Here's something you might be interested in.
After revisiting La mamma morta I went ahead and did a YouTube survey of about a dozen different performances of the finale duet from Andrea Chenier, Vicino a te.
The real Andrea Chenier was a poet from the French Revolution who was a victim of Robespierre’s Reign of Terror. Robespierre got his head removed as well a few months later.
Politics.
The composer of the opera Andrea Chenier, Umberto Giordano, used Chenier’s actual poems as text for the tenor’s arias in the opera.
This concluding duet comes after Chenier’s lover and soulmate, Maddalena, has bribed the guard to let her take the place of condemned noble woman. Maddalena is intent on embracing death with Chenier.
The two lovers sing of their union through love and death. One can only wonder if Giordano was influenced by Wagner’s Liebestod, the “love death” from the conclusion of Tristan und Isolde.
The performances on YouTube were more than interesting.
There was a complete but poor-quality video of Tebaldi and del Monaco performing Chenier in Tokyo in 1961. Tebaldi’s voice effortlessly covered del Monaco up on the high notes. She looks as though she’s hardly singing while he looks like he’s trying to pass a square turd.
Five years later, on The Ed Sullivan Show, Corelli and Tebaldi sang Vicino a te and Corelli held every high note just a smidge longer than Tebaldi. Perhaps they had agreed that she would decide when to move or perhaps Corelli was being a dick and making sure he held everything longer.
There was a video from a 1983 Metropolitan Opera Gala with Giuseppe Giacomini and Eva Marton. Giacomini’s voice always blows me away. Eva Marton looks great but her voice sounds harsh next to Giacomini's honey-gold tone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtBaCogE07E
There is a complete video of the opera with Jose Cura. I was shocked when he sang the finale high note and octave down. He sounded like he was laboring through the duet but singing the note an octave low? I didn’t see that one coming.
The most satisfying of the lot was a performance with Placido Domingo from Vienna in 1981. Domingo isn’t afraid to sing quietly in this recording and the effect is mesmerizing.
The duet starts at the 2:03:00 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBpXPU6YvGc
After revisiting La mamma morta I went ahead and did a YouTube survey of about a dozen different performances of the finale duet from Andrea Chenier, Vicino a te.
The real Andrea Chenier was a poet from the French Revolution who was a victim of Robespierre’s Reign of Terror. Robespierre got his head removed as well a few months later.
Politics.
The composer of the opera Andrea Chenier, Umberto Giordano, used Chenier’s actual poems as text for the tenor’s arias in the opera.
This concluding duet comes after Chenier’s lover and soulmate, Maddalena, has bribed the guard to let her take the place of condemned noble woman. Maddalena is intent on embracing death with Chenier.
The two lovers sing of their union through love and death. One can only wonder if Giordano was influenced by Wagner’s Liebestod, the “love death” from the conclusion of Tristan und Isolde.
The performances on YouTube were more than interesting.
There was a complete but poor-quality video of Tebaldi and del Monaco performing Chenier in Tokyo in 1961. Tebaldi’s voice effortlessly covered del Monaco up on the high notes. She looks as though she’s hardly singing while he looks like he’s trying to pass a square turd.
Five years later, on The Ed Sullivan Show, Corelli and Tebaldi sang Vicino a te and Corelli held every high note just a smidge longer than Tebaldi. Perhaps they had agreed that she would decide when to move or perhaps Corelli was being a dick and making sure he held everything longer.
There was a video from a 1983 Metropolitan Opera Gala with Giuseppe Giacomini and Eva Marton. Giacomini’s voice always blows me away. Eva Marton looks great but her voice sounds harsh next to Giacomini's honey-gold tone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtBaCogE07E
There is a complete video of the opera with Jose Cura. I was shocked when he sang the finale high note and octave down. He sounded like he was laboring through the duet but singing the note an octave low? I didn’t see that one coming.
The most satisfying of the lot was a performance with Placido Domingo from Vienna in 1981. Domingo isn’t afraid to sing quietly in this recording and the effect is mesmerizing.
The duet starts at the 2:03:00 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBpXPU6YvGc