le public affair
The cher public have spoken, and their chosen Rossini oeuvre, to be featured on the next Unnatural Acts of Opera, is…
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Check back on Wednesday night for the first installment of Il viaggio a Reims (which, as of course you all realize, will not be the same performance as the one in the video!)
Norman and Margaret Price sang an Edinburgh Verdi Requiem together, with Norman as the mezzo.
I’m going stop pontificating on this.
I will say only that gosh, a Verdi Requiem with Norman and Price sounds like a beautiful idea.
That Requiem pairing was what inspired my thoughts on Don Carlos. Both Norman and Price were regulars on the Abbado team. Price did a beautiful Elisabetta in Don Carlo in the late 70s at La Scala. (Her Berg Altenberg-Lieder, recorded with Abbado for DG, is an all-time great interpretation.)
I heard M.Price and Norman in Mahler 2 under Levine. Jessye had all the contralto notes in “Urlicht”. I was in the first row – can you imagine being that close to those two in full throttle.
The M.Price Don Carlo is available both as a DVD and CD from the usual dealers. Her Farewell to Comtesse Aremberg is exquisite.
Shame it was Obraztsova on that La Scala Don Carlo. Not exactly seductive …
Although a very different voice from Norman, de los Angeles has in common that mezzo-with-a-bit-on-top quality. Though whether she would have had the sustained strength at the bottom to sing any of the more dramatic soprano roles is moot. Anyway, she did very nicely as it was.
Dante, you’re so right about Norman Treigle. The voice was no Christoff (or even Ramey), but he was MAGICAL on stage, the kind of performer who ruins a role for you — anyone else singing it (I saw him as the Hoffman villains and Giulio Cesare as well as Mefistofele) just seems empty. I haven’t seen an entirely satisfactory Mefistofele or Cesare in all the years since. (So it’s just as well I missed his Don Giovanni, huh? I mean, Siepi’s never been replaced for me in that one.)
But what can one expect … except to recollect … liaisons … (falls asleep)
I feel full of rage at Opera Hell and should keep my mouth shut!! But can I? I ask you, can I?
I forget everyone is so young on this list. De Los Angeles was never other than a good sized lyric soprano with a most beautiful middle range, and some uncertainty on top, though not always. As I have stated before the first Carmen (Galli-Marie) was a lyric soprano. You might look at the score, Carmen is a soprano part in the Comique style — that is it lies mostly in the middle, with dips downward (Mignon likewise). Mezzos do the line a lot of damage and usually have to reach, even Callas has to in her recording.
The basso talk is bullshit. Ramey isn’t anything on Treigle and you can certainly find scenes from Susannah in video which do capture how amazing and mesmerizing he was. It was a very fine voice too, though ‘central’ in that neither top nor bottom were extensive. He recorded a complete Mefistofile, but it’s not a patch on what he was like live.
Ghiaurov had the biggest bass voice I ever heard and flung it around as though it were a toy. When he sang Ave Signor in Philly in 63 or so the walls literally shook and his immense sound handled with an elegant velvety legato and a huge dynamic range allowed about six of his Ella Giammai’s to be as close to ‘golden age’ as I’ve ever heard anyone get. He sometimes would thunder more than characterize but not always, he was a powerful, emotional Boris and while he he was starting to lose his volume, his Fiescos at La Scala were pretty thrilling.
Siepi had a very large voice that was glorious live, he was a GREAT interpreter, still the best acted King Philip first to last, an amazing Fiesco, a moving and gorgeous Gurnemanz, a thrilling and thundering Zaccaria, a hilarious Basilio, the only REALLY elegant and dangerous Gounod devil I’ve ever seen, both delicate and ferocious in beautiful French, a grand Silva and on and on.
Christoff had a smaller voice, but the timbre was so distinctive it carried well and interestingly. He was a ham and dangerous, I’ll never forget his drawing his sword and trying to behead Bruson in a Parma Don Carlo (“Orrenda, orrenda pace, la pace dei sepulchri!” Boris leaps to his feet, draws sword and heads for Bruson who runs off stage and out of the theater, end of act). Very moving though hammy Boris and a terror for whoever was singing Feodor in the last scene.
