Pavel Lisitsian- Song of the Venetian Guest from Sadko

[vpo2g2]

One of the greatest baritones ever! Not just the voice and immaculate technique, but listen to the elegant phrasing. It just pours out.

[Herur22]

One of the most beautiful baritone voices.

[lamsalgado]

Genius!

[konotoso]

This is one of my favorite Lisitsian arias, showcasing this flowing, virile voice. Thanks for posting it.

[ditogam]

GREAT, REALLY GREAT!!!

[urmorph]

Rimsky-Korsakov must have had great confidence in his theater's hiring ability to write three such arias for minor roles. Almost all of his music is way too seldom heard in Western Europe and the Americas. Many thanks for your posts, O great Khan!

[paulostroff99]

Beautifully sung! Bravo! TY.

[branko1b]

AfroPoli - i can't agree more with you! since Donizetti nobody wrote with bel canto in mind as a way of singing (btw it was a torturous technique invented by one who could not sing) plenty of confusions about the use of the word nowadays ... and some ridiculous statements under some pages here - like: "she [Callas] singlehandedly revived belcanto repertoire" (?! lol) or "excessive singing from the mask" [about Kraus] even if wrong at places, wikipedia should be enough to clarify these concepts

[NocturnePerson]

Очень приятно....!

[AulicExclusiva]

As good a voice and technique as Stracciari or Schlusnus, and a wonderful musical alacrity of his own. A superb artist, in every way.

Delightful music.

[meltzerboy]

Bel canto singing is applicable not only to Italian and French opera but to German and Russian opera as well. As Callas said, bel canto is NOT beautiful singing, but rather the way you sing. Lisitsian has a bel canto technique besides having a beautiful voice.

[AulicExclusiva]

Absolutely right. It has to do with breathing and the way phrasing is conceived as much as an agreeable voice or a sweet timbre.

There are many changes in rhythm in this exeptionally tough solo, but Lisitsian carries everything off with a smooth, continuous intention of musical phrasing and easily sustained tone. He doesn't need "histrionics". The mood is set by the composer.

[AfroPoli]

Hogwash. Belcanto was singing the way it was done in about 1860. Everything since Caruso is not Belcanto. Callas has nothing, I repeat: NOTHING to do with Belcanto.

[meltzerboy]

Maybe not EXACTLY the same as the bel canto singers such as Pasta, Grisi, Malibran, Sontag, Patti, Alboni, Rubini, Mario, Lablache, for who really knows how they sounded and the way they sang, but are there not principles of singing spelled out (in Garcia's writings, for example), which future generations can learn? Principles involving rules of technique, ornamentation, phrasing, breathing, and so on. True, styles of singing have changed but certain foundations can still be taught and learned.

[AfroPoli]

Well, we have recordings of pre-Caruso singers who sound very different from what we are used to listen to. Most of them would hardly be hired today. That's one thing. The other thing is that Garcia can write as much as he wants about the technique - the sound and style of the belcanto era cannot be captured in a singing manual and can hence not be reproduced. Third thing: belcanto style singing would be for belcanto music - not for Sadko or anything by Wagner, Puccini, Mascagni etc.

[meltzerboy]

Your first point is correct. Singers such as De Lucia, Bonci, Anselmi, Battistini, Plancon, Mantelli, Sembrich, and Albani and Patti in their old age do sound different. Even Caruso's earliest recordings contain echoes of the bel canto era. Some of these singers are most likely closer to the style of Pasta, Grisi, Malibran, and Rubini though still not the real thing perhaps. But you're right in that the methods and graces of the old school are regarded by most singing teachers as anachronisms.

[meltzerboy]

That I think is the problem. In other words, not so much the inability of singers to learn the skills of bel canto art by studying the old texts (and, of course, perfecting these skills via practice), but rather the lack of incentive to do so, which is fostered by the music establishment, including teachers, schools, opera companies, conductors, production designers, etc. If these skills were encouraged, I believe more gifted students could learn them, but we know that's not going to happen.

[796824]

@meltzerboy

[796824]

@meltzerboy

You are absolutely correct. The problem is that the TEACHERS and IMPRESSARIOS, being accoustically challenged, are at fault, not the students who are uninformed.

[meltzerboy]

And if these skills were cultivated and mastered, they could be applied to Russian opera, German opera, even so-called verismo works, often regarded as at odds with the bel canto approach. In a sense, they have been applied--though perhaps not in their purest form and to varying degrees--by singers such as Lisitsian, Schlusnus, Stracciari, Urlus, Flagstad, Galli-Curci, Ponselle, Rethberg, Muzio, Callas. I agree with the bel canto definition of Callas, which broadens the more specific definition.

[meltzerboy]

A final point: even the specific meaning of bel canto, referring only to bel canto opera, is not limited to the perfection of technique and cultivation of a beautiful tone, but includes expressive and interpretative art THROUGH technique, in the manner of a Pasta, a Grisi, or a Malibran.

[AfroPoli]

Hogwash. Stracciari is Italian technique, Schlusnus is German. This is Russian technique.

[mayflash67]

Thanks for posting! Very nice voice!

[OperaTonna]

Pavel is one of the greats and a great inspiration to me...the russian singers call him "the master".

[petrof4056]

unique!! what presence!! what personnality!!

[Herur22]

Most beautiful voice!

[ShawDAMAN]

Beautiful, thanks :)

[pianist527]

Thanks Khankonchak for this new video. Wonderful voice. But then tenors and britones are known since long for their special strong beautiful voices.