grandi i nostri triestini,ho avuto la fortuna di assistere a Trieste tutte le recite di Otello,è stata una grande emozione che non dimenticherò ,assieme a loro la grande Raina Kabaiwanska,erano serate memorabili ,il teatro era in delirio
The Royal Opera House company was doing a tour in 1981 and were at The Palace Theatre in Manchester. I went to see Otello, but Cossutta was indisposed that evening and Franco Bonisolli, who was singing Cavaradossi in Tosca other evenings, stood in at the last minute and enabled the performance to go ahead. He was excellent. Cappuccilli was Iago and I cannot quite remember who sang Desdemona - but it could have been Margaret Price. The third opera being performed on the tour was Lohengrin. The titular role was the magnificent Peter Hofmann - who looked every inch the knight of the Holy Grail and sang and acted it well too. I later saw the same production at Covent Garden with Rene Kollo as Lohengrin. My preference was definitely Hofmann.
***** I agree with you about Cossutta. He made Otello sound so easy - there are passages which lie so uncomfortably in a spinto tenor like Domingo's voice (the last phrase of Act of Act 1 - "venere splende" for example) and Cosutta just opens his mouth and sings it without any strain or constraint. In addition the darkish color fits this role like a glove. I heard him sing this quite often and was always impressed. Cappuccilli had the most amazing breath control and in addition to singing the most amazing long phrases, could also sing the most meticulous line, spot on in pitch without a single tone faltering. It never ceased to amaze me that this rather small man could produce such a huge full tone on stage. It didnt quite have the beauty of a Bastianini but he definitely could outsing any of his baritone colleagues active during his time. I remember a gala concert in Vienna where he sang directly after Milnes - after his Chenier aria the public exploded and poor Milnes ended up sounding rather pale that night! (This is just a personal anecdote!)
Despite Cappuccilli being the absolute MASTER... He *also* quite often sang totally out of tune. Lol. He does it here too. Despite this, it's 100% because tuning has gone up from 432hz to 440hz and this was specifically a huge issue Cappuccilli was trying to change in classical music and I believe he often practice at the lower tuning because it was healthier for his sound, thus being slightly under pitch. Del Monaco did the same, but was far worse lol.
Tenoril Cappuccilli? De que tenga notas agudas fáciles no significa que sea "tenoril" no creo que el que mejor haya interpretado a Simon Boccanegra sea "Tenoril" jejeje
I was at this performance in Manchester and cossutta had vocal problems in the first 2 acts (though you'd not know from this section), cracking terribly a few times. an apology was made before the 3rd act and he seemed cured immediately.
@bodiloto Secondo il mio modestissimo parere Carlo Cossutta era un vero Tenore ma Cappuccilli era un baritenore, anzi più tenore che baritono, quindi alla fine questo video è la testimonianza di un duello,no duetto, tra tenori che riescono a mantenere meglio il La naturale finale!!!!!
A fianco di un gigante come Cossutta-Otello,Cappuccilli-Jago cerca disperatamente nel finale di pareggiare la partita sfidando Otello sul suo terreno.Ma è vano.La lotta è impari.Grande Carlo.
@stevevandien Daccordo con il suo commento...ma Domingo no... non è mai stato un grande Otello come lo sono stati Del Monaco , Vickers, Vinay e Cossutta....cordiali saluti
