1:45 This is a pianissimo high C. I know opera is not only the high notes, but THIS, this is like Usain Bolt running 100m in 9'58 when it was thought impossible to do it in less than 9'70. When almost every tenors sing a high note, they give it such an strength, like saying "hey, this is a C you know?". Lauri-Volpi never breaks the line of singing. To me, only Rosa Ponselle had it too.
Phenomenal! I had no idea this footage even existed. I read about this performance in Ida Cook's "We Followed Our Stars" but had no idea I would ever be able to hear any of it. Lauri-Volpi has the kind of voice that we are sadly lacking today...and I must agree in toto with EdmundStAustell above...
@Liu666able Obviously you despise LV as a person, & certainly at this distance in time, styles, acting & musical disciplines & tastes change. He wasn't everybody's 'cup of tea' - but then no singer ever is, nor ever could be, not even Caruso. In his own era, LV was considered one of the greatest tenors of all time, & vocally at least, in his prime, that is impossible to deny, even from those best disposed to judge him - great tenors who followed him, & envied his stentorian top voice.
@hiyadroogs I do as I despise people that agree that white are superior or that homosexuals should be sent to concentration capms....Furtwrnagler(the greatest conductors of ell times)celebrated Hitler's birthday and that makes of him a horrible human being.
Musically and technically LV was almost flat in the middle of his voice,if you hear his Luisa Miller is just pathetic the way he is flat all the time
He was just a lucky guy with the right friends,nothing else.
@Liu666able I have the Luisa Miller opera with Lauri Volpi, & I seem to recall that he was 67 years old at the time, So flatness is to be expected. He went on too long I agree. But luck doesn't come into it. Italians are very vocal if they disapprove, & LV is getting a standing ovation in an open air arena in this performance. An arena where even voices as big as Del Monaco's can be lost if the wind is wrong, & some tenors require amplifiers. I accept that you can't stand him. But he was great.
Sosteneva di avere una voce unica ed è difficile dargli torto. Soprattutto aveva una tecnica di una perfezione assoluta, derivata dalla moglie nipote del Garcia. Ci saranno in giro sicuramente altre voci paragonabili alla sua, ma saranno perdute chissà dove, difficile ritrovare insieme tante condizioni favorevoli.
condivido il giudizio tecnico su Lauri Volpi ma ti devo correggere su Maria Ross, sua moglie; è vero che da lei imparò il fraseggio aulico e aristocratico, però Volpi aveva già studiato con Cotogni (forse il massimo cantante maestro italiano della fine dell'ottocento), ma dopo la guerra il maestro morì e divenne praticamente autodidatta.
Infine, Maria Ross non era nipote di Garcia ma allieva di una sua allieva; la Ross era di genitori andalusi, mentre Garcia era madrileno.
condivido il giudizio tecnico su Lauri Volpi ma ti devo correggere su Maria Ross, sua moglie; è vero che da lei imparò il fraseggio aulico e aristocratico, però Volpi aveva già studiato con Cotogni (forse il massimo cantante maestro italiano della fine dell'ottocento), ma dopo la guerra il maestro morì e divenne praticamente autodidatta.
Infine, Maria Ross non era nipote di Garcia ma allieva di una sua allieva; la Ross era di genitori andalusi, mentre Garcia era madrileno.
@Liu666able If any young singer made an audition today singing like Lauri Volpi here, he would be declared one of the greatest tenors of living memory. LV employs head register to sing piano, as did Gigli & Tagliavini, which is the correct way. It is not falsetto. Falsetto is the uncoordinated head register before it has been assimilated with the chest register. The greatest tenors of the last 60 years, Corelli & Pavarotti included have declared astonishment & envy at this voice of a century.
@hiyadroogs You have no idea what you are talking about,you don't even understand the difference between the two
He sang in falsetto all the time,so much so that he was booed in Valencia when attemting to sing Massenet's dream aria in falsetto.
In top of all that he was a declared fascist that had the nerve to write in a horrible book(Voci paralelle) that black singers should sing only tribal songs not opera
Fascist,bad singer and a coward that flew to spain when Italy becale a Republic.
@hiyadroogs To coment on his political affiliations all you have to do is read his "book" Voci paralelle,which is an insult to any person that has a minimum of decency or musical knowledge.
The rest of your message is just a self-complimentary statement like many singers in Europe or in the States that claim that they have the monoploly of the truth.
If your teacher-no idea who he is-or you can sing that high that means nothing
@Liu666able It wasn't my intention to congratulate myself, I'm no one. I was attempting to illustrate that which you refuse to accept, because of personal antithesis to LV; That his technique at this period of his career, was as close to flawless as most singers get, & that he never employed falsetto. Voices with this level of technique never need to resort to the smoke & mirrors & hooks of the student to create an affect.
@Liu666able Thank you for looking up my teacher. He deserved more recognition than he has. Thanks also for our exchange of views. We don't have to agree, but I appreciate a good discussion without abuse. It's getting to be a rare thing on youtube!
