# Nilsson HOAX



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

If you haven't heard this, you should. It is amazing!!! Nilsson 78 hoax on Opera Quiz. Imagine what Ponselle and Caruso would have sounded like on today's technology!!! I found this on my FB group.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Interesting. This is of course a cylinder of the sort used around 1898. Nilsson would have sounded more like herself on the technology available during the latter part of Ponselle's career. Recorded sound progressed (erratically) throughout the 78 rpm era, and the advent of electrical recording in 1925 allowed us to hear voices with considerable fidelity, but even late acoustical recordings (Caruso began recording in 1902 but recorded until 1920) give a fairly good idea of singers' timbres. Caruso's wife said his last recordings sounded like "Rico singing in the next room."


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Very interesting to see look back at historical recording techniques, the "acoustical" set-up with horn uses pure mechanical linkage to collect sound and vibrate a cutting head to inscribe the wax cylinder......as duck says the real advance came in mid 1920s with "electrical" age of recording using amplified signal from microphone to produce masters

Even with modern stereo LP sample the "experts" could not all agree who was singing.......:lol:


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Interesting. This is of course a cylinder of the sort used around 1898. Nilsson would have sounded more like herself on the technology available during the latter part of Ponselle's career. Recorded sound progressed (erratically) throughout the 78 rpm era, and the advent of electrical recording in 1925 allowed us to hear voices with considerable fidelity, but even late acoustical recordings (Caruso began recording in 1902 but recorded until 1920) give a fairly good idea of singers' timbres. Caruso's wife said his last recordings sounded like "Rico singing in the next room."


I was wondering about all that. Of coure, you would know the answer Woodduck!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

This is one reason why I am dubious about assessments made of singers of long ago who were recorded this way. The technology does not allow us to hear what they really sounded like.


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## Vinyl (Jan 22, 2014)

We missed hearing Bach playing Bach by less than 150 years. 
There are neighbours with grudges longer than that. 
Perhaps Caruso sounds like he's next door, but you can certainly hear the talent.
Those recordings are proof of what would otherwise just be a legend. 
Who doesn't get tingles from hearing Rachmaninoff play the third? It's certainly not my favourite Rach3, it's magnificently LOFI, it's sloppy and abridged, but it's the man himself. 

I'm bringing a portable on my time travels.


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

Regarding Ponselle, you can always check out her private recordings made in the early 50s. Of course it was just remnant of a legendary voice, but she impressed nevertheless. Here she imitated Muzio. Sounds fun!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

silentio said:


> Regarding Ponselle, you can always check out her private recordings made in the early 50s. Of course it was just remnant of a legendary voice, but she impressed nevertheless. Here she imitated Muzio. Sounds fun!


I think we'd better acknowledge that that "remnant" of a voice, recorded in Ponselle's living room when she was 55 and fifteen years retired, is superior to any dramatic soprano voice, of any age, to be heard today. The rich timbre, the evenness of scale, the dynamic control, the phrasing... And the fun she has overinflecting "D'amor sull' ali rosee," wickedly imitating the great Claudia Muzio (another of my favorite singers), is a riot. Now just listen to the musical sensitivity of this, recorded even later, in 1954:






Not the most sophisticated recording technology, a little harsh and tinny and unkind to high notes, but the splendor of the voice and the musicianship are unmistakable. With this sound in mind we can listen with complete comprehension to her electrical recordings from the 1920s:











I loved Nilsson's comment, saying that she would never again laugh at old recordings. If Gadski and Schumann-Heink and Galli-Curci (or even Patti!) sometimes sound a little funny in the form in which we have them, the Ponselle recordings, made from 1918 t0 1954, can educate us and make us humble.


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> I think we'd better acknowledge that that "remnant" of a voice, recorded in Ponselle's living room when she was 55 and fifteen years retired, is superior to any *dramatic soprano voice, of any age, to be heard today*.


Right! Let us not forgot the Liebestod:


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## Tuoksu (Sep 3, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> If you haven't heard this, you should. It is amazing!!! Nilsson 78 hoax on Opera Quiz. Imagine what Ponselle and Caruso would have sounded like on today's technology!!! I found this on my FB group.


This is hands down the best post I've ever seen on this forum!! OMG! This is amazing.


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