A photo of the man with his male breasts drooping down and nipples showing through his shirt is not the best way to honour him. I'm surprised--in every way.
"His decline was less due to his open vowels at the top, since he had always employed them, - rather, it was due to using more weight & more athleticism in his singing, which was counter to the functional needs of his essentially lyric voice."
This I agree with 50% I think the other 50% is for the reasons that di Stefano himself states - and that was that he had horrible allergies and partied a lot!! I hate it when people say he lost the voice because of his open top notes. That's ridiculous.
@aarontenor He had the lung disease Sarcoidosis which destroys your lung capacity. It is similar to TB but without a known cause. My sister has it also and she can barely breathe at times so this is the real reason for his tragic loss of voice
The clip is great, but this photo is HORRID. Di Stefano with his nipples protruding through his shirt... disgusting. And Pavarotti... when I saw this photo I understood why he grew his beard.
This picture looks like a mock-up. GDS was 14 years OLDER than Pav. Look at the photo. Who would you say was the younger on that picture? And where was Pav's mole? My guess is that the photo was posed by two opera fans who LOOKED a bit like them. Not very well acted, fellas...
Well, I' ve seen it before on LP's official site, so it can be actually real. (in most cases a slimmer person looks younger than a more corpulent one as a rule, and as for the mole, it could have been less prominent at that time)
giuseppe and luciano two reals tenors amazing voices , wonderful performes and charismatics persons i m very grateful for this two make for the music , for the opera i think they full this world with love and sweetness every time they sing so i can only say thank you very much
Thanks as well. :) I really got a good laugh out of that suspender joke :)
It's interesting to compare speaking voices to singing voices. For instance if you listen to Corelli speak you would never guess his thundering singing voice. He spoke very lightly by comparison. :P Although that had nothing to do with voice damage.... :)
Yes, Corelli was very careful about his voice. He said in an interview - I forget where I read it - that when he was studying as a baritone, he noticed his voice was getting deeper, and realized it was from over-singing and over-stretching his vocal cords. He then switched to tenor, and the rest is history. ;)
I wonder if di Stefano got a deep voice from over-singing as well.
Thanks for this charming post. di Stefano had quite a deep speaking voice for a tenor, or perhaps it was because of the damage he had inflicted to his voice by then. The only times I've heard him speak are in interviews from the 70s...
It was essentially a true tenore di grazia voice, like Gigli, Schipa, or Tagliavini's, but he didn't use it correctly and many people mistake him for a heavy lyric or lyrico spinto voice. Same with Jose Carreras.
I noticed his low speaking voice as well, I'm inclined to think it was to do with his damaged voice. I don't know if you've ever heard Cornell MacNeil speaking, but I was listening to an interview with him and Pavarotti after Pavarotti's Cavaradossi debut and my gosh Pavarotti sounds like a girl compared to him, lol.
Hello German, I don't know if this will add something or nothing to the speaking voice debate. When vocal cords get damaged by abuse, - I'm not speaking of nodes, which are like hard patches on the surface - I refer to muscle damage, one or both cords bow. This completely wrecks the lower register mechanism which causes the speaking voice to become weak, breathy, & high pitched, like Stefan Zucker. Pippo's voice wasn't damaged per se, the technique had simply unravelled due to forcing.
Please explain how one "unravels" his technique? I thought the purpose of technique was to contain the voice at the highest quality for the most realistic time. No?
Basically, the singing voice operates on a principle of ratios. For every individual note of the scale, there is only one perfect coordination for that individual voice. Everything outside of that theoretically perfect coordination is a compromise. The degree to which the voice is compromised at its debut, generally points to the speed of its decline, due to unnecessary muscle groups coming into play to help it work. Eventually, much vocal ease is lost due to hindering tensions. cont
cont, - however, singers tend not to learn coordination of individual notes as such. Notes are grouped together in functional patterns called registers. There are 2 registers in the voice, one for the lower range, one for the upper. Once these 2 registers are mastered, the individual notes tend to take care of themselves. Singers who start out with near perfect register coordination, & the working relationship between them, can lose it by introducing force & athleticism into their singing. Cont
A lot of what you're saying is theoretical but your "collapsing technique" is important since no singer--even average--would spend a lifetime perfecting his instrument with the idea of purposefully disappointing his real family and his extended family around the world. I believe DiStefano thought it all too much trouble and being a gadfly and inclined to lightness and partying, he assumed he would always have his early great voice. Thus, his character unraveled--the voice died...(contd) @2..
cont. Most singers succumb to this eventually to a greater or lesser degree, due to one of nature's ironies. A near perfect coordination of the registers makes the voice so freely produced in its function & emission, that the singer can be fooled into thinking that he can add more & more voice to the equation. In doing so, this then becomes a downward spiral, as he strays further & further from the delicate balance that gave him the functional freedom in the first place! - cont
Di Stefano began his career with a remarkably favourable natural balance in the registers of his voice. He sang beautifully, & had a control over dynamics of tone that many would envy. At that time, his tone was more slender & unforced. His decline was less due to his open vowels at the top, since he had always employed them, - rather, it was due to using more weight & more athleticism in his singing, which was counter to the functional needs of his essentially lyric voice. I hope that helps!
