Strangely I also think that there is a fundamental similarity in Tamango and Bonci's singing. Bonci of course was tiny and far from heroic. He also must have pushed too hard sometimes to compensate for this. However A te o Cara was a favourite warm-up piece with Tamango when he was practising.
Bonci was a great tenor and some US critics of his time(who usually disliked vibrato) considered him - in 1908 - better than Caruso who swept tremulous tenors like Bonci and de Lucia almost into the dustbin of history. Caruso had many of the attributes of the old Italian school which always remained. power. As one critic said "before Caruso no one sang like him.Now every one I hear reminds me of him. The tremulous ones tend to have a greater range of tone of tone colour and more flexibility.
So true, Caruso brilliance and, let's not forget, his frenetic recording schedules,has implied that all of his contemporary singer colleagues, even one as great as Bonci, quickly became all but forgotten. Very unfair. This beautiful recording of true bel canto somehow reminds me of Tamagno, but even better
ALESSANDRO BONCI (February 10, 1870 – August 10, 1940) was an Italian lyric tenor known internationally for his association with the bel canto repertoire. He sang at many famous theatres, including New York's Metropolitan Opera, Milan's La Scala and London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
GREAT PERFORMANCE!!! Thank you for sharing this video.
гениальнейшая техника пения....и я не понимаю идиотов, которые несут всякую чушь о технике это наигениальнейшего певца.......критины безголосые.....сами ни черта не могут петь и грязью обливают великого человека.......
@maxlorenz24 да не за что....у Алессандро Бончи техника трёх гласных у, и, а.....его верхнее до..практически на пианиссимо....ну такое до мне мой педагог показал ток перед своей смертью....тк был жаден до певческих секретов......спасибо больше за вашу публикацию.......это тенор номер один среди всех теноров по технике звуковедения.......
i can't believe you could call it a spasm, Alessandro is a fantastic singer,
he is up there with the all greatest singer of 19 th century, outrageous, it is called vibrato and it is beautiful thing to have, i would like you try and do it.
I have heard that the speed of this recording is often mistaken because of the belief that the top note is a C# but when it is slowed to play as a C natural the vohisice loses some of the vibrato and sounds more natural. Curious as to others opinions on this. thanks
sounds like some laryngeal spasming going on... sounds like hes holding back and letting it sit in a spasm. a good screaming session of high notes would put it in there.
@Webarton what are you talking about??? This is a beautifully produced voice used with exquisite taste. The nanny-goat vibrato is typical of this style of singing. As someone said already, the goal was not volume but exquisite line and color, and maximum expressiveness. Think Chopin nocturnes in this sort of repertoire- lots of rubato, shading.
Che classe.... infinitamente paradisiaca...un amore per Bonci che nutro nel cuore da molti anni e che sempre mi lascia in estasi.Bonci-Schipa-Valletti-kraus-Non sono solo storia della somma vocalità,ma patrimonio culturale,educativo ed umano impareggiabile.
è vero,parole verissime,purtroppo però oggi l'emergenza educativa e culturale,con le ovvie conseguenze sul piano umano,sembra un evento inarrestabile e le masse sono sempre meno abituate ad apprezzare e cogliere il "Bello"...
I heard it around 18, too. From Lauri-Volpi, however. I'm sure there will always be young people interested in classical music. Via youtube, and thanks to users like you, it has become "quite" easy to have nearly everything at hand. You just get it to know, surfing youtube. The appreciation (or even love) of "this type of singing" certainly develops, the more one gets to know.
There are many youngsters with appreciation for this beautiful music, but with 105 years of time passing, the singers are much worse, and the interest has declined.
I loved it from 16, and five years later I'm still trying to promulgate singers such as Bonci.
I started listening to opera when I was about 13, and now 10 years later I am in my final year of masters studies as an operatic tenor. There is definitely a future for the art. As Crimsontoxic posted, Youtube has brought it into the homes of many who may not otherwise have had the opportunity find such gems as this. Just tonight I have discovered fantastic recordings of the early greats Lauri-Volpi, Fleta, and this lovely Bonci recording.
@stagetenore Thank you. It seems that there are still refined spirits that can appreciate the fine art of these antique musicians...I would love to hear some of your singing.
