# Top 10 baritones



## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

I don't think there's a Top 10 thread for baritones yet, so I thought I'd start one now! Who are your ten favourites of all time? Including bass baritones if you like, or not- it's your list so bend or make up the 'rules' as you see fit. Personally I've excluded singers who I think of as recitalists rather than operatic baritones (sorry Gerard Souzay!) but others may decide differently.

So here is my first stab at a personal top 10. I may make substitutions later- after all, this is a serious matter 

Victor Maurel
Maurice Renaud
Leon Melchissédec
Jean Lassalle
Giuseppe Kaschmann
Mattia Battistini
Lucien Fugere
Anton van Rooy
Lelio Casini
Jean Noté


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

^.....I didn't know a single one of those 

in no particular order
Robert Merrill 
Richard Fredericks
Dmytro Hnatyuk
Sherrill Milnes
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Nicolai Herlea
Leonard Warren
Cornell Macneil
Teddy Rhodes
Hakan Hagegard


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> ^.....I didn't know a single one of those


Well it's a bit of an antiquarian selection I admit. Too late to hear any of these guys in the flesh now! All are on YouTube though: it's actually where I first heard Casini a couple of years ago after I first heard of him in Titta Ruffo's autobiography (Casini was Ruffo's teacher.) However, most I discovered via Symposium, Naxos and Pavilion mail order CD catalogues in the bad old days before online shopping!

More really good baritones: Friedrich Schorr, Emilio de Gogorza, Alexis Ghasne, Henri Albers, Eugene Dathané, Gabriel Soulacroix, Max Bouvet...

Wait. Charles Santley is not on my list. I am the worst 'top 10 baritones' list compiler ever! Back in a sec...


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Maurel
Renaud
SIR CHARLES SANTLEY of course
Melchissédec
Lassalle
Kaschmann
Battistini
Fugere
Van Rooy
Casini

(Maybe I will just sneak Jean Noté back on the list and hope nobody can count to 11. 10 is such an arbitrary number anyway.)


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Mine are in chronological order (more or less):

1. Giuseppe de Luca
2. Lawrence Tibbett
3. Robert Merrill
4. Cornell MacNeil
5. Sherrill Milnes
6. Thomas Allen
7. Vladimir Chernov
8. Dwayne Croft
9. Simon Keenlyside
10. Quinn Kelsey

Milnes is actually my favorite, followed by Tibbett; after that, it's just too hard to put them in order from "favorite" to "lesser favorite," which is why I chose the chronological list.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

In no particular order

Piero Cappuccilli
Ettore Bastianini
Quinn Kelsey
Simon Keenlyside
Sherrill Milnes
Leo Nucci
Alessandro Corbelli
Gerald Finlay
Renato Bruson
Giorgio Zancanaro


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

My current list is something like:

Carlo Galeffi
Cornell MacNeil
Giuseppe de Luca
Giuseppe Taddei
Heinrich Schlusnus
Leonard Warren
Mattia Battistini
Pavel Lisitsian
Riccardo Stracciari
Sesto Bruscantini


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Bastianini
Merrill
Hvorostovsky
Gobbi
Finley
Warren
Ruffo
Hampson
Kwiecien
Mattei


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

My faves:
- Sherrill Milnes
- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
- Dmitri Hvorostovsky
- Dietrich Henschel
- Simon Keenlyside
- Anthony Michaels-Moore
- Wolfgang Brendel
- Peter Mattei
- Sesto Bruscantini


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## messadivoce (Apr 18, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> I don't think there's a Top 10 thread for baritones yet, so I thought I'd start one now! Who are your ten favourites of all time? Including bass baritones if you like, or not- it's your list so bend or make up the 'rules' as you see fit. Personally I've excluded singers who I think of as recitalists rather than operatic baritones (sorry Gerard Souzay!) but others may decide differently.
> 
> So here is my first stab at a personal top 10. I may make substitutions later- after all, this is a serious matter
> 
> ...


Battistini is a miracle. Victor Maurel is good. Jean Note is really good too. I like his Sois Immobile.

