The two great bassos
Cesare Siepi(Filipo II) and
Jerome Hines (Il Grande Inquisitore)
present a glorious rendition of this magnificient duet.
It's from a live Met broadcast of 1950. Hines was 29 and Siepi 27 !
Other cast members include Robert Merrill and the unparalleled Jussi Bjoerling.
Lawrence Tibbett sings Di Provenza in a live performance from 1935.
I have listened to many great baritones sing this aria, Tibbett takes the cake for me.
What Trovatore cast could possibly equal this one ? Caruso,Ponselle and Ruffo maybe ?
This opera demands singers of extraordinary abiltity for each of the four main roles.
Lauritz Melchior set standards in the heroic German tenor repertoire which have up until now gone unchallenged. He combined effortless power with the ability to finely control dynamics and colorations.
In this clip from Act I of Wagner's Walküre, Melchior sings the famous Wälserufe with unbelievable breath-support.
Live from Boston 1943
Russian tenor Ivan Kozlovsky sings "Ecco ridente" from Il Barbiere di Seviglia by Gioacchino Rossini on Russian radio in 1943.
He does some crazy cadenzas with nearly unnatural high-notes.
Giuseppe Danise was a Met baritone in the 20's and beginning 30's. Hardly anyone remembers this great artist today which is very sad indeed. He deserves a place among the greatest of baritones.
I only had one picture of Danise so I used some of the composer Leoncavallo as well. He's the guy with the awesome mustache lol.
PS: Sorry for the bad cut in this Prologue.
The pitch in this video is a half tone sharp due to technical difficulties. I tried to fix the problem and reposted it.
http://www.youtub e.com/watch?v=eyuNdk o_T1o&watch_response
Phillip's aria from the great Verdi opera, which is based on the equally great Friedrich Schiller play Don Carlos.
"Oh sommo Carlo, piu del tuo nome"
What an amazing cast ! The great Dimitri Mitropoulos is conducting.
Ernani - Mario del Monaco
Don Carlo - Leonard Warren
Elvira - Zinka Milanov
Silva - Cesare Siepi
Don Riccardo - James McCracken
live from the Met, December 29,1956
The duet between Violetta and Germont from a 1935 Met broadcast. It is probably the greatest La Traviata on record.
Violetta Valery - Rosa Ponselle
Giorgio Germont - Lawrence Tibbett