Jussi Bjorling "E lucevan le stelle" Tosca Live 1959

[biancanevelet]

GRANDISSIMA VOCE DI UNA VOLTA E FENOMENALE INTERPRETAZIONE

[dlh322]

not sure if he was the greatest singer in every aria, but hands down the greatest voice ever recorded..

[farm4me1]

This is great!, but his best was a studio recording where the microphone came apart and vibrated in the housing, they left it on the record... Such a powerful voice!

Swede who beat the Italians at their best game!

[suffes]

@farm4me1 Yes, this is one of the arias where he "beats" the italians without trying to be italian ore just because of that?

[steelfloating]

Grande!

[Daniel6996ful]

I love the unadultarated recordings. primitive technology: pure singing.

[viviananderson]

"It goes through your whole body" is a perfect description.

[happywealthyme]

Haunting.....simply haunting...

[RudySunseeker]

And then some say he was a cold fish, to which I answer: Ha, ha and ha!

[sugarbist]

@RudySunseeker This is the way I think Bjorling should have sung more often.This is what I was eluding to in my last comment to you that Bjorling did not do ENOUGHof . However this is simply beautiful. Enjoy

[fullbuck50]

The greatest tenor of all time and probably the greatest singer too. The opening phrases here have a degree of yearning that are almost unbearable. This is unparalleled artistry.

[tomfroekjaer]

Great emotional performance by a master. It probaly was inspired by Caruso's heartbreaking 1904 recording as wiseoldfart suggests, but it is still Jussi in all his own glory.

[curation123]

I was 22 years old when my aunts invited me to hear Bjoerling in Tosca at the Old Met on November 21, 1959 with Curtis-Verna and McNeil, Mitropoulus conducting. We went to the exit door to try to meet him and we were standing outside in the cold, and someone invited us to go inside and wait as he saw my aunt's old age. The first to go out was Bjoerling and he gave us the highest gift of my entire life to concede us a great hug and words. I am from Dominican Republic.

[RudySunseeker]

@curation123 Many thanks, your comment made my day!!

[wiseroldfart]

I love this particular recording by Jussi. It may have been inspired by Caruso's heartbreaking 1904 recording of this aria. I can't pick a favorite. I also love Corelli's emotional performances of this aria.

[wiseroldfart]

@mactopolis: it's amazing that his incredible voice was unbreakable for a span of 30 years despite his drinking and health problems. He died in 1960 and was probably in bad health during this performance.

[suffes]

@wiseroldfart Yes, and even more surpricing is that in his last concert, Gothenburg in august 1960 he was better than ever. Note that his only stereo recording is from this concert and puts a new dimension to his voice!

[vpo2g2]

Kind of makes other tenors sound kind of silly

[winobuff]

1:50 O. M.  G.

[RoyKa2010]

@winobuff Ah oui! Avoir une telle voix et l'employer ainsi, c'est un crime contre les mortels! Car c'est tout simplement une beauté fatale!

[Siriussupporter]

hits your heart right in.

[ozzy61foster]

Pavarotti said that a voice like Jussi's came along only once in a thousand years, but a voice like his own came along every 999 years. It is an embarrassment to mankind to listen to Paul Potts version. Not that I want to disrespect anyone but still...

[jrwilmott]

Pavarotti is far from exceptional in this repertoire, worlds greatest bel canto singer maybe, but Jussi has a voice that will be heard in a 1000 years...

[rodikgork]

la canta bien, lo que pasa que como estoy acostumbrado a oír la versión de placido domingo esta me parece bastante mas floja

[claudiamuzio27]

jajajajajaj Menos mal qie Bijorling no nacio en esta epoca... que sino Placido quedaba sin trabajo... La voz de Bijorling es tal vez la mas perfecta de todas las epocas...

[guanacadecorazon12]

No sabes lo que dices, Björling is el más grande de todos aunque Plácido es uno de los mejores.

[halavey]

it's live  sure, my copy has different applause sound and also the comment that emotion ruins opera I cannot agree with, opera is a story also and it often is tragic when someone dies or you lose someone close or you are going to go through a tragedy you are usually emotional and so opera is not just pretty singing of notes and he is emotional here even more so then on his studio recording which makes it better in that sense anyhow even in poor sound from the prompters box where it was recorded.

[65attila]

This is a live performance - I have the complete set on LP. I do not know about the applause but Jussi was well received after the aria on the complette set.

[lanarv]

..FABULOUS !!!..really..:-)

But can we say it is LIVE without  a video ?..

Thanks for photos !

[AZo9jojo]

It is live because of the applause at the end.

[sergiotmujica]

you can hear the man who is readin the lyrics...

[josevaladez]

Because 50 years ago there were no video cameras as today ! How old are you ? Audio cassette was invented after 1960 !!! Before it was really difficult to have "home recordings" . Hope it is useful.

[lanarv]

What is useful?..Your explanation ?...funny..

There are plenty of live videos on here of that period,when the perforner sings, moves,and the audience applauds..:-)

[winobuff]

@lanarv An audio-only recording during a performance is still a live recording . . .

[mrantiquedealer]

Had God waited a couple more years, I would have been able to see him onstage! Oh well, can't have everything...

[GABYCONSTANZA]

I know what u mean!!! :D Me too!!! lol

[halavey]

some of his last met. performances here and even in poor sound a treat. Here he is more emotional then earlier in Tosca. Sounds like they taped in applause from another show here.

[atticana]

Emotionalism ruins opera.

[5wan5]

impressive.

Great singer.

Thanks for sharing

if you don't know Mario Lanza...

Don't hésitate.

