Comments on: Giuseppe di Stefano 1921-2008

By: FightGravityPDX

FightGravityPDX — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:03:59 +0000

gosh, yet another great one joins our angels… wondering if teatro cielo is possible…. thanks for sharing the clips; getting the full stuff from my library now….

By: FightGravityPDX

FightGravityPDX — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:03:23 +0000

gosh, yet another great one joins our angels… thanks for sharing the clips; getting the full stuff from my library now….

By: JERRY

JERRY — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:25:16 +0000

NOT MANY TENORS HAVE BEEN COMPAIRED TO PIPPO, BOTH BEFORE HIM OR AFTER HIM. TO ME ONLY JOSE CARRERAS HAD “SOME” OF THAT PURE NATURAL BEAUTY. THE REASON TO ME IS QUITE SIMPLE, NO OTHER TENOR COULD BE BLESSED WITH SO MANY TALENTS!! ONE CANNOT “LEARN” TO HAVE SUCH VOCAL BEAUTY, ONE CANNOT LEARN TO APPROACH THE ACROBATIC SPUR OF THE MOMENT VOCAL TRICKS HE WOULD PERFORM. ONE COULD NEVER APPROACH TO PUT HEART, SOUL , PERFECT DICTION, ACROBATIC SINGING,ACTING WITH THE PASSION HE WAS SINGING, ALL COUPLED WITH THE MOST THE BEAUTIFUL TENOR VOICE EVER SO GIFTED, UNLESS HE WAS CONSIDERED TO BE ESPECIALLY SAVED AND THEN SENT TO THOSE OF US LUCKY ENOUGH TO EXPERIENCE. YES, THE GOOD LORD, WAITED FOR ONE SPECIAL PERSON TO TO BE SO GIFTED – PIPPO DI STEFANO WAS THAT “VERY SPECIAL PERSON”!!! MAY PIPPO NOW LIGHT UP THE CHOIR OF HEAVEN, ALWAYS TAKING THE TENOR PART FROM NOW TO ETERNITY!!!!

By: Abel

Abel — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:43:36 +0000

Why, men, di Stefano’s ‘Ecco ridente in cielo’ really put JDF to shame!
A wonderful array of Pippo’s best stuff. Thanks ever so much!

By: Abel

Abel — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:37:54 +0000

Sorry, but it is SO difficult to hear Caruso in any decent accoustics.

By: Carl

Carl — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 02:05:57 +0000

The young Di Stefano was wonderful, but the grandest tenor of the century was Caruso.

By: Pippofan

Pippofan — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:20:05 +0000

Di Stefano was the grandest tenor of the 20th. century. No one sang with such passion and feeling. The Tosca with Callas, Gobbi, De Sabata (La Scala 1953) is, in many reviews, the greatest opera recording ever made. He sang as though Puccini wrote the opera specifically for him – easily the greatest “E lucevan…” ever!

God bless you Pippo, you now sing only for him.

By: Ian Brooks

Ian Brooks — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:47:37 +0000

I was blessed to hear Pippo in 1973 in a London recital and later in 1984 in Stamford, CT.

Such thrilling events – not least for his wonderful presence and magnificently beautiful singing. Sublime and simuultaneously so masculine.

He took my breath away over 40 years ago when I played a 45 rpm record of him singing Puccini arias.

RIP.

By: Patrick Byrne

Patrick Byrne — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:03:31 +0000

I saw Giuseppe at the end of the career, in the mid 70′s. He forced the top, crooned, and fudged a lot of the notes, but he absolutely made you believe the text of whatever he was singing. His voice was infused with passion and ardor, and he could melt your socks with a look.

By: Annetta

Annetta — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:59:24 +0000

Giuseppe was a great artist. He will always be loved and remembered. May he rest in peace. I have created a tribute for this great Tenor. Please feel free to share your tributes and memories for him at

http://www.respectance.com/GiuseppeDiStefano/

By: Barak

Barak — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:45:58 +0000

Dear La Cieca!

Is there a way to download your “Giuseppe di Stefano” Tribute?

