James King Met 1968 Live Lohengrin "In Fernem Land"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2009
- An extract from the famous Metropolitan 1968 House Wire Live recording of Lohengrin by Richard Wagner. (The house wire was a stage microphone used to relay the sound through the dressing rooms so performers did not miss their cue). It also catches the prompter in good voice.
I really enjoy the forward vocals and muted orchestra. It's mono of course and someone must have plugged a tape recorder into the system. But what a document.
"In Fernem Land"
James King in his prime, sounding fresh at the end of a long evening, with one of the best ever interpretations, you can hear every word just as everyone else could in the dressing rooms of the Met during this great performance.
The complete performance is available here.
solarvan.co.uk/Music/Lohengrin...
solarvan.co.uk/Music/Lohengrin...
solarvan.co.uk/Music/Lohengrin...
Enjoy! - เพลง
![Kirsten Flagstad - A singing lesson: How to sing Wagner [1950]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/S6Stoi8DAqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Proof this music can be sung beautifully. I think singing all the great Italian roles (in German) gave him a bel canto foundation. Plus he was in his late 30s when he suddenly burst on the scene. He was ready, mature, intelligent.
Great singing! Clear and open voice. No mask singing, not nasal, no ingolato......aahh , great listening experience. His diction, as a result of his singing, is very good. I understood almost every word. And yes, among the Heldentenors he would be a lighter or lyric one. But exactly that gives him nobleness and clarity of expression.
This is definitely mask singing.
Agree with you about everything except the "lighter or lyric" part. Certainly compared to other Lohengrins such as Konya, Jess Thomas etc. King had one of the most truly heroic and dramatic voices as exemplified by his Siegmund, Emperor in Frau, Bacchus etc. No one as secure of voice in that repertoire today.
Every note is in the mask. Get some ears!
,
@@alvahenderson4109 Typical amateurish and rude remark from a non-singer. Don't comment on things that you don't even know of what it is.
@@jenspflug7473 You forgot to mention "academic".
Glorious. James King was a great heldentenor. His Siegmund was glorious as well.
His Siegmund was spectacular!
This is the good sound of a "young heroic tenor", who can sing Lohengrin in both ways:
noble, lyric and with a legato that can easily do a dramatic crescendo!
Bravissimo Mr. King, your vocal art is greatly missed!
I love that you can hear the prompter! THIS is a real Heldentenor!
…:)) RDS
I think he's more appreciated now than he was in his heyday. And he sang (and sang well) into his sixties. Also, the job of the prompter has to be one of the most nerve-racking jobs in the world. Cheers.
Fuer einen ammi bemerkeenswert.😊
Wie ein Schwert schneidet seine Stimme. Und dennoch ein schöner Ton. Ich liebe seinen Gesang sehr.
Any recording of King is welcome and impressive.
Eran verdaderos Heldentenor y esa potencia no les impedía tener una bella línea melódica y vocal.
King, Melchior e Svanholm... Three titanic heldentenors!!
Bravissimo
ein legendärer Wagnersänger danke
I beg God for a top 1/3 as incredible as King's!
Majestic performance! WOW what a voice and singer!
Viele Mal an der Wiener Staatsoper gehört
In spanish we say:"Magnifico"!!!!, just that, BRAVOOO!!!!!!!!!!
I studied at Indiana University while Mr. King taught there. He did a recital in 1999 and sang a concert with one of the orchestras there in 2001. He sounded almost exactly like he had on the recordings I have from the 60's and 70's. It was truly amazing. He and my voice teacher were friends and from time to time Mr. King would drop by my lessons. He would say "sounds good kid". At the time I really had no idea who he was other than the old guy who couldn't remember people's names.
I was there with you too, bud! I remember how amazing he sounded, having both hips and knees replaced, how he walked so fragile onstage but when he sang, we forgot everything and just marveled.
You can really hear how hard that prompter is working. I think it's only fair that they get to take a bow at the end too!
grazie grande voce,e tecnica.
Marvellous pronounciation!
