# Post-1970 Singers You Should Know Better



## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

I admit this thread was inspired by a comment I read in a recent thread which seemed to take pains that "Singers after 1960 are welcome to be discussed too!" as if some special dispensation is needed to actually discuss said artists.  I was going to title this thread "Opera Singers In Color" but I didn't think anyone would "get" it...

I just don't see a lot of discussion of this era and so I would like to get it started. (Some of these singers didn't necessarily start their careers post-1970, but their peak career years happened after then.)

I will start this off with a clip of one of my favorite leggero tenors, Ugo Benelli... who was excelling at Rossini before Rossini became cool again.






"Una Furtiva Lagrima"






I'm not a huge fan of this repertoire, but Benelli has a very lovable and listenable voice, and has led me to try out operas I normally would have passed over. Some complete operas of his are to be found in pieces on Youtube.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I just love the artistry of Mariella Devia, whom I have listened singing thru several decades and in several countries, in operas written by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Mozart, in recitals... and not a single bad evening, not a single below par performance. An unbelievable professional, and a great artist.

Of all these evenings, my preferred was one the performances during her farewell to the role of Lucia, singing at La Scala, back in 2006:


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

I'm probably one of the younger listeners on this forum, and most of my favorite opera singers "peaked" around or after 1970.

As many here have probably realized, my favorite baritone of all time is Sherrill Milnes. I love the sound of his voice and usually find him very affecting emotionally. This clip from a 1979 LUISA MILLER with Renata Scotto is a perfect example:






Here are two of my later favorites, Raul Gimenez and Alessandro Corbelli, in a 1995 LA CENERENTOLA. Gimenez is the Prince and Corbelli is Dandini:






Deborah Voigt, one of my favorite soprano voices for Richard Strauss:






The baritone Dwayne Croft, whom I've always loved and thought underrated:






And though I also like Cecila Bartoli (in the CENERENTOLA clip above), my favorite mezzo-soprano is Jennifer Larmore -- here with Carol Vaness in a gala concert:


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## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

I agree that Miller was one of Milnes' best roles, and I liked him in that Met presentation.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Why is Milnes a singer we "should know better?" Isn't he one of the most celebrated and extensively recorded baritones of the boomer generation?


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

*Rosalind Plowright*. Already impressive as a soprano early in her career (Maria Stuarda, Trovatore), but even more impressive after she moved into mezzo category. Her Fricka (with Terfel Wotan from 2005 Proms) is my favorite.











*David Daniels*. His works are well-presented on CDs and DVDs, but I think for an artist at his calibre, he should be even more popular.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Lawrence Brownlee!!
Rossini - La Cenerentola - Si, ritrovarla io giuro






I still have people ask who my avatar is, so as the answer is relevant to this thread...


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

*Svetla Vassileva* was unknown to me before the recent Tutto Verdi video boxset was released, but she sings the dramatic middle Verdi operas with confident bravura and also a great actress with good looks, check her performance in Joan of Arc below from 36:06 -> 40:36

She was very impressive in every appearance in the boxset.......


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

_Renée Fleming - Lawrenece Brownlee - Armida - act I duet - 2010 _


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

schigolch said:


> I just love the artistry of Mariella Devia, whom I have listened singing thru several decades and in several countries, in operas written by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Mozart, in recitals... and not a single bad evening, not a single below par performance. An unbelievable professional, and a great artist.


Thank you. I felt as though I was the only one on this site who thought Mariella Devia is exceptional. Whenever I mentioned her, people would seem to yawn and say something like, "technical perfection but not much else." I came across her as Marie in La Fille du Regiment. There is plenty of life, and she is the only other one I've heard who really sounds like a bugle call (Sutherland being the other) in this part:






Lucrezia Borgia: 




Maria Stuarda:


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Let me add another...
Danielle de Niese
Handel - Giulio Cesare - Orchestra of Age of Englightenment / William Christie


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

That's nearly half a century! What about Juan Diego Florez, Thomas Hampson, Renee Fleming, Nelly Miricioiu, Bruce Ford, Natalie Dessay, Alessandro Corbelli, Ruggiero Raimondi, Jose van Dam, Frederica von Stade, June Anderson, Samuel Ramey, Bryn Terfel, Lisa Gasteen, Siegfried Jerusalem, James Morris, Robert Alagna, Anna Netrebko,,Daniella Barcellona ... 

Wasn't there also someone called Josie Career Ross? I think she sang with a pop group called the Three Terrors.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Neil Shicoff:





Mary Elizabeth Williams


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Why is Milnes a singer we "should know better?" Isn't he one of the most celebrated and extensively recorded baritones of the boomer generation?


Well, it's very possible that a newbie to opera would not have encountered him yet. I'd never heard of him until six months or so after I first got interested in opera.

But if you want a singer who's not exactly "famous," then there's Kelly Cae Hogan, whom I heard at Virginia Opera last year:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Becca said:


> Let me add another...
> Danielle de Niese
> Handel - Giulio Cesare - Orchestra of Age of Englightenment / William Christie


I have her doing Handel arias. She's fine but a bit more emotional involvement would be welcome. It's not just about singing all the notes, as difficult as that is.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

hpowders said:


> I have her doing Handel arias. She's fine but a bit more emotional involvement would be welcome. It's not just about singing all the notes, as difficult as that is.


I haven't watched the whole video yet but just wanted to say that the dress de Niese has on makes her look like she should be playing Velma Kelly in the musical CHICAGO. You know -- _"But oh, it's heeaaven nooowadays."_


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## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

Did Neil Shicoff always wear glasses on stage? Maybe just around '92? Asking because he portrayed a decidedly nebbishy Alfredo in a La Traviata from around that time - same specs!

Anyhow, here's Neil and one of my other favorite overlooked post-70s singers, Vladimir Chernov, in the Pearl Fishers-






This next singer, I'm not really sure if he's a full-fledged "Singer You Should Know!" because I have heard very little from him, know nothing of his career, etc. Encountered him in that Seventies Trovatore video, where he knocked my socks off as Ferrando... Giancarlo Luccardi.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

*Graziesignore:* I take it that Shicoff only wore glasses when he felt they fit the character. I know he wore them as Alfredo and as Lensky, but he didn't wear them as Rodolfo in the LA BOHEME taped in 1982. So he must have seen Alfredo as "bookish" (like Lensky) or "nebbishy."


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

hpowders said:


> I have her doing Handel arias. She's fine but a bit more emotional involvement would be welcome. It's not just about singing all the notes, as difficult as that is.
> 
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=33GJ7mAWtcA


Sounds like Handel, but looks like "Singin' in the Rain."


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

Peter Mattei doesn't seem to get as much attention as I think he ought. He's been one of my favorites since I first heard his staggering Amfortas on the Met Parsifal with Kaufmann, Dalayman, and Pape, where he was the clear standout for me despite the rest of the cast.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any traces of his Amfortas performance on youtube. Here he is in Tannhauser though:






Not opera, but I just stumbled across this 'Mache dich mein Herze rein' from St Matthew Passion while searching Youtube. Chailly takes it faster than I like (I'm a super trad Klemperer stan for this repertoire) but man, that's beautiful.






Here he is in Don Giovanni. Not a huge Mozart fan but this sounds pretty good to me.


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