I thought the selections were absolutely wonderful!

BARAK

By: amneris

amneris — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:58:40 +0000

r.i.p. maestro, you are much loved…

By: Melot's Younger Brother

Melot's Younger Brother — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:28:20 +0000

The Reuters wire story went as follows, and refers to his “many recordings with Pavarotti.” WTF?

“Italian tenor Di Stefano dies aged 86

03/03/2008 1:08 PM, Reuters

Italian tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano, to whom Luciano Pavarotti owed his launch to stardom, died in Milan on Monday. He was 86.

Di Stefano died after a long coma caused by an attack during a robbery at his Kenyan holiday home in late 2004.

Fellow Italian tenor Pavarotti, who died last year, had his big break when Di Stefano dropped out of a performance of “La Boheme” at London’s Covent Garden in 1963. Pavarotti performed as the stand-in and a star was born.

Local media said Di Stefano had never fully recovered from the savage beating he received from unknown assailants at his villa near the eastern Kenyan resort of Mombasa.

Treated for serious head injuries, he was moved to a hospital in Milan where he slipped into a coma last December.

Born in Sicily, Di Stefano made his operatic debut in 1946 and his debut at La Scala in Milan the following year. He made many recordings with Maria Callas and Pavarotti.”

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:38:38 +0000

Please don’t hold La Cieca to this, but she is almost sure that the “Tosca” selection is from the live Mexico City performance with Callas from May 1952. (This run of performances was di Stefano’s first Cavaradossi, and even back then there were not that many theaters where encores were permitted — even when so richly deserved as here!)

By: closetdivo

closetdivo — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:25:28 +0000

I was fortunate enough to hear him in Andrea Chenier at the Cincinnati Summer Opera. It was one of the most wonderful and unforgetable evenings of my life. His Maddalena, BTW, was an incandescent Mary Curtis-Verna. The next week he sang in Mann Lescaut which I missed because my parents carried me off kicking and screaming to a vacation spot in Michigan. I also heard him twice in those recitals with Callas in the 70′s. One of his encores was Marechiare—fabulous. I have always counted him as one of my favorite tenors, not only for his beautiful voice, but also for his superb diction.
He always sang with passion, something that is very rare these days.
RIP, Maestro.

By: MaestroFurioso

MaestroFurioso — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:20:48 +0000

I, too, would be interested in knowing the occasion of the E lucevan le stelle. Really a magical moment to have recorded.

By: bolshoipavel

bolshoipavel — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:13:05 +0000

WOW! That clip of E lucevan le stelle is incredible! Do we know what the venue was? Because as glorious as the singing was, and it was glorious, the audience response is fabulous! So full of enthusiasm, love and admiration!

By: bolshoipavel

bolshoipavel — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:12:25 +0000

By: brett

brett — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:42:08 +0000

There’s a difference between emulating musicality/technique (which is what voice students are, of course, instructed to do) and imitating a singer (you could call me a Fleming flapper, but her Beverly Sills impersonation in Baby Doe’s Letter Song doesn’t do it for me) and his/her career.

By: MaestroFurioso

MaestroFurioso — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:27:41 +0000

Thank you so much, LaC, for the E Lucevan le Stelle you put on the player. What beautiful, subtle phrasing and dynamics he uses on it. And if that weren’t enough, one gets to hear the tremendous crowd response and the even more tender, delicate, subtle encore…just magnificent, thanks ever so much.

By: FrickaFrac

FrickaFrac — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:23:10 +0000

He sang with style, beauty and nuance. what isn’t to emulate.?
We have people who scream and shout and assimilate coloratura. There are NO giants today. God pray we get someone impressed enough by the gifts of Di Stefano to be inspired to even try and do some of the things that man did
without even thinking. Hell yes look back, until someone has enough of the basics to dare to be imaginative.

By: Andrew Patner

Andrew Patner — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:46:03 +0000

He never recovered from the brutal beating he suffered as part of a robbery attempt in Kenya in 2004.

