# Round 2 Tenor :Rachel, quand du Seigneur: Caruso, Thill, Sleak



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I spelled the names right in the last contest so I had to mess up this time. Slezak


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

At first, Caruso seems not to be invested in the aria, but he gets more urgent as the aria progresses and desesperation seems to creep into the voice toward the end.

Thill doesn’t seem very involved until the last few measures, though the voice is beautifully controlled throughout. 

Slezak gets right into it (in German) and seems more urgent than the other two helped, no doubt, by the faster tempo. His desperation is palpable. I need to vote for him.


----------



## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

These three were far more to my taste. Thill sounded great and at first I thought he had a direct simplicity but it came to feel uninvolved without a sense of the drama. Even in the older recording I found Slezak much more compelling. But this is one of Caruso's legendary recordings and with that glorious sound he adds that almost unfailing sense of drama in the music. Every phrase might not be perfect but the whole is close!


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> At first, Caruso seems not to be invested in the aria, but he gets more urgent as the aria progresses and desesperation seems to creep into the voice toward the end.
> 
> Thill doesn't seem very involved until the last few measures, though the voice is beautifully controlled throughout.
> 
> Slezak gets right into it (in German) and seems more urgent than the other two helped, no doubt, by the faster tempo. His desperation is palpable. I need to vote for him.


I don't think Slezak has been in a contest before but the fact that you liked him made me happy I decided to include him.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Thill sings this with more Gallic finesse than Caruso, and Slezak, with much less sheer voice, invests it with more tearful pathos. Still, Caruso, here in the last role he took on before his untimely death, is a force of nature, and by 1920 the acoustic recording process had improved enough that, according to Caruso's widow Dorothy, we can hear the depth and power of his tone "as if he were in the next room." I'm tempted by Slezak's poignant rendering, but can't get past the power of Caruso's. What a loss that he didn't live to sing Otello.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Three very different versions and I really enjoyed all three, but it's Caruso who finally gets my vote. The power and depth of that voice, allied to his innate musicality, won the day for me.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

After ousting Slezak because I felt the last notes were not powerful or emotional enough I found Thill's voice was by far the most appealing to me but someow or other he didn't seem involved enough whereas Caruso, despite not being a perfect Eleazar, expressed more pathos, especially toward the end.
I definitely think none of them came up to the passion rendered by Shicoff -- and in this one, it is truly necessary.

(Which reminds me of the time Corelli went into Tucker's dressing room and asked him to show him how he was able to affect a certain aria and Tucker put his hand on Corelli's shoulder and said words to the effect, "My boy, you have to be Jewish!)


----------



## Shaafee Shameem (Aug 4, 2021)

I find Slezak's reading the most poignant and cathartic, balancing Thill's elegant inward account and Caruso's searing outward portrayal.


----------



## Shaafee Shameem (Aug 4, 2021)

Shaafee Shameem said:


> I find Slezak's reading the most poignant and cathartic, balancing Thill's elegant inward account and Caruso's searing outward portrayal.


Slezak and Thill also have even finer legato than Caruso. So Slezak it is for me.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> ...Corelli went into Tucker's dressing room and asked him to show him how he was able to affect a certain aria and Tucker put his hand on Corelli's shoulder and said words to the effect, "My boy, you have to be Jewish!


The aria may have been this one, since Tucker, like Caruso, took on the role of Eleazar late in his career for the Met's revival of _La Juive._ I suspect that it was "revived" (funny expression; I picture someone giving it CPR) specifically for him, and he made a momentary success of it. The opera was considered standard rep up until Caruso's day, and was highly regarded by musicians, notably including Wagner.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

A bit of trivia: Leo Slezak's son Walter was a distinguished film actor many will remember as the Nazi in the lifeboat in Hitchcock's film "Lifeboat." Walter in turn fathered Erika Slezak, who played for decades the character Vicki in the American soap "One Life to Live."


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> A bit of trivia: Leo Slezak's son Walter was a distinguished film actor many will remember as the Nazi in the lifeboat in Hitchcock's film "Lifeboat." Walter in turn fathered Erika Slezak, who played for decades the character Vicki in the American soap "One Life to Live."


I loved Walter Slezak, he usually played lovable rogues, especially in *Come September* - I used to be a rabid Gina Lollobrigida fanboy.


----------



## eblackadder (10 mo ago)

Caruso's titanic recording of the aria is the only one I ever wish to hear.


----------

