# Underappreciated Great Singers



## kappablanca (9 mo ago)

Especially in opera's prewar golden years, great singers were a dime a dozen. Unfortunately, this leads to some singers who have fallen through the cracks of time. Who is a singer you think is overlooked despite their obvious artistry?

Here's my submission: Umberto Urbano. Dark, rich, handsome, great technique, sensitive singing. It feels almost criminal how little he's mentioned here. Just imagine if he sang today! 

Eri Tu


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## OffPitchNeb (Jun 6, 2016)

There are plenty! That is why I respect the series Lebendige Vergangenheit for bringing awareness to many unjustly neglected talents.

Off the top of my head, I nominate the mezzo *Florica Cristoforeanu.* Phenomenal voice, but hardly mentioned in any anthology of historical singers.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Cloe Elmo, an artist of the first rank.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

3 of each major fach:

soprano

Lina Bruna Rasa
Mary Costa
Anita Cerquetti

mezzo

Kirsten Thorborg
Irene Menghini-Cattaneo
Tamara Sinyavskaya

contralto

Zenaida Pally
Marie Powers
Claramae Turner

tenor

Anatoly Solovyanenko
John Alexander
Ramon Vinay

baritone

Mykola Kondratyuk
Peter Glossop
Nicolae Herlea

bass: 

Giulio Neri
Giorgio Tadeo
Boris Shtokolov


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Conchita Valasquez has a gorgeous voice but has very little on Youtube. 
Elinor Ross gets skipped and she was quite wonderful.
Ruth Ann Swensen has a gorgeous plush coloratura voice.


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## Tarneem (Jan 3, 2022)

Sara Mingardo , absolutely stunning! her voice is as powerful as coffee


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Elinor Ross gets skipped and she was quite wonderful.


I have seen a video of Norma with Elinor Ross and Mario del Monaco. The singing was beautiful. As actors, though, they were quite bad


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Tarneem said:


> Sara Mingardo , absolutely stunning! her voice is as powerful as coffee


I'm guessing you mean powerful as in expressive? This sounds like a very light, modern Baroque, voice as is usual nowadays.


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## Tarneem (Jan 3, 2022)

Op.123 said:


> I'm guessing you mean powerful as in expressive? This sounds like a very light, modern Baroque, voice as is usual nowadays.



I mean she wakes my mind up. I used to listen to her in my university days when I used to stay up at night doing my assignments


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BBSVK said:


> I have seen a video of Norma with Elinor Ross and Mario del Monaco. The singing was beautiful. As actors, though, they were quite bad


She looked like a toad but I heard her in a Met broadcast back when I had their radio service and she had a glorious, big, flexible voice. They could do it like they did Caballe in Salome- she was to the side and a ballerina performed onstage LOL


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> She looked like a toad but I heard her in a Met broadcast back when I had their radio service and she had a glorious, big, flexible voice. They could do it like they did Caballe in Salome- she was to the side and a ballerina performed onstage LOL


As for her looks, she was neither beautiful, nor too ugly on that videotaped Norma. But that "magnificent" gesture at the end was really something, LOL. How she grabbed the side of her coat, so that she can make a wide wave with it as she turns for walking to the pyre. She even bended sideways a little, to increase the perimeter of the halfcycle. But that was still nothing, compared to Mario del Monaco, as he sang he loves her again, looking at the audience and conductor :-D

What was the opera you heard with Elinor Ross on the MET broadcast ?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BBSVK said:


> As for her looks, she was neither beautiful, nor too ugly on that videotaped Norma. But that "magnificent" gesture at the end was really something, LOL. How she grabbed the side of her coat, so that she can make a wide wave with it as she turns for walking to the pyre. She even bended sideways a little, to increase the perimeter of the halfcycle. But that was still nothing, compared to Mario del Monaco, as he sang he loves her again, looking at the audience and conductor :-D
> 
> What was the opera you heard with Elinor Ross on the MET broadcast ?


