Giuseppe di Stefano in the La Boheme final 1 minute

[marguerite263]

A PROPOSITO DEL LINGUAGGIO CONVERSATIVO PUCCINIANO IL PIÙ GRANDE INTERPRETE DI QUESTA ARTE È STATO GIUSEPPE DI STEFANO. COME PRONUNCIAVA LUI L'ULTIMA FRASE DI BOHEME, QUEL : " COS' È QUELL' ANDARE E VENIRE..... QUEL GUARDARMI COSÌ ! " ERA DA BRIVIDO. NON HO MAI SENTITO NESSUNO TOCCARE UN' INTENSITÀ DRAMMATICA PARAGONABILE ALLA SUA.

( GIANANDREA GAVAZZENI - DIRETTORE D'ORCHESTRA )

[oistrakh19081974]

Please put more pieces of this boheme¡¡¡

[MrLuiscastellanos]

Grandioso !!! Bravo !!!!

[MARISOLDELMONACO]

Bravo straordinario

[gilliebest]

I attended one of Pippo's Boheme performances, and to hear (and see) this live on stage was incredibly moving. There were a couple of "No!'s and some sobs, and he broke the audience's heart. So very real.

[sophiah88]

He brought such a deep feeling even a rock would have to cry. I must play it again. Thanks

[VinylToVideo]

This is a fantastic broadcast with Sayao and Di Stefano at his best. I remember his "Che gelida" from this recording gave me goosebumps.

[LanzaLover2]

Certain moments in opera are guaranteed to bring me to tears and/or give goosebumps. This one gave me both. I was surprised tonight at all the goosebumps (all over).

Other moments are Otello, "Amelia, Amelila, Amelia!" and "Un bacio, un altro bacio." If you don't melt at that last one, you're not breathing.

Different, but melts me: Le Nozze, "Contessa, perdona, perdona, perdona."

There are others.

Maybe we should start a blog or ?? for all the short moments that move us totally.

[ghostofyeats]

@LanzaLover2 Interesting! I'm not familiar with the Otello excerpts, but the 'Contessa, perdona' part works on me *every* single time.

On this performance in particular: while fine, I much prefer his studio version with Callas. The horns are more in tune in studio too.

[ShawDAMAN]

Little details can really make a great performance (or not.) Thanks for calling attention to this one. So often the singer can sort of "break" the atmosphere of an opera by going overboard (or even under-board :P) It's really not easy to "emote" dramatic/heartbreak/despair scenes convincingly in the context of opera singing (try it! :P) so we should be grateful when it's done competently or as in this case, very well.

[Herur22]

These final moments of La boheme always give me creeps. Thank you.

[GermanOperaSinger]

ESPECIALLY when di Stefano does it. No one sings the final scene like him. I thought he was going to have a literal breakdown on stage. Yet because he also sounds so genuine, I wouldn't call this ham.

[aaronsande]

@GermanOperaSinger I was thinking along those lines as well...so passionately delivered, and hard NOT to be hammy with this part, yet he pulled it off well.

[aaronsande]

Impressive...good projection on those short outburts, speaks to good onset and support (which of course he had).

[GentleSavage1]

before he changed his technique

[aaronsande]

@GentleSavage1  Before he started uncovering too soon? Well, that didn't affect his onset and support...

[GentleSavage1]

well to me it sounds like the later di Stefano didn't have real support, what he did rather resembled barking than singing, to my ears.

What I mean is, he had a kind of "forced support", not a "relaxed" one... well I don't know how to call this, maybe you know what I mean.

[GermanOperaSinger]

aaronsande and GentleSavage1: Correct, he supported with throat muscles, not air. That's all. Every other issue he had with technique stemmed from this basic mistake. When his vocal cords aged they were no longer as versatile as they were before - he could no longer rely on muscles alone yet he insisted on doing so - thus his rapid decline.

[GentleSavage1]

ah, yeah it feels very "in the throat" in the days when I imitated di Stefanos singing, heheh...