Fernando de Lucia, "Ah! quel spectacle...Plus blanche", Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots (rec. 1917)

[meltzerboy]

A too-open placement, a sometimes obtrusive vibrato, a tendency to depart from the score, a baritonal quality to the voice with not-too-pleasant high notes: De Lucia has all of these features, but somehow it doesn't matter. Despite all of this, the poetry, color, and nuance of his voice and singing triumph, to the degree that his are often the versions of an aria or song that remain in the ear of the listener.

[paulostroff99]

Lovely.TY tim for posting.

[rawdonqueen]

I find De Lucia a convincing and very individual artiist. He shows his age here, but the phrasing is masterful.

[AulicExclusiva]

I suspect that the pitching of this disk is correct. De Lucia used transpositions for even the simplest arias and this one, at score pitch, goes up to a High C. He was a weird half-tenor who croons above high G, except for the occasional bray. He could phrase with exceptional poetry in a completely improvisatory manner, but in general I don't find him a convincing artist.

[transformingArt]

By the way, do you happen to have De Lucia's rendition of "Rimplanto" as well? I know it is already on YouTube, but the sound quality is dreadful - as this video is one of the best sounding Phonotype I've seen on YouTube, I wonder if you have it also.

[transformingArt]

I think the pitch should be little bit higher than this - I know De Lucia had quite an odd voice which makes the pitch suggestion is a total guesswork, but pitching this aria at this low key is little bit too much, even though he was quite old when he recorded this.