From: chrisi@lloyd.Camex.COM (Chris Ischay)
Subject: Re: Which forza/carlos/ballo to buy?
Organization: Camex Inc., Boston MA
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:22:23 EDT

In article <BvEDns.GE@news.udel.edu> conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
writes:

>In article <1992Sep29.215959.15955@husc3.harvard.edu>
vnguyen@husc8.harvard.edu writes:

>>In article <1992Sep29.115834.21442@lloyd.Camex.COM>, Chris Ischay writes:

>>> There is a Callas recording of Ballo taken from a performance around 1957
>>> or so, with Gavazzeni conducting and Giuseppe di Stefano at his best as
>>> Riccardo.  

>>I would second the praise for this one, for those who can bear with live
>>recordings that is.  The love dute in Act II has to be heard to be
>>believed,

>Meaning what?  It's awful?  Wonderful?  How about using a few words to
>tell us what it's actually like?

Well, I'll take a crack at it since I was the one who originally mentioned
the recording.  I assume the passage Vihn Nguyen is referring to begins
when Riccardo pops out of the shadows abruptly with "Teco io sto."

Both Callas and di Stefano from that point on sing an extremely convincing
and exciting duet.  I believe them.  I believe Amelia is agitated from her
ordeal thus far; that she's surprised and shocked at finding another person
there; that she's agitated due to her love conflict (loves one, married to
another); and that she's totally swept up and away in the moment.  Di
Stefano is equally convincing.  This scene is so full of ripe and fresh
melodies that I constantly marvel at Verdi's wealth of inventiveness.  And
di Stefano carries it off beautifully.  It's as if he's saying, "I love you
and I'm telling you with this song I just made up.  No.  Wait.  I've got
another song on the same topic and I'm so breathlessly excited that I'm
just going to get right into it:  "O qual soave brivido ...."  And so on.

When things quiet down for a bit as Amelia wrestles with admitting her
love, Callas half holds on with "Eh ben..." and then she jumps in with both
feet on "T'amo!!"  I can picture a corny actress doing a Bernhardt
gesticulation at this point -- a little pumping in the legs, arms wide and
then clutching at the heart.  When their two voices join, ... sorry Jon,
words fail me.  A similar thing happens in La Boheme just after "O soave
fanciulla."  Can't describe the delicious melting feeling.

Their passion is so ably communicated that I never tire of this scene.  As
Jon says below, Bjoerling and Milanov ain't half bad either, but they're
more "beautiful" whereas Callas/diStefano are more "fiery."  It's as if
they're somehow driven with a passion beyond their control.

>>and Callas and di Stefano sang as if there would be no tomorrow.  

>Which is usually a bad thing in my view.  (i.e., wrecked their voices in
>the excitement of the moment)  If you meant something different...again,
>some actual brief description would be welcome.

Yeah.  The downside is that you can almost hear di Stefano's vocal cords
popping as he sings.  I'm no expert on vocal technique, but there's this
tenor Big Noise sound that I find thrilling and exciting, and that most
tenors deal out judiciously and in small amounts.  Di Stefano lavished it
on us for the whole evening.  I know people say he burned his voice out
early by mis-use.  Maybe this is the kind of singing they were talking
about.  Nice while it lasted.  

Chris Ischay
chrisi@camex.com