@hiyadroogs He deserves more,in a world of opera like the one we are suffering today someone like that would be very necessary to set the record straight.
Yes we have different point of view but the important thing is to mantain a civilized language.
If you read some of the comments to my opinions some people even wishes me to die.....
I love Alfredo Karus and had the privilege of knowing him personally,some people consider him a mediocre singer with a facility to sing high notes....
@Liu666able I agree. In maintaining our own viewpoint, it is sometimes difficult not to get personally defensive, & offensive. Yet in stepping back from that, we both got insight into information that perhaps neither of us knew before. I certainly didn't know LV had such opinions. The best outcome is not agreement, but mutual respect. Dale Carnegie wrote; 'A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still'. Even if we have the facts, shouting & abuse will close another's ears. : )
Mai sentita una roba del genere. Fantastico! La cosa più incredibile è che la facilità con cui canta ti fa intuire la strada giusta: gola aperta, rilassamento di tutta la muscolatura. Da spazio al suono, non forza, non stringe: che voce, che tecnica! E' una lezione da far ascoltare !!!
@MrJoetorro Non è un caso infatti che si tratti (ma solo i veri competenti lo possono capire) del PIU' GRANDE CANTORE DI OGNI TEMPO, e...non solo per la tecnica: è stato un GENIO ASSOLUTO.
@hibyeeee2 Doesn't matter. Lauri Volpi had a full range of dynamics. del Monaco could only go from f - fffffff. del Monaco used what worked for him - but Lauri Volpi's singing was much closer to the actual bel canto traditions.
@hobo1975 I disagree. If anything at all Caruso was the one who indirectly caused all 20th century Italian singers to break away from the bel canto style (and technique).
'more up-to-date information concerning the bel canto tradition is supplied by Herman Klein,
a prominent music critic,a pupil and former assistant to Manuel Garcia, who quotes from a letter received from his friend Percy Betts describing the debut of Enrico Caruso at Covent Garden in 1902.The great tenors voice is analyzed as follows:
'He had a delightful mezza voce,and he had neither the nasal quality nor the "bleat" which are the bane of so many of our compatriots.His voice is of that soft,velvety quality,which old opera-goers will associate with Fancelli,and still older men giulini.
It is, infact, a pure tenor voice of the old Italian type.'
maravilloso, para algunos hacia alarde de sus natural don de una maravillosa voz. Tal vez sus detractores no podian ni siquiera asemejarse y por eso las criticas. Lo mismo pasaba con Bjorling; que por no ser italiano se lo menospreciaba cuando era el tenor que mayor audiencia atraia y mas ganaba en la epoca de oro del metropolitan de NY:
@XP11XP He sometimes gave the impression that full voice was being used, but someone who heard him live at the Metropolitan, once said on a 1996 documentary, that just when you thought he was singing full voice, he would start expanding it & take the roof off. But he was very wise, he always floated his voice, so it remained flexible & easily produced. He always left something in reserve. Which is why only 2 tenors, Tauber & Bjorling, have been able to recreate his cadenza to La Donna e Mobile.
@XP11XP Caruso once said that Vergine drummed into him that the audience must never detect any effort being applied & that the singer must make it appear comfortable. You will never hear Caruso gasping & grunting at the end of difficult phrases in the way that Pavarotti (for example) habitually did, because Caruso didn't force his voice for volume, it was just a vocal phenomenon by nature.
Lauri-Volpi was a great singer with great instincts.
Unfortunately, I can't stand that constant vibrato; it's not to my taste and it mars his brilliance; to compare apples to oranges, I can't listen to Sidney Bechet for the same reason.
Very possibly--I would say probably--the greatest tenor ever. That D natural is simply beyond belief! And the amazing thing is he could pull right back into a ravishing pianissimo at will. The voice is remarkably healthy and stayed with him into old age. This represents, in my opinion, the absolute triumph of bel canto singing. God, how I wish it would come back! I am so sick of screaming baritones singing tenor! Enough already.
Purezza e integrità di suono su tutta la gamma e costante centratura della fonazione ( appoggio e coordinazione diaframma-laringe); estensione eccezionale; tempra folgorante degli acuti; fraseggio aristocratico,ampio, sostenuto; capacità di passare nella stessa frase, quando non nella stessa nota, dall'emissione piena e lucente di petto a quella morbida e soave di "falsettone", passando per tutte le gradazioni.
Se non è stato il tenore più grande, certo è stato il più fenomenale.
It must have been Lauri-Volpi's D natural that set scientists on the path to using microwaves to heat food... I almost expected the poor soprano's head to start melting after this cataclysmic note!!
