Added: 3 years ago
From: Operafiend22
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  • I listen to Jussi Bjorling and forget all the rest.Including Pavarotti I'm afraid.

  • God bless the next person who tries to bring a voice like Pavarotti's back to the operatic world. RIP Maestro

  • Absolutely the best voice in the '60's........masterful high notes, great power....

  • the prettiest voice of my life time but i think corelli had a strong voice ?

  • Stop writing nonsense. It is the 1964 recording. That is how he sounded during early 60s. The amount of pseudoprofessional comments here is unbelievable...

    The sound was already unbelievable. The voice fresh, the high notes ringing.

    What can be said with certainty is that it is pre-hype times, without the PR that followed much later. And you can hear how cold the public is. It goes a long way to tell you how little general public understands and how they fail to recognise the great talent.

  • This is the audio...good... the video is here at youtube

  • I will take a gentleman's bet that this is NOT 1964. His voice sounds very much "80's" here.

  • @corellipavarotti my dear sir...you would lose that bet. This is a live recording from September 24, 1964 in which soloists from La Scala (Pavarotti, Margerita Gulelmi, Lynda Vaina, Gabriella Tucci, Nicola Zaccaria, Antonio Tonini - piano), performed at the Bolshoi. It is a commercial recording made on the Yedang label (Russian). It is available @ russiandvddotcom. I have posted Pavarotti's other selections from that night, along with Tucci and Zaccaria

  • @Operafiend22 I will take your word for it. Sounds heavier than he did in those days. Perhaps a cold or something. Certainly not in his usual voice, I would think, listening to it.

  • @corellipavarotti I know what you mean, I have other earlier recordings of Pav. from '64-68 in which he does sound a bit lighter/thinner...who knows? Still a gorgeous sound in any case :)

  • @corellipavarotti

    I am no Opera expert but I think It was Pavarotti's intention to be more dramatic than usual, Notice that this version is quite slower and only have a piano playing.

    I think no cold got to his voice in this, his high notes were so fine.

  • @corellipavarotti Pavarotti's voice sounded heavier for most of the early 1960s - he polished his technique by the late 60s and actually lightened his voice. At least the recordings seem to suggest this. By the mid 70s it started to get heavier again, due to age probably?

  • @corellipavarotti a cold??? I wish I can catch this kind-a-cold all the time!! It is not too bad to lose a bet... sit back and relax about it...

  • @corellipavarotti You haven't listened to Pavarotti very much then. This is his young voice...before he even settled into what you know as the "sound of Pavarotti."

  • @Nater389 Most certainly does not sound like it. Been listening to him all my life, thanks. Must have been an off day/cold. Not his best at any rate.

  • Great live recording. I could hear the different side of him. Young and pure sound.

  • He was able to produce each of the five Italian vowel's in their purest form CORRECTLY. He was by no means the first tenor capable of this, but he was certainly one of the last. His registers were perfectly integrated and controlled by the muscles of the head voice. This is not something that happens in the course of a few days. This takes YEARS of proper exercises in training. Young tenors, stop singing operatic arias and get back to basic training! No wonder they all stink - too impatient!

  • @GermanOperaSinger - I couldn't agree with you more. Everyone is too impatient. now. Sooo sad. :(

  • @GermanOperaSinger i couldn't agree more, im 33 and still trying to perfect the low and middle voice. i have high notes but only dabble in them till i can be sure of my technique, if i start singing arias when im 50 ill be fine as long as they are kept easy and within my voice =).

  • His technique was as natural as walking.The correct placement just happened.

  • Aqui Luciano canta en el tono original, la voz fresca en todo su esplendor.

  • I seethe same people voicing the same opinion about his voice but yet they keep coming to hear him. Compare him not to others but how you can sing then criticize him.

  • this is a very interesting recording, which i had never heard before. It show vividly i think, how his singing improved between here and say 10 years later. I do not believe pavarotti had great technique, and i mean no disrespect, but one can hear how it improved from his earlier years. very good post, thanks

  • Yes, the "C" was open here, a la Di Stefano, whom as I'm sure you know he admired. He did perfect his technique/cover and unlike, GDS, had a long & glorious career.

  • @Lovelytenor1 yes i agree the C here is still too open. open is good but the support to keep it heady wasnt there all the time like he himself said and i agree you can hear it here. good talking to you the other day my friend ill call again soon.

  • What a joy this is: the young Pavarotti, healthy, strong, vigorous, with the astonishing color and clarity of that remarkable voice.  Here he is a pure lyric, before his voice deepened and added some heft, as it does with many tenors. Soaring, magicla, heart-rending: a marvelous, marvelous Rodolfo.

  • Ah! this C!

  • He gives the feeling of escape. I am not wondering what chore I have to do next when I listen to this magnificent performance.

    What a pleasure to hear and see him in his prime thanks to technology!

  • Wonderful! Such a beautiful rendering of this aria and sung with such emotion!

  • BELLISSIMO!!!

  • russell watson jajajajajajaja!!!!!!!!

  • That's a C according to my chromatic tuner.

