Hello all (on Del Monaco's 100th birthday,7/27),

My cd/dvd/cassette collection is even larger than Mario's voice, but it is gathering dust. I have been offering some original private and commercial material to singers,teachers,Facebook buddies.

I only ask postage, and am happy to share material with you (NO ZINKA!!). I do have a catalogue, but you may want to list specific artists you like.

  I bring gifts to Stefan Kocan, Piotr Beczala,and others for their enjoyment, but also some teachers have students who need to know who Claudia Muzio or Beniamino Gigli were.

  Let me know at Placido21@aol.com.

P.SA. Fabiano wants to come and raid my apartment!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 11:24am EDT

I called Franco, very long distance, and he says, "Bravo,Michele," but still a bit GELOSO!!!!!

Love Michael...wonderful talent.

  Ana Maria Martinez is also superb!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 7:12am EDT

 

Del Monaco was born in Florence to a musical upper-class family.[2] As a young boy he studied the violin but had a passion for singing. He graduated from the Rossini Conservatory at Pesaro, where he first met and sang with Renata Tebaldi, with whom he would form something of an operatic dream team of the 1950s. His early mentors as a singer included Arturo Melocchi, his teacher at Pesaro, and Maestro Raffaelli, who recognized his talent and helped launch his career.

 

That career began in earnest with Del Monaco's debut on 31 December 1940 as Pinkerton at the Puccini Theater in Milan. (His initial appearance in an opera had occurred the previous year, however, in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana in Pesaro.) He sang in Italy during the Second World War and married, in 1941, Rina Filipini. In 1946, he appeared at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for the first time. During the ensuing years he became famous not only in London but also across the operatic world for his powerful voice. It was almost heldentenor-like in scope but Del Monaco was no Wagnerian, confining his activities overwhelmingly to the Italian repertoire.

 

Del Monaco sang at the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1951 to 1959, enjoying particular success in dramatic Verdi parts such as Radamès. He soon established himself as one of four Italian tenor superstars who reached the peak of their fame in the 1950s and '60s, the others being Giuseppe Di Stefano, Carlo Bergonzi and Franco Corelli. Del Monaco's trademark roles during this period were Giordano's Andrea Chénier and Verdi's Otello. He first tackled Otello in 1950 and kept refining his interpretation throughout his career. It is said that he sang Otello an astonishing 427 times. However, the book published by Elisabetta Romagnolo, Mario Del Monaco, Monumentum aere perennius, Azzali 2002, lists only 218 appearances by him as Otello, which is a more realistic figure. Aptly, the tenor was buried in his Otello costume. Although Otello was his best role, throughout his career, Del Monaco sang a number of other roles with great acclaim, for example: Canio in Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), Radames in Aida (Verdi), Don Jose in Carmen (Bizet), Chenier in Andrea Chénier (Giordano), Manrico in Il trovatore (Verdi), Samson in Samson and Delilah (Saint-Saëns), and Don Alvaro in La forza del destino (Verdi).

 

Del Monaco made his first recordings in Milan in 1948 for HMV. Later, he was partnered by Renata Tebaldi in a long series of Verdi and Puccini operas recorded for Decca. On the same label was his 1969 recording of Giordano's Fedora, opposite Magda Olivero and Tito Gobbi.

 

His ringing voice and virile appearance earned him the nickname of the "Brass Bull of Milan".[3] Despite his idiomatic phrasing, he was still widely criticized for being unsubtle and unyielding in his vocal interpretations.

 

 I was 15. All I recall is "white teeth" coming toward me at the Met..My first opera ever and my first singer on a stage.(Aida).Saw him 40 times..Gave 1000% every night!!!

100 years ago,his first baby word must have been "Esultate!!!"

 

Category:general -- posted at: 1:15am EDT

       Finally getting help to do podcasts again. I have done videos as you know, but should be able to do audios soon. Windows 8.1 is different, but I am getting there.

    Thanks for your patience!!!

                                  Charlie

Category:general -- posted at: 1:00pm EDT

 

In The New York Times obituary, Peter G. Davis, who reviewed a 1978 Carnegie Hall recital by Bergonzi in The Times is quoted as noting:

More than the sound of the voice, it is Mr. Bergonzi’s way of using it that is so special. He is a natural singer in that everything he does seems right and inevitable — the artful phrasing, the coloristic variety, the perfectly positioned accents, the theatrical sense of well-proportioned climaxes, the honest emotional fervor. Best of all, Mr. Bergonzi obviously uses these effects artistically because he feels them rather than intellectualizes them — a rare instinctual gift, possibly the most precious one any musician can possess.[3]

Alan Blyth, in his Gramophone survey of Bergonzi's greatest recordings,[11] sums up the qualities of Bergonzi's voice:

His singing there [referring to an online example], even more his earlier Verdi discs, evinces an innate feeling for shaping a line on a long breath, an exemplary clarity of diction, words placed immaculately on the tone, an authoritative use of portamento and acuti. Add to those virtues the manner by which he gives to each phrase a sense of inevitability and you say to yourself, in a mood of sheer pleasure, this is exactly how the music ought to sound. In the theatre only Otello was beyond his capabilities, though his solos are movingly sung on the Philips set.
I think I took the great man for granted. LORD!!!!!! He was one of the greatest singers in opera history!!!!!!
Category:general -- posted at: 1:48pm EDT

Rest in Peace!!! One of our greatest singers. I hope we never forget him!!!!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 5:26pm EDT

She was 7 yrs.older than we thought...Great lady, who could sing POP as well as opera. Really wonderful, and at 69 came out of retirement to do Tosca (on Youtube.).

  Bless her memory!

 

Audio podcasts delayed...Patience!!!!!!

Category:general -- posted at: 1:18pm EDT

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