Mario Ancona & Enrico Caruso - Pearl Fishers duet 1907

Mario Ancona (1860 - 1931)& Enrico Caruso (born Errico Caruso; February 25, 1873 August 2, 1921) sing this duet from Bizet's opera "The Pearl Fishers", in Italian. I think this is the most beautiful recording of the duet ever made. Their voices blend perfectly. Notice how the vibrato action of each singer also matches. When two great singers sing together that always happens. Many times today the singers' vibratos clash when singing duets.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mario
• Ancona
• Enrico
• Caruso
• Pearl
• Fishers
• Au
• fond
• du
• temple
• saint
• Bizet
• opera
• tenor
• baritone
• bel
• canto

[chuckobrien]

the importance is in the musicality and legato of the singing. The size of the voice is not the point.MUSICALITY. The legato of JB and RM is not challenged by any other duo. It doesn't exist!

[MrCafiero]

@chuckobrien Yeah, I don't agree that Bjorling and Merrill had it better than anyone else. Caruso is a master as was Ancona.

[4444marla]

Yes, Comparison is not possible with this different style of singing and early recording.So why do it? Caruso was great, Bjorling and Merrill, also...... but a different time period and one thing in this recording is certainly evident, emotionality and musicality. Caruso has recordings that show his voice much better than this one.

[MrCafiero]

@4444marla Time period has nothing to do with it. You don't change singing because of time period. Singing at a very high standard should be of utmost importance regardless. Björling's voice was much, much smaller than Caruso. There is no comparison.

[MrCafiero]

@RickManchester Björling was often compared to Caruso, but had nowhere near the size of voice of Caruso.

[1079walter]

Sorry, but I can't understand anyone comparing this recording to Bjorling and Merrill. Caruso sounds strained and Ancona is sliding all over the place! Not to mention the fact that they rarely actually sing TOGETHER, and at the end, Enrico is so sharp it hurts my ears! Jussi and Robert are beyond compare with their version of this magnificent duet.

[llynfach]

Christ, that Caruso could sing a bit, couldn't he!!

[Ailsa72]

Thank you for your work in unearthing music that I would never have had the opportunity to hear otherwise. Gigli's acting is strange, so, second time around I am listening, with my eyes closed. Yes I can hear how Bjorling was influenced by Gigli At first De Luca's and Gigli's voice do not seem to mesh but in the declaration of friendship, no matter what, they come together.

[MrCafiero]

@8x8MaVerick8x8 Yes, but they all had great singer's formant. Not just Börling. His lack of size in the house was disappointing to many including Jerome Hines.

[8x8MaVerick8x8]

@MrCafiero Indeed, they're all great voices. I love Del Monaco (I don't love Caruso and confess I'm not familiar with Masini, but more because of the recording technology than because of the voices. I wish I could hear them better). I just know that the voice scientists (I am not one). Always laud the perfection of Björling's formants. That does NOT mean others weren't GREAT too. I just know that Björling was lauded for his tremendous cut. I never heard any live, as, sadly, I was not alive.

[MrCafiero]

@8x8MaVerick8x8 What big voices does have have better overtones than? Any great singers have squillo or "properly produced overtones". He had that, but just a small voice. Del Monaco had tremendous overtones. Much more than he did. And much more F1. So did Caruso, Masini etc.

[8x8MaVerick8x8]

@MrCafiero Yes, yes. Fair enough. I'm not disputing the voice was smaller. I'm just pointing out the Björling's strength was the construction of the overtones in his voice, not the sheer size of the voice. I won't deny that in certain repertoire, a larger fundamental tone is essential (heavy Puccini, Verdi, and of course Wagner and Strauss), some of which Björling sang. Still, having the overtone rather than heft was his strength where others, had larger voices and less perfect overtones.