Tagliavini, Pippo, & especially Martinelli had deep speaking voices. (for tenors at any rate) By the end of their lives, Martinelli's & pippo's speaking voices sounded as if they had been basso profundo's in their singing career!
@GermanOperaSinger Pippo had a beautiful masculine speeking voice when he was young, not at all too high or with that tint of falsetto you might expect. But I think the slightly booming, sandy roughness in his voice here might be caused by years of heavy smoking, In all those years of smoking cigars a lot of tar particles must have passed these wonderful vocal cords and got attached... Kind regards
peccato non si possa anche vedere la sua simpatia!
angelamaria1944 2 months ago
A photo of the man with his male breasts drooping down and nipples showing through his shirt is not the best way to honour him. I'm surprised--in every way.
URLy2Rise 3 months ago
please post the whole gala...
MariaCallasLegend 11 months ago
:) His English is pretty good! "I cannot stay too long, because I lent my suspenders to Luciano Pavarotti." xD He's so silly!
31operafan 11 months ago
If I'm not mistaken, that is Tito Gobbi introducing Di Stefano! Amazing! Thank you for this phenomenal clip!
Chanteuredelopera 1 year ago
Comment removed
marguerite263 1 year ago
Cute photo. I have heard that Di Stefano had a great sense of humor.
31operafan 1 year ago
PIPPO is the maradona of opera. he did it everything, did it well and CONQUERED.
WE´LL MISS YOU FOR EVER MAESTRO DI STEFANO
dimakauffman 1 year ago
Parece una foto de Face...
francorelli 1 year ago
Luciano Pavarotti = perfezione tecnica ASSOLUTA.
31122051 1 year ago
Comment removed
31122051 1 year ago
"His decline was less due to his open vowels at the top, since he had always employed them, - rather, it was due to using more weight & more athleticism in his singing, which was counter to the functional needs of his essentially lyric voice."
This I agree with 50% I think the other 50% is for the reasons that di Stefano himself states - and that was that he had horrible allergies and partied a lot!! I hate it when people say he lost the voice because of his open top notes. That's ridiculous.
aarontenor 2 years ago
I'm pretty much with you on that. The baritone Protti sang open on his high notes. Did he decline? I'm pretty sure he didn't.
leadoffeohippus 2 years ago
@aarontenor He had the lung disease Sarcoidosis which destroys your lung capacity. It is similar to TB but without a known cause. My sister has it also and she can barely breathe at times so this is the real reason for his tragic loss of voice
johnjoins 1 year ago
very nice foto!!!!!
poupounakis 2 years ago
What a buch of crap..... everybody thinks they're experts in vocal technique.....
reduxmisc 2 years ago
He had a great speaking voice, warm and deep unlike most other tenors you hear.
spgtenor 2 years ago 3
if you study voice, know that pippo sung with the breast..... voice goes down eventually...
dagodemuro 2 years ago
The clip is great, but this photo is HORRID. Di Stefano with his nipples protruding through his shirt... disgusting. And Pavarotti... when I saw this photo I understood why he grew his beard.
nnmakowska 3 years ago
sorry,,,, fuck you too!!!!
dagodemuro 2 years ago
This picture looks like a mock-up. GDS was 14 years OLDER than Pav. Look at the photo. Who would you say was the younger on that picture? And where was Pav's mole? My guess is that the photo was posed by two opera fans who LOOKED a bit like them. Not very well acted, fellas...
gdsfan01 2 years ago
Well, I' ve seen it before on LP's official site, so it can be actually real. (in most cases a slimmer person looks younger than a more corpulent one as a rule, and as for the mole, it could have been less prominent at that time)
nnmakowska 2 years ago
giuseppe and luciano two reals tenors amazing voices , wonderful performes and charismatics persons i m very grateful for this two make for the music , for the opera i think they full this world with love and sweetness every time they sing so i can only say thank you very much
isat84 3 years ago
Thanks as well. :) I really got a good laugh out of that suspender joke :)
It's interesting to compare speaking voices to singing voices. For instance if you listen to Corelli speak you would never guess his thundering singing voice. He spoke very lightly by comparison. :P Although that had nothing to do with voice damage.... :)
ShawDAMAN 3 years ago 2
Yes, Corelli was very careful about his voice. He said in an interview - I forget where I read it - that when he was studying as a baritone, he noticed his voice was getting deeper, and realized it was from over-singing and over-stretching his vocal cords. He then switched to tenor, and the rest is history. ;)
I wonder if di Stefano got a deep voice from over-singing as well.