Mi trovo perfettamente d'accordo con le tue parole...raramente oggi la gente ricerca e coglie...Nessuna umiltà,solo il vittimismo di chi guarda come nel fondo di un baratro senza rendersi conto che intorno a loro aleggia un soffio che in pochi o in minoranza sanno cogliere
Vibrato is an art of itself. Slow and ample vibrato, "calante", almost always means voice is in trouble, passed its better days. Fast vibrato tells voice is healthy (I am not saying that "normal" vibrato is a sign of disease). I am trying to get what I would call "romantic" vibrato (not related to romantic period). I explain myself: by romantic I mean a vibrato that is slower or faster depending of the needs of the piece.
Exquisite! Yes - very different from tenors of today - but why not celebrate the beauty before you instead of comparing this to that . . . Great is great - and I hereby declare this great singing!
And yet Bonci made a sensation when he opened Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House in this role. New York's old gard critics praised him as Mario resurrected.
They particularly liked his restrained elegance, totally free of verismo violence—what might be called "operatic" violence. Do you know Sergei Lemeshev? Exact same type of singer.
1.The small vibrato was a mannerism of the second half of the Nineteenth Century, copied from the great Rubini. Almost ALL tenors of that era had it, including Smirnov, and Lemeshev/Kozlovsky, very conservative stylists.
2. The "mixed" head voice is, again, a feature of this pre-1914 style. The full belted high register, which made Caruso a popular favourite, breaks the suave romantic legato which was the great glory of this school of singing. It is NOT an easy thing to do!!
@seektheforce It's just a matter of taste. It was very popular mong Italian tenors before 1914. When Bonci made Edison records, Edison asked him NOT to use the vibrato, and Bonci stopped it without batting an eyelash.
3. By the standards of a Rubini or a Mario, YES, Pavarotti and even Gedda were violent singers. Big screams from the chest that would have horrified Rossini and even Donizzetti.
At least Gedda knew how to sing softly (Pearl Fishers) which Pavarotti couldn't do. His Una furtiva lagrima is all loud, like Di Stefano.
Depends what rendition you listen to from di Stefano and Pavarotti though. Have you heard di Stefano's live 1944 version, not all loud at all. Same thing for Pavarotti's live 1969 version. Both could sing softly.
I know that you are singer and I know that you have a good, lyric baritone voice. Learning how to sing softly [sotto-voce] and mezza-voce (mid volume), not only in the mid register but in the high register as well is ESSENTIAL.
Several reasons perhaps for louder singing today. As you indicated, it is not so easy to sing in the mixed head-voice in the upper register. Also, the musical demands of Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, and the verismo school (power not messe di voce), and larger modern orchestras and concert halls, compared to most of those of the past. Finally, "charmless" changes in public taste (as in everything else). Bad taste today includes falsetto and acciaccatura, favored by singers such as Bonci and Anselmi.
The change in public taste has been strongly influenced by the shift of emphasis from singer as star performer to ensemble artistic production coordinated by the conductor, the stage manager, and the set and costume designers. Innovation, creativity, shock value are the calling cards of modern opera productions while beautiful singing per se has receded into the background.
I can not believe I missed this very interesting conversation.
I posted this aria because it reveals total control of the emission, good taste and beautiful voice. I am astonished that you, as a singer, can not recognize this. This opera is very difficult to sing...if you do not have the technique...if you have it, it is very easy to sing, as Bonci shows. The vibrato is secondary...
The taste of the public has relative importance also> only to your wallet. Beauty is beauty.
IMHO, the "excessive" vibrato itself is secondary. What is important is the elegant and controlled emission. This is hard to achieve.
Being a spinto is a good thing but remaining a spinto at your eighties is another thing...
I say this as friendly warning (without knowing your skills), many great voices were lost because of neglecting the part of the vocal learning that the belcanto singing addresses.
@RADAMES1983 THIS is UNoperatic? You're crazy, my friend. The problem with this is that it's old, and he's accompanied by a piano that can barely be heard. Hence, it sounds less "operatic." But I would hardly call this anything less than beautiful bel canto singing with a superb sense of musical line and style.
