Georg Hann (January 30, 1897 - December 9, 1950) was an Austrian operatic bass-baritone, particularly associated with the comic (singspiel) German repertory.

Born in Vienna, he studied at the Music Academy there with Theodor Lierhammer. He joined the Munich State Opera in 1927, and remained with this theatre until his death. He also appeared regularly at the Vienna State Opera and theSalzburg Festival, quickly establishing himself as a leading buffo interpreter, notably in roles such as Leporello, Falstaff,Kecal, Ochs, La Roche (role he created in 1942), etc.

He made guest appearances at the Berlin State Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Paris Opéra, the Royal Opera Housein London, La Scala in Milan.

He did not limit himself to comic roles but also sang Sarastro, Pizzaro, Gunther, Amfortas, Daland and tackled a few Italian roles as well notably Wurm, Alfio, Tonio, as well as Mefistophele in Gounod's Faust.

Hann died in Munich aged only 53.

Arias from:Zar und Zimmermann(Lorzing),Barber of Bagdad(Cornelius) w. Lorenz Fehenberger, Nabuco,Falstaff,Gypsy Baron,  Bettelstudent (Millocker), and two songs by Loewe

 Saffo(Pacini),Norma,Trovatore,Ballo,Otello,Mefistofele,Gioconda, Cavalleria,Tosca and four songs by Grieg,Simonetti, Tosti,Denza and Bach/ Gounod Ave Maria.

 Tomorrow I call Magda Olivero (104 years old) and tell her to sing this repertory..Well, maybe only a little..BET SHE COULD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

1. Ivan Koslovsky               Lohengrin aria (in Russian)

2. Selma Kurz                      Seraglio   "Ach ich liebte"

3.Lotte Lehmann                 Walkure Sieglinde aria

4. Jose Luccioni                    Werther Ara

5. Roberta Peters/Cornell MacNeil      Rigoletto act three duet

6. Lois Marshall                       Seraglio aria  (same as Kurz)

7. Dorothy Maynor                 Zauberflote aria

8. Lauritz Melchior                Tannhauser Rome Narrative

9. Aprile Millo                         Trovatore act four aria

10. Claudia Muzio                 "Ninna Nanna"

11.Gustave Neidlinger           Das Rheingold Curse

12. Anna Netrebko                 Rusalka aria

13. Olive Middleton                Trovatore Miserere (not for purists)

14.Magda Olivero                    Fedora Finale

15.Rosetta Pampanini           Iris aria

16. Alfredo Piccaver               Meistersinger act three aria

17. Vassilka Petrova              Trovatore (I think!)

18.Bruno Prevedi                   Butterfly Addio

19.Lina Bruna Rasa/Afro Poli   Cav Duet

20. Regina Resnik     (as soprano)   Voi lo sapete

21.Katya Ricciarelli           Zaira aria

(After Petrova is Podles Cenerentola aria/..aorry!)

(After no.17,i think I made an omission.)

For my darling friend Marisa Galvany ( one of her 56 names).NO ONE sings like you....and remember, I had the pleasure of looking down your tonsils on the high notes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Bless you!!!!!

With the usual annoying Met cuts in those days,here is a Lohengrin. Leinsdorf in 1940 with Melchior,Rethberg,Thorborg, List,Huehn

I saw her so many times and she was a superb artist, with a rich tone. Here are arias from Don Carlo,Gioconda,Tristan und Isolde, Das Rheingold, Walkure, Gotterdamerung, Samson and Delilah (with that famous long hair that got caught in Del Monaco's boot.) Also included in the Mahler Cycle,"Lied eined fahrenden Gesellen.)

From Florence, 1978, under George Pretre, here is the great Alfredo Kraus as Werhter, with Lucia Valentini-Terrani, Rolando Panerai, and Anastasia Tomaszewska Schepis (how long does it take her to sign an autograph?)

Please note my disc was flawed so act two finale is not on the podcast.

