Sorry,folks!!!  I love to go to the opera, but I really do know the difference between most of the singers (not all) and what you see here!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG36dWHXBT4

When I first Met Dolora Zajick, born Mar.24, 1952, I spoke to her of the RARITY of her kind of voice…She works with young artists,trying to get some of them to sing in the “old style” if the term is valid…For me it is. She is a rarity, and I hope we have more singers of her kind.
Based on my conversations with her over the years, she had me once do a “mini-class’ for her students, illustrating the kind of singing that great singers exhibited in their recordings.
She still has plenty of voice!!!!!

I hope you are enjoying my compilations. I think they represent a wide variety of material.

1. Marilyn Horne           Semele            "Iris,hence away."   (Breathtaking technique)

2. Dorothy Kirsten         Mme.Butterfly  Farewell

3.   She can sing pop also, and very well.       "Embraceable you."

4. Tiana Lemnitz           Nozze di Figaro            "Porgi amor"

5. Leyla Gencer              Aida                                " O Patria Mia"

6. George London           Boris Monologue    (How we miss him!)

7. Germaine Lubin         Tannhauser                "Dich theure halle."

8. Christa Ludwig           Frau act 2 finale w.Berry,Rysanek,Dalis.  (My all-time favorite singer in a given role. It was something I cannot forget.)

9. Regina Resnik             Andrea Chenier       "La Mamma Morta" (she started as soprano.)

10.Lauritz Melchior         Pagliacci                  "Vesti la giubba"

11.Aprile Millo                  Forza                        "Pace"

12.Joan Sutherland/Sherrill Milnes   Rigoletto act three duet (WOW!!!)

13. Martha Moedl             Parsifal                     "Ich sah das Kind."

14. Edna Moser                 Zauberflote              "Der holle Rache."

15. Callas/Bechi               Nabucco  duet  (a kind of singing long absent)

16. Birgit Nilsson               Tosca                      "Vissi d'arte"

17. Rosetta Pampanini     Manon Lescaut     "In quelle trine morbide." (Another example of a lost art.)

18.   Luciano Pavarotti       NINE high C's    (Guess what opera!)

From New Orleans,1954, under Walter Herbert, we present the great Victoria de los Angeles as Mme.Butterfly,with Walter Fredericks,Richard Torigi, and  Rosalind Nadell. (73 min.)

    I am writing this in advance of Magda Olivero's 104th birthday,which we will celebrate on Mar.25. Sometimes certain thoughts occur to me at a given time (like this morning), and so I feel like putting them down as I recall them clearly.
    In all the years in which I have been attracted to the vocal art, I am singling out Mme.Olivero because I have never felt that anyone has quite achieved her level of vocalism and deep-felt emotion. Imagine that someone who was once told something like "Don't quit your day job," owing to a vocal quality that surely does not possess the fullness of a Tebaldi or a Ponselle, and whose rather "wide vibrato" might not be pleasing to all ears.
     However, let us reflect on some of the so-called "Kunst divas" who made an indelible mark upon the opera scene, and who may not have necessarily produced the "golden tones" that perhaps the average opera lover appreciates, without delving into the depth of the soul of artists such as Callas, Moedl, Scotto, Jones, Albanese, Rysanek, and other so-called "flawed divas," or in the case of male artists, what a Gobbi, a Chaliapin, a Rossi-Lemeni who achieved so much more than pure vocalism, which may thrill, but which may lack the depth of emotion of artists such as the above.
      In the case of Olivero, I use my "Martha Moedl reading the Dresden telephone directory" and still be riveting to audiences for many years. Olivero has had an uncanny ability to phrase and emote in such a way as to tear at your heartstrings every time. In one of our phone calls,I asked her about  the manner in which she utters the name of "Nina Micheltorena" in Fanciulla, with a mean-spirited jealousy "between the teeth" that only a very special artist could think of. The very great interpreters "decide" what special effects they can make with merely a word or phrase. Such is Magda Olivero, who lifted me out of my seat in a Fedora with the with words,"Loris,ove sei" in her final moments.
       I will forever recall her Met debut at age 65, in which she sang the last phrases of the aria in such a way as to bring everyone to tears. Run to Youtube and find the clip, and pay attention to the final "rimuneri,cosi," where the "u" vowel is held in such a way as to produce the most devastating effect, and then a giant SWELL on the last "cosi," where most sopranos barely make it.
       These are but two examples of why I feel that "non posso imagginare un mondo senza Magda" ("I cannot immagine a world without Magda."). However, like the present generation, future generations will learn from what she has contributed as a lesson in how to combine vocalism with emotion, and if you will sample her many contributions to music in roles like Tosca,Fedora, Adriana, Minnie, etc. you may better comprehend what I and so many others feel about this "miracle' of opera.
                                                With my sincerest love for this great lady,
                                                                                Charlie

 What a fitting day for me to have discovered this marvelous young soprano, who studies with birthday girl Diana Soviero!!!!!

   Now that I have posted clips in various places, individuals have written me that she is a rising young star , and this is a great thing. Remember that 35 years ago when I heard Soviero's Mimi, and almost fell out of the balcony, I KNEW she was special, and this young lady appears to be following in her footsteps.

   A big BRAVA to her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Gigli and Melchior celebrate today!!!!!   Imagine what a day that was for opera!!!!

  March 20, 1890. BOTH Gigli and Melchior were born!!!!!! The GODS must have been in a good mood!!!

 The remarkable Carlo Bergonzi, whose performances have proven to be "singing lessons," appears in this Liceo,Barcelona Forza from 1971 under Ugo Savini. Raina Kabaiwanska, Nicolai Herlea, Gwynne Howell,and the young Juan Pons as the Alcalde, complete the cast.  (73 min.)

Note: I skipped the narration this week,because you wouldn't want to hear what my voice sounds like.

 I again post this ten handkerchief clip in celebration of Diana Soviero's March 19th birthday (shared with my ma). After 35 years of friendship, I still feel that she represents the most remarkable combination of vocalism and emotion imaginable. I treasure what she has meant to me, and to the opera world.