lauren Flanigan Lady Macbeth aria (One of the singers who "takes chances" with repertory. One of my favorite ladies.) 19. Beniamino Gigli "Vedi,io piango' (Fedora) 20. Apollo Granforte Credo from Otello (His name fits his voice.) |
Fri, 14 March 2014
A commercial recording from Bucharest,Rumania under Cornel Trailescu, featuring my beloved Virginia Zeani, tenor Corneliu Fanateanu, and the recently deceased Nicolae Herlea. I feel that Virginia proves once again that she is one of our greatest artists. It is not because of our friendship because I have gotten friendly with some artists AFTER hearing them, and it is not as if I made a friend and then "liked every breath he/she took." What can be a problem is when a singer you know as a person sings badly, and you have to be honest (except you cannot write about it on the internet.) |
