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.)