Exactly! often, in a singers range, there comes a point where power output diminishes in the voice in sacrifice to achieving the note. Caruso's high B was much more powerful than his C, for example. Jussi's C & C# were more powerful than his D natural. But Lauri-Volpi's voice just seems to get more powerful the higher it goes. There's no question whatsoever, on this evidence, that he would have possessed High E natural within his range.
very accurate observation my friend. This increase in power and harmonics on high registers - il alleggerimento della voce - is nowhere to be found nowadays. Thanks to Caruso wannabes now we've got plenty gross middle voices with pinched acuti.
Thank you caribolas! Everybody seems to carry their chest register up so high into the range today, which leads to a blunt booming top lacking in harmonics, with very poor flexibility in control over dynamics of tone. Gigli, Bjorling, & Lauri-Volpi, among others, all had bright ringing tops, allied to an exquisite mezza voce. Alas, will we ever know those voice types again?
Eric Rees, a professional baritone, went to see Lauri-Volpi in concert in London. On the back of a Lauri-Volpi record sleeve, he wrote; 'In 1947, I heard Lauri-Volpi deliver a high B, at the end of 'Nessun Dorma', that made the Albert Hall windows rattle... I've never heard the like..'
Some commentators have incorrectly claimed that the high note is high C, or C sharp. The written note is, I believe, C sharp. But I have just banged my tuning forks against this wall cracking note. - It's a little sharp of D natural!!! I know Lauri Volpi's timbre very well, & the fault is not transposition speed. A conductor once said of LV, 'A great tenor voice to listen to from the opposite end of Westminster bridge!!'
You are absolutely right! I just listened to the recording twice, with my pitch pipe beside the computer. It is absolutely a D natural, and a brilliant one at that. I think it could be contended that Lauri Volpi, at least at this period of his career, was the greatest tenor in the world. God, I hate to see the decline of bel canto, in favor of the grunting and screaming that characterized so much of what was to come!
I think your point is unarguable David. I doubt if even Jussi Bjorling had freer high notes than Lauri-Volpi in this sample. The D rings out with fantastic ease & tremendous squillo. Note that the vibrato in LV's voice betrays no sign whatsoever of pinching or constriction on the D. There are no early warning signs that his voice is nearing its ultimate top!! That poor soprano must have felt that she had her head trapped inside a microwave oven when he launched that ear splitting note!!
Lauri-Volpi is my favorite of the tenors of the first half of the twentieth century (Bergonzi is my favorite for the second half), and it's a special pleasure to hear him in less familiar music.
There are good reasons Huguenots was one of the most popular operas on earth for a hundred years. I've heard it five times, and it never fails to delight any audience. And Giordani was quite good as Raoul, Leech and Vrenios less so.
This is like going back in a time machine! Lauri-Volpi is one of the greatest tenors of all time; after hearing this it's no wonder we can't produce Meyerbeer operas today, as we have nobody who can do them justice.
This aria (actually all the opera) is extremely difficult. I saw just two more tenors that sang that so nice as Lauri-Volpi: Franco Corelli and Nicolaï Gedda.
The record of Enrico Caruso of the aria is also astonishing!
Quite incredible! At that time there was hardly a tenor to come near him for beauty of voice, squillo and glorious pianissimi. Grateful thanks for letting us hear this paragon in his prime. It is a bonus that he also looks and acts superbly. Vivian Liff
Are you serious? It certainly happened, though I'd agree that by modern 'standards' it does seem pretty astounding. Even in 1933, as you can see, the crowd goes wild. But this was an era rich in singers who put the artists of this generation to shame. Martinelli, Pertile, Merli and George Thill are just a few examples of Volpi's excellent rivals, and there's quite a few videos of them here on Youtube - check them out!
Diaphragm is a non volontary muscle. It reacts to the way you breath, your voice placement, the way you attack the sound. When you control everything, the diaphragm does its job and not the opposite.
Vocal technique is a very complex thing and cannot be reduce to just one thing...
At last someone who knows the superlative singers of the Golden Age of Singing. Thank goodness we have connoisseurs who place these excellent videos on You Tube. No need to attend oper or buy cds of contemporary performers who have no link to proper delivery of the voice.
Well I'd hardly call myself a connoisseur but I do love these videos. Only trouble is that it makes me completely unable to go to the opera - the difference is too painful! My teacher was once at a masterclass by Martinelli years ago and someone asked him 'Maestro, what do you think of singing today?' Apparently he answered - 'there is no singing today, only shouting' - or something like that. It's a real shame.
So glad to hear that. It's exactly what I've been saying on YTube,in order to help young singers, who have no concept of the Golden Age of Singing, while receiving nasty comments from the accoustically challenged.If you are interesed, try to also find a cd of Giuseppe Lugo for more fine singing.
Yes it's a shame that people can't air their differences without insulting each other. I've found a lot of singers hostile to older records, and I think it's partly because they don't like the recording quality, but mainly because they are embarassed at the difference in vocal quality, itself a result of a difference in training.
You are absolutely correct. The sad thing is that there are no vocal teachers today who have the skill to develop the natural quality of young singers who have a voice and are also incapable of comprehending or teaching he Art of Chiaroscuro singing.