Hotter was a BASS, and had an enormous voice — though not as focused as Ghiaurov he was just as big maybe bigger — I saw him do the Inquisitor opposite Ghiaurov and it was literally deafening. Also as Schigolch he made MASSIVE sounds so that while the part was small one had to adjust downward for the other singers. Early in his career he did some baritone roles (as did Chaliapin) — he liked to do Amonasaro and Scarpia — I saw him do one late in the day with Jurinac and a tenor yglept Lorenzi — though neither he nor Sena had high notes it was riveting, and his only recordings of Amfortas (live from Vienna) are amazing. He also did Tonio a little (so did Chaliapin) — his prologue live from Vienna is an incredible document.
I loved Tozzi’s timbre and he had great charm and was an outstanding actor — but he was not remarkable for his pitch sense and could go quite flat.
One must mention Hines, I always thought he was an idiot and I didn’t like the ‘wooden’ sound with a bit of wobble that grew. But he was huge sounding and pretty solid if routine, he was even a decent Walkeure Wotan (cut).
Frick had an IMMENSE voice, blacker than any of these others and he would send these huge sounds out into the house with no effort, and he was small. Somewhere in outerspace they are still hearing his Hagen.
Soyer made some lovely recordings, but his live appearances at the Met were terrible (Faust with Paris Opera, one Don Giovanni replaced by Morris, not a piker btw) — he had a quick decline.
I find Ramey inferior to all these; he was able to use his coloratura skills to make it big but I’ve never seen anyone as dull as Boito’s or Gounod’s devils and just limited in most other roles. It’s a very nice timbre — but great?
Plancon is the ne plus ultra for coloratura bass and I don’t see how anyone can talk about a florid bass without knowing his records really well. The whole French school of the time is remarkable for florid singing. And while Journet, say, is not quite his equal, he gets pretty close and unfolds his voice like an organ especially before 1916 (one might try his part of the Lombardi trio with Caruso).
There is a whole amazing Russian school, but one should know the Spaniard Mardones, not an artist but enormous, and three great Latins, Nazzareno De Angelis (the greatest recording of Mefistofile), Tancredi Pasero and Ezio Pinza, who had one of the most glamorous voices of the century (just listen to the way he sings “O Patria” at the start of his O Tu Palermo.
Jesseye I think was a contralto — the lowest notes could beat an organ for richness and size, you just don’t hear that in a soprano. It’s well to remember that Tettrazini was a contralto too, but trained herself upward very successfully. Jesseye did not, and only had a few seasons where she was immense in opera (Didon and Cassandre, Jocasta, the first few Ariadnes, some Sieglindes, punto).
Well.
Mrs. JC: Thank you for the fascinating and exhaustive retrospective of basses from the recorded age. I’m not sure it is youth that I can claim (ignorance is probably more appropriate), but heavens I do find my self reaching for SOME excuse in the face of such an inclusive list as yours. I can’t say I disagree with much of what you said (at least concerning the singers I know well). In retrospect, I blush somewhat at the “sweeping” grandness of the comments I made about Ramey earlier in this thread.
I would only address two things you said:
1.) In regard to Ramey, you wrote: “It’s a very nice timbre — but great?” Well, yes, even up against the tremendous list you contributed, I would still call Ramey “great”. Just my opinion, of course.
2.) In regard to coloratura basses, you wrote: “Plancon is the ne plus ultra for coloratura bass and I don’t see how anyone can talk about a florid bass without knowing his records really well.” And here it is you who turns overly sweeping, as it is certainly possible to form an opinion without knowing every past singer of similar ilk. Does cumulative knowledge and experience count? Of course, but people are more than welcome to discuss the greatness of Ramey’s coloratura regardless of whether they have ever even heard of Plancon (IMO). One has to start somewhere, doesn’t one?
Thank you MrsJohnClaggart for a wonderful trip though the basses. Our current bloggers have to go to recordings to understand the world that you are describing. I also was in Philly for that Mefistoteles but I think it was in 65 or 66.They just don’ make them like they used to. Call me old at 71. I guess I am. But there isn’t anyone around today to touch them…….ah liasons