# BASS TOURNAMENT (Round 1, Match 1): Siepi vs Furlanetto



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Cesare Siepi, Italy, 1923-2010






Ferruccio Furlanetto, Italy, 1949-






Who's singing did you prefer and why?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

There's no comparison between the suave Siepi and the lumbering Furlanetto. I might hope that this represents the latter well past his prime, whenever that was; it does sound like the Furlanetto I know from Met broadcasts. Yet YouTube offers this performance, supposedly from 1979 when he was only 30, which sounds just about as heavy and dull:






At least there are no unearned bravos from the Italian audience such as we always hear at the Met.

I went looking for basses who sing this well and ran across this guy:


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Wow. This must be the Casta Diva for basses. Such a gorgeous aria. Of course, I am completely ignorant of both singers, though I had heard of Siepe. They sound somewhat similar, but to my ears Siepe had the more beautifully resonant voice and had better low notes. I would go so far as to say Siepe has one of the most beautiful male voices I've heard. Plus he appears like he would have been quite a looker on stage. I give the garland to Siepe for his other worldly voice.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Surprisingly Furlanetto did the job sans barking so maybe this was an early recording of him, but the voice of Siepi is, for me, the consummate bass voice and as good as they both were, Siepi wins the crown.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> There's no comparison between the suave Siepi and the lumbering Furlanetto. I might hope that this represents the latter well past his prime, whenever that was; it does sound like the Furlanetto I know from Met broadcasts. Yet YouTube offers this performance, supposedly from 1979 when he was only 30, which sounds just about as heavy and dull:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I could swear he is lip-synching


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Definitely not the role for Furlanetto! Quite a strange pairing which automatically rules him out 
Siepi wins hands down.
Comparing the two in, say, _Ella giammai m'amò_ would have been more interesting...


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## mparta (Sep 29, 2020)

This is a fishing contest, right? What's the prize?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Siepi is an easy winner here, a real _basso cantate_ with a much more melfiluous delivery than Furlanetto.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> I went looking for basses who sing this well and ran across this guy:


I only knew Clabassi from the Callas *Forza*, where he gets the set off to a great start with his excellent Calatrava. He's also the fearsome Bonze on the Callas/Karajan *Butterfly*. Neither of those however prepared me for his beautiful delivery of this lovely _bel canto_ aria. I note how he lightly observes the portamenti on _rav*viso*_ and on _*lieti*_, which both Siepi and Furlanetto ignore. I really enjoyed his version.

Zaccaria, a singer whom I think is often underrated, also sings the aria well on the Callas recording (studio and live in Cologne and Edinburgh).


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

nina foresti said:


> I could swear he is lip-synching


He is, but he's lip-synching to himself because it's a studio film.



Azol said:


> Definitely not the role for Furlanetto! Quite a strange pairing which automatically rules him out
> Siepi wins hands down.
> Comparing the two in, say, _Ella giammai m'amò_ would have been more interesting...


I don't think it's unfair to think he should be able to sing more than one aria competently! In all seriousness though, trying to plan out these tournaments is really tough. Ella giammai m'amo is something that everyone sang, so if you use it right away, you can't use it as common repertory between, say, Mark Reizen and Pol Plancon or whatever in later rounds. There's only so much common ground between Italian, French, German, and Russian basses, so you either have to have separate tournaments for each, or give them more specialized repertory at the beginning and move towards more common repertory like Ella giammai m'amo or La calunnia that everybody had to record at least once. (Except randomly Jose Mardones)



Woodduck said:


> I went looking for basses who sing this well and ran across this guy:


I'm a big fan of Clabassi. He was an excellent Timur in an RAI broadcast of _Turandot_ with Cecchele and Nilsson and that made me a fan. He really made something out of a bit part. He's a wonderful singer.*

As for the matchup, I agree with the consensus that Siepi is the winner.

*EDIT: Actually I'm thinking of the Corelli/Udovich _Turandot_. Clabassi is excellent in comparison to the poorer Timur on the Nilsson/Cecchele recording. It's the PPP who are great on the Nilsson/Checchele set.


