A fairly typical but enjoyable Met offering from the mid 1950s. Zinka is in really good voice here and Ritorna vincitor is one of the highlights of the afternoon. Thebom and Merrill contribute familiar, full-toned portrayals, with Merrill being in awesome voice as Amonasro. Giorgio Tozzi was in his first season at the Met and would go on to become a house favourite. He also supplied Rossano Brazzi's singing voice in the film version of South Pacific. Kurt Baum's continued presence at the Met through 1966 mystifies some people. The voice is a tad nasal and monochromatic, though it is large and he had ringing high notes. The nasality is likely due to the broken noses he sustained during his earlier career as a boxer. He was the amateur heavyweight champion of Czechoslovakia for a few years. According to one Met historian, he stayed on the roster because Rudolf Bing knew that Baum knew every role in the heroic Italian repertoire, never showed up at the Met drunk and worked cheap! During this era at the Met, Zinka basically owned the roles of Aida, Leonora in both Trovatore and Forza, Santuzza and La Gioconda. Thankfully many of her Saturday afternoon broadcasts such as this one still exist. Thanks for posting!
If you say that this is a great performance, I have to think that you did not realize that in this performance O patria mia is lowered a whole tone, there is no other explanation because if you had realized that you would never have been able to write that this is a great performance of Aida.
@@MorenoCassals70 If memory serves, you use multiple accounts to praise Tebaldi and belittle her contemporaries that you do not like, including Milanov. Singers have been taking arias down a tone (or two) for years. Very few Rodolfos sing Che gelida manina in the original key or Salut, demure chaste et pure in Faust, Sopranos adjust the pitch all the time. That takes nothing away from this performance at all. Lowering one aria in an overall fine performance does not matter to me in the least. Shall we discuss Madama Tebaldi's faults? Have a good day and don't forget to thank the owner of this channel for posting these performances.
@@verdiguy No Verdiguay, it is not as you say, it is not the same to transpose down "Che gelida manina" than "O patria mia", because Che gelida manina has a tradition throughout history that the majority of tenors lowered it in tone, whereas "O patria mia" no soprano transposed down that aria, simply because an Aida without "O patria mia" is useless. Tebaldi transposed down "sempre libera" but that is very different, for two reasons, throughout history a lot of sopranos transposed down "sempre libera" among them Freni, Caballé, Chiara and many others all in "live" performances, also "sempre libera" is a cabaletta, that is different. "O patria mia" is big aria, O paria mia transposed down is an Aida without O patria mia And yes, I have several accounts, is there no democracy in the world? I can have more than one account. Then, I would ask you what you find remarkable in Zinka Milanov "Ritorna vincitor", because I find her with a line of singing that does not make sense in Ritorna vincitor , besides the lack of low notes and poor diction, she does not recite it well
@@MorenoCassals70 Transposing is transposing no matter who does it. You can't call out one singer for doing it and let it pass with another. Like I wrote, one aria being transposed does nothing to impact the overall performance, which I enjoyed. I know from the La Gioconda performances that have been posted here that you simply do not like Milanov so there would be no point in explaining my appreciation of her performance. There is a rare interpretive drive in this particular reading that you don't hear in some of her other broadcasts so that impressed me. I don't hear the weakness in the low notes and while her diction isn't the best, she isn't alone as many sopranos are poor in that regard. My issue with multiple accounts is that it gives the impression that a number of people are critical of a certain singer when it is only one person hiding behind a number of masks. But to each their own. Perhaps the owner of this channel with start uploading some performances by la Tebaldi for you. I enjoy Renata's La Traviata at the Met in the broadcast of 1957 by the way. Have a good day.
