# Best prologue from Pagliacci ever....................



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I love it.
Which is your favorite/best?


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Gobbi...Serafin '54

I wish this didn't sound like it was raining inside...


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Couac Addict said:


> Gobbi...Serafin '54
> 
> I wish this didn't sound like it was raining inside...


Your recording, from 1917, is of Riccardo Stracciari, who is my favorite (as he is in a lot of music). Thanks for sparing me the trouble of posting it! :tiphat:


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Taddei on the Karajan set is pretty good!


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Your recording, from 1917, is of Riccardo Stracciari, who is my favorite (as he is in a lot of music). Thanks for sparing me the trouble of posting it! :tiphat:


A favourite of mine too but my hifi highlights the audio imperfections on records.


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## WertherCharlotte (Mar 14, 2015)

Love Gobbi & Ruffo, plus:

Leonard Warren






I'd add Cornell MacNeil as well.

Or the elegant Ettore Bastianini


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Yeah. Leonard Warren was terrific.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Robert Merrill of course!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

DavidA said:


> Taddei on the Karajan set is pretty good!


I may be wrong, but I think this was the recording on which the beating of the bass drum was so vigorous that one of the skins split - HvK decided to leave it unedited.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

I haven't heard many different versions, but I absolutely love this one:






As a matter of fact, the performance (Met telecast) of PAGLIACCI from which this excerpt comes is just about perfect, IMO.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

I've never liked the Prologue much tbh, but I found this lovely video- sound and picture- of Pavel Lisitsian singing it. The Pagliacci prologue is right at the start of the video, and I don't know what's on the rest of the video because I have't watched it all yet. It's lovely singing, although it does sound slightly odd in Russian. Still, I can't think of any operatic baritones in the west at that time who were as good.






And another fine baritone from eastern Europe (via the US), Igor Gorin, who sings in Italian:


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## perdido34 (Mar 11, 2015)

Lisitsian is wonderful, and Leonard Warren as well. I like Tito Gobbi, although he didn't have half the vocal quality of either of those two.


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## Cesare Impalatore (Apr 16, 2015)

I always loved Aldo Protti's Tonio. He was never as critically acclaimed as Taddei, Warren etc. but he did have a great timbre, near perfect italian singing technique and most importantly an impressive natural gift for acting, both physically and vocally. No one brought Tonio to life like him for me:


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

Gobbi for me is just perfection.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Easily Tibbett live in 34. It gives me chills and brings a tear to my eye. People used to get to see this kind of singing in person! Baritones haven't sung like that since Tibbett himself declined, so around 1940. 82 years and counting now...


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

PaulFranz said:


> Easily Tibbett live in 34. It gives me chills and brings a tear to my eye. People used to get to see this kind of singing in person! Baritones haven't sung like that since Tibbett himself declined, so around 1940. 82 years and counting now...


Tibbett never ceases to amaze. This whole performance is phenomenal, in another universe from anything heard today. I wasn't familiar with anyone in the recording except Martinelli and Tibbet, but they're all superb. Even the second tenor, Alfio Tedsco (also known as Alfredo Tedeschi), who sings Beppe, is better than our "star" tenors. Today, in the absence of a dramatic tenor such as Martinelli, Tedesco would probably be cast as Canio, which according to one site he did sing, but he seems to have had a long career emphasizing lyric and bel canto roles.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I only know Gobbi’s well. There are voices and there are voices, but the inflections of his voice remain in my ears. Once you hear them…


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Carlo Galeffi is superb.


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