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  • The whole reason why these words exist in the first place is because famous singers, Pavarotti, Caruso, etc, were asked to describe how they make that kind of sound blah blah,and there response is COVER, or THIS, or THAT, then you have someone misinterpret that and base a WHOLE BULLSHIT system of teaching around this. Its bullshit, you are learning how to sing from singers, not teachers, it should be the other way around. Learning how to sing from a singer, will destroy you.

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  • Those who have the real talent do sing with distinction (as seen in this vido clip)...those who don't theorize as seen in Web's case. Funny, simply funny. Nice try Sherlock.

  • There is a war going on right now in the vocal technique department, between bullshit theory, in my opinion, and physiological, ACTUAL, vocal technique, that WORKS, PRACTICAL facts. For most people, I find that words like passagio and registers and placement and covering all confuse the shit out of everyone, including yourself. The only thing that happens, as I stated before. Is one position is maintained, you are singing into the same space, throughout the whole range!!

  • Registers, are simply feelings of tension. Everyone says oh lower register, higher register, but the truth is: its the same position in every register. You are singing into the SAME PLACE no matter what tone. And if you choose to sing in so called "chest" voice, which is basically throat voice, your career will be cut short! To maintain the healthiest and most projected sound, one must use this strategy which I previously stated.

  • I stand corrected.

  • If one thing is not working, then everything stops working. This is why the squeeking stops. There is one TRUE position of a singer to sing ALL tones, that is why I argue for no registers/passagio and etc..

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  • I meant the musical passage...not the passaggio, which you are referring to. Depending on the location of the note within the musical passage, it can be extremely difficult to sing. Sorry for the misunderstanding. The passaggio doesn't exist...I agree. It is simply a point where the pressure under the vocal folds becomes too great for a pitch to be accessed with conventional means. Which means one must use various methods to balance this pressure and reduce strain upon the cords. If one is...

  • ...completely relaxed and supporting perfectly, there will be no passaggio. Covering is not something that one physically DOES, for lack of a better term, but which is the result of perfect relaxation and support, and the sound falling into the correct placement automatically. For some reason many modern singers are unable to understand this. Granted, all this is easier said than done. I still have not quite 'discovered' it yet.

  • no matter what you critics say, pavarotti is pavarotti and he sang songs which you cant sing you life boring critics!!!

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  • Web-With this line of reasoning, the only place you will be singing is in the shower.

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  • Under the easiest possible conditions (such as singing up a scale), any professional tenor should be able to produce a high C without difficulty. What sets the singers famous for their high notes and the singers famous for their lack of high notes is that the former are able to sing perfect upper register notes within the context of the music, and depending upon the passage, it can be extremely difficult. The high Bb at the end of 'celeste aida' is more difficult to sing than a high C on a scale

  • The trick is, there is no passage. The "space" has to be the same from the lowest note to the highest note, all tension in the neck/throat/chest/back/diaphra­gm/pelvis area should be removed COMPLETELY, this is perfect technique. The more of those things I just named that you relax, the more you will not even feel this feeling of so called "passage" or "passagio". You have a misunderstanding in that the space has to change depending on the tone. This is not true.

    =)

  • From where in my comment do you assume that I have a misunderstanding of how the human voice works? I know what you are talking about and you are right. But what does that have to do with our previous discussion?

  • @Webarton There is no need to sing high C after high C when warming up. You shouldn't, because regardless of some of your comments here, there IS mechanical effort taking place. Warm up the middle voice well, do some messa di voce (crescendo/diminuendo) to get the folds stretching and relaxing, but there is no need to go busting you chops to warm up.

  • @colino72 I agree with your comment. THe middle register is actually the base of the whole lot. If the voice seats well there, then you should be ok. Thanks.

  • Kraus was a legend himself. I like him. But it is safe to say that Pava owned La Boheme throughout his career.

  • Some idiot here said Pava was a light lyric tenor and lost his early in his career. Pava's voice darkened over the years, and calling him a light lyric tenor beyond the 70s is a bit of a stretch. He used his C on a consistent basis well into his 40, and in recordings you'd see him use this C in his 50s. And suggesting he couldn't sing a good legato line is seriously absurd. To what are some of you listening I wonder?

  • Hello Inquisitive, I always enjoy your comments and "net-battles" on operatic videos here on youtube, they are a good laugh sometimes...

    Please, not to start one of those so called battles,but take a look at Kraus's "Che gelida manina" in 1994 (67 years old) in proper tempo and key.

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  • very very young Pava :)

  • No words! He is unbeatable on this aria!

  • Damn! This rendition of Che Gelida Manina is so pure and sublime. The youthfulness of his voice comes across splendidly. Mingo (where's the Do?) and Carreras can only dream about singing like this :)

  • LOL, why do you always talk about flamingo and carerras? you never compare the big P to any other GOOD tenors, just the mediocre ones. Figures, wouldn't want anyone to disagree- pav is MUCH better than flamingo and carreras. I agree! You won!

  • Yoni-Personal preference. Is that simple enough? lol

  • you never take that stance when arguing with people, you act like Pavarotti is god and all the other tenors are his humble servants.