True bel canto, providing a glimpse into the singing style of Mario (perhaps de Reszke), and echoing de Lucia. Bonci is an old-fashioned, nineteenth-century singer through and through, and this means his voice is used like an instrument, warmly and with passion. Volume is not the goal; beautiful tone, tasteful ornamentation and perfect legato are the hallmarks of such singing. In the twentieth century, we had Schipa, McCormack, and Valletti to carry on the tradition in somewhat modified form.
I would add Giuseppe Anselmi, Roberto D' Alessio and Fernando Carpi to that list. Maybe even Ferruccio Tagliavini, at his best.
Francesco Marconi had a somewhat heavier full-lyric voice, but his phrasing is probably closer to Mario than anybody else. His enunciation of Italian is magical.
And if we include McCormack, why not Florencio Constantino?
Anselmi I think of as a nineteenth-century singer similar to Bonci, and certainly magnificent. Carpi is less well known but very elegant based on what I heard of him, and so is D'Alessio. Marconi is also very fine, but Constantino, whom, admittedly, I haven't heard much of, I recall not liking too much despite his reputation. Tagliavini had a sweet voice in the Gigli tradition (and was much admired by Tucker). But I think you're right to qualify his stature by adding the phrase "at his best."
Yes, Anselmi's style certainly looked backward rather than forward; there are singers like that, and they are generally favourites of mine. McCormack, with his light Rubini-tremolo and head tones, was more 1860 than Twentieth Century, even though he was active into the 1940s. Even Gigli, when he wanted, could sing like a Victorian tenore di grazia. Tagliavini would have been wiser to sing in that manner, instead of assuming a totally misguided spinto cloak!
Strangely I also think that there is a fundamental similarity in Tamango and Bonci's singing. Bonci of course was tiny and far from heroic. He also must have pushed too hard sometimes to compensate for this. However A te o Cara was a favourite warm-up piece with Tamango when he was practising.
ianmack1940 19 hours ago
Bonci was a great tenor and some US critics of his time(who usually disliked vibrato) considered him - in 1908 - better than Caruso who swept tremulous tenors like Bonci and de Lucia almost into the dustbin of history. Caruso had many of the attributes of the old Italian school which always remained. power. As one critic said "before Caruso no one sang like him.Now every one I hear reminds me of him. The tremulous ones tend to have a greater range of tone of tone colour and more flexibility.
ianmack1940 3 weeks ago
@ianmack1940
So true, Caruso brilliance and, let's not forget, his frenetic recording schedules,has implied that all of his contemporary singer colleagues, even one as great as Bonci, quickly became all but forgotten. Very unfair. This beautiful recording of true bel canto somehow reminds me of Tamagno, but even better
Nefelisdiardi 2 weeks ago
ALESSANDRO BONCI (February 10, 1870 – August 10, 1940) was an Italian lyric tenor known internationally for his association with the bel canto repertoire. He sang at many famous theatres, including New York's Metropolitan Opera, Milan's La Scala and London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
GREAT PERFORMANCE!!! Thank you for sharing this video.
MrGer2295 1 month ago
гениальнейшая техника пения....и я не понимаю идиотов, которые несут всякую чушь о технике это наигениальнейшего певца.......критины безголосые.....сами ни черта не могут петь и грязью обливают великого человека.......
svjatazarov 2 months ago
@svjatazarov спасибо
maxlorenz24 2 months ago
@maxlorenz24 да не за что....у Алессандро Бончи техника трёх гласных у, и, а.....его верхнее до..практически на пианиссимо....ну такое до мне мой педагог показал ток перед своей смертью....тк был жаден до певческих секретов......спасибо больше за вашу публикацию.......это тенор номер один среди всех теноров по технике звуковедения.......
svjatazarov 2 months ago
Awesome! TY nax for posting.
paulostroff99 3 months ago
фантастическая кантилена смычкового инструмента....гениальнейшая школа трёх гласных у-и-а.........
svjatazarov 4 months ago
i can't believe you could call it a spasm, Alessandro is a fantastic singer,
he is up there with the all greatest singer of 19 th century, outrageous, it is called vibrato and it is beautiful thing to have, i would like you try and do it.
jbeer82 7 months ago
@webarton
jbeer82 7 months ago
I have heard that the speed of this recording is often mistaken because of the belief that the top note is a C# but when it is slowed to play as a C natural the vohisice loses some of the vibrato and sounds more natural. Curious as to others opinions on this. thanks
smemr 11 months ago
Simply sublime ! Bonci was the last exponent of true 19th century singing technique. His production is practically perfect !
horowitz109 1 year ago
sounds like some laryngeal spasming going on... sounds like hes holding back and letting it sit in a spasm. a good screaming session of high notes would put it in there.
