O muto asil with Giacomo Lauri-Volpi. LIVE + STUDIO RECORDINGS

[TheVerdiBaritone]

I sang twice with Merritt in his prime. His singing was sheer perfection! His voice was not so brilliant as Lauri-Volpi but it was much more supple and gracefully (not strenuously) produced.

[MariaCallasLegend]

do you have the corriam?Volpi is amazing Verdi Tenor!!

[lirica2011]

Fantastico!!!!

[kablue79]

Forse la voce piu' commovente di sempre. Tecnica stellante. Difficile stilare classifiche dove si parla di Bello, ma e' nel mio gotha fatto di Corelli, Di Stefano, Bergonzi, Thill....

[sincrotto]

Siamo tutti ignoranti, tuttavia se paragoniamo la zona acuta dei grandi cantanti del periodo anni 20-30 osserveremo che si somigliano. Nel senso che dopo una certa nota, diciamo il fa, la voce acquista una risonanza particolarissima che altri cantanti pure dotati non hanno. Questa è la stessa tecnica di Fleta, Cortis etc. che permette queste voci mirabolanti. Avremmo dovuto conservare la sapienza antica e invece... almeno ci restano queste grandissime incisioni!

[Liu666able]

All he does is wait to shout the high notes,everything else has no importance:the phrasing,the delivery of the text...nothing

[banmadabon]

@Liu666able

Per favore...Please obliterate your ears, they are useless....

[Liu666able]

@banmadabon Is "por favore "the only phrase you can say in Italian?

Add another one:"vai a fare in culo"!!!

Assholes like you are the ones useless and stupid.

[alleviso2]

LA PERFEZIONE ASSOLUTA

[operafanatic01]

my teacher of singing told me that the recordings never made a good sound about the voice of volpi, because his (volpi) voice in the thater was big and the most brilliant that he ever listen in real life and my teacher wait outside the opera house 3 hour to give him the hand in france in a cold night he was so impress

[pippomelodrammatico]

could somebody answer? where does the second "o muto asil" come from? thank you very much!!!

[TrovadorManrique]

It comes from the german film La Canzone del Sole, by Max Neufeld. I have extracted the sound directly from the film. As far as I known, there's no complete recording of the aria, only the fragment I uploaded.

[Webarton]

Listen to how EE the 2:58 is at a HIGH C. To do this.. one really has to be released and singing in that mask..that's all I'm saying...his technique was great.

[GermanOperaSinger]

At least if my memory serves me correct, I remember you used to say he had a fake top. Change of heart perhaps? I've always liked LauriVolpi, one of my favorites. About tone, I never claimed to be an expert and only repeated what I read from reputed vocal instructors. What you saw me post/say was never BS conclusions I reached myself. And if you agree almost everyone has a 'warped' idea of tone, wouldn't you acknowledge that you yourself may be among the 99.9% as well? It's all subjective...

[GermanOperaSinger]

...seems like technique's the big thing these days, everyone talks about 'good technique' and yet no one seems to have one. You pissed me off about a year ago because you came in acting like an expert and used ad hominem attacks against me when I tried to discuss singing reasonably. I probably acted like an expert too, but that was never my intention. I don't say anything about technique anymore. I only ask that you learn to take advice more openly, and dont always be 100% convinced youre right.

[Labienus]

It almost "hurts" to listen to it the voice is so focused and concentrated

It reminds me of Corelli's comments in that interview about L-V live, being able to hear the vibrations of the voice

I came to know his voice later than I did with many famous tenors-but the more I hear the more impressed I am

I think his reputation was hurt by the later singing-making people forget what he was capable of in his prime

[hiyadroogs]

Labienus, in the Corelli interview to which you refer, incredibly, what Franco actually said, was that in the back row, you could FEEL the vibrations of LV's voice!

Some impression of that can be had from LV overloading the microphones in this clip, despite being at least 30 feet away from them!

[Labienus]

Right to Feel the vibrations of L-V's voice in the galleria

Actually he talks of a friend of his who reports this to him-and he repeats feeling the vibrations of the voice-not speaking of the voice itself and this is from late in his career Certainly can feel it here-also in the video from Ugonotti

[FacePaster]

This clip is simply remarkable. This is the tenor voice being used to its highest possible potential. Something for all of us tenors to aspire to.

[GermanOperaSinger]

So much for the 'revival of bel canto' as people talk about is happening today. You could take any Rossini tenor of today and Lauri Volpi could blow them through the roof. Lauri Volpi was the greatest Rossini tenor of all time, a great bel canto master but with an enormous spinto voice.

[aaronsande]

@GermanOperaSinger So true! But to what tenors, or other singers, are they referring when they say bel canto is revived?

I've only heard it in the context of a teacher claiming to have rediscovered "bel canto teaching techniques".

[Webarton]

Rossini tenor? Surely he was MUCH MORE than a "Rossini tenor".

[GermanOperaSinger]

I was mistaken to call him a Rossini tenor. Arnoldo was the only Rossini role he ever sang. Plus I had the impression you hated him? And hated me?

[Webarton]

Why would I hate Volpi? When he learned how to sing, it was very beautiful, the man had an amazing instrument. I don't hate you. You just have a very warped understanding of tone..but hey, you're not alone, I would say 99.99% of even SINGERS themselves, have a freaky idea of tone.

[FacePaster]

Arnoldo was not his only Rossini role. He sang Almaviva in Barbiere di Siviglia many times at the Metropolitan Opera. Other than that, I do not know if he sang any other Rossini roles. L-V is so beyond categorizing. I would call him a lirico-spinto, but he mastered everything from tenore di grazia roles to heroic roles. By all accounts his voice was huge, but his messa voce was exquisite. Kind of like Gigli.

[XP11XP]

@FacePaster Yes, he did sing Almaviva, but a very short period of time (his very last Almaviva took place on February 8, 1923. And yes, he also sang Guillaume Tell 22 times at Colón, La Scala, Met, San Carlo etc. but undoubtly, he had serveral difficulties with the role. LV did often shout over colleagues to be heard, a bad habit.

[AfroPoli]

@XP11XP And sometimes he did not sing at all in ensemble scenes in order to save his voice... He certainly had a lot of trouble with Arnoldo. That role was not for him.

[pippomelodrammatico]

The live recording from La Scala is well known, but the second one is completely new for me! (and wonderful, off course)

Where does it come from? Is it a HMV recording? Who published it?

[Agorante]

I take my life in my hands to assert that this version makes Pavarotti's sound like chopped liver.

BTW I have many Tell postings on YouTube. Lauri Volpi in the early thirties is unsurpassed before or since. His voice is more refined than Esclais or Fillipeschi and more brilliant than Merritt or Bonisoli's.

[stefakamelpash]

This is an extraordinary document, for a series of reasons. First, it shows what may possibly be the greatest tenor voice of all time at the peak of its glory, and secondly it is a great insight into the performance traditions and the stylistic and musical practices of the period. The conductor would have had to have a similar understanding of the musical traditions in order to follow him. The fact that he does so speaks to the authenciticy of the musical style of the time. Billiant document!

[hiyadroogs]

May I echo sospello's comment, - thank you very much for sharing this bounty with us! Wonderful!

[sospello]

Immediately into the "Grandi tenori italiani" to listen to many times. What a wonderful opportunity you have given us here, trovadormanrique; this is an exceptional video to share with us. Thank you.