  • Yoni-I consider him as a talented person who has perfected his art to the best of his ability unlike some other tenors who pretended to be someone they were not.

  • "could not sing real legato...light lyric...lost his high C"??? Clearly you are the one who needs to do homework. Go display your ignorance somewhere else, perhaps you'll be more intelligent in another 25 years.

  • Wow, pathetic comment from someone who clearly resents the man for his commercial success. Pavarotti had great legato, the music flowed perfectly. Pavarotti still had a vibrant and gorgeous high C in 1979 making him 44, which is around the end of his prime. And for microphones, if you knew anything, you would know that Pavarotti's voice grew in size - quite dramatically. He only used microphones for open air concerts, not even Mario del Monaco could sing for 100,000 people without amplification.

  • Pavarotti didn't have legato? That's just simply stupid. He didn't lose his high C until very late in his career, it just wasn't good anymore by the 80s...so what is so special about high C...you make it sound so special, but Gigli never had a good C either but yet you praise him?...Bjorling lost his C eventually too...it happens. Who cares? It's a note. A NOTE, damn it. If you are so obsessed with the 'high C' just play Kurt Baum's 'di quella pira' over and over again to satisfy yourself.

  • To compare Fleta with Pavarotti is stupid too, because Fleta was a spinto with a very polished technique who sang heavier roles than Pav...completely different voice types, unless I am missing out on something.

  • I agree with what you said except for the Bjorling thing: his very last live recording was made only a couple months before his death, and he still had a glorious C. I'm not a high-note buff (I love the work of Richard Tauber, Carlo Bergonzi, etc), but there's no way a tenor can lose his C in a couple of months.

  • I'd love to hear it. What was he singing? He began transposing later in his life...didn't realize he still had a good C then.

  • It's not available on youtube (I don't think), but it was a live concert in Atlanta (and his only live recording in stereo). He sang "Che Gelida Manina" in key. Then there's also the recording of "Turandot" he did around that time with Birgit Nilsson and Erich Leinsdorf.

  • He didn't sing Che gelida manina with the C, and it wasn't his last live recording. You might be right about the only one in stereo sound though, the sound is wonderful.

  • Oh! I had the wrong recording. I was thinking of the mono recital from the San Francisco Opera (my uncle was there). However, I'm pretty sure that the last recording is the Turandot he did, and he shows off a beautiful (though not well-miked) high C during the riddle scene.

  • Perhaps his C didn't feel secure enough to risk singing live. And yes, the C is breathtaking, Nilsson would have wiped him live of course.

  • He always sang Che gelida manina with in key with the high C until 1979.

  • 'He' is Jussi Bjorling. Jussi Bjorling was dead in 1979.

    Pavarotti sang the C in Che gelida manina in 1979 at La Scala by request of Carlos Kleiber. He sang also sang it with B elsewhere that year.

  • Sorry I was referring to Pavarotti, obviously. No need to be condescending.

  • His debut was in 1961. He was in his prime from the mid 1960's till about 1973. So, for him to sing in key in 1979 is impressive. While most other tenors would have exclusively transposed down by that time in their careers.

  • I agree. Keep in mind though, that in 1990 he hits a solid high C (compared to others who would not even try at 55 years old) with the 3 tenors. So, that is still beyond the rest in my opinion.

  • Everyone has transposed this aria, maybe no matteuzzi but that don´t make him great. Pavarotti like Bjoerling, Gigli, Wunderlich, young Di Stefano was loved because they produced lovely sound not mainly for their high notes. Pavarotti sang great until he was over 50 years old and how many tenors have had longer careers? just because he changed repetoar don´t make him a bad singer!! Of the three tenors he stands out completely for sounding younger with more freshness than both the others.

  • I have it, I'll upload it in due course.

  • Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with Operafiend22. Coscorrona, you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. Pavarotti had his C far later in his career than most. Do you know who Pavarotti is? Makes since "corrona" going with the Spaniard.

  • @coscorrona so he lost his high C without a microphone but not with a mic?  pavarotti a light lyric tenor? wow! just wow! whos miguel fleta ? lol omg this is is actualy funny

  • How about this: we are watching one tenor, and therefore, we do not want to think about another while we are watching this tenor.

  • very nice but his other great one is 1961. I believe his first opera complete, a show in Italy of course, faster tempo perhaps and very fine, I have it somewhere in my house but just the aria and even though I am not a big pav. fan I can enjoy his fine clean tasteful singing. Thanks for the post

  • Gorgeous...what to say...this is Pavarotti at his best. Early enough that he still maintained his youthful brilliance in his voice but by this time he had gained a firm grasp on his technique. One of the best of this single aria I've heard.

  • Oh my gosh! What a marvelous piece of singing!!!

    Beautiful, he hadn't quite polished off some aspects of his singing. But it was still marvelous, absolutely wonderful.

    Needless to say, five stars and straight onto my favourites.

  • Very nice. Thanks for sharing :)

  • I really enjoyed that,thank you. Its quite unusual- slower, and just the piano. The sound quality for a live performance in 1964 is quite good as well, isn't it?

    In general I prefer a slightly later Pav but he's in excellent voice here.

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