Beverly Sills, Vincent Donato - O Terra, Addio

Beverly Sills as Aida and Vincent Donato sing the final duet from Verdi's Aida in a 1955 performance in New Jersey conducted by Walter Schroeder

Category:

Music

Tags:

• beverly
• sills
• vincent
• donato
• verdi
• aida
• terra
• addio
• final
• duet

[TifosoBonisolli]

Are you sure that the tenor is Vincent Donato? There is conflicting information from various sources as to who was that performance's tenor and who the baritone (i.e. Amonasro), Vincent Donato or Victor Mincieli. Do you know more precisely?

[operalover9001]

@TifosoBonisolli I'm actually not sure, but I found that more sources had Vincent Donato as Radames than Victor Mincielli. Any info you have would be great though.

[liedersanger1]

So many Aidas have had to endure awful Radameses.... who all but ruin this heavenly duet.

[lyns033]

This is a recording of Vincent Donato, as confirmed by his widow. Although she feels the ending has been altered or remastered, compared to her recording. Thank you for the post.

[TifosoBonisolli]

@operalover9001 There is a post on Opera-L that says "I have a newspaper clip with a review of that performance, and they mention Mincieli thrice in that review as the singer of Radames, twice as Mincieli and once as Mincielli." But I also know that Donato started as a tenor: as a comprimario in Philadelphia in the late 1940s, his most important role being the Messenger in Aida. So if you have the complete recording, you could compare Messenger and Radames. He surely sang that in Paterson, too.

[petelovesbevsills]

I just cannot stop smiling while listening to this,  Beverly's voice sounds sublimely heavenly. Thank you operalover9001 for sharing this with us.