I just spoke briefly to Magda, a bit tired with all the birthday phone calls. Her "treno" arrived 104 years ago, and we are so very fortunate to have "caught her train" of love for music. Bless her forever!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 12:01pm EDT

Salvatore Licitra, In Memoriam

Sadly, the marvelous tenor Salvatore Licitra passed away at age 43 of a brain hemorrhage while on his motor scooter. We loved his exciting voice and in his memory, I wish to present some arias:

Cavalleria, L'Arlesiana, Andrea Chenier,Fedora, Turandot, Fanciulla, Butterfly, Macbeth, and Trovatore.

                                            May the dear man rest in peace.

Direct download: Licitra3.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:39am EDT

I have discussed this ad infinitum, but I was there and at 65, we just could not believe what we heard. Listen especially to the final "Rimuuuuuuneri cosiiiiiii" where she has the breath control of a 25 yr.old.....This to me was a triumph I will never forget. Listen for my "brava" at the end. Applause is cut...it went on forever.

Category:general -- posted at: 9:45pm EDT

  I always call Magda on her birthday, and she was incredibly lucid all these years.Last year was less than lucid, but look, how many of us will be lucid at 104????  This clip is from 1993, when she was a baby at 83...An amazing woman, and a miracle of opera. I will call,and at least give my message to her friend and caretaker. Bless her!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 9:41pm EDT

The "P" tenors

 It seems there is a great number of tenors whose names start with "P." I thought it might be an offbeat,but valuable podcast, and they are magnificent:

1. Antonio Paoli                   Robert Le Diable/Poliuto (w. Honoria Popovici)

2. Alfred Piccaver                Meistersinger/Turandot

3. Nino Piccaluga                 Werther/Fanciulla

4. Piero Pauli                         Walkure/Boheme (Leoncavallo)

5. Julius Patzak                    Schubert: Staendchen/Freundliche Vision

6.Tino Pattiera                      Martha/Trovatore

7.Sigismund Pilinszky          Le Prophete

8.Gotthelf Pistor                    Walkure/Parsifal

9. Giacinto Prandelli              Fedora

Direct download: P_tenors.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:12pm EDT

 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!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 9:50am EDT

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!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 9:22am EDT

Compilation No.10

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!)

Direct download: Tenth_Comp.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:35am EDT

Mme.Butterfly with Victoria de los Angeles

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.)

Direct download: De_Los.Butt.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:05am EDT

Magda will be 104 on Mar.25


    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

Category:general -- posted at: 2:00pm EDT


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