# First Round: Trovatore- Il Balen: Galeffi, Schlusnus. Crabbe



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

*Carlo Galeffi, baritone, sings Il balen del suo sorriso [Il trovatore] - 1911 version




Il Trovatore: Il balen del suo sorriso (Recorded 1937) · Heinrich Schlusnus · Giuseppe Verdi · Staatskapelle Berlin · Johannes Schüler 




*Armand Crabbe - Il Trovatore - Il balen - Gramophone DB 4824 enregistré le 29 septembre 1931


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Once again a fascinating array of singers and recordings SOF!!! I did not mind the german but I thought the French interfered. I found it fascinating to hear the different cadenzas to remind that the ending was not in stone as it has been for decades. And I thought we got a genuine feel for the sound of a voice on a 1911 recording.

Galeffi has a wonderful voice and does make a further argument that baritones had a more natural way of making a "baritonal" sound back when. He had immediacy that caught my attention but once there I wanted a smoother legato.

Enter Heinrich Schlusnus, to me the most famous name of the bunch. I thought it was a gorgeous rendition, maybe not the most individually realized but filled with the flow and feeling that he's stuck on this woman that the aria asks for. I don't know what it is in the production of so many germanic singers that gives them a similar quality...a little less open but warm and even, Tauber is the poster-boy for it in my mind....but when I hear it I start to fear an accompanying lack of traditional feel for italian arias. Tauber and Schmidt were magnificent but not always exactly idiomatic. But Schlusnus seems to avoid whatever the musical leanings are that create that effect and to me, only the german language makes it less than idiomatic. As I mentioned, that didn't bother me much.

Crabbe sounds like a very good singer who, I'm guessing makes his mark in other material. The French did not work for me and I did not find his rendition competitive with Schlusnus but I would like to hear him in his strengths. Schlusnus for me.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Interesting and very different baritones from the ones I am familiar with (and also prefer as far as voices go -- except for Schlusnus). I disliked the nasal quality and sound of Crabbe.
Schlusnus by default. I have Hvorostovsky singing in the back of my brain to smoothe things over.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

How interesting! Here we have an aria from *Il Trovatore, Der Troubadour *and *Le Trouvère*. Actually Verdi did make some revisions for the Paris version of 1857, which was performed four years after the opera's Italian première. I don't know if these revisions are used when the opera is performed in Paris these days, but it shows there was a strong tradition of performing the opera in France, and in French, ever since its first performance there.

Of these versions above, the one I discounted first, oddly enough, was the Italian. Galeffi has a fine voice, but I didn't think he did anything special with it. That left me with Schlusnus and Crabbé and, honestly, I'm finding it hard to make my mind up. Schlusnus has the most obviously beautiful voice, plus he is a musical singer and has an impeccable legato. I almost forgot he was singing in German. Crabbé's voice I didn't take to at all when he started the recitative. I thought he sounded old and pallid, but something happened as he started to sing the aria itself, and something about his delivery forced me to listen not just to the voice, but what he was doing with it. His voice is very French, almost a _baryton martin _and it wouldn't surprise me to hear he was a fine Pelléas (I don't know whether he was or not), but is well suited to what is one of Verdi's higher lying Verdi baritone roles.

Even in German, I think Schlusnus is the more italianate and probably more what one expects in this aria. I'd love to hear him sing it in Italian, but I do find Crabbé's version very interesting, and maybe it's right that it should sound more French in this version.

I'm torn at the moment.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ScottK said:


> Once again a fascinating array of singers and recordings SOF!!! I did not mind the german but I thought the French interfered. I found it fascinating to hear the different cadenzas to remind that the ending was not in stone as it has been for decades. And I thought we got a genuine feel for the sound of a voice on a 1911 recording.
> 
> Galeffi has a wonderful voice and does make a further argument that baritones had a more natural way of making a "baritonal" sound back when. He had immediacy that caught my attention but once there I wanted a smoother legato.
> 
> ...


What a well thought out critique!!!! Thanks. I did some work on this one


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> How interesting! Here we have an aria from *Il Trovatore, Der Troubadour *and *Le Trouvère*. Actually Verdi did make some revisions for the Paris version of 1857, which was performed four years after the opera's Italian première. I don't know if these revisions are used when the opera is performed in Paris these days, but it shows there was a strong tradition of performing the opera in France, and in French, ever since its first performance there.
> 
> Of these versions above, the one I discounted first, oddly enough, was the Italian. Galeffi has a fine voice, but I didn't think he did anything special with it. That left me with Schlusnus and Crabbé and, honestly, I'm finding it hard to make my mind up. Schlusnus has the most obviously beautiful voice, plus he is a musical singer and has an impeccable legato. I almost forgot he was singing in German. Crabbé's voice I didn't take to at all when he started the recitative. I thought he sounded old and pallid, but something happened as he started to sing the aria itself, and something about his delivery forced me to listen not just to the voice, but what he was doing with it. His voice is very French, almost a _baryton martin _and it wouldn't surprise me to hear he was a fine Pelléas (I don't know whether he was or not), but is well suited to what is one of Verdi's higher lying Verdi baritone roles.
> 
> ...


I thought of you when I heard Crabbe as he does the types of things you value.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Seattleoperafan said:


> What a well thought out critique!!!! Thanks. I did some work on this one


That’s very clear!!!


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

I absolutely love Galeffi and this is an aria that should have been perfect for him but I thought this was a sub-par rendition. Schlusnus for me too.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I thought of you when I heard Crabbe as he does the types of things you value.


I voted for him in the end, mostly because I thought nobody else would.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Galeffi sounds effortful to me, whereas Schlusnus is smooth, even in German. The French Crabbe almost convinces it’s Italian - I’ll go with him.


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