He had a glorious voice and also the ability to bring the character he was singing to life. Too bad this becomes a duet with the prompter at some points but it is wonderful to have this documentation of a great Wagnerian.
Magnificent singing, and unbelievably good diction - King sets the standard in telling the story, though he can't match the legato thrill of e.g. Konya.
Unfortunately the performance is severely disturbed by the abrupt speed-ups giving the impression of union musicians looking at the clock .
Now we have Klaus Florian Vogt. Wonderful.
Not so much.
ja... wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben... 😭
AfroPoli 🤣🤣🤣
No.
@@alexsandroalvesartecultura5116 he was being sarcastic
Damn fine tenor.
Hilarious hearing the prompt on this. James King is indeed a KING amongst Heldentenors.
He sounds a true héroe, heldentenor, no doubt.
Immenso. Emozionante
WOW!!!!!
Wow! So clear!!! Marvellous!
The first complete recording of LOHENGRIN which I listened to (as a teenager, on WNIB-FM on a Sunday evening), was Kubelik's DG recording with James King in the title role - and thus do I like LOHENGRIN to this day (and I bought the recording 3 years later)!! King's voice and his artistry are perfect for this role. Thank you VERY much for sharing this excerpt with us!!!!!
Just perfect!
Don't forget: James King has studied a long time under the guidance of the great German Heldentenor Max Lorenz. You can hear this all the time. Compare him to the Wagner voices in Bayreuth today - he will easily beat them all...
Did James King sing only Siegmund? Didn't he ever attemp Siegfried?0
...not to my knowledge. He wisely managed his voice and concentrated what this marvelous voice was best for. He did neither Siegfried nor Tristan and kept this unique color. There is none like him today. Would-be Heldentenors try inappropriate roles...
RDS
...and what a splendid Lohengrin he was!! RDS
@@josephespratt ...Thank you! I remember some parts of it. However, on stage, the complete Tristan? He also did some parts of Otello, however -to my knowledge - not the entire Opera . He was always smart and preserved his silver sound until old age. Marvelous! JK has always been one of my favorite Tenors.
RDS
@@mk5244 he definitely sang extracts of Tristan like the big love duet in Act 2 but from my own knowledge I don’t think he sang the full Opera. I think his coach advised him against it for endurance reasons.
Hilarious (and rather naughty) to be able to hear the prompter muttering the lyrics a tad before King sings them!
I LOVE that we can hear the prompter in the background!!
Incredible!!!!
THE BEST
Lately I can't get enough of this voice. Thanks a lot for posting. I find the prompter a bit annoying but other than that great recording. ;) I've been looking for good live recordings of King in complete operas, not easy to find!
i like it !!!!! nice pronunciation of german too, i think.
Wonderful singing.TY r for posting.and Candy for sharing.
reteosnikrep - just checked again and now i am able to download the third part! thanks!
Thanks a lot for making the whole thing available, very nice. :-)
James King sounds like he's from Asgard.
Hell yeah
If only the people who are currently casting Wagnerian operas around the globe would do a little listening to what this music is supposed to sound like. Searching out handsome, slight young men with silvery lyric voices to sing this music is preposterous and shows an embarrassing lack of understanding of the music and its demands. Mr. King sings with noble passion, color and character, something many pseudo-heldentenors of today should learn from.
…your statement is still valid. Thank you. RDS
Amen to that!
The complete performance is available for download if you check more info over to the right --->>>
wer wohl der Soufleur war, der zum Gelingen dieser wunderbaren Aufnahme beitrug? He did a good job!
Oh, of course it's his job. I just meant I feel a bit naughty being able to hear it -- like I'm sitting someplace I ought not (obviously, the prompter is not supposed to be evident to the audience member). It's a fascinating auditory glimpse behind the scenes -- that's all I meant.
Grande performance!!! Nonostante sia staccata troppo veloce...