Of that generation I am going to ask you about this list. No Antonio Pinsi-Corsi? Is he not French enough for you?  Or Mario Ancona? Or Antonio Scotti?


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## messadivoce (Apr 18, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> Well it's a bit of an antiquarian selection I admit. Too late to hear any of these guys in the flesh now! All are on YouTube though: it's actually where I first heard Casini a couple of years ago after I first heard of him in Titta Ruffo's autobiography (Casini was Ruffo's teacher.) However, most I discovered via Symposium, Naxos and Pavilion mail order CD catalogues in the bad old days before online shopping!
> 
> More really good baritones: Friedrich Schorr, Emilio de Gogorza, Alexis Ghasne, Henri Albers, Eugene Dathané, Gabriel Soulacroix, Max Bouvet...
> 
> Wait. Charles Santley is not on my list. I am the worst 'top 10 baritones' list compiler ever! Back in a sec...


Henri Albers and Emilio de Gogorza have powerful voices that are still soft and sweet when they need to be.


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## messadivoce (Apr 18, 2014)

Riccardo Stracciari
Afro Poli
Paolo Silveri
Manuel Ausensi
Ivan Petroff
Leonard Warren
Mattia Battistini
Giuseppe Bellatoni
Emilio de Gogorza
Josef Metternich


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

Just a few that come into my mind right now:
Simon Keenlyside
Claudio Desderi
Renato Bruson
Leo Nucci
Peter Mattei
Tito Gobbi
John Rawnsley


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

My favourites

Peter Mattei
Gerald Finley
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Ruggero Raimondi (yes, bass baritone, but he sings baritone roles)
Markus Eiche
José van Dam (yes, another bass baritone)
Simon Keenlyside
John Rawnsley
Sergei Leiferkus


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

In no particular order:

Tito Gobbi
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Hermann Uhde
Hans Hotter
Simon Keenlyside
Bryn Terfel
Thomas Hampson
Gerald Finley
Gustav Neidlinger
Geraint Evans


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Top 4 in no order:
Heinrich Schlusnus
Lawrence Tibbett
Riccardo Stracciari
Titta Ruffo
The rest below the top 4:
Giuseppe Bellantoni
Mattia Battistini
Giuseppe Pacini
Eugenio Giraldoni
Mario Ancona
Thomas L. Thomas

That got hard near the end, as before the 1930s Italy in particular produced a near-inexhaustible list of world-class baritones. A top-20 would be a lot easier, ya jerk!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> Bastianini
> Merrill
> Hvorostovsky
> Gobbi
> ...


It took me 7 years to change my list considerably.
1. Bastianini
2. Ruffo
3. Battistini
4. Hvorostovsky
5. Merrill
6. Pape
7. Gobbi
8. Mattei
9. NUcci
10. Kelsey


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

In no particular order:

1. Battistini
2. De Luca
3. Ruffo
4. Granforte
5. Reinmar
6. Merrill
7. Schorr
8. Amato
9. Danise
10. Urbano


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## IgorS (Jan 7, 2018)

1. Titta Ruffo
2. Mattia Battistini
3. Riccardo Stracciari
4. Appolo Granforte
5. Pasquale Amato
6. Guiseppe Danise
7. Guiseppe De Luca
8. Antonio Magini-Coletti
9. Mario Ancona
10. Pavel Lisitsian


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

In no particular order:

Igor Gorin 
Pavel Lisitsian
Josef Schwarz 
Robert Merrill
Ettore Bastianini 
Giuseppe De Luca
Peter Mattei
Lawrence Tibbett
Titta Ruffo
Mattia Battistini

And some” honorable mentions” that I regret omitting:

Gerhard Hüsch 
Heinrich Schlusnus
Michel Dens
Robert Massard
Ernest Blanc
Jorma Hynninen
Hakan Hagegard