@@verdiguy Operas should be, must be sung as they are written, maestro Toscanini was against transpositions, I think Toscanini is someone else than you and I don't think so ? Also Andrea Chenier's final duet is often transposed down by tenors, it doesn't work for me, it should be sung as it is written. If you want I can also accept that "sempre libera" should not be transposed down, but I repeat, it is a final cabaletta. It is not the same as transposing a whole big aria, and as in this case the main aria of the soprano in Aida, a performance of Aida where the O patria mia is transposed down can never be good. I don't like Tebaldi's broadcast of Traviata Met 1957
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A fairly typical but enjoyable Met offering from the mid 1950s. Zinka is in really good voice here and Ritorna vincitor is one of the highlights of the afternoon. Thebom and Merrill contribute familiar, full-toned portrayals, with Merrill being in awesome voice as Amonasro. Giorgio Tozzi was in his first season at the Met and would go on to become a house favourite. He also supplied Rossano Brazzi's singing voice in the film version of South Pacific. Kurt Baum's continued presence at the Met through 1966 mystifies some people. The voice is a tad nasal and monochromatic, though it is large and he had ringing high notes. The nasality is likely due to the broken noses he sustained during his earlier career as a boxer. He was the amateur heavyweight champion of Czechoslovakia for a few years. According to one Met historian, he stayed on the roster because Rudolf Bing knew that Baum knew every role in the heroic Italian repertoire, never showed up at the Met drunk and worked cheap! During this era at the Met, Zinka basically owned the roles of Aida, Leonora in both Trovatore and Forza, Santuzza and La Gioconda. Thankfully many of her Saturday afternoon broadcasts such as this one still exist. Thanks for posting!
If you say that this is a great performance, I have to think that you did not realize that in this performance O patria mia is lowered a whole tone, there is no other explanation because if you had realized that you would never have been able to write that this is a great performance of Aida.
@@MorenoCassals70 If memory serves, you use multiple accounts to praise Tebaldi and belittle her contemporaries that you do not like, including Milanov. Singers have been taking arias down a tone (or two) for years. Very few Rodolfos sing Che gelida manina in the original key or Salut, demure chaste et pure in Faust, Sopranos adjust the pitch all the time. That takes nothing away from this performance at all. Lowering one aria in an overall fine performance does not matter to me in the least. Shall we discuss Madama Tebaldi's faults? Have a good day and don't forget to thank the owner of this channel for posting these performances.
@@verdiguy No Verdiguay, it is not as you say, it is not the same to transpose down "Che gelida manina" than "O patria mia", because Che gelida manina has a tradition throughout history that the majority of tenors lowered it in tone, whereas "O patria mia" no soprano transposed down that aria, simply because an Aida without "O patria mia" is useless.
Tebaldi transposed down "sempre libera" but that is very different, for two reasons, throughout history a lot of sopranos transposed down "sempre libera" among them Freni, Caballé, Chiara and many others all in "live" performances, also "sempre libera" is a cabaletta, that is different. "O patria mia" is big aria, O paria mia transposed down is an Aida without O patria mia
And yes, I have several accounts, is there no democracy in the world? I can have more than one account.
Then, I would ask you what you find remarkable in Zinka Milanov "Ritorna vincitor", because I find her with a line of singing that does not make sense in Ritorna vincitor , besides the lack of low notes and poor diction, she does not recite it well
@@MorenoCassals70 Transposing is transposing no matter who does it. You can't call out one singer for doing it and let it pass with another. Like I wrote, one aria being transposed does nothing to impact the overall performance, which I enjoyed. I know from the La Gioconda performances that have been posted here that you simply do not like Milanov so there would be no point in explaining my appreciation of her performance. There is a rare interpretive drive in this particular reading that you don't hear in some of her other broadcasts so that impressed me. I don't hear the weakness in the low notes and while her diction isn't the best, she isn't alone as many sopranos are poor in that regard.
My issue with multiple accounts is that it gives the impression that a number of people are critical of a certain singer when it is only one person hiding behind a number of masks. But to each their own. Perhaps the owner of this channel with start uploading some performances by la Tebaldi for you. I enjoy Renata's La Traviata at the Met in the broadcast of 1957 by the way. Have a good day.
@@verdiguy Operas should be, must be sung as they are written, maestro Toscanini was against transpositions, I think Toscanini is someone else than you and I don't think so ?
Also Andrea Chenier's final duet is often transposed down by tenors, it doesn't work for me, it should be sung as it is written.
If you want I can also accept that "sempre libera" should not be transposed down, but I repeat, it is a final cabaletta. It is not the same as transposing a whole big aria, and as in this case the main aria of the soprano in Aida, a performance of Aida where the O patria mia is transposed down can never be good.
I don't like Tebaldi's broadcast of Traviata Met 1957