Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau & James King - Don Carlo Duet

[Tilantelcontar]

OMG (0:14)



[1Victorinus]

As Carly Simon once sang " Nobody does it better". Fischer-Dieskau and King are unbeatable in this duet. It's a shame that it is not sung in Italian, although Verdi also wrote it with a French libretto for the Paris Opera.

[Moreofthesamez]

yuck

[Operaandchant90]

I love this duet. END

[tommyopera]

Damn, this darkness in timbre makes the duet even more manly!!! The German makes it almost frightening!! ;)

[Pywacket2]

German? Oy vay.

[ENRICOASHTON]

que cos mas espantosa!

[31122051]

Meravigliosa interpretazione di due TENORI.

[tenorschofield]

What great voices!!!!,my God!!!, both where incredible singers and superb actors.Thanks for sharing with all us this divine jewell!!!!

[KONDRACHINE]

Don Carlos was originally a play in German written by Schiller. If ever there was one opera that could legitimally by sung in German, it is this one... Why not, if one can sing "Macbeth" and "Otello" in English, or "Rigoletto" in French? What imports is what the artists can convey, and they have many to say!

[delosreyesgavikanes]

My God, Don Carlo in German. King fantastic, Fischer-Dieskau was fantastic as a Lieder singer and should have stay there. By the way, YES, I sang Verdi the way it should have done, tenors roles: Airda, Ballo, Ernani, Forza, Macbeth, Nabucco,

Boccanegra, Traviata, Trovatore, Rigoletto and Oberto. I think I anser you !!!

[AfroPoli]

Fischer Dieskau - terrible!!!!

[31122051]

@AfroPoli : hai ragione amico mio, condivido al 100 %. Fischer-Dieskau era un TENORE cha cantava da baritono ecco il punto ! CIAO ! E' sempre un piacere " dialogare " con te !

[Oberon90]

Both singers have wonderful voice and they blend together ,King, my favorite in "Die Tote Stadt" and Fischer-Dieskau, my favorite for Lieder and Mozart Operas.

[bodiloto]

ttttttttttttttt,rrrrrrrrrrrrr,­ssssssssss,rrrrttttttttttttttt­,rrrrrrzzzzzzzzzzz,nnntttttttt­zzzzzzzzzzzzz,tttttsssssssssss­ssss...

[Cantormatis]

How funny is in German? and how much echo is on these voices?

[Operaandchant90]

how anyone thought dietrich was light, i will never know. and who cares, this is amazing anyway.

[steakopera]

James King, a great Wagnerian. Dieskau, known for lieders, not opera but It's unique match though. One thing irritates me. Their natural voices are overwhelmed by the mechanical amplification.

[starwars1marc]

le son n'est pas tres bon mais ils ont de belles voix

[bigus]

king is amazing here and his Bb are pure and perfect. easy and lyric. singing the german around that german technique helped him keep his sound heady. he ran into trouble trying to sing heavy literature and his voice lost the beauty it had here. he should have gone lighter in rep if anything not heavier. this is beautiful

[Agorante]

@bigus

If everyone took your advice there would be no one on any stage singing the heavier tenor roles. King sang wonderfully and with undiminished power and beauty well into old age.

[bigus]

in my opinion the singing should always be easy meaning not pushed into heavier literature than is "easy" for the voice to project through orchestrally etc. i dont like when a person goes outside their voices capabilities to where they end up hurting the voices purety just to sing the role. ultimately it is their choice because its their voice and their career, but i think bigger roles should just be sung by bigger voices that can sing it easier. in my opinion kings voice got harsher in result.

[Agorante]

@bigus

Most tenors start singing early Italian songs. Then they might sing some of the Mozart tenor roles. If they are any good someone will encourage them to do heavier parts. Some lose their voices. Some turn back (Alfredo Kraus). A few prosper and become commercial. Some stay as lyrics or spintos but a very few push on to become dramatics. Of these many also lose their voices but some again prosper. James King sang some of the heaviest roles there are when he was over seventy.

[bigus]

i agree his voice could handle it, i dont dispute that his voice could do anything i simply think his voice became slightly harsher and edgier and lost some of the much of the lyric warmth, as is typical of singers who graduate to louder heavier singing for much of the time. its just what i hear in his voice, and my opinion.

[piasecznik]

Of course he is. Both the voice and the person who's acting there is unmistakably DFD.

[bigus]

yep you are right =)

[ROVERY171272]

Do you have any movie of the Lied von der Erde 's recording in 1966 condusted by Bernstein ? thanks you

[Ted10038]

You are correct, of course. But let us not forget that the original play is by Schiller - in German. :)

[betsuwetsu]

Someome should upload the whole film. I'd be at the front of the line to see and hear it. Thanks a lot guys for this clip.

[dermotafan]

Compared to Capuccili - Careras duet I' ve listened before, this comes out strangely more interesting.

[albertthrelkeld]

Please post more of James King's performance. What a magnificent instrument he had!

[pavoman23]

Why did they they fuck it up into German.

[foothillsbear]

Because James King never got the respect in this country that he did in Germany and Austria, where he made much of his career. And back then in Germany and Austria they sang many operas in German, regardless of what language they were written in.

[Agorante]

@foothillsbear

Not so. When King came to San Francisco Opera he was a sensation. You couldn't get tickets. Anyone who knew anything certainly respected him.