The first is 'Asile hereditaire' from Guillaume Tell and the second is 'Plus blanche que la blanche hermine' from Les Huguenots, both sung in Italian. The very last one is a truncated version of the grand duet also from Les Huguenots, but with the soprano role cut out.
1:45 This is a pianissimo high C. I know opera is not only the high notes, but THIS, this is like Usain Bolt running 100m in 9'58 when it was thought impossible to do it in less than 9'70. When almost every tenors sing a high note, they give it such an strength, like saying "hey, this is a C you know?". Lauri-Volpi never breaks the line of singing. To me, only Rosa Ponselle had it too.
1993MGB 1 month ago
stupefacente!!!
3maumaumau 2 months ago
Scintillating singing.beyond belief. TY alex so much for posting.This goes even beyond unbelievable.
paulostroff99 4 months ago
Phenomenal! I had no idea this footage even existed. I read about this performance in Ida Cook's "We Followed Our Stars" but had no idea I would ever be able to hear any of it. Lauri-Volpi has the kind of voice that we are sadly lacking today...and I must agree in toto with EdmundStAustell above...
UncleNathan 4 months ago
Thanks God today we have real singers with real musical inteligence and not this fascist piece of crap!!!
Liu666able 4 months ago
@Liu666able Obviously you despise LV as a person, & certainly at this distance in time, styles, acting & musical disciplines & tastes change. He wasn't everybody's 'cup of tea' - but then no singer ever is, nor ever could be, not even Caruso. In his own era, LV was considered one of the greatest tenors of all time, & vocally at least, in his prime, that is impossible to deny, even from those best disposed to judge him - great tenors who followed him, & envied his stentorian top voice.
hiyadroogs 4 months ago
@hiyadroogs I do as I despise people that agree that white are superior or that homosexuals should be sent to concentration capms....Furtwrnagler(the greatest conductors of ell times)celebrated Hitler's birthday and that makes of him a horrible human being.
Musically and technically LV was almost flat in the middle of his voice,if you hear his Luisa Miller is just pathetic the way he is flat all the time
He was just a lucky guy with the right friends,nothing else.
Liu666able 4 months ago
@Liu666able I have the Luisa Miller opera with Lauri Volpi, & I seem to recall that he was 67 years old at the time, So flatness is to be expected. He went on too long I agree. But luck doesn't come into it. Italians are very vocal if they disapprove, & LV is getting a standing ovation in an open air arena in this performance. An arena where even voices as big as Del Monaco's can be lost if the wind is wrong, & some tenors require amplifiers. I accept that you can't stand him. But he was great.
hiyadroogs 4 months ago
Sosteneva di avere una voce unica ed è difficile dargli torto. Soprattutto aveva una tecnica di una perfezione assoluta, derivata dalla moglie nipote del Garcia. Ci saranno in giro sicuramente altre voci paragonabili alla sua, ma saranno perdute chissà dove, difficile ritrovare insieme tante condizioni favorevoli.
sincrotto 6 months ago
@sincrotto
condivido il giudizio tecnico su Lauri Volpi ma ti devo correggere su Maria Ross, sua moglie; è vero che da lei imparò il fraseggio aulico e aristocratico, però Volpi aveva già studiato con Cotogni (forse il massimo cantante maestro italiano della fine dell'ottocento), ma dopo la guerra il maestro morì e divenne praticamente autodidatta.
Infine, Maria Ross non era nipote di Garcia ma allieva di una sua allieva; la Ross era di genitori andalusi, mentre Garcia era madrileno.
saluti
mongemark 5 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@sincrotto
condivido il giudizio tecnico su Lauri Volpi ma ti devo correggere su Maria Ross, sua moglie; è vero che da lei imparò il fraseggio aulico e aristocratico, però Volpi aveva già studiato con Cotogni (forse il massimo cantante maestro italiano della fine dell'ottocento), ma dopo la guerra il maestro morì e divenne praticamente autodidatta.
Infine, Maria Ross non era nipote di Garcia ma allieva di una sua allieva; la Ross era di genitori andalusi, mentre Garcia era madrileno.
saluti
mongemark 5 months ago
Superb! GLV was as good as it ever got. TY alex for posting
paulostroff99 7 months ago
The "piano"is a disguised falsetto in the worst possible manner.
The style is as melodramatic as a Brazilian soap opera
The high note is good and clear
The intonation is a total disaster,all the middle notes are flat.
If any young singer makes an audition today singing like that he would be thrown out of the theater's back door.
Liu666able 8 months ago
@Liu666able
that´s why opera sucks today! Get a life and let your hears be cleaned
jakeddu 7 months ago
@jakeddu Opera sucks today because people like you are its supporters.
You get a life you idiotic uncultured bastard!!
Not only your ears but your total existence should be cleared and cleaned from the face of the earth
lauri Volpi not only was a terrible singer but also a fascist that wrote one of the worst books in the history of opera and singers.
