George London- Prince Igor's aria

George London (1920-1985)

Prince Igor's aria ("Ni sna, ni otdykha izmuchennoi dushe") (Borodin)

London's rich, virile bass-baritone and dramatic, expressive singing seem tailor-made for Borodin's hero. The singer made this recording for Columbia shortly after joining the Met in 1951, and his assertive, sweeping manner finds an ideal partner in conductor Kurt Adler. The quiet orchestral introduction is appropriately dark and gloomy, and London takes his time working up a full head of steam. When he finally unleashes the full voice on the phrase "i brannoi slavy pir veselyi", the impact is quite thrilling- unmatched by any other singer I've heard in this.

Although as a child London never learned Russian from his immigrant parents, his diction here is also very good (as it was when he recorded Boris Godunov in Moscow nearly 10 years later). Indeed, this is my preferred version of the aria, beating out everything I've encountered from Slavic singers, and it makes me wish he had recorded the complete opera.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• George
• London
• bass-baritone
• Russian
• opera
• aria
• Prince
• Igor
• Alexander
• Borodin

[MartinTzonevOperBass]

Awesome singing,interpretation and even the russian text! The phenomenal G.London!

There's so much to enjoy and learn from him...Thank you for sharing that performance with the world.I personally had no idea he did IGOR... For good or bad it shows that the Opera world was "bigger" in these years.. ;)

[parci1]

Вот это да!!

[robertwbecker]

He was 31 years old here,,, unbelievable sound for anybody of any age, what a gift to the world singing. I'm in tears when I think of how this Magnificent Man spent the last years of his life,,,,,,

[anyany]

very good!!!

[paulostroff99]

@MartinTzonevOperBass George London was fluent in Russian- being of Russian Jewish parentage and born in Montreal Canada.

[CanadaPisces]

A wonderful performance! Thank you khankaonchak for the posting of a great singer!

[voce29]

Unforgettable!!

[Eclisento]

super. He sings better than the most of russian present fucking singers!

(from moscow)

[dikkens7]

Он - из трио бельканто, пел с М.Ланца... (то трио действительно бельканто!).

Yes, George London - great singer!

[AirenElf]

WOW! Even almost with no accent! Cool!

[angusmcrandy]

I read an interview with him somewhere in which he told that in rehearsals of his historic Boris with the Bolshoi, the Russian singers would come up and start talking to him in Russian, because they thought from his diction that he was fluent. BTW, I met him once, and was amazed how short he was. Big sounds can come not so large bodies. The greatest heldenbariton in my memory.