[kmillard]

I knew this opera had French and Italian librettos but I was unaware of one auf Deutsch.

[isabelle070209]

C'est pas possible que ça existe en vidéo...... Magnifique.... LA suite!!!

[DinDonDan94]

Molto Più bello in italiano.... Verdi l'aveva scritto apposta!!!!

[nybulldog]

I feel James King carries this duet. Such an incredible voice. I am just not a fan of DFD in opera roles, he sings great lied though

[ShawDAMAN]

He did have an incredibly powerful voice. I agree with you on Dieskau, never cared for much of his opera singing.

[albertthrelkeld]

Does anyone have more of James KIng?

[bonkbonks]

We are James King's sons. We have more videos.

[albertthrelkeld]

Please post.

[Ted10038]

You must be very proud of your wonderful father!

I met him a few times in Munich and he was a tremendously gracious and generous man besides being a very great artist.

I join the chorus: please post more!

[pjotr669]

Man kann ja nicht dieser ding auf Deutsch erhören!!

[BassoAntico]

Il Don Carlo è più bello in tedesco che in italiano. Bravo Verdi, bravo King, bravo DFD.

[mkbub]

i've only just discovered King, and i'm already in love w/ him! Dieskau i've heard before...not my favorite, but still pretty dang good. but i nearly died laughing at his "great dramatic presence" here. a cardboard cut-out of a zombie would have done as well.....

[countceprano]

LOL! Fischer-Dieskau is like a lap dog singing with a Rottweiler. Hilarious.

[Englishtenor2]

Awesome!

[trombo8]

I think Prey an Wunderlich are better in this duet. It's not that i dislike Fischer-Dieskau, i think he is the best german bariton liedsinger but Prey is the better opera bariton

[ShawDAMAN]

Sweet!! My favorite tenor/baritone duet sung by one of my favorite tenors.

[marokt]

King is king. But it's ridicolozus, that Carrlo has darker voice than Rodrigo.

[songsofscarlet]

I know whatcha mean, but it's still awesome

[marokt]

Oper is a very uniqe genre. Dieskau is awful, but they together sounds very good.

[FacePaster]

great rendition, even if different than what we're used to. The Bergonzi/Cappucilli video is wonderful, but so is this in a different way. Two fantastic singers, King and Dieskau. I wonder why DFD didn't sing the G at the end with King, he certainly had high notes in spades. I envy those who had King as a teacher at IU!

[helaman47]

Can everyone just stop commenting on how they think that Fischer-Dieskau was so horrible and that he should stick to lieder. I bet a million dollars he is better at Verdi than you will ever be. Just enjoy the music and don't comment unless you have something significant to point out. They did really well.

[stybboon]

omg awful ... even as german i understand only 30% of what they sing. dieskau should sings lieder by schubert and brahms and definitly not opera .....

[baritoneortenor]

Absolutely incredible!

[cptnunderwhere]

2:05 - 2:43 = Wow.

[razzking]

Wonderful! Something you dont see everyday. How old is this peformance? I'd guess 1961-1964 somewhere

[foothillsbear]

King didn't make his operatic debut as a tenor until 1961 in San Francisco, and then moved to Berlin to sing. So I would say this is a few years after that, maybe '64-'65.

[crimebloggers]

This is magnificently sung, and I'm struck at just how few shades of difference there truly are between a dramatic tenor (King) and a lyric baritone (Fischer-Dieskau). They sound like they could just swap parts at some point and we wouldn't necessarily notice.

[BeauTenor]

OY. What's with the CUT? That middle section is the best part of the whole duet. Whoever cut that is a RETARD.

[isilinde1982]

Wunderbar! Zwei große Sänger und ein wunderschöned Stück.

[Manya1759]

wow! they're acting a little bit funny at the beginning, but finally King is good Carlos and DFD nice fanatic Posa :) Singing, of course, is just great. however German lyrics aren't much "Schillerian", unfortunately

[albertthrelkeld]

Such fine singing from these two gentlemen.

[Hjadlowker]

I don't have enough stars to rate this! Well, I'll have to settle on five. Some might argue that Fi-Di did not have the maturity of his later years (I disagree)but his voice in his youth sounded darker, rounder and plainly baritonal. Wonderful singing: quite italianate in spite of the German traslation, and lots of stamina but without getting too carried away... I simply loved it. Thank you so much gabba02!

[mdehkram]

This shows that Fischer-Dieskau the lieder singer in his prime could sing opera too. He has a full virile sound here and could hold his own with James King.

[dmitrih1]

Wow, I remember James King singing Erlking for our Voice Lit. class at IU in the mid 90's -- even then an impressive voice, RIP. Thanks for this!

[jacquesurlus]

Intéressant, mais Ferenc Fricsay est décédé le 20 février 1963.

[maxmarce]

Perfecto!! BRAVO!!!!!

[yappity]

Sorta spooky show, with those German lyrics (and the facial expressions to boot). Sounds too aggressive. Some translations aren't that bad, but it doesn't sound like they managed to get in some of the original Schiller.

But thanks for posting this! The things people do with opera... ;-)

[podkivanok]

I like it in German!

[Sieglinde84]

Solti's Siegmund and Solti's Gunther singing Verdi. Rare moment.

OMG German lyrics... *facedesk*

[montestone]

Splendid! Thanks for posting this. Must be Berlin early 70s?

[bonkbonks]

Enter James King Opera on You Tube.

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