American-born soprano Lucille Udovich, who had more of a career in Europe than in the US. Here is here Wikipedia bio-blurb.
First up, she's singing "In questa reggia" (this looks like it might have been an RAI TV production of Turandot):
Yep, that's Franco Corelli at the end. Here are the two of them singing the Riddle Scene:
This is a thrilling performance of "D'Oresta d'Ajace" from Idomeneo:
Coming soon: Battle of the Elettras!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Fritz Wunderlich--New Post!
I give you the incomparable Fritz Wunderlich. I can't comprehend why I haven't posted more of him. He was an amazing singer who was taken from us far too young--at age 36, months before his planned Metropolitan Opera debut. Here is a less than stellar Wikipedia bio-blurb. Here is a fan site that looks like it's chock full of information!
In this clip he's lip-synching on a German TV show, performing "Dies Bildnis" from Die Zauberflöte:
Wunderlich was a remarkably fine interpreter of song and I highly recommend his recordings, especially of the Schubert and Schumann song cycles. This is a Richard Strauss song, accompanied by his frequent collaborator, Hubert Giessen, a clip from a television documentary about FW. In the sadly untranslated interview after the song, Giessen is raving about FW's interpretive talents. (No, I'm not fluent in German--I have the DVD with subtitles!)
There aren't many videos of performances online. I had made a post featuring clips from a televised performance of Barbiere in German from Munich, also featuring Hermann Prey as Figaro, but those clips were taken down, I believe, so the post went to live with Jesus. I was delighted to find my family actually looks at my Amazon wish list and gave me the DVD of this performance, though!
In this clip he's lip-synching on a German TV show, performing "Dies Bildnis" from Die Zauberflöte:
Wunderlich was a remarkably fine interpreter of song and I highly recommend his recordings, especially of the Schubert and Schumann song cycles. This is a Richard Strauss song, accompanied by his frequent collaborator, Hubert Giessen, a clip from a television documentary about FW. In the sadly untranslated interview after the song, Giessen is raving about FW's interpretive talents. (No, I'm not fluent in German--I have the DVD with subtitles!)
There aren't many videos of performances online. I had made a post featuring clips from a televised performance of Barbiere in German from Munich, also featuring Hermann Prey as Figaro, but those clips were taken down, I believe, so the post went to live with Jesus. I was delighted to find my family actually looks at my Amazon wish list and gave me the DVD of this performance, though!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
George London--new post!
Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. To make up for my absence, I present to you beloved bass-baritone George London, who was born in Canada of a Russian Jewish family and grew up in California. He was the first North American to sing the role of Boris Godunov in Moscow, and that at the height of the Cold War in 1960.
This is London's 1956-ish performance of the Te Deum from Tosca (embedding disabled). Ignore the fact that he's singing out of one side of the mouth. His Wikipedia bio-blurb mentions that he suffered from partial paralysis at this point, but is unclear about the circumstances.
This is "Le Veau d'Or" from Faust (audio only so why embed the YouTube clip?).
And a video clip--a concert (television only?) performance of the death scene from Boris Godunov:
This is London's 1956-ish performance of the Te Deum from Tosca (embedding disabled). Ignore the fact that he's singing out of one side of the mouth. His Wikipedia bio-blurb mentions that he suffered from partial paralysis at this point, but is unclear about the circumstances.
This is "Le Veau d'Or" from Faust (audio only so why embed the YouTube clip?).
And a video clip--a concert (television only?) performance of the death scene from Boris Godunov:
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