Luciano Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma - Live 1977

[atlatahuac]

beyond my poor powers to add or ... with all of his other gifts and talents, his voice's TIMBER, its strengthening with passion and conviction as his character urges his troops on to glory ... Love 'em all, Bjoerling, Corelli, Del Monaco, Carreras, Placido, Mario Lanza ... and then there's Luciano ... thanx Moorhe.

[Liditus138]

Amazing!!!



[nagone11]

Ridiculous!! Just plain Ridiculous!

[indgiu]

the most beautiful tenor voice ever

[FCBayern221553]

Brilliant version, brilliant tenor!

[mermew]

His voice was at its peak when the Maestro sang this. No tenor in the world could even come close..., not then, nor for many, many years thereafter. Even later in life, Pavarotti remained my favorite. Only when death silenced him did I look around for another to replace Pavarotti's great voice and presence, but alas, no one was there. Now the Maestro sings only unto God. And the angels weep with the joy that once wetted our tears as we listened.

[alghanimreem]

Best version I think !

[Ipausestuff]

i think this is other version of turandot, im not sure lol

[Andreone333]

I don't know if this recording was taken on stage or not. But it's sure that in 1977 Luciano pavarotti sang that role on the stage of San Francisco Opera. It's proved by the San Francisco Opera Archive online.

[eastsunrise]

@Andreone333 Just read the credits above. It is listed as that very performance. And your question was? These SF performances were his first live Calafs and Caballe's debut (live) in the title role. The MET was to bring them both to NY on Opening Night a season or two later.I had a tickets for several of these in NY! Sadly, a strike scuttled these plans and they never sang this opera together at the MET.

[AdelioAltomar]

Amazing preformance and bone-chilling sound in this song (as it should be) but I couldn't help but literally laugh out loud for a couple minutes as I saw that picture. I know it was the 70s but still, couldn't they pick something a little more formal. Seeing if that was what he wore in that concert that night.

[Entertainer114]

@AdelioAltomar I don't think the 70s had anything to do with his wardrobe in the picture. I'm pretty sure that was just the costume that he wore for his role during the actual opera. In other words, it's his opera character's costume, not his own outfit he'd wear for recital concerts :) (That would explain why he's not in a tux.)

[bpicaud1]

Cela ne peut-être une représentation car on ne pourrait tronquer le partition de cette manière; c'est forcément d'un concert dont il s'agit. Je pense d'ailleurs que Luciano P. n'a jamais chanté le rôle, beaucoup trop lourd pour lui; mais dans cet air, il est, à mon sens, sans équivalent...et cela risque de durer un bon moment !

[wickedphant0m]

I've listened to many performances of his, but this "sulla tua bocca lo diro" made my jaw drop. His voice was truly a gift from God.

[Wolts1983]

Cantata bene, ma un semitono sotto!

[cdbrewer49]

I saw this performance live at SFO. It was so awesome I actually went to four different performances. The music after the aria was not removed. It was standard practice for the conductor and orchestra to stop as they were always overwhelmed with audience applause which often lasted several minutes. Then, after the applause subsided, the score continued. And no it was NOT lip-synced. One of the best performances I ever saw.

[PhilipFairweather]

Is that the costume he was wearing for this production?It makes him look like a game show host!...Thankfully the wonderful singing transcends it!

[IsCumaFut2]

i disagree the best version was the final performance in turin olympics. as ihe was telling us it was his final concert and he sang magnificently you can hear it in his emotions

[followthehatecrewild]

@IsCumaFut2 he recorded that weeks before because it was impossible to sing in the cold weather, he lip-synced the wholel thing. stunning, but not his best

[ezev8logos]

lo que daría por haber estado ahi!!!!!!!!!

[Ysphen]

Perfecto. Best version of Nessum Dorma i've heard. Best of those by Pavarotti of course too.

[Redboy4]

You cut off the applause too early :(

[babystinky]

WoW!!!

[saradamsmc]

Oh man. I've watched several versions of this entire Opera in the past few months including the one shown at the Met in NY this year with Marcelo Giordani and this is by far the best Nessun Dorma I've heard.

Pavarotti was amazing.

[Nockturnmortem]

Best performance ever!

[bodiloto]

voce fuori repertorio !

[tena2]

Penso come lei. grazie

[toni14744]

No one can level with him

[rococallas]

Para mí es éste el mejor performance que Luciano dio en Nessun DOrma. Un sonido redondo, viril, encajaba el tempo dentro de donde va en la partitura. Un canto ligado, generoso y sentido. Un final genuino y glorioso, sin exageraciones, hizo el tempo perfecto.

[kunfusinger]

Que voy Dios mio que voz, precioso, precioso finalll el mejor de lejos gracias Pavarotti!!!!! pero que alto pusiste la valla!!!

[michel9017]

Sin palabras...

No words...

[LSlevin1]

PAVAROTTI IL NUMERO 1

[Footlancer]

This is indeed distorted-- Pavarotti's timbre is far too dark here. It's amazing what a tiny pitch distortion does to the color of a voice-- as it's not a whole semitone flat, as you said, HMW.