So it is not is Russian. I saw it in English (with George London, as in this cast) .This 1955 Vienna version under Berislav Klobucar is a GREAT show. Leonie Rysanek, Anton Dermota, and the blackest basso voice, Gottlob Frick, complete  this wonderful cast. With this kind of singing, I'll take it in hip-hop!!

From 1946 Geneva, under Nino Sanzogno, I bring you a true rarity; We never think of Mario Del Monaco,one of the greatest dramatic (and I do mean DRAMATIC!) in Ballo in Maschera. Well,here he is , with a cast featuring Giulietta Simionato, Carla Castellani, Piero Basini, Marisa Morel (Oscar). I am glad he could scale down that enormous voice for this music.

We loved that lady!!!!! Here Leyla Gencer (She told us it is pronounced "GENGER" ( Hard first G and second G like "ginger.) Here she sings all Mozart:Seraglio,Don Giovanni,Nozze di Figaro, and Idomeneo. What could she not do??????

June 11, 1864    Richard Strauss born!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 11, 1913       Rise Stevens born!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  The Gods were good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew Rise and we had our Rise club meetings at her home every year.

  She loved Lotte Lehmann....and imagine that they sang in Rosenkavalier together!

       My tears flow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Giuseppe di Stefano, affectionately known as "Pippo" had one of the most glorious tenor voices in opera history. Sadly, he made some poor choices, and the career did not last as long as it should have,but what a voice! Just that high C diminuendo in theFaust aria tells you he could do. Here are some arias as sung (mostly live) by this fabulous tenor.

Turandot,Tosca,Ballo,Faust,Mignon, Aida, Forza (with Bastianini),Boheme

Here is the end of the Verrett Macbeth. I had forgotten to add two tracks.

SO SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shirley Verrett, one of my all-time favorite singers, in a Scala 1975 performance of Macbeth under Claudio Abbado. The magnificent Piero Cappuccilli, Franco Tagliavini, and (not to be oudone), Nicolai Ghiaurov complete the cast.

Arias  by Gian Giacomo Guelfi from Nabuco, Macbeth,Luisa Miller, Jerusalem,Wally, Zaza, Fanciulla, Andrea Chenier, and I even found the clip of the Amonasro scene where the conductor lets the audience goes insane, and  never stops so the poor diva can be heard!!!!

Giangiacomo Guelfi (21 December 1924 – 8 February 2012)^[1] was an operatic baritone, particularly associated with Verdi and Puccini.^[2]

Born in Rome, Guelfi studied law before turning to vocal studies in Florence with baritone Titta Ruffo. He made his stage debut in Spoleto, as Rigoletto in 1950. He made his debut in 1952 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, also appearing in Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Palermo, Catania, and becoming a regular guest at the Arena di Verona. Outside Italy he appeared in Berlin, Lisbon, London, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Cairo. He made his American debut in 1954 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and at the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 1970.^[2] He took part in the creation of contemporary works including Lazzaro in Pizzetti's La figlia di Jorio, Naples, 1954. He was mostly known for his Verdi portrayals in operas such as Nabucco, I due Foscari, Attila, Macbeth, Il trovatore, I vespri siciliani, La forza del destino, and Aida. He also appeared in verismo operas such as Cavalleria rusticana, Andrea Chénier, Tosca, and La fanciulla del West.

Guelfi had a large, powerful voice and yet was able to perform more classical works such as Guglielmo Tell, Lucia di Lammermoor, La favorite, L'Africaine, and Spontini's Agnes von Hohenstaufen.

He sang the role of Rance in La fanciulla del West in a recording with Renata Tebaldi, conducted by Arturo Basile, and was in the 1961 Tokyo's performances of Tosca, also with Tebaldi, on DVD.

He died on 8 February 2012 in Bolzano, after a week's hospitalization.^[1]

I mentioned in my narration my love for that glorious voice of Daniele Barioni. That is not exactly fair to the marvelous Dorothy Kirsten in the title role, but sometimes you just have special memories of a particular singer. In this 1960 New Orleans performance under Renato Cellini we also hear a fine baritone, Richard Torigi (why was he never at the Met?) and Suzuki is Rosalind Nadell.