Get your facts right and then talk.
Liu666able 7 months ago
@Liu666able
I will ask the sistem how it is possible to delete your profile: it´s incredible what you are wrote.
jakeddu 7 months ago
@jakeddu a typical reaction of a facist like Lauti volpi was:if you don't agree with me you should be eliminated...
Liu666able 4 months ago
@Liu666able
you are a fool ... ahahah
jakeddu 4 months ago
@Liu666able Fuck you and all your fucking stupid ideas
You are the people that should vanish from the earth you piece of shit bastard uncultured fascist piece of shit
Liu666able 4 months ago
@Liu666able If any young singer made an audition today singing like Lauri Volpi here, he would be declared one of the greatest tenors of living memory. LV employs head register to sing piano, as did Gigli & Tagliavini, which is the correct way. It is not falsetto. Falsetto is the uncoordinated head register before it has been assimilated with the chest register. The greatest tenors of the last 60 years, Corelli & Pavarotti included have declared astonishment & envy at this voice of a century.
hiyadroogs 4 months ago
@hiyadroogs You have no idea what you are talking about,you don't even understand the difference between the two
He sang in falsetto all the time,so much so that he was booed in Valencia when attemting to sing Massenet's dream aria in falsetto.
In top of all that he was a declared fascist that had the nerve to write in a horrible book(Voci paralelle) that black singers should sing only tribal songs not opera
Fascist,bad singer and a coward that flew to spain when Italy becale a Republic.
Liu666able 4 months ago
Comment removed
hiyadroogs 4 months ago
@hiyadroogs To coment on his political affiliations all you have to do is read his "book" Voci paralelle,which is an insult to any person that has a minimum of decency or musical knowledge.
The rest of your message is just a self-complimentary statement like many singers in Europe or in the States that claim that they have the monoploly of the truth.
If your teacher-no idea who he is-or you can sing that high that means nothing
The important thing is what you did with it.
Liu666able 4 months ago
@Liu666able It wasn't my intention to congratulate myself, I'm no one. I was attempting to illustrate that which you refuse to accept, because of personal antithesis to LV; That his technique at this period of his career, was as close to flawless as most singers get, & that he never employed falsetto. Voices with this level of technique never need to resort to the smoke & mirrors & hooks of the student to create an affect.
hiyadroogs 4 months ago
@hiyadroogs Maybe then was flawless,by today standarts is poor and flat that is all.
I found about your teacher,he was a good tenor in some repertory and had the ability to sing high notes.
Good for him
Liu666able 4 months ago
@Liu666able Thank you for looking up my teacher. He deserved more recognition than he has. Thanks also for our exchange of views. We don't have to agree, but I appreciate a good discussion without abuse. It's getting to be a rare thing on youtube!
hiyadroogs 4 months ago
@hiyadroogs He deserves more,in a world of opera like the one we are suffering today someone like that would be very necessary to set the record straight.
Yes we have different point of view but the important thing is to mantain a civilized language.
If you read some of the comments to my opinions some people even wishes me to die.....
I love Alfredo Karus and had the privilege of knowing him personally,some people consider him a mediocre singer with a facility to sing high notes....
Liu666able 4 months ago
@Liu666able I agree. In maintaining our own viewpoint, it is sometimes difficult not to get personally defensive, & offensive. Yet in stepping back from that, we both got insight into information that perhaps neither of us knew before. I certainly didn't know LV had such opinions. The best outcome is not agreement, but mutual respect. Dale Carnegie wrote; 'A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still'. Even if we have the facts, shouting & abuse will close another's ears. : )
hiyadroogs 4 months ago
TREMOLO
Baritanist 9 months ago
Mai sentita una roba del genere. Fantastico! La cosa più incredibile è che la facilità con cui canta ti fa intuire la strada giusta: gola aperta, rilassamento di tutta la muscolatura. Da spazio al suono, non forza, non stringe: che voce, che tecnica! E' una lezione da far ascoltare !!!
MrJoetorro 1 year ago
@MrJoetorro Non è un caso infatti che si tratti (ma solo i veri competenti lo possono capire) del PIU' GRANDE CANTORE DI OGNI TEMPO, e...non solo per la tecnica: è stato un GENIO ASSOLUTO.
alleviso2 11 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@alleviso2 il fanatismo uccide amico. Tu sei generoso,pur
bodiloto 4 months ago
1:11 Incredibile!!!
TheWisemonkey8 1 year ago
Just becoming familiar with this voice. What a technique and instrument.
richbari 1 year ago
oh my god this is the first time i have heard Lauri Volpi. Fantastic!
zfranklyn 1 year ago
" Il GENIO canta la divinità nell'uomo e l'umanità in Dio" scriveva LAURI VOLPI; e ne era l'esempio vivente!!!!
alleviso2 1 year ago
Such a voice! The glorification of belcanto!
Thank you.
