@TheScottypom This was recorded about 1930; the industry actually had fairly good recording equipment by late 1927 though that doesn't mean that every recording location was so equipped this way.
Also, there are other factors involved such as the recording environment (concert hall vs. usually cramped studios) and microphone placement; in this recording, everything good is brought to bear.
He must have been overwhelming to watch live on stage. The voice, timbre, phrasing, acting, fascination! What an immense artist, one of the 20th century's very greatest opera singers, right up there with Caruso, Gigli, Bjoerling, Ponselle, Flagstad, and Callas.
Feodor Chaliapin was my great grandfather... he was an extraordinary man, thank you for including him in this 100 Greatest Videos. For anyone who may be interested, my cousin Alexandra has just begun a Feodor Chaliapin page on Facebook. It is a new project but photos etc will slowly begin to be posted, as we get it together. Many thanks again.
I have big question.. there were and are amazing bass singers..But who is considered to be the greatest bass singer/ with huge voice,influence of all time?
Marvelous voice, but it's the supra-vocal qualities of Chaliapin that make him great. His son (also Feodor Chaliapin) was an actor in The Name of the Rose (Venerable Jorge, the blind scourge of the monastery) and in Moonstruck (Cher's grandfather). He had the same physical and personal magnetism as his father.
He was actually supposed to play the Phantom in the unmade 1930s version of Phantom, well it was a tie between him and Boris Karloff. Karloff would have probably played the Phantom but it would have been interesting to see Chaliapin play him.
Mike...Feodor ROCKS! Amazing Mephisto..Orson Wells once said his mother was FC's mistress, and they had a affair in 1915-1916 and that perhaps the great bass was his biological father. Wells really loved to tell a tale, but his voice, that special Orson voice,,,,wouldn't it be wonderful to think that he inherited it from the great Fyodor????
@Firuzens. He's one of the best. I suppose you have a bunch of special singers, and each is famous for his idiosyncratic qualities. I like Pol Plancon, too.
Chaliapine est un chanteur de l'âme Russe-Qui a donné vie à Boris Godounov?-Stanislavski le prenait comme exemple dans son jeu theatral,il est le personnage qu'il interprete,il le fait vivre-certain chanteur se contente d'ecarter les bras ,les mains,les doigts on les appelle - cinq plus cinq égale dix -Oui Feodor Chaliapin est un des grands interpretes du debut du Vingtieme siecle-même les plus grands chanteurs sont de leurs epoque et chantent comme à leur epoque
Chaliapin was perhaps the first person to take real acting in opera seriously. If you read what he wrote about acting an performing, or read what his contemporaries said of him, it is clear that although he would have been a great performer in any age, that he performed the way he did WHEN he did was truly amazing, and makes him one of the greatest singers of all time.
To me, Chaliapin is the proof that there are more important qualities in great singing than just a glorious sound...
I have a disc (unpublished in France and on Youtube) of Chaliapin that a friend had brought back of Moscow in 1950? How can I share it to you. I am completely beginner.
defenatly the best bass of all times, though this recording is known to be of the last, and it shows very well the dificulty of singing this high places aria. earlier recording of mephistofel though are uncomperable to noone at any era...
Chaliapin es fabuloso, él, Andrei Rublev y la Guerra y la Paz, me parecen los máximos símbolos de rusia, por lo menos los que han trascendido a otras culturas.
This is a great aria from a great artist! Unfortunately this recording was made in his late years when his health got worse and his voice became darker and heavier. Yet even here his voice is really striking.
For the Faust arias, I prefer Pol Plancon, who, like Chaliapin, was famous for his interpretation of Mephisto. In Russian opera, the singing is idiomatic, but also individual since Chaliapin was an idiosyncratic singer. Some would call him a genius, and I agree. Not only was he a great vocal interpreter but a great actor on stage. The voice itself was sonorous and schooled in bel canto with a smooth legato line, no matter what his departures from tradition might have been for dramatic purposes.
Well, Chaliapin ... I need say no more! These singers are not produced anymore today! Anyway, it is posible that this is the 1930 recording, made in Paris: can't be sure but it sounds similar to this one I own.
I believe that opera is first of all theatre and the singer like an actor has to express by his singing the meaning of the text and give birth to the senses of the audience. Other way opera can be a very boring talent show.
I absolutely agree with bobom1.
And maybe Chaljapin truly was a singing actor, but what a master in his own discipline.
SchallundWahn 2 months ago
I love the way he rolls his "r's."
SatchmoSings 4 months ago
@TheScottypom This was recorded about 1930; the industry actually had fairly good recording equipment by late 1927 though that doesn't mean that every recording location was so equipped this way.
Also, there are other factors involved such as the recording environment (concert hall vs. usually cramped studios) and microphone placement; in this recording, everything good is brought to bear.
SatchmoSings 4 months ago
@TheScottypom For his time?
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin is for the ages.
SatchmoSings 4 months ago
GOD DAMN
lawrencewraith8 5 months ago
Cudowny głos!!!!!!!!
bogusia8888 10 months ago
He must have been overwhelming to watch live on stage. The voice, timbre, phrasing, acting, fascination! What an immense artist, one of the 20th century's very greatest opera singers, right up there with Caruso, Gigli, Bjoerling, Ponselle, Flagstad, and Callas.
philipc67 10 months ago
@philipc67 You left out Lawrence Tibbett.
SatchmoSings 10 months ago
Never mind top 100, top 5 fir sure and would not strongly argue against top one.
simmo303 11 months ago
Feodor Chaliapin was my great grandfather... he was an extraordinary man, thank you for including him in this 100 Greatest Videos. For anyone who may be interested, my cousin Alexandra has just begun a Feodor Chaliapin page on Facebook. It is a new project but photos etc will slowly begin to be posted, as we get it together. Many thanks again.
