Part II - Your Favorites: CESARE SIEPI

Legendary and the best italian basso and perhaps the best basso in general

Thanks for posting. Glad you added Siepi to your collection.
Beautiful voice color, strange staccato here.

1954

Yes. Siepi sang Don Giovanni with Furtwaengler at Salzburg for two consecutive years, 1953 and 1954.

Thanks for adding Siepi to the list. He is by far my favourite bass. :)

Without going into details about which I know nothing, I can say that I prefer Siepi to Pinza. Just a matter of taste, though I like Pinza also.

I have to respectfully disagree with your comparison of Pinza and Siepi. I am a fan of Pinza, but I feel that he was not as consistent of a singer, as Siepi was. Pinza does have these moments of a god among men, but then there are moments where he sounds like a street singer (a Cappuccilli syndrome) You also commented that Pinza was a better musician. This is strange because Pinza himself admitted that he couldn't read music, but had to learn by rote. I enjoy your posts, but I have to disagree.

Welcome back,Mike! Great to see you again..Siepi was the singer who made Don Giovanni one of the opera roles whom I would always like no matter who's singing it..Excellent choice..Dark beautiful bass..a good vocal actor better in characterisation than Nicolai Ghiaurov. Yup,I agree his Sparafucile wasn't memorable but I think the Verdi roles he recorded were not as memorable as the Mozart ones because of the sound rather than him..I prefer his Filippo to Ghiaurov's..He's more dramatic..

Great bass voice, and good choice IMO.

Actually Siepi didn´t sing Figaro 1953 in Salzburg with Furtwängler - I´ve made a mistake. You´re absolutely right, it was Erich Kunz and the live-recording was dated August 11th 1953. Sorry for this, immediately I will correct my fault in the sidebar. Thanks a lot, Mike