Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Classical music lovers with ages congruent to mine are sure to recall the old Voice of Firestone broadcasts on radio and television that ran from 1950 to around 1963. On the premise that great singers should be seen as well as heard, Kultur has restored on three DVDs segments of many of those shows that featured great names in opera; and each is a must for those who have fond memories of these events."The Great Sopranos" (D2442) includes appearances by Eleanor Steber, Joan Sutherland, Leontyne Price, Birgit Nilsson, Anna Moffo, Bidu Sayao, Renata Tebaldi, Licia Albanese, Helen Traubel, Roberta Peters, Patrice Munsel, and Jeanette Macdonald. Each sings an aria from opera, operetta, or (in Nilsson's segment) a popular song. "The Great Tenors" (D2443) features Jussi Bjoeling, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Jan Peerce, Lauritz Melchior, Jess Thomas, Nicolai Gedda, Richard Tucker, James McCracken, and Franco Corelli-each singing one or two arias or traditional songs. Both have running times of 58 minutes.A third set, "Jussi Bjoerling in Opera and Song" (D2424) features the tenor as he appeared on four Firestone shows in 1950 and 1951, and one or two of the selections are duplicated but with different settings and treatments. (Two of them already appeared on "The Great Tenors" set.) People who love this artist will want this set as a memory of this much beloved singer. For variety, Firestone conductor Howard Barlow gives us three orchestral selections by Brahms, Glazunov and Tchaikovsky. The running time here is 65 minutes.Naturally the picture and sound quality ranges from poor to adequate, given the source (early television) and the age of the material, and one must not expect to hear what these singers really sounded like. (In fact, an article in a recent Opera News says that even the best digital recordings cannot do this.) But watching them in action is quite a treat and makes the project well worth it.Some of the selections are sung with the artist in formal dress standing in front of a curtain or with the orchestra as background, some are costumed against an abstract set, some are given a fully mounted scene. Now and again, a chorus is added for variety; and the whole thing is a lot of fun. Thank you, Kultur.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Voices of Firestone: The Great Tenors / Bjorling, Corelli, Tagliavini, Tucker, Peerce, Gedda, McCracken, Thomas
Get 10% OFF
0 comments:
Post a Comment