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Nicolae Kondratyuk
Peter Glossop
Nicolae Herlea
Robert Merrill
Apollo Granforte 
Cornell MacNeil 
Leonard Warren
Titto Gobbi 
Sherrill Milnes 
Ettore Bastianini 

honorable mention (weren't opera singers): Nelson Eddy, Alfred Drake


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> honorable mention (weren't opera singers): Nelson Eddy, Alfred Drake


Eddy did sing some operatic performances early in his career, and included operatic selections in recital.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

*Italian*
Mattia Battistini
Giuseppe De Luca
Gino Bechi
Eugenio Giraldoni

*American*
Lawrence Tibbett
Richard Bonelli

*German*
Willi-Domgraf Fassbaender
Hans Reinmar

*French*
Arthur Endreze

*Russian*
Pavel Lisitsian- Andrej Ivanov tie


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> Nicolae Kondratyuk
> Peter Glossop
> Nicolae Herlea
> Robert Merrill
> ...


Ha! Alfred Drake was great. I'm glad someone mentioned him. Also not too shabby: Hermann Prey, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Ian Bostridge, Thomas Quasthoff, Hans Hotter, Gerard Souzay, Haken Hagegard, and Kim Borg. And for those of you willing to consider pop singers, check out the great Dick Haymes:


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

vivalagentenuova said:


> *French*
> Arthur Endreze


French trained, but born and raised in Chicago.

Glad you mentioned Bonelli - I forgot about him.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

wkasimer said:


> French trained, but born and raised in Chicago.
> 
> Glad you mentioned Bonelli - I forgot about him.


Interesting, I'd always just assumed he was French. I do think he counts as "French-school" at least though because he has a very traditional French sound.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

There are so many of the baritones listed that I'd never heard or heard of, mostly because I'm not a baritone guy. How many if the ones that posters mentioned that they'd never heard "live?"


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The contests got me interested in some. Short list but these do it for me:
Mattia Battistini
Tito Ruffo
Leonard Warren
Robert Merrill
Gobbi for his Scarpia with Callas


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

vivalagentenuova said:


> Interesting, I'd always just assumed he was French. I do think he counts as "French-school" at least though because he has a very traditional French sound.


No question. I once heard an interview with him, and the contrast between his singing and his obvious American English was striking.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> The contests got me interested in some. Short list but these do it for me:
> Mattia Battistini
> Tito Ruffo
> Leonard Warren
> ...


#Listen2MoreBaritones


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

vivalagentenuova said:


> Interesting, I'd always just assumed he was French. I do think he counts as "French-school" at least though because he has a very traditional French sound.


And a very noticeable foreign accent, unlike Villabella and Albers.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Way old recordings worked for me for Battistini but neither Sammarco nor Stracciari showed me what the shouting was about and I kind of stopped looking. I'm sure its just the way the voices came off those old recordings

Macneil
Tibbet
Fischer-Deiskau
Schorr
Berry
Prey
Battistini
DeLuca
Warren
Ruffo


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## Shaafee Shameem (Aug 4, 2021)

Mattia Battistini
Guiseppe De Luca
Guiseppe Danise
Guiseppe Pacini
Victor Maurel
Arthur Endreze
Lelio Casini
Pasquale Amato
Apollo Granforte
Mariano Stabile


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Tito Gobbi
Ettore Bastianini 
Leonard Warren
Giangiacomo Guelfi
Herbert Janssen
Lawrence Tibbett
Pavel Lisitsian
Giuseppe Taddei
Cornell MacNeil 
George London (Bass-baritone)


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Figleaf said:


> I don't think there's a Top 10 thread for baritones yet, so I thought I'd start one now! Who are your ten favourites of all time? Including bass baritones if you like, or not- it's your list so bend or make up the 'rules' as you see fit. Personally I've excluded singers who I think of as recitalists rather than operatic baritones (sorry Gerard Souzay!) but others may decide differently.
> 
> So here is my first stab at a personal top 10. I may make substitutions later- after all, this is a serious matter
> 
> ...


Have you heard Henri Stamler? He amazes me. Henri Albers was good too. And Henri Berriel. Something about those Henris (even though it wasn't really Albers's name).

