We were ripping programs and tossing them down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  When she took the high A at the end on "AMOOOOOORE"..a friend was so aghast, he hit me in the ribs and I almost fell to the standing room floor!!!!!!! You could not imagine what it was like!!!!!!

    January 31, 1955. Weather like New York last week. A teenager wakes up at 4:00 and arrives at the Met at 6:00 for his first Otello,featuring the debut of the lady whose birthday (then unkown to us) was Feb.1. The teen enters a telephone booth (remember them?). A cop asks him what he is doing there.The guy says, "Waiting for the opera tonight." Shortly, another group of nutcases get on the standee line, to freeze until 7:00P.M..
       Feb.1, 1955..about 12:00 and out comes the lady who became our "madre" and in freezing cold weather,signed every single program, and it was her 33rd birthday!!!
  So you understand why Feb.1 means so much to me and to those who were privileged to have this incredible lady..on and off stage..as a "buddy" in our teen years.
      Bless your memory, dearest Renata Tebaldi. You will remain forever in our hearts!!                                     
                                                    Charlie

From 1958, under Jean Morel, we bring you Faust with Nicolai Gedda (in his debut season), Hilde Gueden,Jerome Hines, and Robert Merrill.

  Please note that owing to an error on the original disc, I have substituted Scotto,Kraus, and Ghiaurov for the final scene.  (74 min.)

 Mirella Freni and Gianni Raimondi head the cast of Mascagni's "L'Amico Fritz" from La Scala 1963, under Gianandrea Gavazzeni. Rolando Panerai and Bianca Maria Casoni complete the cast  (66 min.)

In this 1969 Berlin Tosca under Loren Maazel, Mme.Lorengar sings with such beautiful expression that I am sorry I never experienced her live. Franco Tagliavini and Ingvar Wixell complete the cast (73 min.)

Cesare Bardelli was a true Italian baritone and had a fine career. I saw him in this Attila in 1972 in Newark,New Jersey, with Jerome Hines and Leyla Gencer. I know you will enjoy this, and especially his dear daughter Vera will be able to listen to her dad.

  To that great guy,Marcello Giordani, who celebrates his birthday on Jan.25  (1963)...I wish him the best. He recalls the SQUILLANTE tenors of the past. Live at the Met he shakes the chandeliers!!!!!

                                                        Love from Charlie

  New York is suffering under the worst icy-cold weather conditions in many years;however, we were cheered up when,during our snowstorm, that the delightful Anna Netrebko decided to have a little fun on her balcony.

  The photo has made so many of us happy, and let me share it with you!

  I bring you still another of my compilations of great artists in order to make you happy, and for your opera parties, where you give expensive gifts to those who guess all the selections.

1.  Magda Olivero  (turns 104 in March)     Iris  aria

2. Getrude Kappel      Walkure      "Hojotojo"

3.  Alfredo Kraus         Romeo        "Ah leve-toi,soleil"  (sings it up a half step.)

4. Karita Mattila         "I could have danced all Night" from "My Fair Lady."

5. Maria Callas           "La mamma morta"   (see the touching scene in the film "Philadelphia")

6. Sherrill Milnes         Attila cabaletta (with amazing high B flat)

7. Elena Nikolaidi        Don Carlo    "O don fatale."

8. Claudia Novikova    La Perichole   Hilarious act two "drunk aria."

9. Ivan Petrova            Yolantha (Tchaikowsky)  King Rene aria

10. Ezio Pinza               Amore de tre Re     Archibaldo's Monologue  (INCREDIBLE!)

11. Rosa Ponselle         Tosca    "Vissi d'arte"

12.  Cesare Valletti       Manon    "Le reve"

13.  Samuel Ramey       Boris Clock Scene

14.  Antonietta Stella    Attila   "Santo di patria"

15. Ebe Stignani             Semiramide aria  (see why she is my all-time favorite mezzo.)

16.  Richard Tucker        Turandot     "Nessun Dorma"

   Under the baton of Riccardo Chailly, we hear a magnificent 1977 SF Turandot, with Montserrat Caballe, Luciano Pavarotti, Giorgio Tozzi, and Leona Mitchell. This is the brand of singing that lifts you out of your seat (second only to the Nilsson/Corelli performances of the 1960's.)    (73 min.)

   On her Jan.22 (1897) birthday we think of the person who once said, "First you have Caruso and Ponselle..and THEN come singers!"  No words are adequate to describe this phenomenon. Retired in 1937 after a feud with the Met, but left a great legacy of recordings unequalled in opera history.

  I was outside the Met stage door a few years ago after a Macbeth and this guy,whom I never met, looked at me and said,"Are you Charlie??You are more famous than I." This was our first encounter....Joe is a sweetheart of a man, and we wish him a happy Jan.22 birthday. Lovable in every way!!!!!

  Placido in Pique Dame on his birthday!!   Wonderful singing!!!!!!!

   I may kid around and may not agree with all of Placido's choices of repertory these days, but who could ever deny his incredible contribution to the world of music for 50 years, and so from this birthday boy to him, I wish him a wonderful happy birthday (Jan.21).   Charlie

  Renzo Rosselini's opera "La Guerra" from a 1960 RAI Rome broadcast under Massimo Freccia. The cast features:

Magda Olivero    Marta

Nicoletta Panni   Maria (her daughter)

Renato Cesari      Marco  (her son)

Giacinto Prandelli     Erik

Ottavio Taddei          Il Postino

Walter Alberti            Il prete                                 (60 min.with my narration)

 For your opera parties, here is another pot-pourri. (No narration.):

1.  Margarete Klose    Orfeo                     "Che faro"  (In Deutsch)

2.   Anna Moffo             Puritani                "Vien,diletto."

3. Elena Nikolaidi         Macbeth Sleepwalking Scene  (dig the TEMPI!)

4.  Theodore Uppman        "Nancy Hanks"

5. Julia Varady              Macbeth              "La luce langue"

6-7.    Leonard Warren  arias from Ernani and Barbiere

8. Licia Albanese and Afro Poli in Boheme act three scene.

9. Daniele Barioni         Mme.Butterfly    "Addio,fiorito asil":  (I adored that voice!)

10. Jussi Bjoerling         Turandot             "Nessun dorma"

11. Giuseppe Di Stefano      Aida               "Celeste Aida"

12. Leonce Escalais          Robert le Diable aria  (squillo like crazy!)

13. Mirella Freni                  Fedora             "O grandi occhi."

14. Christa Ludwig        Samson et Delilah     "Mon coeur"

              I sincerely hope you like these compilations. I think they are fun!!!!!

