# Round One: Pieta rispetto e amore. Hvorostovsky, Battistini



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)




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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I don’t know much about Battistini, but it seems to me he’s shouting, though the voice is magnificent.
Hvorotovsky’s version is from his first recording, or at least from the first recording of his that I heard. I remember how excited my friends and I were when we heard it.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

_Traitors! You have joined with the English against me!
The powers that prophecy have foretold:
'You may be bloody and fierce,
no man born of woman will harm you.'
No. I am not afraid of you, nor of the boy
who leads you, This attack will
confirm my position on the throne
or push me off for ever. And yet
I feel the life drying up in my veins!

Mercy, respect, love,
the comfort of declining years,
these will place no flowers
on your old age.
Nor should you hope
for kind words on your royal tomb:
only curses, alas,
will be your funeral hymn. _

Hearing these very different performances, I had to find a translation in order to judge them fairly. Hvorostovsky's interpretation is intelligent and unproblematic, while his instrument hasn't quite the amplitude and brilliance that can make a Verdian melody really burn. Battistini has those vocal qualities and more; he seems capable of doing anything he pleases with his voice. His performance is big in scale, with an improvisatory quality that may seem a bit wayward on first hearing, and I find it very helpful to see in what ways he approaches the text. Doing that, and considering that he is making his effects almost without benefit of accompaniment, I find him strong and stimulating, and I have to give him the edge over Hvorostovsky's nicely sung rendering.


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## IgorS (Jan 7, 2018)

With all respect to Hvorostovsky, he is not in the same league as "King of Baritones".


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Impressive showing for Battistini considering that this was a wax cylinder recording made in 1906.

From Wikipedia -

"Mattia Battistini was esteemed as one of the greatest of singers and even a cursory acquaintance with his many discs will make it clear why he was so celebrated by his contemporaries. Amongst the arsenal of vocal weapons that he displays on record were the perfect blending of his registers coupled with the sophisticated use of ornamentation, portamento and _fil di voce_, as well as an array rubato and legato effects. His art was perfected before the advent of "passion-torn-to-tatters" verismo opera in the 1890s, and together with the likes of Pol Plançon and Mario Ancona (and, to a lesser extent, Alessandro Bonci), he represented the twilight of the art of male bel canto singing on disc.

Fortunately the sound of Battistini's clear, high-placed and open-throated baritone voice took well to the primitive acoustic recording process with only his very lowest notes sounding pallid. He also handled the trying conditions of the early sound 'studios', with their boxy confines and wall-mounted recording funnel, much better than did many of his contemporaries, who often felt inhibited or intimidated by their uninspiring surroundings. His singing was considered to be 'old-fashioned', even in the circa-1900 era. Consequently, his discs provide a retrospective guide to Italian singing practice of the early-to-mid-19th century (the era of Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini)—as well as exemplifying the "grand manner" style of vocalism for which much Romantic operatic music was written. Battistini delivers this kind of music in a virile, bold and patrician way.

He is not averse, however, to showing off his voice by prolonging top notes or embellishing the written score with a liberality that might surprise 21st-century listeners who are imbued with the modern notion that a composer's work is sacrosanct. For some inexplicable reason he eschews on disc one of the key vocal ornaments at the disposal of all thoroughly schooled 19th-century bel canto singers: the trill."


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

This is very easy! Battistini is superior in every way except recording quality.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I'm pleased Hvorostovsky is getting some love because his performance is very fine indeed, beauitfully sung and well thought through. But he is up against the King of Baritones, Battistini who, though perhaps a trifle wilful, is just magnificent.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I couldn't watch Hvorostovsky's video and found another one, I think, from a later, blonde hair, period. 
Now they both have a doubtful advantage of being dead artists with all possible posthumous fame. My vote is for Hvorostovsky just to equate the results a little. Both renditions have their delights, though seem to be totally different musical pieces. Battistini is inaccessibly cool. Just as Hvorostovsky sounds more habitual in a good meaning, closer to what I have in live performances (Macbeth is a success of my opera company) as to golden-silver-whatever else metall recodings.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Two of the worst sounding recordings. When I cannot recognize Hvor's voice something is really wrong.
I shall have to choose between 2 arias that were not very appealing in their delivery. So because Hvor has the more beautiful voice I shall vote for him. I also preferred his ending which was cleaner.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


>


Hvorostovsky (no A in his spelling)


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Since I've been listening to some historical recordings lately, I have become inured to the sound quality and am better able to focus on the voice and singing. *Battistini* with a knockout in the first round.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Hvorostovsky (no A in his spelling)


I am a confidently poor speller LOL. I can do a decent contest. I cannot be relied upon to always spell names accurately😳 I changed the title but can't the poll. Spellcheck does not usually do names, unfortunately. I try to look on the video but can still mess up. Sorry. 
The Youtube video was submitted by his recording studio so it SHOULD have been okay. Sorry. p.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

ColdGenius said:


> I couldn't watch Hvorostovsky's video and found another one, I think, from a later, blonde hair, period.


Hvorotovsky’s hair is prematurely gray_. _


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

MAS said:


> Hvorotovsky’s hair is prematurely gray_. _


😁 I know. But technically it is white. 
In Russian we have different words for grey hair and grey as a colour.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

ColdGenius said:


> 😁 I know. But technically it is white.
> In Russian we have different words for grey hair and grey as a colour.


Yes, white but not blond.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

nina foresti said:


> Two of the worst sounding recordings. When I cannot recognize Hvor's voice something is really wrong.
> I shall have to choose between 2 arias that were not very appealing in their delivery. So because Hvor has the more beautiful voice I shall vote for him. I also preferred his ending which was cleaner.


The Battistini is a wax cylinder recording from 1906 - There is no better alternative than the one presented - The ones that didn't make the cut were significantly worse.

The Hvorostovsky was uploaded directly from the label - Philips - It's the only studio version available - The other YouTube videos are live renditions and are copies of DVDs made by fans

What kind of equipment are you using to listen to these performances? A recording is only going to be as good as the equipment used to hear it.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

The first thing that comes across here is Hvorostovsky's fine Italian. I can still tell he isn't a native, but his production of the consonants isn't marred by the usual defects of slavic singers. There's also a lot of feeling in his interpretation without his disturbing the line. This could be a winner.

I have the complete set of Bastianini's recordings and I've heard all of them, but I don't remember this one off the top of my head. Despite worthy competition from Hvorostovsky, the miraculous Bastianini is on a whole other level. Just listen to the way he throws out the lines of the recit, with an ease as if it were spoken text. This is great operatic acting (and we can't see him, just as in spoken theatre operatic acting is as much in the way the lines are delivered as it involves physical expression).

Bastianini wins!

N.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

The Conte said:


> The first thing that comes across here is Hvorostovsky's fine Italian. I can still tell he isn't a native, but his production of the consonants isn't marred by the usual defects of slavic singers. There's also a lot of feeling in his interpretation without his disturbing the line. This could be a winner.
> 
> I have the complete set of Bastianini's recordings and I've heard all of them, but I don't remember this one off the top of my head. Despite worthy competition from Hvorostovsky, the miraculous Bastianini is on a whole other level. Just listen to the way he throws out the lines of the recit, with an ease as if it were spoken text. This is great operatic acting (and we can't see him, just as in spoken theatre operatic acting is as much in the way the lines are delivered as it involves physical expression).
> 
> ...


 Battistini* - easily done!


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