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

At first, listening to Siepi, I thought _this guy can't be beaten!_ Then, I listened to Furlanetto and I was right. As others have said before me, Siepi has a beautiful and lyrical voice perfectly suited to the bel canto style of singing and, (although I hadn't listened to Furlanetto before this) Fulanetto just does not have such a voice.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Nothing to add. Siepi is no Plancon, but he's clearly in a class above Furlanetto.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BachIsBest said:


> At first, listening to Siepi, I thought _this guy can't be beaten!_ Then, I listened to Furlanetto and I was right. As others have said before me, Siepi has a beautiful and lyrical voice perfectly suited to the bel canto style of singing and, (although I hadn't listened to Furlanetto before this) Fulanetto just does not have such a voice.


Furlanetto's voice is probably better than his technique allows it to sound. It's a pity, how much good vocal material is wasted by improper/inadequate training. My father had a tremendously resonant baritone but never sang. Being a great Wotan might have prevented him from becoming a lousy husband and father. Too late now, God rest his miserable soul.


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Woodduck said:


> Furlanetto's voice is probably better than his technique allows it to sound. It's a pity, how much good vocal material is wasted by improper/inadequate training. My father had a tremendously resonant baritone but never sang. Being a great Wotan might have prevented him from becoming a lousy husband and father. Too late now, God rest his miserable soul.


How do you tell if a voice has potential just by listening? Is it just an experience thing (i.e. after hearing a lot of voices develop you intuitively "know" which ones can be developed)?

I have no formal musical training and, although I've picked up much from this site (and others) and can now often tell how well singers employ (or don't employ) various techniques, it is sort of amazing to me how much more there is to hear in singing once you make the effort to learn about it and truly listen to it; to say nothing of the many things other posters are able to pick out that I have yet to properly hear. To finish off my friendly and slightly off-topic tirade, I also want to thank Bonetan for putting together these comparisons, which, especially after reading the comments, are both edifying and enjoyable and have greatly assisted me in the aforementioned listening.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BachIsBest said:


> How do you tell if a voice has potential just by listening? Is it just an experience thing (i.e. after hearing a lot of voices develop you intuitively "know" which ones can be developed)?
> 
> I have no formal musical training and, although I've picked up much from this site (and others) and can now often tell how well singers employ (or don't employ) various techniques, it is sort of amazing to me how much more there is to hear in singing once you make the effort to learn about it and truly listen to it; to say nothing of the many things other posters are able to pick out that I have yet to properly hear. To finish off my friendly and slightly off-topic tirade, I also want to thank Bonetan for putting together these comparisons, which, especially after reading the comments, are both edifying and enjoyable and have greatly assisted me in the aforementioned listening.


I would say that most voices can be developed and that most people could learn to sing well with proper training. The actual quality of the voice is given by nature, but it's surprising how much more listenable even a naturally unbeautiful voice can be made to sound. I often wish this were generally appreciated and that people would work to improve their speaking voices as well. I think speech improvement was once part of a proper young lady's education. "Finishing school," they called it, or something like that.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> I would say that most voices can be developed and that most people could learn to sing well with proper training. The actual quality of the voice is given by nature, but it's surprising how much more listenable even a naturally unbeautiful voice can be made to sound. I often wish this were generally appreciated and that people would work to improve their speaking voices as well. I think speech improvement was once part of a proper young lady's education. "Finishing school," they called it, or something like that.


Amen to that.
And many of the modern singers (opera, rock/pop/whatever) remind me of the Nilsson's quote (as related by Tsaraslondon in a different thread here on TC somewhere) to the effect of "Do you take vocal lessons, my dear?"


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> I would say that most voices can be developed and that most people could learn to sing well with proper training. The actual quality of the voice is given by nature, but it's surprising how much more listenable even a naturally unbeautiful voice can be made to sound. I often wish this were generally appreciated and that people would work to improve their speaking voices as well. I think speech improvement was once part of a proper young lady's education. "Finishing school," they called it, or something like that.


In my day (I am giving away my age now!) we called it "Elocution lessons". Frankly, I thought they were a total bunch of phony baloney better directed to young ladies at "coming-out" parties and dances.
Words are a passion for me, so much so that I ended up choosing a vocation rich in correct pronunciation and proper diction, and thank goodness I never attempted to knuckle under to those silly classes.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> In my day (I am giving away my age now!) we called it "Elocution lessons". Frankly, I thought they were a total bunch of phony baloney better directed to young ladies at "coming-out" parties and dances.
> Words are a passion for me, so much so that I ended up choosing a vocation rich in correct pronunciation and proper diction, and thank goodness I never attempted to knuckle under to those silly classes.


"_Pear_-shaped tones, dear! _Pear_-shaped!"


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