# BARITONE TOURNAMENT (By Request Teacher-Student): Danise vs Valdengo



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Giuseppe Danise, Italy, 1882-1963






Giuseppe Valdengo, Italy, 1914-2007






'Eri tu' from Verdi's _Un ballo in maschera_.

Who's singing did you prefer and why?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I love Valdengo but in this particular aria Danise has a way with the music that is a cut above. It's painfully close but Danise gets the crown.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Danise has the freedom, security and efficiency of tone production to be able to phrase and shade in a way that must seem miraculous to anyone who knows only the baritones active in the last half-century. He, and singers like him, are why we must listen to the first generations of recording artists simply in order to know what the human voice can do. Valdengo, coming just one generation later, is not quite in the same class. Whether his interpretation is less interesting because he can't manage Danise's dynamic control, or simply because he's a less imaginative musician, I'm not sure. It may very well be both.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Agree with both of the above posts. As we often say in these sorts of contests, we'd be happy to have Valdengo nowadays, but Danise is first rate here.

In this case, we are lucky to actually have a record of Danise teaching Valdengo, about 5 years before Valdengo's recording was made.





I also came across this interview with Danise:





Also some interesting info from Wikipedia (so I hope it's accurate) about Danise's own training:
"Though he began studies in law, he was urged to take up a career in singing, as he had a natural singing voice. He attended the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples, where he was trained first by Luigi Colonnese, a baritone of the previous generation whose own pedagogical lineage included Alessandro Busti and the castrato Girolamo Crescentini. According to Danise, for the first year he was only allowed to sing tones-no scales and no songs."

That he had a natural singing voice but still had to go through a long and rigorous training beginning with only tone singing is very interesting to me. My voice teacher started me out with scales and songs right away.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Valdengo had a fine voice, but is not as imaginative as his teacher, Danise, who does a lot more with the music, though apparently this was not always the case in the studio. John Steane castigates him for delivering a very penny plain and dull _Di Provenza il mar_ (_The Grand Tradition_, Duckworth 1974).


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Valdengo had a fine voice, but is not as imaginative as his teacher, Danise, who does a lot more with the music


To my ears, Danise also possesses a lot more sheer voice. Valdengo was an intelligent singer - which is presumably why Toscanini favored him - but the voice itself was nothing special.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

_"Eri tu"_ was the selection following "Una macchia è qui tutt'ora" with Callas in the recording that introduced me to her ( a Time-Life collection of Classical music that spanned all music periods). The aria was preceded by the recitative "Alzati, là il tuo figlio ti concedo a riveder," and sung by Fischer-Dieskau. It was very impressive, given the very modern resonant recording.

Giuseppe Danise was the husband of Bidu Sayao, but I hadn't heard him before and the primitive recording somewhat dulls his voice, but can't hide his artistry or his control of his instrument. Masterful. I like Valdengo's timbre which the more modern recording enhances and he obviously knows what he's doing but, ultimately he is overmatched by the superior Danise.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Valdengo's recording has some strange flapping effect which I cannot fully attribute to the singer's vibrato technique only, but an unpleasant one anyway. But as for Danise... this is the case when teacher is head and shoulders above his student... this is one of the damn best performances of _Eri tu_... and it shames me to say I have never heard Giuseppe Danise before. Time to amend that!


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## shiptontense (2 mo ago)

Danise is amazing


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

I thought I was going to experience Bonetan stepping back up to the plate but then saw it was an old thread revived, I assume by shiptontense trolling. I’m always glad of that because I get stuff I wouldn’t have heard. I try to avoid seeing anything before I unscramble my own thoughts but here, I believe I saw Danise carrying the day and with vocalism like that and the right audience, no surprise. But my vote is going to Valdengo. Danise’s involvement felt inconsistent to me... at times all I’d ask for and at others... almost glib!...smooth vocalism winning over drama. And it had nothing to do with the ornaments because I think they all occurred when I found him to be involved. I don’t know if Valdengo’s opening line would have been as potent without that element of Danise’s performance in my mind, but that’s how it goes. I did find Danise lacking and I did find Valdengo’s opening “It Was You“ to be very effective and I thought he never dropped the ball. Vocalism, not on Danise’s level but not too shabby, and he had the sine qua non.... the ingredient you can’t do without!


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Danise's top note is literally the worst I have ever heard in this aria (I don't listen to the modern trainwrecks). Odd that everyone just lets that go. He never sounds particularly stable up there, which is why he is firmly in my bottom tier of baritones I listen to.


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