Webarton 1 year ago
@Webarton Yeah, sure...
maxlorenz24 1 year ago
@Webarton what are you talking about??? This is a beautifully produced voice used with exquisite taste. The nanny-goat vibrato is typical of this style of singing. As someone said already, the goal was not volume but exquisite line and color, and maximum expressiveness. Think Chopin nocturnes in this sort of repertoire- lots of rubato, shading.
Cantormatis 1 year ago
Comment removed
Webarton 1 year ago
@Webarton I believe your ears have spazzed out...
TheVerdiBaritone 11 months ago
@Webarton I beg your pardon???????????
sevoflurane 11 months ago
@Webarton May I say you all I think about you in the beautiful Italian language? VAFFANCULO CRETINO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Desideria7 4 months ago
@Webarton
Te lo dico in inglese. you must be kidding, is it?
kablue79 1 week ago
Thank you for posting this gem of the past. It is over, IMO, this splendid technique seems to be lost.
minnie888444 2 years ago
Sublime Bonci Grazie !
bodiloto 2 years ago
Che classe.... infinitamente paradisiaca...un amore per Bonci che nutro nel cuore da molti anni e che sempre mi lascia in estasi.Bonci-Schipa-Valletti-kraus-Non sono solo storia della somma vocalità,ma patrimonio culturale,educativo ed umano impareggiabile.
Phebus74 2 years ago
Bellissimi parole.
maxlorenz24 2 years ago
Ti ringrazio,ma non sono le mie parole ad essere belle...ma l'arte che scaturisce dallo strumento vocale di questi grandi Artisti immortali.
Phebus74 2 years ago
è vero,parole verissime,purtroppo però oggi l'emergenza educativa e culturale,con le ovvie conseguenze sul piano umano,sembra un evento inarrestabile e le masse sono sempre meno abituate ad apprezzare e cogliere il "Bello"...
belcantomania 2 years ago
Gem. Unsurpassed. Not even by Lauri-Volpi. 6-stars-post. Thanks.
crimsontoxic 2 years ago
Thank you.
I wonder how old are the mates that love this type of singing...are there young people that love it? Is there a future for art?
I am 43...but I loved it ever since I first heard it at around 18...
maxlorenz24 2 years ago
I heard it around 18, too. From Lauri-Volpi, however. I'm sure there will always be young people interested in classical music. Via youtube, and thanks to users like you, it has become "quite" easy to have nearly everything at hand. You just get it to know, surfing youtube. The appreciation (or even love) of "this type of singing" certainly develops, the more one gets to know.
crimsontoxic 2 years ago 2
I have to agree. Thank you for your kind words.
maxlorenz24 2 years ago
There are many youngsters with appreciation for this beautiful music, but with 105 years of time passing, the singers are much worse, and the interest has declined.
I loved it from 16, and five years later I'm still trying to promulgate singers such as Bonci.
Mooorhe 1 year ago
@maxlorenz24
I started listening to opera when I was about 13, and now 10 years later I am in my final year of masters studies as an operatic tenor. There is definitely a future for the art. As Crimsontoxic posted, Youtube has brought it into the homes of many who may not otherwise have had the opportunity find such gems as this. Just tonight I have discovered fantastic recordings of the early greats Lauri-Volpi, Fleta, and this lovely Bonci recording.
stagetenore 1 year ago
@stagetenore Thank you. It seems that there are still refined spirits that can appreciate the fine art of these antique musicians...I would love to hear some of your singing.
Good luck.