(ERROR:  Add Alessandro Ziliani Dame Blanche aria after the Warren selections.)

The Met 1961 Martha (in English) under Nino Verchi did not really catch on, despite the presence of Richard Tucker, Victoria de los Angeles, Giorgio Tozzi, and Rosalind Elias. However, for historical value, here is some of it.   (47 min.)

Here is one of many compilations of great artists at Covent Garden in the period 1904-1910.

    They're all good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Was I born too late?

1.Emmy Destinn    Lohengrin:            Elsa's Traum

2. Melba/Caruso   O soave fanciulla (her high C is to DIE FOR!)

3. Charles Dalmores  Carmen             Flower Song

4. Emma Calve            Herodiade        Il est doux.

5. Giuseppe Anselmi   Tosca   Recondita Armonia  (note slight change in ending)

6.Celestina Boninsegna     Ballo           Ma dall'arrido

7. Selma Kurz    Les Huguenots            O Beau pays  (famous for her trill)

8. Giovanni Zenatello      Andrea Chenier     Si, fui soldato

9. Riccardo Stracciari       Trovatore        Il Balen

10.Mattia Battistini           Faust                Valentin's aria

11. Clarence Whitehill      Meistersinger   Wahn! Wahn!

12. Maria Gay (Mrs.Zenatello)   Carmen    Card aria  (slight chest voice.)

13. John McCormack          Don Giovanni     Il mio tesoro  (considered the STANDARD!)

14. Alessandro Bonci          Pearl Fishers     Je crois entendre

15. Edoardo Garbin              Fedora                Vedi,io piango (w.Giannina Russ.)

16. Louise Kirkby-Lunn       Samson et Delilah     Printemps qui commence

17. Emile Vanni-Marcoux   Pelleas et Melisande   Una grande innocence

18. Mario Sammarco            Otello                   Era la notte

19. Peter Cornelius                Walkure              Wintursturme   (in Danish)

                                        (71 min.)

  I always brought opera to my foreign language students, and even staged the shaving scene from the Barbiere once. Kids need to be brought UP to appreciate what the arts are all about.

  In the Bronx, New York, the absolutely brilliant and lovable counter-tenor, Anthony Roth Costanzo has brought opera to sixth grade kids and I am just overwhelmed by his efforts. You do not have to be a teacher to love what you see here. May he continue on this quest to educate young people in this way, and of course continue to thrill opera audiences all over the globe.

 Despite some rather distant sound (the tape recorder was not close up), we hear a New Orleans Les Huguenots from 1975 under Knud Andersson. The cast features Rita Shane (Marguerite), Marisa Galvany (Valentine), Enrico di Giuseppe (Raoul), Paul Plishka (Marcel), Susan Marsee (Urbain), and Dominic Cossa (Nevers).     (70 min.)

Here is a selection of various fine sopranos on the Classical Evolution label.I think you will find them interesting:

1.Sumi Jo    Queen of the Night aria

2-3. Cecilia Bartoli, Figaro and Donna del Lago arias.

4.Lucia Alberti    Fille du reggiment Romance

5.Anna Tomowa-Sintow   Ritorna Vincitor

6.Ghena Dimitrova   Vissi d'arte

7-8. Alexandra Pendatchanska   Romeo and Faust arias

9.      Raina Kabaiwanska   Manon Adieu au petit table (no recitative.)

10.    Gwyneth Jones (with James King) Scene from Schmidt's "Notre Dame"

11.     Sylvia Sass   Liebestod                                             

                                                              (about 65 min.)

The brilliantly talented Angela Meade at the Richard Tucker Gala last year in the Due Foscari aria.They do NOT make them like this most of the time....

 Here is the clip....Have fun..I think!!!!

  I was playing this the other day, and when Remola took a high J# above Z, three cats and seven dogs in the house all came to my door......not fair..I could not feed them!

With all the music available to us, we still cannot “hear it all,” even in 10 lifetimes.
My dear buddy Bob Fazio became close with the fabulous Giovanni Martinelli in the great tenor’s later years,but he still had the same “white’ quality..I never really appreciated..BUT when you see a series of clips like these..you realize the man was a vocal GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Forget the English)

To ADORE for her absolutely amazing ability to tug at your heartstrings! Born Jan.6, 1903. Favero is part of the line of divas who possessed the kind of love of the vocal line that is totally ABSENT today. Along with Muzio, Scuderi, Zeani, Olivero,Albanese, Soviero, and Scotto, she transported you to a new dimension of emotion. Listen to what she accomplishes with a mere phrase. We who claim to know what these artists contributed LONG for someone who can follow them.

The much-beloved Leyla Gencer sings Odabella in this 1972 Florence Attila, under Riccardo Muti. The cast includes Nicolai Ghiaurov,Veriano Luchetti, and Norman Mittlemann (73 min.)

GREAT voice...Grace Bumbry excelled in mezzo AND soprano roles..Born Jan.4, 1937, let us celebrate her wonderful career.