I can't find any thread about this singer which is quite odd. Looking on his schedule he only sings about 30 operatic performances every year. He also sings recitals but has owing to voice problems cancelled some. My experience with Jonas Kaufmann's voice is that while exciting live he has over the ...

Your conducting comment Orestes is, I think, significant. However in the larger houses these type of works often seem to sound ponderous so that the singers can at least get through it. The weight of the voice should not, in theory, make any difference to the flexibility of the singing. This was tr...

Some singers probably sings flat because hearing loss by age or of purely psychological reasons. Tebaldi's flatness grow worse by age. I don't know much about Baroni, if I should be honest. I usually think about Carlo Bergonzi. He was often "calante" in most versions of Celeste Aida or Qua...

The taste was different. Since the 1950s the opera world has been increasingly globalized and standardized. Before 1950, the Repertoire theatre was more common, and in most places of Europe operas was performed in the mother language. The taste, and in continuation - also style was different if a pe...

Well I wouldn´t say it´s a large voice, but an expansive voice which carries well, also his mezza voce and piani. I agree though, that it doesn´t have a real core, a good focus, a real density, grinta, bite, a natural metallic edge to soar over the orchestra. Thus, I find more dramatic roles proble...

He sings it competently. He has a large voice, it's true, but he does not a real core. The way of just "sliding" up on la speranza is not the most exciting think. I agree with LaGioconda when it comes to his breath control, Calleja's Rodolfo at Covent Garden two years ago had those problem...

This is an interesting question. Barbiere is very intimate and looses something when given in too large theatres. I think the same is true of many Mozart works, which really suffers when they are performed on to large venues. A good example of this Don Giovanni conducted by Daniel Barenboim at La Sc...

I did open a can of worms, didn´t I? :-) However, if we all can focuss on the topic and singers this can be an interesting discussion. By "miti" I really meant the "sacred cows", the big league-singers, who in our opinion are not so sacred. - so I´d exclude the likes of Herva Ne...

I acknowledge that Martinelli had a lot of technical flaws, but I find him very interesting as interpreter. I like him! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpXfKKE0iU0 I think this abridged scene from Il trovatore (1927) illustrates both his pros and cons. He was at his peak here, but he transposes the ...

This thread is probably one of the best on this forum at this date. Some falsi miti are more striking than others. Like Herva Nelli, one of Toscanini's favorite sopranos. And I'm bound to agree with Domingo, to certain extent. Domingo sang everywhere in his youth. He was acknowledged for his hard wo...