M.
maxlorenz24 1 year ago
Mi trovo perfettamente d'accordo con le tue parole...raramente oggi la gente ricerca e coglie...Nessuna umiltà,solo il vittimismo di chi guarda come nel fondo di un baratro senza rendersi conto che intorno a loro aleggia un soffio che in pochi o in minoranza sanno cogliere
Phebus74 2 years ago
some of us love the rapid, shimmering vibrato sound
calafsdream 2 years ago 4
Vibrato is an art of itself. Slow and ample vibrato, "calante", almost always means voice is in trouble, passed its better days. Fast vibrato tells voice is healthy (I am not saying that "normal" vibrato is a sign of disease). I am trying to get what I would call "romantic" vibrato (not related to romantic period). I explain myself: by romantic I mean a vibrato that is slower or faster depending of the needs of the piece.
maxlorenz24 2 years ago
For example, in cavalletas, when going up, the use of faster vibrato helps finding the higher harmonics to make a resonant and vibrating high note.
maxlorenz24 2 years ago
Exquisite! Yes - very different from tenors of today - but why not celebrate the beauty before you instead of comparing this to that . . . Great is great - and I hereby declare this great singing!
cantorandopera 2 years ago 2
Sweet, spellbinding, superb! Bravo!
Thank you for this glorious posting!
Kievest 2 years ago
this is a real belcanto, isn't it?
chrissing7 2 years ago 4
I think so too!!!
blueMmb1 2 years ago
real real belcanto!!!
belcantomania 2 years ago
Thank you very much for the upload!
sevoflurane 2 years ago
Sorry but I don't like it.
Sounds very "unoperatic".
There are many wonderful perfomaces of it (Pavarotti, Corelli, Gedda, Fisichella, Conley...)
RADAMES1983 3 years ago
And yet Bonci made a sensation when he opened Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House in this role. New York's old gard critics praised him as Mario resurrected.
They particularly liked his restrained elegance, totally free of verismo violence—what might be called "operatic" violence. Do you know Sergei Lemeshev? Exact same type of singer.
AulicExclusiva 2 years ago
I can say what I don't like technically:
1- This small vibrato, which means that the sound isn't based on real "support", there is no air pressure, opera sound.
2- he uses "falzetto" all the time- which is unacceptable on opera singing.
It's also much easier to do it than singing with real chest voice...
3- Do you call Pavarptti, Gili, Sobinov, Gedda- violance?... :)
He remind me more Kozlovsky , not Lemeshev.....
RADAMES1983 2 years ago
1.The small vibrato was a mannerism of the second half of the Nineteenth Century, copied from the great Rubini. Almost ALL tenors of that era had it, including Smirnov, and Lemeshev/Kozlovsky, very conservative stylists.
2. The "mixed" head voice is, again, a feature of this pre-1914 style. The full belted high register, which made Caruso a popular favourite, breaks the suave romantic legato which was the great glory of this school of singing. It is NOT an easy thing to do!!
AulicExclusiva 2 years ago 10
@AulicExclusiva is the fast vibrato bad?
seektheforce 1 year ago
@seektheforce It's just a matter of taste. It was very popular mong Italian tenors before 1914. When Bonci made Edison records, Edison asked him NOT to use the vibrato, and Bonci stopped it without batting an eyelash.
AulicExclusiva 1 year ago
3. By the standards of a Rubini or a Mario, YES, Pavarotti and even Gedda were violent singers. Big screams from the chest that would have horrified Rossini and even Donizzetti.
At least Gedda knew how to sing softly (Pearl Fishers) which Pavarotti couldn't do. His Una furtiva lagrima is all loud, like Di Stefano.
AulicExclusiva 2 years ago 3
Depends what rendition you listen to from di Stefano and Pavarotti though. Have you heard di Stefano's live 1944 version, not all loud at all. Same thing for Pavarotti's live 1969 version. Both could sing softly.
Mooorhe 2 years ago
I know that you are singer and I know that you have a good, lyric baritone voice. Learning how to sing softly [sotto-voce] and mezza-voce (mid volume), not only in the mid register but in the high register as well is ESSENTIAL.
Why do singers today always sing LOUD,LOUD??
AulicExclusiva 2 years ago
Several reasons perhaps for louder singing today. As you indicated, it is not so easy to sing in the mixed head-voice in the upper register. Also, the musical demands of Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, and the verismo school (power not messe di voce), and larger modern orchestras and concert halls, compared to most of those of the past. Finally, "charmless" changes in public taste (as in everything else). Bad taste today includes falsetto and acciaccatura, favored by singers such as Bonci and Anselmi.
meltzerboy 2 years ago
The change in public taste has been strongly influenced by the shift of emphasis from singer as star performer to ensemble artistic production coordinated by the conductor, the stage manager, and the set and costume designers. Innovation, creativity, shock value are the calling cards of modern opera productions while beautiful singing per se has receded into the background.
meltzerboy 2 years ago
1- I'm a spinto tenor... :)
2- Medically- there is no "mixt" voice.. It's a falzetto.