leadoffeohippus 2 years ago
Thanks for this charming post. di Stefano had quite a deep speaking voice for a tenor, or perhaps it was because of the damage he had inflicted to his voice by then. The only times I've heard him speak are in interviews from the 70s...
It was essentially a true tenore di grazia voice, like Gigli, Schipa, or Tagliavini's, but he didn't use it correctly and many people mistake him for a heavy lyric or lyrico spinto voice. Same with Jose Carreras.
GermanOperaSinger 3 years ago 2
I noticed his low speaking voice as well, I'm inclined to think it was to do with his damaged voice. I don't know if you've ever heard Cornell MacNeil speaking, but I was listening to an interview with him and Pavarotti after Pavarotti's Cavaradossi debut and my gosh Pavarotti sounds like a girl compared to him, lol.
Mooorhe 3 years ago 2
Hello German, I don't know if this will add something or nothing to the speaking voice debate. When vocal cords get damaged by abuse, - I'm not speaking of nodes, which are like hard patches on the surface - I refer to muscle damage, one or both cords bow. This completely wrecks the lower register mechanism which causes the speaking voice to become weak, breathy, & high pitched, like Stefan Zucker. Pippo's voice wasn't damaged per se, the technique had simply unravelled due to forcing.
hiyadroogs 2 years ago
Please explain how one "unravels" his technique? I thought the purpose of technique was to contain the voice at the highest quality for the most realistic time. No?
blakemooney 2 years ago
Basically, the singing voice operates on a principle of ratios. For every individual note of the scale, there is only one perfect coordination for that individual voice. Everything outside of that theoretically perfect coordination is a compromise. The degree to which the voice is compromised at its debut, generally points to the speed of its decline, due to unnecessary muscle groups coming into play to help it work. Eventually, much vocal ease is lost due to hindering tensions. cont
hiyadroogs 2 years ago
cont, - however, singers tend not to learn coordination of individual notes as such. Notes are grouped together in functional patterns called registers. There are 2 registers in the voice, one for the lower range, one for the upper. Once these 2 registers are mastered, the individual notes tend to take care of themselves. Singers who start out with near perfect register coordination, & the working relationship between them, can lose it by introducing force & athleticism into their singing. Cont
hiyadroogs 2 years ago
A lot of what you're saying is theoretical but your "collapsing technique" is important since no singer--even average--would spend a lifetime perfecting his instrument with the idea of purposefully disappointing his real family and his extended family around the world. I believe DiStefano thought it all too much trouble and being a gadfly and inclined to lightness and partying, he assumed he would always have his early great voice. Thus, his character unraveled--the voice died...(contd) @2..
blakemooney 2 years ago
cont. Most singers succumb to this eventually to a greater or lesser degree, due to one of nature's ironies. A near perfect coordination of the registers makes the voice so freely produced in its function & emission, that the singer can be fooled into thinking that he can add more & more voice to the equation. In doing so, this then becomes a downward spiral, as he strays further & further from the delicate balance that gave him the functional freedom in the first place! - cont
hiyadroogs 2 years ago
Di Stefano began his career with a remarkably favourable natural balance in the registers of his voice. He sang beautifully, & had a control over dynamics of tone that many would envy. At that time, his tone was more slender & unforced. His decline was less due to his open vowels at the top, since he had always employed them, - rather, it was due to using more weight & more athleticism in his singing, which was counter to the functional needs of his essentially lyric voice. I hope that helps!
hiyadroogs 2 years ago
Tagliavini, Pippo, & especially Martinelli had deep speaking voices. (for tenors at any rate) By the end of their lives, Martinelli's & pippo's speaking voices sounded as if they had been basso profundo's in their singing career!
hiyadroogs 2 years ago
@GermanOperaSinger Pippo had a beautiful masculine speeking voice when he was young, not at all too high or with that tint of falsetto you might expect. But I think the slightly booming, sandy roughness in his voice here might be caused by years of heavy smoking, In all those years of smoking cigars a lot of tar particles must have passed these wonderful vocal cords and got attached... Kind regards
1000bestmusic 1 year ago