The Passion of Opera

Greetings everyone, I have concluded the listening and research section of my independent study of great singers who sang in multiple fächer  or voice types. In ~1.5 weeks I will have a conclusionary write-up done which will speak generally to the conclusions (or lack thereof) that I found during the study as a whole and may reference some of the specific singers I study. It will be an excellent capstone for me to synthesize what I've found, and should be interesting for anyone who has followed the series. Thank you!

George London & Giorgio Tozzi George London             For my study of bass-baritone George London I listened to two Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts: a 1959 performance of Don Giovanni , and a 1973 production of Der fliegende Holländer , both under the baton of Karl Böhm and with London in the title role. Incidentally, the latter also featured Giorgio Tozzi as Daland. I will deal with this in a separate section as it features both artists and focus here on Don Giovanni along snippets of Boris Gonduov .             The Metropolitan Opera’s MetOnDemand service describes this performance of Don Giovanni as follows: “When George London stepped on stage as the legendary lover Don Giovanni, audiences gasped. Handsome and effortlessly charismatic, he promised to fulfill every woman’s desire. No wonder the beautiful Lisa Della Casa (Elvira) didn’t want to...

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau & The Deep Voice Principle Note: Suitable baritones who fit the subject of this project were substantially more difficult to find than singers of previous voice types. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau fit the bill perfectly because of his experience in a variety of operatic repertoire and in art song, but few others did. I have written at length about Fischer-Dieskau and then addressed this problem itself. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau             In order to study Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau I used assorted recordings of art songs along with three recordings of longer works. The assorted recordings of art song were of pieces I had in my own collection as well as the seminal Erlkönig. I used a video recording of Winterreise in 1979 with Alfred Brendel at the piano, a recording of Rigoletto under the direction of Rafael Kubelik in 1964, and an opera film of Le nozze di Figaro under Karl Böhm in 1...