[HMW]

mooorhe - there is no argument here. this is a quarter-step flat. and, as we know, pavarotti definitely did not have it transposed, especially to an impossible value (b-flat and a half). the audio is slowed down. also, the tessitura of his voice here seems much lower than it ever was, even at the end of his life, which further points to the fact that the audio is distorted.

[hansquad]

This is from the opera stage? Weird.. the ending of it is like in a concert or something, as we know, the real nessun from opera will directly continued with melodies of the next scene.. there is no pause at all.

[Mooorhe]

The short passage of music after the tenor completes the aria is removed as well. I'm guessing that Pavarotti knew he wouldn't be able to sing above the orchestra, so he had it changed a bit. It also allows applause for him if they do it that way. I'm pretty sure this is from the opera stage, yes.

[Milordvega]

What happens on staged opera performances (unlike studio recordings) is they don't follow Puccini's score and end the aria after the ending "Vinceró!" high notes. So that the audience will be allowed the opportunity to applaud the tenor. Not just Pavarotti.

[tenorvoice50]

@Mooorhe Quit guessing.That was great!

[fongchaynun]

Words are so pitiful compared to the Maestro's performance. This was the song of the BBC 1988 World Cup broadcasts. Awesome!

[Nater389]

Yes, Nessun Dorma was the aria used in the 1988 World Cup broadcasts.

[TheInquisitive4Ever]

This is an excellent rendition of Nessun Dorma for a tenore lyrico singing in a spinto role!

[Nater389]

I agree completely 4Ever.

[dclb1942]

you re right, So good for a lyrics tenor

[novice1959]

Over the time that I've been listening to YouTube I've listened to many versions of this aria or many singers, and I have to say, it really IS Pavarotti's aria, no one else can quite hold up to him on this one!

[Nater389]

You said it. Perhaps with the exception of the 1979 recital with Joan at the Met, this might be the best version on Youtube. Still waiting on Mooorhe to post the encore performance of this aria from 1976. Hah, take your time Mooorhe.

[Nater389]

Moorhe, do you or any others who have posted many Pavarotti titles (GermanOperaSinger, Onegin65 to name a couple) have a Nessun Dorma before 1977?! I would like to hear Pavarotti when he could "blast" this song. Studio or live, no matter.

[Mooorhe]

I looked through my collections and the earliest I could find was 1976 as an encore of a recital.

He was much more lyric back then, so he didn't 'blast it' as much but sang it with all his lyrical beauty.

For studio recordings, he did a 1972 studio recording of Turandot with Sutherland which has a very nice Nessun Dorma which I can't post on YouTube due to copyright regulations.

[Nater389]

Can you post the 1976 encore performance please? After all, it would be the earliest version yet posted and a new version for all to listen to.

[Mooorhe]

I'll post it this week, after I finish up some other things and respond to another request.

[Nater389]

Great, thanks Mooorhe.

[Nater389]

Perhaps next week then.

[Mooorhe]

My apologies, by 'this week', I meant this current week. I'm sorry it's not up yet, I have got other priorities.

[Nater389]

Understand completely...Just giving you a hard time.

[Nater389]

I'd be willing to bet the audio is a bit off. Seems a smidge to slow and too low.

[Mooorhe]

I found out that it is a quarter step flat from another user. Not much though.

[Nater389]

Man I thought that didn't sound quite right. Do you have the software to speed it up to regular speed?

[GermanOperaSinger]

Don't think he should have done this role really...in the house...in studio he did a great one with Sutherland. But beautiful rendition and very good expression here, not like his rather monotonous ones in the 3 tenors concerts in the 90s.

[Nater389]

Shit, he sounds great here. I agree though, in the 1990's it seemed like he didn't have the same passion. Then again, it must have been the 100,000th time he sang it at that point. His high notes were more airy(if thats a word) and not as full and rich sounding as it once was. Aging is a bitch.

[ExVash]

It sounds a *tad* flat, to be honest.

[wiidontreallywanna]

The audo is O.K. moorhe, there's nothing wrong with it...But it's fairly quiet since I had to turn up my speakers to like 3/4 the knob to hear it good.

[wiidontreallywanna]

Scratch that Moorhe there was a button on my computer to turn it up hahahaha.

[pearlmuth3]

VERY GOOD AND A NICE B

[zzzLUCIANOzzz]

audio bad

[Mooorhe]

I think the audio quality is actually quite good, what makes you say it's bad?

[Rangerpjonwebx]

He sounds tip-top to me.

[OettingerCroat]

is this playing slowly too? his voice is extremely dark and the orchestra seems lower too...

[Mooorhe]

I don't think the audio is distorted. His voice is dark, yes... And I think that the orchestra was doing strange things that evening, seeing as both Caballe and Pavarotti's voices were quite small in 1977, they didn't have the orchestra playing full blast, as you can hear at the end here. I don't think the orchestra is playing lower though.