Grows on you? I hope not - I grew up with an EP of this. So by now 50 years later it should be about ready to be felled.
retepsnikrep, thanks for doing this, but I have not been able to download the third and final lohengrin file, it keeps telling me that I need to become a premium member...do you know any way around this?
ha ha I'll do that ;D
KIng is one of the few Wagner tenors whom I like. His was a beautiful, real, unforced, squillo-endowed tenor voice. Most others, including Windgassen (whom I can't stand), Melchior, and Kollo torture me with their strained and dry sound when they sing. Poor Birgit! Why didn't she do Isoldes and Siegfrieds with King?!? [BTW, what a loss that Nilsson never did Ortrud. That was her role there, not Elsa.]
You can't stand Windgassen? I'm not familiar with him other than the video on TH-cam with him singing this aria, but in that video, I think he was amazing.
I like the three of them though I must admit that Kollo disappoints me sometimes.
Wagner tenors (Heldentenors) are the most exciting tenors than any other tenor. I don't know why.
Lots of comments from people who never seem to have heard any of these various tenors themselves live in the theater. Let me me share my memories. I've heard King, Windgassen, Kollo, Thomas, Vickers and Konya. Most of these were at SF Opera.
I never liked Konya much but he only did Lohengrin in the Wagnerian repertoire. Thomas was much preferable as the Swan Knight. Disclosure: I sang in the same voice studio with Thomas. Thomas was better than King in this part because it calls for a sweeter production. More Italianate. But King was better in all the more dramatic roles. They were occasionally cast as alternates in the same production. They doubled as Bacchus in Ariadne. King was better. Thomas could sing softly and sweetly in the Lohengrin Flower boat scene but Bacchus is a real gut buster. King had the volume and Squillo for the heroic roles. King would have been the Siegfried of our dreams but his voice was a little short on the top.
Vickers who also had a huge voice was better as Siegmond. Wingassen was a fake. His voive was small and thin at least in the big War Memorial Opera House. I heard him do Tristan with Nillson. He was a joke.
King sang with Jones in Fidelio. Those two together drowned out the whole orchestra and chorus. Very thrilling and memorable.
I heard Kollo do a solo concert and then one of his big roles in a full opera. Kollo had good days and some quite bad days. He was terrible in the first half of his concert but very good after the break and OK in the opera. Some tenors are nearly always in good voice (Pavarotti for example) and others have frequent bad performances(e.g. Aragall).
As it happens I had my hearing checked just last week. Obviously I've never heard Melchior live. I never said anything about him. I was just trying to provide testimony about tenors I had heard live. Maybe Windgassen might sound OK in a small hall but in a big American size opera house he was nearly inaudible.
Who conducted?
El mestre apuntador, em sembla, que no es Jaume Tribó.
Did he really need a prompter for this piece he must have sung dozens of times or do we have yet another example of the union influence here?
Apparently his memory was not the best, I guess he developed alzheimers later on.
@@downfromkentuckeh Excuse me, Big houses like the Met ALWAYS use a prompter whether the singer needs one or not.
@DoctorAcutus -Lorenz and Volker were IMHO the very best Wagnerian tenors ever.Urlus,Konya and Melchior were not very far behind.
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@Imrdunn brucvald: anyone can post the greatest stupidities like Melchior, Windgassen, Kollo are all loosers- incredible: for instance Karajan said to Kollo: you are the tenor I have been waiting for the last 40 years. Kollo sang at the Met, many years in Bayreuth, Scala etc. - all because he has a strained and dry sound - are you nuts?
On the prompter, Mr. King was always unsure of his memory, and indeed developed Alzheimer's.
Actually Vogt sings it with even more ease and better intonation
ArtShouldBeBeautiful
If you disconnect your ears and musicality maybe? No, not even then!!!
ArtShouldBeBeautiful you have no idea of what Wagner should sound like Vogt is an affront and should sing in the chorus of the Wiener Sänger knaben
I don't think that they would want Vogt in the chorus.
guter Witz 😂
Sometimes the recordings seem to be better then a singer has been in reality and sometimes it is the other way around. Kings voice - in the 7ties at Vienna Staatsoper was short and dull without radiance. We tolerated him as a reliable singer of the ensemble - but not more. When some people write about him as if he was a glorious star - well, he was not.