Our dear Kurt Baum was born on Mar.15, 1900. Despite his having the ugliest voice in captivity and KILLED so many performances, mostly with Zinka.(Silent film acting with the two of them.),he had a great top register. This is an example. His Lohengrin recording with Traubel shows he should have done more German. We HATED the poor guy, but he was "reliable."

    When us oldies discovered that thing called "opera" (and became insane), all we had for information was the friendship of others who would play records (78's to start) and the oldtimers on the standee line, where we heard about names like Ponselle and Gigli.
     Nowadays we are lucky to have at our disposal an enormous amount of information, generated by the amazing opera forums where a number of remarkable and knowledgeable individuals afford us so much knowledge, (including lots of screaming and yelling.) We have Opera-L, founded by Bob Kosovsky, and Parterre Box, the creation of James Jorden,otherwise known as "La Cieca." James organized a successful podcast site for me personally, and I am happy to report that "from Angola to Zanzibar," I have helped to awaken interest in the vocal art.
     Recently, one of the most brilliant opera aficionados, Donald Collup, has created a site known as "Operaticpastcast.com." Here we are able to listen to his magnificent interviews with some of us "who were there," and are able to recall fond memories of our opera experience. The way in which Donald intersperses music with the comments in a mark of great professionalism, as he illustrates comments with vocal examples.
     Donald also has interviewed some of our living opera artists such as Lucine Amara, Olivia Stapp, Elizabeth Carron, and Virginia Zeani. From these interviews we gain a personal insight into the careers and deep-felt feelings of some of our fine artists.
      As I write this, I am listening to the most recent interview, with a fellow named Handelman, and I am amazed at the professional manner in which my comments are so well illustrated by Donald's musical examples.
       I urge you to explore this site, not because I am a participant, but because you will be thrilled at the many memories as recalled by those professional artists and by our mere mortals.
        Many thanks to you, dear Donald, for your tremendous efforts.

 Do you mean I NEVER knew of this?????? I feel so dumb...i guess it escaped me,until a friend sent it.

 Leyla had a 35 year career, and when teachers today fear the idea of chest voice, glottal attacks,etc...I get angry!!!! THIS is a lesson in how to sing with fire!!!!   Love it!!!

)

After I did the Adriana, I thought you would like to SEE Caballe in action!!!!!

Teachers today are afraid to teach singers to use the lower register,causing a lot  of BOREDOM!!!!

If you wish to hear some remarkable vocalism, listen to this 1976 Tokyo Adriana,under Gianfranco Masini, featuring prime Montserrat Cballe, Fiorenza Cossotto, Jose Carreras, and Attilio D'Orazi. Do not fail to pay special attention to the third act Phedre declamation, whish will make you almost "terrfified" in its intensity.  (73 min.)

He left us far too soon. Norman Treigle, born Mar.6, 1923, was a DYNAMO onstage.For me he was one of the greatest singers  I ever heard, and I heard him live countless times. He was truly a fabulous artist, actor, vocalist, with a HUGE voice and amazing stage personality. I honor his memory!

Cilea's rarely-heard "Gloria" from RAI Turino, 1969 under Fernando Previtali featuring:

Margherita Roberti (Gloria), Flaviano Labo  (Lionetto), Ferruccio Mazzoli (Aquilante), Lorenzo Testi (Bardo), Enrico Campi (Il Vescovo), Anna Maria Rota (La Senese), Alberto Albertini (Il Banditore)

(65 min.)

NOTE: I had a defective "Gloria' up there, and have deleted it.

We adored this "king of the comprimarios," who made the smallest role important. He was born on Mar.5, 1893 and would have sung even past his 60's, had he not died in an auto crash. One of the most delightful things he sang was the old Prisoner in Perichole, where he cracked us up with his "leeetle pen knife." He was beloved by all of us!

I was just directed to the Youtube clip of this escappe from a mental institution. She is all over Youtube, and when I watched the Semiramide aria, I sent it to Joyce Di Donato,who might decide to retire,since she could never equal her rendition. I tell you one advantage of this...that I never felt so NORMAL in my life after seeing this.

In your country, are there any singers .ike this?

 In the event that you just joined this site, I wanted you to have an idea of what the La Puma Opera Co.was like. It was not nice for them to throw us out at a Don Giovanni..but you can get the idea. Since they performed in an elementary school auditorium, they must have used the third-graders' orchestra. The company became a kind of "cult experience" amd attracted more and more people who wanted to pppppp in their pantalones!