3 - Lemeshev didn't have the little vibrato, and Sobinov (the time of caruso) as well.
4- they should be loud cause they should cover a modern orchestra, that's the point.
I defenately prefet the Caruso - Gili - Del Monaco - Gedda Singing..
I think the techniqe is going forward...
RADAMES1983 2 years ago
You are a SPINTO???
OK, I want to see a video of you singing "Un dì all' azzurro spazio" from Andrea Chenier.
AulicExclusiva 2 years ago
I'm 25, I didn't sing it yet...
But I sang "Non piangere Liu", "Addio fiorito asil", "Chella mi creda", and a lot of Tosti which I LOVE so much to sing....
:)
RADAMES1983 2 years ago
I can not believe I missed this very interesting conversation.
I posted this aria because it reveals total control of the emission, good taste and beautiful voice. I am astonished that you, as a singer, can not recognize this. This opera is very difficult to sing...if you do not have the technique...if you have it, it is very easy to sing, as Bonci shows. The vibrato is secondary...
The taste of the public has relative importance also> only to your wallet. Beauty is beauty.
maxlorenz24 2 years ago
I know about this opera, but I love much more the performance of Fisichella, Stuart Neill, Gedda, Conely, and some other great Tenors of the 20th s.
RADAMES1983 2 years ago
OH! And PAVAROTTI of course! :))
RADAMES1983 2 years ago
Apparently my second reply didn't get posted.
IMHO, the "excessive" vibrato itself is secondary. What is important is the elegant and controlled emission. This is hard to achieve.
Being a spinto is a good thing but remaining a spinto at your eighties is another thing...
I say this as friendly warning (without knowing your skills), many great voices were lost because of neglecting the part of the vocal learning that the belcanto singing addresses.
maxlorenz24 2 years ago
@RADAMES1983 THIS is UNoperatic? You're crazy, my friend. The problem with this is that it's old, and he's accompanied by a piano that can barely be heard. Hence, it sounds less "operatic." But I would hardly call this anything less than beautiful bel canto singing with a superb sense of musical line and style.
Cantormatis 1 year ago
One of the great, emblematic records, superb in every way. Wonderful!
AulicExclusiva 3 years ago
True bel canto, providing a glimpse into the singing style of Mario (perhaps de Reszke), and echoing de Lucia. Bonci is an old-fashioned, nineteenth-century singer through and through, and this means his voice is used like an instrument, warmly and with passion. Volume is not the goal; beautiful tone, tasteful ornamentation and perfect legato are the hallmarks of such singing. In the twentieth century, we had Schipa, McCormack, and Valletti to carry on the tradition in somewhat modified form.
meltzerboy 2 years ago 7
I would add Giuseppe Anselmi, Roberto D' Alessio and Fernando Carpi to that list. Maybe even Ferruccio Tagliavini, at his best.
Francesco Marconi had a somewhat heavier full-lyric voice, but his phrasing is probably closer to Mario than anybody else. His enunciation of Italian is magical.
And if we include McCormack, why not Florencio Constantino?
AulicExclusiva 2 years ago
Anselmi I think of as a nineteenth-century singer similar to Bonci, and certainly magnificent. Carpi is less well known but very elegant based on what I heard of him, and so is D'Alessio. Marconi is also very fine, but Constantino, whom, admittedly, I haven't heard much of, I recall not liking too much despite his reputation. Tagliavini had a sweet voice in the Gigli tradition (and was much admired by Tucker). But I think you're right to qualify his stature by adding the phrase "at his best."
meltzerboy 2 years ago
Yes, Anselmi's style certainly looked backward rather than forward; there are singers like that, and they are generally favourites of mine. McCormack, with his light Rubini-tremolo and head tones, was more 1860 than Twentieth Century, even though he was active into the 1940s. Even Gigli, when he wanted, could sing like a Victorian tenore di grazia. Tagliavini would have been wiser to sing in that manner, instead of assuming a totally misguided spinto cloak!
AulicExclusiva 2 years ago