Aetion 1 year ago 2
Who had a bigger voice Mario Del Monaco or Giacomo Lauri Volpi?
hibyeeee2 1 year ago
@hibyeeee2 Doesn't matter. Lauri Volpi had a full range of dynamics. del Monaco could only go from f - fffffff. del Monaco used what worked for him - but Lauri Volpi's singing was much closer to the actual bel canto traditions.
GermanOperaSinger 1 year ago
@GermanOperaSinger actually caruso was closest to the bel canto tradition.
hobo1975 1 year ago
@hobo1975 I disagree. If anything at all Caruso was the one who indirectly caused all 20th century Italian singers to break away from the bel canto style (and technique).
GermanOperaSinger 1 year ago
@GermanOperaSinger Here is a quote from cornelius reids biook,
Belcanto - Principles and Practices.
'more up-to-date information concerning the bel canto tradition is supplied by Herman Klein,
a prominent music critic,a pupil and former assistant to Manuel Garcia, who quotes from a letter received from his friend Percy Betts describing the debut of Enrico Caruso at Covent Garden in 1902.The great tenors voice is analyzed as follows:
hobo1975 11 months ago
@GermanOperaSinger the rest of it,
'He had a delightful mezza voce,and he had neither the nasal quality nor the "bleat" which are the bane of so many of our compatriots.His voice is of that soft,velvety quality,which old opera-goers will associate with Fancelli,and still older men giulini.
It is, infact, a pure tenor voice of the old Italian type.'
hobo1975 11 months ago
@hobo1975 Here is a quote from cornelius reid
Belcanto - Principles and Practices.
hobo1975 11 months ago
WONDERFUL!
TenorHighD 1 year ago
maravilloso, para algunos hacia alarde de sus natural don de una maravillosa voz. Tal vez sus detractores no podian ni siquiera asemejarse y por eso las criticas. Lo mismo pasaba con Bjorling; que por no ser italiano se lo menospreciaba cuando era el tenor que mayor audiencia atraia y mas ganaba en la epoca de oro del metropolitan de NY:
lpizzella 1 year ago
Lauri Volpi one of the greatest voices. Die Stimme eines Gottes der Gesangskultur.
Ach, wo sind die Zeiten, als es noch solch göttliche Stimmen gab ? A wonderfull voice !
WQ673 1 year ago
Sublime !
bodiloto 1 year ago
The 2 most powerful Italian tenor voices were Lauri-Volpi and Corelli
mactopolis 2 years ago
& Caruso's & Francesco Tamagno's were even more powerful!
hiyadroogs 1 year ago 3
@hiyadroogs Caruso pushed beyond belief.
XP11XP 1 year ago
@XP11XP He sometimes gave the impression that full voice was being used, but someone who heard him live at the Metropolitan, once said on a 1996 documentary, that just when you thought he was singing full voice, he would start expanding it & take the roof off. But he was very wise, he always floated his voice, so it remained flexible & easily produced. He always left something in reserve. Which is why only 2 tenors, Tauber & Bjorling, have been able to recreate his cadenza to La Donna e Mobile.
hiyadroogs 1 year ago
@XP11XP Caruso once said that Vergine drummed into him that the audience must never detect any effort being applied & that the singer must make it appear comfortable. You will never hear Caruso gasping & grunting at the end of difficult phrases in the way that Pavarotti (for example) habitually did, because Caruso didn't force his voice for volume, it was just a vocal phenomenon by nature.
hiyadroogs 1 year ago
@hiyadroogs caruso was a big grunter,he pushed alot due to his emotional intensity.listen to his later recordings!
hobo1975 1 year ago
Lauri-Volpi was a great singer with great instincts.
Unfortunately, I can't stand that constant vibrato; it's not to my taste and it mars his brilliance; to compare apples to oranges, I can't listen to Sidney Bechet for the same reason.
SatchmoSings 2 years ago
Mitico. Grande Lauri Volpi.
MaestroAmduscias 2 years ago
Wow Volpi's voice is just as loud and powerful as Mario Del Monaco's.
hibyeeee2 2 years ago 4
Very possibly--I would say probably--the greatest tenor ever. That D natural is simply beyond belief! And the amazing thing is he could pull right back into a ravishing pianissimo at will. The voice is remarkably healthy and stayed with him into old age. This represents, in my opinion, the absolute triumph of bel canto singing. God, how I wish it would come back! I am so sick of screaming baritones singing tenor! Enough already.
EdmundStAustell 2 years ago 27
@EdmundStAustell I wish Bel Canto singers these days could have a voice as big and powerful as Volpi's was.
hibyeeee2 1 year ago
@EdmundStAustell I will try to revive it
Alieaz 9 months ago
outstanding!
svjatazarov 2 years ago 2
Il più grande tenore di tutti i tempi.
KitRobertWe 2 years ago
2:51 Incredible... incredible... incredible!!!
Lanark8 2 years ago 14
Grande.
