This is my first blog.

Yes, this is my first blog. What do I blog about? Music, mostly, the thing I am almost always most passionate about. Then again, it's rare for me not to have an opinion on something! ;)

This is Lina Bruna Rasa, a great soprano.  There are some people who are unaware that before Maria Callas, most singers actually could both sing and act, at least with their voices. Singers sang from the kishkes, from the guts, and they sang like they meant it, real blood and guts singing. Singers were distinctive, and had great technique, even if their voices weren't always "pretty" or even attractive. Yet, the vast majority of those singers had very solid technique, something that at least to my ears Callas never quite had a handle on. (Sure, in the right repertoire, she could sound pretty wonderful, but rarely if ever ravishing- and certainly there is always the thought in the back of your mind that she might not make it through the aria, much less sing the high note. Her famous, and frankly awful, Tosca recording already shows a voice in serious trouble.)

Now then, this is a blog about singers I think sang well, consistently, not had a good night once in a while. I am no fan of DiStefano for exactly that reason, although when he was very young, like prior to 1950, he was stunning. In the early fifties, for a few short years, he still sang relatively well. But his technique! Terrible. We almost forget that a singer should have great technique AND can be unbelievably exciting.

Seems strange, doesn't it? A TRULY awe-inspiring singer like AURELIANO PERTILE, for example, had amazing technique but not the prettiest sound. In fact, critics in his own time said that his voice was actually UGLY, and frankly, that isn't an untrue assessment. So, let's listen to Pertile:

Why is this singer considered great? Well, his singing is impassioned, expressive, and exciting. From a technical point of view, he sings through the passagio perfectly, for one. His top notes ring, and the voice has a true passionate, Italian "throb" to it. His technique was so good that he sang without much of change in his timbre or range for the nearly twenty five years he sang professionally, from about 1915 or so to about 1940.

Pretty voiced FRITZ WUNDERLICH, was also an exciting singer, but not just because he had an impassioned throb in the sound, but because the sound was just so heartachingly gorgeous. Let's hear ol' Fritz, who died at 35 years old:

Here he sings a really killer aria from Mozart's Escape from the Seraglio. He handles the thing like nothing could be easier, and at the same time, sings with a gorgeous tone and great musicality. Mozart suited him beautifully. Even though he sang the Italian lyric repertoire beautifully (like everything he sang!), he never seems quite at home there. Then again, he was so young at the time of his death that one can only begin to imagine that voice in its maturity, and with some really solid coaching in the style.

Okay, this was just a little taste of what I felt like doing. More some other time, I suppose?