Also, the only edit I'd make to my original post is to put Battistini all the way on the top, and solidify Bellantoni as #6. There's something about Battistini--he's the only singer of ANY voice type that I can listen to pretty much indefinitely because he varies his singing in a way I have never ever heard in anyone else. He does everything but trill---but most importantly, he is constantly changing his vowels, volume, speed, laryngeal height, vocal composition, vibrato, and even intonation. By "constantly," I mean he doesn't just wait for a cadenza or end of the aria. All with a voice that basically never gets tired or quits, even under very strenuous use. He's a miracle.


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## gsdkfasdf (11 mo ago)

No particular order
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
George London
Ettore Bastianini
Sherrill Milnes 
Gihoon Kim 
Tito Gobbi
Robert Merrill
Leonard Warren
Ingvar Wixell


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## Agamenon (Apr 22, 2019)

These giants make my ears happy.

1. Fischer Dieskau.
2. Gobbi.
3. Mc Neil.
4. Bastianini.
5. Cappuccilli.
6. Van Dam.
7. Merril.
8. Taddei.
9. Kelemen.
10.Prey.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

I like the idea of dividing by nationalities. Top 3s!

American:
Lawrence Tibbett
Thomas L. Thomas
Robert Weede

Russian:
Mikhail Karakash
Maksimilian Maksakov
Vladimir Zakharov

French:
Charles Cambon
Maurice Renaud
Henri Stamler

Belgian:
Armand Crabbé
Jean Noté
Ernest Tilkin-Servais

Dutch: 
Henri Albers
Anton van Rooy
Anton Sistermans

English:
John Barrow
John Rawnsley
Peter Glossop

Spanish:
Celestino Sarobe
Nestore Della Torre
José Segura Tallien

Romanian:
Nicolae Herlea
Dan Iordăchescu
Jean Athanasiu

Italian:
Mattia Battistini
Riccardo Stracciari
Titta Ruffo

Canadian:
Earnest Symmons
Louis Quilico
Victor Braun

Apologies for absolutely mangling the thread conceit.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Apparently too late to edit, but oh my God I forgot:

German:
Heinrich Schlusnus
Joseph Schwarz
Josef Metternich

Austrian:
Hans Duhan
Theodor Scheidl
Hans Braun


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

PaulFranz said:


> I like the idea of dividing by nationalities. Top 3s!
> 
> Russian:
> Mikhail Karakash
> ...


No love for Pavel Lisitsian?


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## Parsifal98 (Apr 29, 2020)

wkasimer said:


> No love for Pavel Lisitsian?


Such a great baritone!


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

D F-D
Tito Gobbi
Robert Merrill
Taddei
Milnes
Terfel
Kooy
Berry
Ramey
Maestri


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

wkasimer said:


> No love for Pavel Lisitsian?


He'd be next on the list. I just don't think he has the bloom in his voice that the others do--less clarity, duskier production. It's a kind of singing that wouldn't have flown a generation before. I mean, his vocal size is totally fine, his phrasing good, etc.,--I just don't particularly appreciate post-WWII vocal production, especially in baritones. He often sounds really breathy to me, and I know part of that is the better recording technology...but by no means all of it.

That said, I still like him enough to have his œuvre in my music library, which is more than I can say for many of the baritones I did list.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

PaulFranz said:


> He'd be next on the list. I just don't think he has the bloom in his voice that the others do--less clarity, duskier production. It's a kind of singing that wouldn't have flown a generation before. I mean, his vocal size is totally fine, his phrasing good, etc.,--I just don't particularly appreciate post-WWII vocal production, especially in baritones. He often sounds really breathy to me, and I know part of that is the better recording technology...but by no means all of it.












There's no arguing with taste, and taste is really what this thread is about, but when people try to justify their tastes with quasi-objective criticisms their assertions are open to questioning.

