Along with Flagstadt and Melchoir, Vickers and Rysanek were the greatest musical partnership in the history of opera. To have had either one of these great singers alone was a blessing, but to have had them performing together as we so very often did, was an absolutely exalted musical experience.
Had lunch today with an opera lover. Had seen them all. I asked him what his greatest Operatic experiences were live. He said "Nilsson's Turandot, and every single note I ever heard Rysanek sing"
That comment started my day with a note of joy. I was fortunate to have heard/seen Vickers and Rysanek several times in Walküre in 1976, Seared into my heart and soul's memory. In every role I saw her do live, nothing since has come close to the sublime and oft-times scary places she took us. Your friend spoke truth.
I remember Margaret Harshaw talking about JV to us students at IU. She heard him from his first performances and said he was obviously studying and how he improved each time she heard him. (That was not a back-handed compliment. She admired him from the get-go!)
I never heard Vickers in the flesh, I did hear Rysanek. It'd be hard to imagine the beauty and impact that voice had in the theater, if you didn't actually experience it.
I was at the Bing gala-and though I had been to a lot of opera at that time-I had never heard Vickers before. From that moment I was hooked, and went to many of his performances. I wish I had been to more, but the many I did-including at least 4 Parsifals-were ultimate experiences.
@@raphaelhudson Some men lose hair and turn gray early. Of course, in opera he had wigs, makeup etc. What is impressive is how similar he looks 16 yrs. later at the Pasadena recitals (you can find on RU-vid) around the time of his official retirement, and even more impressive how much voice he still has.
@@raphaelhudson Well compared to length of your locks in your photo, yes there is hair loss because it’s related to DNA and genes. And the ‘high forehead’ in your photo indicates you are losing yours. I could be wrong but except for rude comments are you famous for? A singer like Vickers, a professional athlete, a politician, an educator? Likely you are just taking up space. Get a life and quickly.
@@markquehl2496 The question in general interests me because, obviously there are many voices that I only know from recordings, and have wondered what they were like live-or more precisely were they really very different live? I don't have the same problem that many have when they say that they can't really judge a voice from an acoustical recording (though female voices are more of a problem), and never understand why there is any problem with later electrical or high-fi etc. In fact, I find modern, and digital recordings more misleading than earlier technologies-because of their intrinsic nature of reducing sound to code, and the endless doctoring that later recordings have. So I think you get a strong sense of what Vickers' voice was like live from recordings in general-though you can find a much higher quality tape of this elsewhere-though this serves the purpose. First his was a very large sound-in certain parts of his voice, as big a sound as I've heard. It carried exceptionally well, even when singing softly, had a dark body to it, yet had enough of a focus and tenor's squillo to cause excitement. It seemed to fill a hall-even an auditorium as large as the Met-and as the Met associate conductor Woitach once described it-it had a surround sound quality to it. I know what he meant, because it would seem to come from everywhere. It had a real ringing top,.certainly to B flat, but even the right B- and that depended on the approach to the note. Other high notes could sound a bit strangulated, and uncomfortable, but always interesting in context-but he never cheated-and some of that may have been due to his singing roles that a basic voice of his type would not normally sing-and which he insisted on doing. He was not going to have a safe career of endless Siegmunds, or Canios, and remember his Tristan was uncut, unlike Melchiors I heard him in as Impossible a role as Aeneas-which he said was his greatest accomplishment-and given that it is a role for 4 different voices, -he was incredible, and somehow made it work. His soft singing, or those who don't care for it-the 'Vicker's croon" was fully supported and traveled through the house.The lower part of the voice was baritonal, the middle huge and heroic. Generally I think you can extrapolate whether a voice is big-but that is not always the case, and sometimes recordings can be deceiving in that way. Callas'-who I never heard- certainly didn't have the big voice you hear on recordings-an Bjorling actually had a modest sized voice-why some of his famous recorded roles-he rarely, if ever sang live. Could have gone on more-but maybe this helped.
Rysaneks voice just couldn't be captured on recordings. Live it 'made sense'. The thick middle opening to a blazing top. And it was HUGE! And she was totally committed to the character. After a Salome, the audience was so stunned at the end, no one applauded for a very long time. No one knew what to do. Applause seemed like a cheap way to break the spell. Finally someone shouted bravo, then someone else, and a few clapped, and then more until it reached a fervor I haven't experienced since and lasted for a very long time.
I too heard both. Both artists of the highest rank. And Vickers' Peter Grimes was one of the transformative theatrical experiences of my life. No one who didn't see and hear him live could fully understand. He was peerless. As was Rysanek in her repetoire. Another voice that had to be heard live. The definitive Sieglinde of her generation. I can hardly bear to hear anyone else sing this music to this day!
:) I actually had a dream once where he was singing this to ME. We were on a balcony at the Many Glacier lodge in Glacier National Park, and it was night, and he was singing it to me! :) :) If I had half the voice of Leonie I'd have answered back . . .
Great together & fortunately often, I understand. Maybe someday the entire BING 1972 gala will be made available. As of now I have only a few excerpts on CD & this scene is unfortunately not among them.
Disappointed. TOTALLY DISAPPOINTED. What a great performance from two superb singers and I watched for the moment when Siegmund pulls the sword from the tree and Leonie DID NOT SCREAM. Aw, sister-wife, why not. But I have plenty of performances where she does.
@@TwentythousandlpsYou can also hear the scream from Göta Ljungberg in the “Potted Ring” recorded in late 20s or early 30s. So I doubt that it was an idea from Wieland Wagner.
@@joshuafurtado-mendes9327 Just two years after this he was singing Bb several times in Norma with Caballe. He was not a high tenor voice to be sure, but Bb and B natural were not out of the question.
Strange question to ask when he has just sung a huge A. Trust me. I heard him in most all his great parts, and when he chose to sing at full tilt the sound in the theater was immense. He certainly had the ‘acuti’; in his early career he sang standard Italian tenor roles. As he got older it was a simple question of difficulty sustaining a high tessitura.
Your octaves are incorrect. You likely mean a G4. Tenors sing an octave lower than their written notes when in treble clef. Tenor clef is different. Good grief, Gertie, he sings a beautifully executed, seemingly effortless A4 at the end...........and holds it!
John RONDEAU The audience obviously disagrees, greatly enjoying these two 57 year olds singing with such power, ease and beauty. Trying to bash Rysanek is a lesson in futility. You obviously never heard her “live” or your tongue would cleave to the roof of your mouth making such a grotesque statement. Go ahead and march to the beat of your own drummer. Alone.
@@jeffreymiller4814 she SUCKS hearing her live would be an interminable torture. She could sing loudly but she had a perpetual challenge with pitch. I'll listen again and try to extract something positive.
@@Wotan123456789 The pitch problems, the scooping, her diction is poor. She could sing loudly. Her lower range was dried up likely due to unhealthy vocal habits and her highest notes sound like a goat.