By: Marie Lamb

Marie Lamb — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:29:48 +0000

I’m saddened, but not totally surprised, at the news of the passing of Giuseppe di Stefano. I gather that he was never entirely well again after that terrible attack in Kenya. He gave audiences a lot of pleasure when he was at his best, and still had a lot to offer even after wear and tear began to show in his voice. He was truly one of the greats of the postwar era, and thank goodness he left us so many recordings. Addio, Pippo, we’ll miss you; you were a marvelous artist!

By: kashania

kashania — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:23:04 +0000

I am not a big fan of some of Di Stefano’s choices (both in repertoire and his singing technique) but there’s no doubt to my mind that he had one of sweetest tenor voices and could sing exquisitely. That legendary Chicago recital (which includes that magnificent diminuenco on the high C of “Salut demeure”) is a must for any opera lover.

When past his prime (like the Karajan/Price Tosca), he still sang beautifully despite the fact that the voice didn’t always deliver.

RIP

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:17:54 +0000

I can only join with other posters in paying tribute to one of the 20th century’s most remarkable singers. The “Tosca” recording with Callas, Gobbi, Di Stefano, led by de Sabata, but by no means the only non-pareil recording with Callas and Di Stefano. I only heard him once live, during the “L’elisir” encore after the 1973 Carnegie Hall concert with Callas. Both artists still had amazing dramatic presence, even if they both were long past their vocal peaks. Di Stefano pulled a rose out of bouquet and handed it to La Callas as the two performed that encore… a wonderfully charming, stylish, and unforgettable gesture.

By: brett

brett — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:08:15 +0000

I think the voices are out there; there’s just a flawed training system. Universities, conservatories, and private teachers want paychecks, so the field gets flooded with a lot of cookie-cutter singers. (There are man exceptions, but perhaps not enough.) I’d complain about YAPs, but i don’t know enough on that topic. Also, the biggest voices take a while to mature and be fully understood; what on earth can these singers do with an instrument that’s unfinished until 40 (give or take)? But these are rants for other times.

By: l'italiana in bristol

l'italiana in bristol — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:48:12 +0000

sad, sad, sad. He had the most beautiful tenor voice and certainly the clearest diction ever. And that incredible C diminuendo in Faust/Salut has to be one of the most beautiful and hairrasing sounds ever sung. The era of the Italian tenor ends here for good. Amen.

By: Grimgerde

Grimgerde — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:30:05 +0000

Yes Brett, styles change and tastes change, and yes, many a promising career has gone tits up by the “here’s the new Callas” syndrome.

What worries me is that today we rarely have the singers that have the scale of voice and musical imagination, or the patience to train and learn technique to sing Verdi and Puccini. Having said that, my archives and knowledge tell me that the singers we refer to now as great, the Tebaldis, Prices, Di Stefanos and Bergonzis and so on, were often criticised in their day for not being whoever preceded them. But by and large, they sang with technique, style and passion

There are a lot of inconsistent, unsteady voices that are being accepted as the real thing. Where will we be in twenty years time, I wonder?

By: brett

brett — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:59:51 +0000

It’s NOT about replacement. Have we had another Lotte Lehmann? Another Rosa Ponselle? Another Jeritza? Another Florence Foster Jenkins, for frick’s sake?

Or, whom did Maria Callas, Renata Scotto, and Joan Sutherland succeed?

I’m fine with it “never being the same.” Tastes change, styles change. We discover new takes on the text, or we unearth lost markings and passages. Would you rather hear a fresh, unique voice who sheds new light on the diva pantheon or see someone making a career of imitating Tebaldi? Aprile Millo probably could have done it, but she made her own path. And we love her for it.

Opera won’t stay alive by pining for days of yore. Focus should instead be on breaking free from the assembly line output of (generally) American singers.

By all means, remember the greats–they’re worth it. But applaud someone who dares to be different.

RIP, Giuseppe di Stefano. May no one try to be the next you, for he can only fail.

By: Grimgerde

Grimgerde — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:44:58 +0000

How sad and what a shame. Even when he wasn’t in especially good voice he could sing the pants off most of today’s tenors. Thanks heavens we have the recordings to remind us of what we have lost.