The Talk of the Town
Cesare Siepi and Giulio Neri give a reference rendition of the Grand Inquisitor scene.
Not much to say here. Legendary bass Mark Reizen was born in the USSR and thus never got to tour much to the west.
Boris Christoff’s Procida (along with Cerquetti’s Elena) lifts Mario Rossi’s RAI Torino Vespri to distinction.
If I must choose a single bass performance, it is still Boris Christoff’s Boris Godunov.
Boris Christoff‘s sound is justly famous, and his vocal splendor is on full display here.
Christopher Purves in Saul – the clarity, the range, the expression, the drama!
No one in my experience both live and on records could swagger, spin out roulades, and ripple through Rossini and Handel like Samuel Ramey.
Before hearing Samuel Ramey as Zaccaria in Nabucco, I had always been more interested in higher voices.
This performance features Samuel Ramey in what I consider one of the most powerful deliveries of this aria on record.
Nobody in my experience has come close to rivaling Samuel Ramey as the shy, lovelorn Englishman Lord Sidney from that first cast.
The great bass Len Dresslar became famous (if unknown) as the voice of the Jolly Green Giant on all those ads that those of us (of a certain age) grew up on
Fyodor Chaliapin, the very great Russian basso, to this day owns the role of Massenet’s Don Quichotte.
The one, the only Fyodor Chaliapin, singing Massenet’s “Elegie” (with, I believe, a young Piatigorsky on the cello part).
Fyodor Chaliapin is considered one of the greatest basses ever because he combined a dark, flexible, and instantly recognizable bass voice with extraordinary musical intelligence and nuance.
I wanted to make sure Paata Burchuladze gets celebrated in this series.
George Frideric Handel (born 341 years ago on Monday) composed over 40 operas including many masterpieces, but his Giulio Cesare is the one that everyone knows best.
For all his undeniable precision and discipline, I still find Toscanini’s tempi rushed and unyielding and his lack of rubato a chilly turnoff.
While the three leads do sing the material well, there has been a glut of recordings since then which are more complete and at least as well sung.
It was many decades ago that I first listened to the Solti Ring Cycle.
Karajan’s 1959 Aïda was once treated like gospel, a wall of plush Vienna Philharmonic sound and star power that critics dutifully genuflected before.
The Solti recording of Bohème is completely miscast.
The recent highly hyped studio recording of Puccini’s Turandot left me greatly disappointed.
All in all, an ill-advised venture.
It’s always surprised me how so many performances of the major Brecht/Weill collaborations seem to have zero clue of how to handle either Weill’s music.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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