With whom would the "kind of singing" heard in the above performances not have "flown" before WWII, and why would it fly better afterward? What kind of singing is it, who else typifies that kind, and what characteristics of post-WWII vocal production do you hear in Lisitsian? "Less clarity" and "duskier production" read like impressions of timbre rather than descriptions of how he sings. His sound is certainly distinctive, and one may dislike it; I needed to adjust to it, but that happened quickly. It wouldn't occur to me to call his singing "breathy," but you're right about recording technology; if singers in 1920 were breathy, their frequency-restricted recordings probably wouldn't reveal it. Breathiness is a technical flaw, and what I've heard of Lisitsian's singing seems to me damn near flawless.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

I hear much noise in his recordings that I don't hear in singers like Corelli, Del Monaco, Jobin, Pagliazzi, Björling, Merrill, Lemeshev, Pirogov, or Tucker from the same period (except when they do it for expressive effect, like when gasping or pretending to die or something). I hear the same noise in Jan Peerce, Ernest Blanc, and Kim Borg. Treigle and Wunderlich used breathiness a lot, but their standard tone was not noisy. For Pavel, Jan, Ernest, and Kim, I hear a faint scratchy, breathy, noisy tone the whole time they sing. I also hear something similar, though less obvious, with Richard Verreau. For a much later example, I hear a ton of breathiness and inefficient noise in Khvorostovskij.

Golden-age singers were clearer, more metallic, more ringing. This video illustrates it: 




And a commenter wrote: "They are not comparable. 
Tibbet has voce antica. He sang with the
¨old days¨style , with squillo and metallic
timbre. Mr Milnes is a modern singer
with more blunt style,although more
brilliant acute notes. 
Both sing beautifuly. 
Both are great singers!!!"

Which drives at what I'm saying. Side by side, the difference in pure technique is striking. I definitely disagree about the high notes, though: ignoring the ones Tibbett throws away and listening to the final G from both of them, the Milnes note is worse in every imaginable way than the Tibbett note, because the modern style is a giant pile of technical flaws.

Anyway.






Как я люблю тебя 5 minutes in is noticeably breathy.






The first two times he sings ты подай, it's breathy.






40 seconds in, кто-то зовëт меня is breathy.

But pointing out specific instances isn't very useful because I hear noise on most of his notes. I just picked more obvious ones that show his inability to do a true piano. And yes, breathiness is a technical flaw. But try not to cry; it'll be okay. Pavel Lisitsian can have a technical flaw, and your day can still be a success.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

PaulFranz said:


> I hear much noise in his recordings that I don't hear in singers like Corelli, Del Monaco, Jobin, Pagliazzi, Björling, Merrill, Lemeshev, Pirogov, or Tucker from the same period (except when they do it for expressive effect, like when gasping or pretending to die or something). I hear the same noise in Jan Peerce, Ernest Blanc, and Kim Borg. Treigle and Wunderlich used breathiness a lot, but their standard tone was not noisy. For Pavel, Jan, Ernest, and Kim, I hear a faint scratchy, breathy, noisy tone the whole time they sing. I also hear something similar, though less obvious, with Richard Verreau. For a much later example, I hear a ton of breathiness and inefficient noise in Khvorostovskij.
> 
> Golden-age singers were clearer, more metallic, more ringing. This video illustrates it:
> 
> ...


Comparing Tibbet with Milnes is too easy. It's like comparing cognac with coca-cola...or has that metaphor already been taken?

Lisitsian is technically and musically much closer to Tibbet than to Milnes, who I think may be the worst baritone of comparable reputation (though obviously far from the worst baritone) in the last half century.

You're right, pointing out specific instances of breathy tone isn't very useful. It's quite possible to value different vocal attributes differently. The "success of my day" doesn't depend on anyone's opinion of Lisitsian or any other singer. As for the crying, it's from the raw onions i eat with my vodka while listening to Lisitsian.

One small request: when using Russian words and names, please use the alphabet familiar to English speakers, since English is the language of the forum and most here have not had occasion or need to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. I suspect that includes even some of us who have sung in Russian.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Upgrading from my original post 6 years ago:
Bastianini
Gobbi
Hvorostovsky
Tibbett
Lucic
Warren
Merrill
Battistini
Mattei
Finley


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