Sergei Lemeshev "Una furtiva lagrima" 1954 (live recording)

The great Russian /Soviet tenor Sergei Lemeshev (1902 - 1977) sings "Una furtiva..." in Leningrad , i954. It's a live recording, which has never been published on LP or CD.
Of course Lemeshev was not at his prime in 1954 after all his troubles (tuberculosis), but I find this recording very expressive and interesting.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Lemeshev
• Donizetti
• L'elisir_d'Amore
• Nemorino
• Una_furtiva_lagrima
• Лемешев

[GermanOperaSinger]

Tuberculosis or not it is one of the greatest lyric tenor voices ever even here in 1954. It's nice to hear him sing something in Italian once in a while, since most of his commercial recordings were recorded in Russian. If he could sing the Italian I wonder why he didn't do it more often. If this was a concert there must be other pieces also? Were they recorded?

[younglemeshevist]

He also sang a couple of songs in Italian.

"Una furtiva" traditionally was sung in Italian in the USSR, because there were no good translation into Russian:)

Soviet singers started to learn roles in their original languages only in the 1960 - 70's.

Yes I have some other songs, I'll post them soon.

[Kievest]

Vocal problems or not, Lemeshev gives

us a Nemorino of halting vulnerability and

pathos. His characterization is intimate

and human. That velvel, beautifullly timbered voice manages to find its way

to the heart. Thank you for this rare and

precious posting.

[musique0308]

Thank you very much for this rare piece. It's wonderfuf.

[Ivan85504]

Hемного слушал Сергея Лемешева на итальянском.По-моему,блистател­ьно.Спасибо автору.

[Spanglefeather]

@Kievest

--- your description of Lemeshev's voice seems very accurate. Nicely put, Kievest.  :)

[seektheforce]

@younglemeshevist Could you post these Italian songs please?

[seektheforce]

@younglemeshevist excuse me, but I don't hear any vocal problems in this whatsoever. His tone sounds natural and beautiful as always.

[seektheforce]

Holy shit, only one lung in this performance? He can out-sing most any modern tenor, with one lung.

[AriaLenskovo]

Simply gorgeous. Thank you for this rare gem!

[CurzonRoad]

Thanks to younglemeshevist for this wonderful posting, and to vstasov for sending my way! Doug --

[lemeshev]

Wow! What a find! Thanks for posting. Listening to a great tenor on an off day is fascinating.