I saw some of that Norma ages ago. She could really sing it... and few can. You know, I don't remember. I had Met Opera Radio about 15 years ago. It was the main way I got to hear most of complete operas as I was working mostly full days then and was in and out of buildings with my delivery job but I could hear 70% of an opera. It was something like Tosca or Forza I think. The sonic quality of the old operas were great. I remember well the Ring with Flagstad and Melchior, Traviata with Ponselle, Butterfly with Kirsten in her 60's, a late Tebaldi in Gioconda which was FABULOUS, Milanov from her prime in the 40's, Carmen with Kirsten ( fabulous), Corelli and Nilsson in Aida, etc. Now they play a lot more current stars which bore me, but back then it was lots of historic stuff with great sound. I LOVED listening to L'esire D'amore and any Mozart opera , particularly Idomeneo and Cosi. Not really into them that much now, but they are really pleasant to listen to driving in traffic. Mozart doesn't have much down time as even the recitatives are so musical.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

This is tough. Anyone famous enough to get recording deals couldn't've been _that _overlooked, but most of the singers from before 1920, no matter how legendary in their time, are broadly overlooked today. I've listed some singers whose skill I believe to be truly legendary, although they are almost never mentioned, even by cognoscenti. In all caps are singers that I think are in the top 4 of all (recorded) time in their voice types.

Tenors:
Jaanis Zaabers
Barry Morell
Gennady Pishchaev

Baritones:
Armand Crabbé
Thomas L. Thomas (although he didn't actually pursue a classical career)
Frank Valentino

Basses:
OSCAR NATZKA
JUSTE NIVETTE
Hippolyte Belhomme

I don't follow female singing enough to know who the true off-the-beaten-path gems are, though Florica is an absolute favorite.

I dunno...Fanny Torresella? Jeanne Gerville-Réache? Maria Gay?


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

PaulFranz said:


> I don't follow female singing enough to know who the true off-the-beaten-path gems are...


Florence Quartararo?





She was a young Californian whom Bruno Walter heard turn up on Bing Crosby's radio show, in 1945 I think; she was soon at the Met (January 1946) with little or no stage experience, learning on-the-job as it were; manager Edward Johnson brought her along slowly. There was a broadcast of Pagliacci in 1948 - 






Metropolitan Opera Association


The Metropolitan Opera Archives Database



archives.metoperafamily.org





and she did eight 78rpm sides with RCA Victor, including 2 sides of the Act I Tosca duet with Ramon Vinay, not on the above playlist:






She also did a good bit of singing on radio, particularly the Standard Hour and Mutual [network] Opera Concert. --and then Italo Tajo hit the Met and swept her off her feet or something. By the 1949-1950 season she was Mrs. Tajo, salted away in Italy and not absolutely retired but not encouraged to sing either.

When I think of all the performaces by the dire Delia Rigal from the first 5 years or so of the Bing regime, when it could have been her...


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Tarneem said:


> Sara Mingardo , absolutely stunning! her voice is as powerful as coffee


That was exactly the impression I got. Made me think of listening to pleasant baroque music at a French bistro, Admittedly, she uses the "old baroque" (which is actually new baroque) technique that I'm not typically a fan of, but some singers manage to use it and sound pleasing to the ears. Vivica Genaux comes to mind as another such singer. To a lesser extent, Joyce Didonato and, on occasion, Cecilia Bartoli.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Maria Cebotari, taken from us far too soon
side note: I prefer lighter soprano voices singing Butterfly to the big, dark spinto voices which have been en vogue over the last half century. Ciao Ciao San is only 15 at the start of the opera and is innocent and deeply romantic. A lot of these big, womanly voices sound more like divorced mothers and don't capture that youthful heartbreak and idealism quite so readily.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

I mentioned Kerstin Thorborg recently, but I thought I'd post an example. One of the best examples of true chiaro-scuro singing I've come across. Her voice reminds me of a mighty, ironclad battleship sailing peacefully under the starry night sky. Formidable and heroic, but clear, feminine and graceful. I also appreciate that her voice matches her physical appearance: modestly beautiful and understated, rather than showy and wanting to draw a lot of undeserved attention as tends to be the norm today.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Wonderful singer from the Wagnerian golden age. If she were singing Brangaene now she'd upstage any Isolde we could cast alongside her.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Also Ortrud! She did 27 performances of Ortrud with the Met between 1938 and 1946, mixed in with 52 of Brangäne between 1936 and 1949, blistering in one and serene in the other. Check out her "entweihte Götter" in, say, the 1940 or 1943 Lohengrin broadcast!


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