MsTinaji 11 months ago
I have big question.. there were and are amazing bass singers..But who is considered to be the greatest bass singer/ with huge voice,influence of all time?
help.
ArchiducDeBelgrade 11 months ago
Chaliapin was extraordinary, and unique in the best sense. Nobody like him in recorded operatic history, before or since -- a great artist --
stevevandien 11 months ago
Of course Chaliapin should be on this list...but where's Adamo Didur??
joanna4659 1 year ago
Marvelous voice, but it's the supra-vocal qualities of Chaliapin that make him great. His son (also Feodor Chaliapin) was an actor in The Name of the Rose (Venerable Jorge, the blind scourge of the monastery) and in Moonstruck (Cher's grandfather). He had the same physical and personal magnetism as his father.
joysword 1 year ago
He was actually supposed to play the Phantom in the unmade 1930s version of Phantom, well it was a tie between him and Boris Karloff. Karloff would have probably played the Phantom but it would have been interesting to see Chaliapin play him.
phantomzeroex 1 year ago
RUSSIA FORWARD!!!
alexeykulikov 1 year ago
Mike...Feodor ROCKS! Amazing Mephisto..Orson Wells once said his mother was FC's mistress, and they had a affair in 1915-1916 and that perhaps the great bass was his biological father. Wells really loved to tell a tale, but his voice, that special Orson voice,,,,wouldn't it be wonderful to think that he inherited it from the great Fyodor????
janinesalamida 1 year ago
Самый великий бас на все времена! А каков красавец-великан!!!
levmila 2 years ago 11
@Firuzens. He's one of the best. I suppose you have a bunch of special singers, and each is famous for his idiosyncratic qualities. I like Pol Plancon, too.
recessionlover 2 years ago 2
Chaliapine est un chanteur de l'âme Russe-Qui a donné vie à Boris Godounov?-Stanislavski le prenait comme exemple dans son jeu theatral,il est le personnage qu'il interprete,il le fait vivre-certain chanteur se contente d'ecarter les bras ,les mains,les doigts on les appelle - cinq plus cinq égale dix -Oui Feodor Chaliapin est un des grands interpretes du debut du Vingtieme siecle-même les plus grands chanteurs sont de leurs epoque et chantent comme à leur epoque
alainwilliam 2 years ago
thank you...
TheNaniKang 2 years ago 2
Chaliapin was perhaps the first person to take real acting in opera seriously. If you read what he wrote about acting an performing, or read what his contemporaries said of him, it is clear that although he would have been a great performer in any age, that he performed the way he did WHEN he did was truly amazing, and makes him one of the greatest singers of all time.
To me, Chaliapin is the proof that there are more important qualities in great singing than just a glorious sound...
bobom1 2 years ago 15
Chaliapin was not only a great voice, but will go down in history as a friend of Rachmoninov whom he helped escape strife in Russia.
aristopus 2 years ago
I have a disc (unpublished in France and on Youtube) of Chaliapin that a friend had brought back of Moscow in 1950? How can I share it to you. I am completely beginner.
annejosephine1946 2 years ago
defenatly the best bass of all times, though this recording is known to be of the last, and it shows very well the dificulty of singing this high places aria. earlier recording of mephistofel though are uncomperable to noone at any era...
angelstar2701 2 years ago
@angelstar2701 Of the last? This recording was made between 1928 and 1931; he lived a few more years and even made a motion picture.
SatchmoSings 9 months ago
His best recording is -in my opinion- the song of te Norway merchant from Sadko.
But writing this I realize that there have never been a greater Boris Godounov than this marvoulous Chaliapin.
Hans NL
Hans NL
qklq42 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
I have never been a great Chaliapin fan, but I could think of 50 of his disks better than this wretched travesty, in execrable French!
AulicExclusiva 2 years ago
excelente seleccion...un saludo de un amante de la opera mexicano
tauromaniac 2 years ago
Chaliapin es fabuloso, él, Andrei Rublev y la Guerra y la Paz, me parecen los máximos símbolos de rusia, por lo menos los que han trascendido a otras culturas.
LauritzMelchior 2 years ago
chaliapin domino la tecnica vocal del 'eco de la voz o eco vocal" es algo muy interesante...saludos...un tenor mexicano
tauromaniac 2 years ago
This is not, alas, one of Chaliapin's best recordings. Most representative would been one of his Russian roles recorded during the acoustic era.
seancoxen 3 years ago
This is a great aria from a great artist! Unfortunately this recording was made in his late years when his health got worse and his voice became darker and heavier. Yet even here his voice is really striking.
Delifine 3 years ago
For the Faust arias, I prefer Pol Plancon, who, like Chaliapin, was famous for his interpretation of Mephisto. In Russian opera, the singing is idiomatic, but also individual since Chaliapin was an idiosyncratic singer. Some would call him a genius, and I agree. Not only was he a great vocal interpreter but a great actor on stage. The voice itself was sonorous and schooled in bel canto with a smooth legato line, no matter what his departures from tradition might have been for dramatic purposes.
meltzerboy 3 years ago
Well, Chaliapin ... I need say no more! These singers are not produced anymore today! Anyway, it is posible that this is the 1930 recording, made in Paris: can't be sure but it sounds similar to this one I own.
SenorAlfredoKraus 3 years ago
I believe that opera is first of all theatre and the singer like an actor has to express by his singing the meaning of the text and give birth to the senses of the audience. Other way opera can be a very boring talent show.
voceuniversalis 3 years ago
Very interesting, though not idiomatic at all.
Just a matter of taste, I prefer André Pernet.
SENAFOREVER 3 years ago