[stevevandien]

How I wish this magnificent artist could have lived another 20 years or more --

[petereuropa]

I wrote two outstanding videos: Stupid written of me. There are so many Opera videos with so beautiful performances sung by so many fantastic artists.

[petereuropa]

I want to add: Mrs Nilsson said that she overcome the problems with the microphone thank's to Mr Walter Legge, HMW. And if the conductor was super as G. Solti and others, and if all the singers and the orchestra was of 1st class, the result was magnificent. And of course we listeners are very, very, grateful to have their voices on youtube and in our CD-collections

[petereuropa]

On youtube I have discovered two fantastic video that are outstanding in feeling, in my opinion. This one and 'Nilsson Salome' Sir Bing's Gala at the Met 1972. I have read Birgit Nilsson's own Bioraphy (interesting and funny). There she says, that it is sometimes difficult to get the right feeling to express it to a microfon. I understand what she mean. To sing to a full Opera House direct to the audience must be different and something special. And to be alone on stage at the Met, must be wow!

[petereuropa]

Perche piango? Non voglio piangere.

[franciscoginerlloret]

Recuerdo que en el año 1957 (Yo tenia 18 años) me regalaron un disco de J.Bjorling que contenia varios fragmentos de óperas.,Fué la primera vez que escuché a Jussi, me quedé impresionado de su voz, por aquellos años los cantantes de actualidad eran Del Monaco, Di Stefano, Corelli que por cierto tenia grabaciones de ellos y por supuesto de Caruso, Gigli, Schipa y otros.Puedo decir que en la actualidad sigue Jussi siendo mi tenor favorito .

[westerwood07]

noone has ever sung this aria as beautiful as Jussi. Pavarotti comes close but Björling goes through your whole body.

[nisticom]

I think Pavarotti was much better... as were Caruso, Gigli, Del Monaco and many others... but hey, it's a matter of personal taste I guess...

[winobuff]

@nisticom "and many others" much better? You apparently have listened to very few examples of Bjoerling. There was a reason for the ten-mile traffic jams before his concerts. Did "many others" get those? Just my two cents.

[nisticom]

@winobuff Again it's a matter of personal taste, as I said. I don't mean to offend anybody... however ten-mile traffic jams also form for J-Lo and the likes, does that mean that they are great? I don't know... anyway, Bjoerling was wonderful, just not what I like in this kind of rep...

[dealerovski82]

@winobuff there was a blizzard...

[wiseroldfart]

@westerwood07: Caruso's 1904 spine-chilling recording was the benchmark and may have inspired Bjorling to inject more emotion into this performance.

[petion2010]

@westerwood07 Zurab Anjaparidje and del Monaco have done it well too.

[neronnenn]

il pianissimo di "disciooooooogliea" è PAZZESCO, Jussi è il più grande cantante mai esistito!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kittycrunch456]

AGREE! and i don't even understand Italian. But i know what you meant by "il pianissimo di disciooooooogliea" ... this part drives me nuts cos it's so undescribably exiquisite. ) One only needs to hear this part of the song to realize how incomparable Jussi is.

[maggipaolo]

@neronnenn sono assolutamente d'accordo...E' incredibileeeeeeee!!!!!

[uncleernie50]

Absolutely fantastic rendidtion. What i find so amazing is how every time he sings this he almost goes off the voice on purpose in the early first trill. True artistry..

[giovannichetta]

Onegin thanks a loto for this document. Jussi è UNICO, I love him. Thanks Jussi.

[RudySunseeker]

Definitely goosebump warning. Such emotion and beauty, such control, such flawless technique and yet certain self-proclaimed "experts" on this site say he lacked this and that. The truth is he didn´t lack anything. And his voice carried forever, I know, I heard him live in 1957.

[thetuilleriegarden]

you are so lucky to have seen him live :)

[RudySunseeker]

Actually, I heard him outdoors, with rather primitive loud-speakers. As it so transpired, those weren´t much needed.

[jupiterjinks]

The stuff of absolute legend. Stunning, incomparable performance. You will hear nothing else like this. And yes, the audience are quite terrifying at the end.

[kittycrunch456]

OMG lol, i thought my 1955 live version was great, this one's amazing! No one sings this piece like Jussi. Absolutely convincing...

Thanks for the post.

[geobabe73]

Wow..... Passionate and very moving. But the audience screaming at the end made me jump out of me chair. Incomparable voice, wonderful!

[neronnenn]

Favoloso Jussi!

[pearlmuth3]

Actually he sang often after this and died 9/60 at age 49 he sang a concert in Sweden just 3 weeks before he died. If you look at picture it says here the met.opera (new york) Prompter is loud cause tape recorder was in the box.

[pearlmuth3]

This was not Chicago but NYC, if it was Chicago I would have heard it as I did the year before (1958) when he sang the Duke here, this one is New York from the prompters box.

[63Attila]

This sound s like a 3 disc set I have from 1959 claiming to be from Chicago also starring Mary Curtis-Verna and Cornell MacNeil. Bjoerling is on fire. HELP

[pearlmuth3]

he was very passionate here, more so then on his recording of it. taped in the prompters box, excuse the prompter for being heard and fair sound but wonderful singing here.

[BuryTone]

If that is really 1959 - incredible! He had suffered a laryngitis and heart problems the same summer and could nevertheless sing so utterly perfect... Thus this was one of his last performances...

[nlsnbebang]

best version than PIPO & DOMINGO.

[diomipoteviscagliar]

He singing "E lucevan le stelle" in TV in London 1959 but the items is destroyed!

[borlange11]

The sound recording of the 2 arias (E Lucevan & Mama! quel vino) with Ivor Newton at the piano are in collectors hands.