# Single Round: Il mio tesoro: Wunderlich, Gedda, Schreier



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)




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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Oh boy -- Get my little corner ready for me as you all choose the wonder voice of Wunderlich - who did a totally stunning job. But somehow my heart heard a sound that really grabbed me with its tenderness and nuance so I just had to go (alone I'm sure) with Schreier.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Is it possible to sing “_Il mio tesoro_” without aspirates? If you said Fritz Wunderlich, Nicolai Gedda and Peter Schreier could do it, I would think you right. But that’s not so. None of them in these videos did so. But…does that truly matter? If you broke the runs with a breath, you’d be castigated, but aspirates? Who would care?

That said, I have to admit Wunderlich was my odds on favorite, but here I found Schreier’s tone more ingratiating than Wunderlich’s. Though I admired Gedda in the past, here he doesn’t captivate me.

This has to be one of the most difficult arias to sing. I try to follow along, and, it leaves me breathless! I admire these three singers enormously for the great job they do, but I must choose one so I pick…Wunder, no.. Gedd,..no… Schreier!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Wunderlich stands out here, not only for his golden tone but for the technical control that enables him to encompass both Ottavio's sensitivity and his display of heroism, not to mention a set of lungs that allows him to shape phrases and transition from one to the next without snatching a breath. He progresses with assurance from a tender start to a ringing conclusion, and there are nuances along the way that neither of the other tenors attempt. 

Both Gedda and Shreier are more one-dimensional, but in opposite ways. Gedda is solid but rather uniformly jolly - he could be singing this to the boys at the pub - while Schreier's plaintive timbre and lack of brilliance tell us clearly who will wear the pants in the family if Anna can get Giovanni out of her head and go through with the marriage plans.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Wunderlich is a very easy win for me and I echo everything Woodduck said above. I know this aria so well, but Wunderlich is the only one who really points the contrasts. He encompasses its difficulties with more ease too. Gedda is a bit unrelentingly forte and Schreier sounds a bit etiolated to me. There is no ring in his tone.

If I were to nit pick, I'd point out that Wunderlich does occasionally aspirate his runs and that he breaks the long one in the middle, though this does enable him to phrase onwards and into the repeat of _Il mio tesoro_. Also Karajan accompanies him most sensitvely (this is live from the Wener Staatsoper in 1963). All in all I find it by far the most satisfying performance.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

"Is it possible to sing “_Il mio tesoro_” without aspirates?"
Yes.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

vivalagentenuova said:


> "Is it possible to sing “_Il mio tesoro_” without aspirates?"
> Yes.


There are no aspirates, but I'd gladly accept a few here and there if a bit more musical nuance came along with them. I hope (and suspect) that the poor recording is partly responsible for the somewhat brutal effect Jadlowker makes. The German language, sung with a conspicuous accent, can't help either.

Of the three tenors in competition here, Gedda is the real aspirator. That surprises me a bit, though I'm not sure why. I guess I've not often heard him in florid music. Schreier did a lot of Bach, where aspirating could sound absurd (imagine the tenor in the _Magnificat_ singing "Depo-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-hosuit"!)

After repeated listening, I'm thinking that Wunderlich's may just be the most musically engaging performance of this I've ever heard.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> After repeated listening, I'm thinking that Wunderlich's may just be the most musically engaging performance of this I've ever heard.


I agree with you. I've heard this aria so many times and his is the first performance that has made me aware of the dramatic contrasts and for once Don Ottavio does't sound like a milksop. Karajan too brings out the dramatic contrasts in his accompaniment. It doesn't surprise me that so many singers say they found him a sensitive accompanist.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

All three performances are so much better than Don Ottavios available in my theater that I'm really in deep waters. They've done a great job without showing that opera singing is a hard work. I've chosen Gedda, maybe because of a timbre, which was not as sweet as others' and at the same time stayed in concordance with a character. 
It wasn't a matter of choice, but Gedda had also a good picture, he didn't look hopelessly funny in that wig. Schreier's picture is typically tenorish: Girls! You must love me! Okay, let it be your mothers. Wunderlich had something in common with Robert Mitchum, but much, much softer. 
As for a character itself, any Donna Anna leaves no doubt who would be number one in that marriage.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Gedda and Schreier had ugly voices. No contest.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

PaulFranz said:


> Gedda and Schreier had ugly voices. No contest.


This is strange as my sister, an opera singer and voice teacher for 40 years and who likes hardly anyone, really loves Schreier, which is why I sometimes put him in contests. She almost never likes the singers I like.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Yeah, people who currently work in the biz LOVE breathy Kermit sounds. It gets them high. So sensitive, so musical. Very learned.


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