Purezza e integrità di suono su tutta la gamma e costante centratura della fonazione ( appoggio e coordinazione diaframma-laringe); estensione eccezionale; tempra folgorante degli acuti; fraseggio aristocratico,ampio, sostenuto; capacità di passare nella stessa frase, quando non nella stessa nota, dall'emissione piena e lucente di petto a quella morbida e soave di "falsettone", passando per tutte le gradazioni.
Se non è stato il tenore più grande, certo è stato il più fenomenale.
PinkBs52 3 years ago
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PinkBs52 3 years ago
It must have been Lauri-Volpi's D natural that set scientists on the path to using microwaves to heat food... I almost expected the poor soprano's head to start melting after this cataclysmic note!!
hiyadroogs 3 years ago 2
Please, please, please, put the complete video on O. S. !!!
SENAFOREVER 3 years ago
When he was young and still in schooling, Lauri Volpi was desperate to ever approach the level of Mattia Battistini. Somehow, I think he did.
SENAFOREVER 3 years ago
No doubt about it: if I had to list the ten greatest tenors since the advent of the microphone, Lauri-Volpi would be on that list for sure.
billyguns2 3 years ago 5
He'd make the top 5 at least, if not top 3. That D near the end is the kind of sound that makes one's knees buckle.
GermanOperaSinger 3 years ago 4
Exactly! often, in a singers range, there comes a point where power output diminishes in the voice in sacrifice to achieving the note. Caruso's high B was much more powerful than his C, for example. Jussi's C & C# were more powerful than his D natural. But Lauri-Volpi's voice just seems to get more powerful the higher it goes. There's no question whatsoever, on this evidence, that he would have possessed High E natural within his range.
hiyadroogs 3 years ago
very accurate observation my friend. This increase in power and harmonics on high registers - il alleggerimento della voce - is nowhere to be found nowadays. Thanks to Caruso wannabes now we've got plenty gross middle voices with pinched acuti.
caribolas 3 years ago 2
Thank you caribolas! Everybody seems to carry their chest register up so high into the range today, which leads to a blunt booming top lacking in harmonics, with very poor flexibility in control over dynamics of tone. Gigli, Bjorling, & Lauri-Volpi, among others, all had bright ringing tops, allied to an exquisite mezza voce. Alas, will we ever know those voice types again?
hiyadroogs 3 years ago 3
i'm pretty sure Caruso never sang a C. he may have had one, (I don't think he did) but he almost always had to transpose the music to avoid it.
HerrBresler 3 years ago
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hiyadroogs 3 years ago
do you have that recording up on youtube, I would love to hear it!!!!!!!!! Forgive me for ever doubting Caruso's greatness!
HerrBresler 2 years ago
I don't, I'm afraid. But I think it might be in my favourites. I'll have a look.
hiyadroogs 2 years ago
Sorry HerrBresler, it's not in my favourites. But if you contact - maldoror26 - I'm sure he could help. I'll try to upload a version myself someday.
hiyadroogs 2 years ago
This is just wrong.
SENAFOREVER 2 years ago
He singh Cs in Trovatore,Ugonotti,Boheme and operas where it´s written.....and he was a great tenor,so you don´t say the truth in tour coment
danicemo 2 years ago
He did sing it atleast the butterfly duet with Farrar.
revivaljesus 2 years ago
ma gli italiani dove sono??????????????????
rickyelmeio 3 years ago
Eric Rees, a professional baritone, went to see Lauri-Volpi in concert in London. On the back of a Lauri-Volpi record sleeve, he wrote; 'In 1947, I heard Lauri-Volpi deliver a high B, at the end of 'Nessun Dorma', that made the Albert Hall windows rattle... I've never heard the like..'
hiyadroogs 3 years ago
And Albert Hall has TERRIBLE acoustics! Imagine what it was like in an opera house.
GermanOperaSinger 3 years ago
Terrifying, I would think! lol
hiyadroogs 3 years ago
Some commentators have incorrectly claimed that the high note is high C, or C sharp. The written note is, I believe, C sharp. But I have just banged my tuning forks against this wall cracking note. - It's a little sharp of D natural!!! I know Lauri Volpi's timbre very well, & the fault is not transposition speed. A conductor once said of LV, 'A great tenor voice to listen to from the opposite end of Westminster bridge!!'
hiyadroogs 3 years ago
You are absolutely right! I just listened to the recording twice, with my pitch pipe beside the computer. It is absolutely a D natural, and a brilliant one at that. I think it could be contended that Lauri Volpi, at least at this period of his career, was the greatest tenor in the world. God, I hate to see the decline of bel canto, in favor of the grunting and screaming that characterized so much of what was to come!
stefakamelpash 3 years ago 5
I think your point is unarguable David. I doubt if even Jussi Bjorling had freer high notes than Lauri-Volpi in this sample. The D rings out with fantastic ease & tremendous squillo. Note that the vibrato in LV's voice betrays no sign whatsoever of pinching or constriction on the D. There are no early warning signs that his voice is nearing its ultimate top!! That poor soprano must have felt that she had her head trapped inside a microwave oven when he launched that ear splitting note!!
hiyadroogs 3 years ago
The ultimate romantic tenor—and what a high C-sharp!!
