# Daniele Barioni and Dorothy Kristen: Records that Never Happened



## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

A wistful game I like to play, like many opera fans, is records that never happened.

Daniele Barioni and Dorothy Kirsten were two singers who, like so many in the 50s and 60s, got shafted by record companies. They did make a couple of Metropolitan Opera Record Club LPs together. They are an amazing couple. Barioni's dark, baritonal (but squillante) voice and her amazing bright and pure tone make a perfect match, and they are both characterful, musical singers who phrase beautifully and passionately. If only they had been picked up by a record company to make a series of Puccini operas together. They're ideal for his music.

Both made excellent recordings of _Fanciulla_ separately. I imagine the cast like this:
Johnson: Daniele Barioni
Minnie: Dorothy Kirsten
Rance: Ettore Bastianini
Conducted by Votto, whose conducting in live recordings is the best I've heard in this opera

They would have also been great in _Il trittico_, as Kirsten would have been perfect for all three soprano roles.

Still, what we have from them is wonderful. Their duets are a festival of clear vowels.




Listen especially to their Act III duet. They are exceptional, and it's the best performance of it I've heard. The way Kirsten tosses of the notorious phrase "Io quella lama gli piantai nel cor" like it's nothing is astonishing. Barioni's phrasing on "Amaro sol per te m'era il morir" is just glorious, as is her phrasing at the end of that movement.





They are simply sensational here, despite the big cut (in the love duet, of all places!).


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Feel free to chime in with your own dream records.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

My picks come in two categories. Live performances that happened, but were never recorded (top of the list is Il Pirata from La Scala with Callas, Corelli and Bastianini).

The other category is studio recordings where I wish different singers from the same label had been drafted in. The most obvious example there being the 1954 and 55 Butterflies with Callas and Los Angeles. I would have preferred Callas/Di Stefano/Gobbi with Serafin (who is superb on the Tebaldi recording. I would also have preferred the Corelli Cav/Pag with De los Angeles as Nedda and either Callas or Simionato drafted in as Santuzza.

Of course, then there is the total fantasy recordings with different singers from different time periods etc. which is another matter entirely.

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I'd nominate *Macbeth* with Callas and Gobbi as the murderous pair, Di Stefano as MacDuff and Zaccaria as Banquo, conducted by Serafin, though Karajan might have been an interesting choice.

An obvious one is the La Scala *La Traviata* with Stella. If only Legge had waited until Callas was free of her contractual obligations with Cetra, we might have had the greatest studio Traviata of all time.

I also wish that Janet Baker had been the Didon on Davis's Philips *Les Troyens* Veasey isn't at all bad, but Baker, as can be heard from her recording of the final scenes, would have been so much better.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Never mind me. .......................


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Rogerx said:


> Never mind me. .......................


??? I had no idea you were a singer, which of your roles do you think should have been recorded?

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Corelli and Callas sang often together on stage and he adored her apparently, so it is a great shame they only made the one studio recording together (plus a late recording of _pur ti riveggio_ from *Aida*), especially when you consider he was contracted to EMI.

I'd have preferred him to Tucker in *La Forza del Destino* and *Aida*, Fernandi in *Turandot* and Ferraro in *La Gioconda*.


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