I tried to narrate a bit of information about the way singers approach the passaggio (or "change in registers). Please feel free to e-mail me at Placido 21@aol.com if you think I don't know what I'm talking about!.

Martinelli, Corelli, Carreras, Bjoerling,Gigli, Di Stefano, Baum Del Monaco 1952, Del Monaco 1961. Roswaenge, Svanholm.  (The Vinay clip did not come out.)

Passaggio is a term used in classical singing to describe the pitch ranges in which vocal registration events occur. Beneath passaggio is the chest voice where any singer can produce a powerful sound, and above it lies the head voice, where a powerful and resonant sound is accessible, but usually only through training. The historic Italian school of singing describes a primo passaggio and a secondo passaggio connected through a zona di passaggio in both the male and female voice. A major goal of classical voice training in classical styles is to maintain an even timbre throughout the passaggio. Through proper training, it is possible to produce a resonant and powerful sound.

From a concert performance from NYC 1974 under Eve Queler, we hear Montserrat Caballe,Placido Domingo, Justino Diaz, and Franco Bordoni in Verdi's "I Vespri Siciliani."

(Note the way Caballe sings "Arrigo, ah parla a un core" in act four as an example of truly amazing singing.)

Under Eugen Jochum, I bring you a Tristan und Isolde from Bayreuth, 1953 featuring Astrid Varnay, Ramon Vinay, Gustav Neidlinger, Ira Milaniuk, and my favorite basso of that era, Ludwig Weber.

(I know you missed my mellifluous voice before the podcast, but it was too noisy in my hall. Sorry!)

Scenes from two performances of Turandot:

New Orleans, 1966 under Knud Andersson featuring Birgit Nilsson and Giuseppe Gismondo.

Rome, 1987 under Daniel Oren featuring Diana Soviero and Corneliu Murgu.

 I hope I am not inundating you too much with all these compilations, but I do think they are fun.

1. Fedora Barbieri                       Trovatore   "Stride la vampa."

2. Daniele Barioni                         La Rondine aria (with nice interpolation at end.)

3. Lina Bruna Rasa                       Cavalleria Rusticana   "Voi lo sapete" ( Insane chest!)

4. Grace Bumbry                           Don Carlo     "Oh don fatale."

5. Maria Callas                               La Gioconda     "Suicidio"

6. Enrico Caruso                            "Vesti la giubba"

7. Regine Crespin/Carlo Bergonzi        Ballo in Maschera Duet

8. Gilda Cruz-Romo                         Attila Cabaletta

9. Giuseppe de Luca                        Tanhauser Evening Star   (in Italiano.)

10.Bernardo de Muro                      Isabeau (Mascagni) aria

11.Ghena Dimitrova                         "Vissi d'arte"

12.Placido Domingo                         Tanhauser Rome Narrative

13.Nicolai Gedda/Fernando Corena       Elisir Duet

14.Mario Filippeschi                          "Messun Dorma"   (LOUD!)

15.Elina Garanca                                Cosi Fan Tutte"   Dorabella aria

16.Leyla Gencer                                  Adriana Lecouvreur Act 3 Phedre Narration

17.Marcello Giordani                           Huguenots aria

18.Thomas Hampson/Sam Ramey     Duet from Verdi's "Un Giorno di Regno"

19.Susan Graham                                   Komponist aria from Ariadne

20.Hei-Kyung Hong                                "Che bel sogno di Doretta" (Rondine)

21.Marilyn Horne                                     Cabaletta from Meyerbeer's "Le Prophete"

22.Kiri Te Kanawa                                     "Summertime"

Macbeth from La Scala 1952 under  Victor de Sabata. Maria Callas, Enzo Mascherini, Gino Penno, and Italo Tajo are featured.   (73 min.)