Grace Moore: "Depuis le jour" (Louise)

This selection is from Bel Canto Society's DVD of Gustave Charpentier's Louise (1938), which stars Grace Moore, Georges Thill and André Pernet. Abel Gance is the directo

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Grace
• Moore
• Louise
• Opera
• Bel
• Canto
• Society

[mrfabulocity]

Charpentier himself told her exactly how to sing it.

I suppose you know more than the composer.

[qklq42]

She's lovely. She IS Louise.

Hans NL

[stephpwall]

Opera singers from this era who included in their "skill set" the ability to croon for the radio brought a lovely intimate quality to operatic arias. This part of the art form has declined. I suppose because we don't get a daily dose of The Firestone Hour and the operettas of Sigmund Romberg. The unabashed sentiment of the popular songs of the 30s and 40s were lovely companions to the art of operatic singing

[wbondar]

Wonderful and lovely, I had never seen or heard Moore do this. It was very moving, thank you for this great post! Cheers, William

[baltoman24]

thank you for this post, a treasure from a great singer. This film has immense charm and the great Georges Thill, too! Moore was a charismatic star and this excerpt is a good indication why she was held is such high regard.

[bradleyjenks]

@gaytenor I agree that there are some roles that are harder to cast these days, but there ARE people who do them, and do them justice. My point is that there is some fantastic singing going on today, and for some reason people who are under the impression that there was some mythical "golden age" of singing that is over..... they bash on some of the loveliest singers that ever opened their mouths. And that I can't abide. Richard Croft, for example, could sing the phone book and make me cry.

[gaytenor]

bradleyjenks: You list Brownlee an admirable tenor to be sure but you don't mention Juan Diego Florez who IS A GREAT SINGER. Of the current crop of artists before the public only Florez, Alvarez, and Heppner will be legendary at some point among tenors. As for Corelli and his scooping I HATE IT but the Met and other opera houses would almost kill for a tenor like him or Tucker who could sing the heavy Verdi and Puccini roles. Thomas Hampson singing Verdi roles is a total farce.

[gaytenor]

@bradleyjenks As to Kaufmann I am an admirer of his singing a couple of years ago before he apparently took coaching from Cura. Del Monaco had a high d-flat so much for a short top and he didn't flat all that much and his live Dick Johnson with Steber and his Alvaro with Milanov and Warren are legendary performances. A Peerce performance of 'E la solita storia' from the Met recorded in-house at age 64 is better sung and PROJECTED than anyone can touch today, save, perhaps, Marcelo Alvarez.

[gaytenor]

@bradleyjenks Small group of singers at any one time? In the 1950s the Metropolitan had on its roster Del Monaco, Tucker, Konya, Bergonzi, DiStefano, Peerce etc., for Puccini and Verdi roles. For the Italian operas they had Milanov, Tebaldi, and Maria Callas among others. As for Bjorling he sang in Manon Lescaut, La Boheme, and Tosca to great acclaim. Who sings like these artists? And for that matter who sings Handel and Mozart as Peerce did in terms of the coloratura passages with RING!!!

[bradleyjenks]

@gaytenor .....and Fleming doesn't really sing Puccini generally. And of the singers you list, Tucker sang more in tune than Del Monaco, Bjorling was careful with his Puccini choices, as he was a much more lyric voice. So that leaves the one. You see my point? If they were singing today, you'd say that Bjoerling was too quiet, Del Monaco was short on his highest notes, that Corelli had a lisp and scooped and sobbed too much, etc... there weren't really tons more back in the day.

[bradleyjenks]

@gaytenor Whether Fleming MOVES a person or not is totally arguable. I take exception when people say that singers of her caliber "suck".... And it's true that it seems there were more good singers back then, but the reality is that we are looking back at a small handful of singers that cover multiple decades. The reality is that there are only ever a few people at a time that can even SING the harder roles, and right now we have fewer. I did hear the Kaufmann Tosca, thought he sounded great.

[bradleyjenks]

@VinylToVideo Thanks for that casual insult to my singing. I'm not a professional singer, just a guy who sings, I don't sing at that level. But thanks for the insult all the same. And I don't know if your words are sarcastic or dense. We DO have opera recordings, weekly broadcasts and movies.... You are unkind, petty, ignorant and the only singers you reserve kind words for can't appreciate them, because they are dead. Which is probably good for them, if they were alive, you'd say they suck.