AulicExclusiva 3 years ago
Lauri-Volpi is my favorite of the tenors of the first half of the twentieth century (Bergonzi is my favorite for the second half), and it's a special pleasure to hear him in less familiar music.
There are good reasons Huguenots was one of the most popular operas on earth for a hundred years. I've heard it five times, and it never fails to delight any audience. And Giordani was quite good as Raoul, Leech and Vrenios less so.
ATsarIsBorn 3 years ago
This is like going back in a time machine! Lauri-Volpi is one of the greatest tenors of all time; after hearing this it's no wonder we can't produce Meyerbeer operas today, as we have nobody who can do them justice.
billyguns2 3 years ago
how does he do that???just lets loose that high c in full head voice. And after those exquisite portamenti-genius!!
bcndn63 4 years ago 2
bcndn63, my friend, it gets even better. As it's not high C.. It's high D natural...
hiyadroogs 3 years ago
At 1:46 he does sing a C - in messa voce!
GermanOperaSinger 3 years ago
This aria (actually all the opera) is extremely difficult. I saw just two more tenors that sang that so nice as Lauri-Volpi: Franco Corelli and Nicolaï Gedda.
The record of Enrico Caruso of the aria is also astonishing!
TurandotFanatic 4 years ago 2
For the first time listened to 1933's Volpi, great!
bastianinisfan 4 years ago
Quite incredible! At that time there was hardly a tenor to come near him for beauty of voice, squillo and glorious pianissimi. Grateful thanks for letting us hear this paragon in his prime. It is a bonus that he also looks and acts superbly. Vivian Liff
stuartliffiom 4 years ago
Mai sentito nulla del genere...
Checco1983 4 years ago
i listened so many tenors(live and records), but nobody have the those cleanest high notes of Lauri-Volpi, outstanding.
heroesinpatria 4 years ago 3
This is spectacular, makes one very humble indeed, a true act of talent. thank you...
BuzzingBeat 4 years ago
how amazing is that top d at about 2'55" into the film? Unbelievable.
hammondmania 5 years ago
Amazing? I don't even think that ever happened! Not human
alepeccia 4 years ago
Are you serious? It certainly happened, though I'd agree that by modern 'standards' it does seem pretty astounding. Even in 1933, as you can see, the crowd goes wild. But this was an era rich in singers who put the artists of this generation to shame. Martinelli, Pertile, Merli and George Thill are just a few examples of Volpi's excellent rivals, and there's quite a few videos of them here on Youtube - check them out!
rm946 4 years ago
G. Lauri Volpi knew how to use diaphragm.
Moffolover 4 years ago
Diaphragm is a non volontary muscle. It reacts to the way you breath, your voice placement, the way you attack the sound. When you control everything, the diaphragm does its job and not the opposite.
Vocal technique is a very complex thing and cannot be reduce to just one thing...
freespiritQC 3 years ago 2
At last someone who knows the superlative singers of the Golden Age of Singing. Thank goodness we have connoisseurs who place these excellent videos on You Tube. No need to attend oper or buy cds of contemporary performers who have no link to proper delivery of the voice.
796824 4 years ago
Well I'd hardly call myself a connoisseur but I do love these videos. Only trouble is that it makes me completely unable to go to the opera - the difference is too painful! My teacher was once at a masterclass by Martinelli years ago and someone asked him 'Maestro, what do you think of singing today?' Apparently he answered - 'there is no singing today, only shouting' - or something like that. It's a real shame.
rm946 4 years ago
So glad to hear that. It's exactly what I've been saying on YTube,in order to help young singers, who have no concept of the Golden Age of Singing, while receiving nasty comments from the accoustically challenged.If you are interesed, try to also find a cd of Giuseppe Lugo for more fine singing.
796824 4 years ago
Yes it's a shame that people can't air their differences without insulting each other. I've found a lot of singers hostile to older records, and I think it's partly because they don't like the recording quality, but mainly because they are embarassed at the difference in vocal quality, itself a result of a difference in training.
rm946 4 years ago 2
You are absolutely correct. The sad thing is that there are no vocal teachers today who have the skill to develop the natural quality of young singers who have a voice and are also incapable of comprehending or teaching he Art of Chiaroscuro singing.
796824 4 years ago
thx
luenendonk1 5 years ago
The first is 'Asile hereditaire' from Guillaume Tell and the second is 'Plus blanche que la blanche hermine' from Les Huguenots, both sung in Italian. The very last one is a truncated version of the grand duet also from Les Huguenots, but with the soprano role cut out.
drewski67 5 years ago
what are the two first arias called?
luenendonk1 5 years ago
one of the greatest voices. I love his voice :-)
luenendonk1 5 years ago