premiereopera.com Robert Merrill lends his incredibly rich, gorgeous voice to Verdi's wonderful melodic line in "Il Balen" from Verdi's Il Trovatore. If there has ever been a more beautiful voice, I cannot imagine it.
Corelli was a powerful singer whose voice could easily fill a large Opera House, however he lacked subtlety and the incredible melody that Merrill ‘s voice was gifted with.
I remember watching and listening to him on the Voice of Firestone and the Tonight Show back in the 50's. His voice is so wonderfully rich all through his range and he is so expressive. And he also has that comedic skill which I find rare among opera singers. I have been listening to a number of baritones recently on RU-vid and he is certainly among the best if not the best. Thanks you for posting.
I was just returning to Wash. D.C. From my first attendance at the Met. I'l Trovatore - I was standing in line waiting to board the red eye when I heard this beautiful voice singing quietly behind me. (Nov. 24,1963) I turned around and it was Merrill! We talked for 15 to ..20 min.while standing in line. He was going to sing the next day at St. Matthews cath. For the J.F. Kennedy funeral. What a memorable day for me!
I completely agree with you about the open quality to Merrill, the best example being his legendary finalmente! during Invano Alvaro from Forza, it's stunning.
I have heard from two reliable sources who have been in the opera business for many years that Merrill was the biggest voice they had ever heard live. And one of those guys was sitting in the front of the Met auditorium when Vickers and Nilsson sang together in Walkure. Not bad at all from a guy about 5'8" who reportedly weighed under 140 lbs.
Franco Corelli sang many times with both Merrill and Guelfi and said that Guelfi was the most powerful voice he ever heard. He praised Merrill's consistent great form, he said he never heard him sing off form, it was always great.
Gran Cantante, un Artista esplendido; La hermosura de su voz, la tersura, de la misma, se consustancia con un gran talento tanto, interpretativo, como, mu- sicalmente. Vedaderamente Magnifico.
Richard Gero I wholeheartedly agree. The gold standard. Also, I find it fascinating that such authentically Italianate singing came from a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn who was the child of Polish immigrants.
Il balen del suo sorriso D' una stella vince il raggio! Il fungor del suo bel viso novo infonde in me coraggio! Ah! l' amor, l' amor ond' ardo le favelli in mio favor! Sperda il sole d' un suo sguardo la tempesta del mio cor Qual suono!...oh ciel...
uno de los mas grandes baritonos que junto a otro gran baritono contemporaneo com leonard warren compartieron escenarios con el gran tenor jussi Bjorling quien no cantaba con cualquiera... maravilloso!!!!
Merrill is great. But have you ever heard Georg Ots (1920 - 1975) singing this aria, or any other arias? He was an estonian opera singer, who unfortunately made his career during the years Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Uniion. The neighbouring country Finland was practically the only western country Ots was allowed to visit so the audience of Metropolitan never heard his beautiful, warm, lyrical, strong barytone. He was very charismatic and one of the greatest barytones of all times. They say that who ever saw and heard Ots on the stage never forgets.
Easily the most beautiful baritone voice of his time. It was not only a very big voice in the house, but it carried with astonishing ease. Not the greatest interpreter by any means, but innately musical all the same. Also heard MacNeil live a number of times. Of course in later years MacNeil's vocal problems diminished the size and quality of his voice. At their best, I would hate to live on the difference in the size of their respective voices.
Merrill has perhaps the most beautiful voice but MacNeil was a truly wonderful singer, and perhaps his charachters went a little "deeper. I love both of them. They are equally fantastic.
@Kushami17 I'm a Milnes fan but I would never say he had a 'nicer voice.' Merrill had one of the 'nicest' baritone voices ever and he didn't have the technical foibles Milnes had- his timbre was always round and solid basically through out his entire career. Milnes on the other hand lost the richness of his timbre and frankly started sounding horrible rather prematurely. That said, prime Milnes was (IMO) a better actor, and certainly more exciting with the high notes. Taste I guess.
@Kushami17 AH. Interesting haha. Gaston is one of my favorite disney characters (for laughs that is- his boastfulness about himself tickles me, lol.) I recall the singing being good but being a die hard opera fan I never really listened to him from the standpoint of the connoisseur.. ;P feel free to share some links if you like.
Actually, the cadenza commonly used in this aria was not the one written by Verdi--his does not go as high, but rather goes down to a low A. This is a cadenza traditionally interpolated by baritones. A nearly-identical one is interpolated by basses in "Infelice! e tuo credevi" in Ernani.
Allegedly, but are we willing to bet on that? The acoustic recordings we have of prime de Luca are not good enough to judge him (I am aware I said we can judge Caruso on acoustic recordings but we must realize acoustic captures higher overtones better, so baritones and bassi sound mediocre due to their lower placement). As far as I can tell the only baritone who came close to Merrill for beauty was Armenian/Soviet Pavel Lisitsian, but Merrill was still No. 1 by a good margin (in my opinion).
Does this aria need to be sung "beautiful" or should it be vocally roughed up to convey the character of Luna, a medieval warrior who spends the opera wanting to kill somebody who is not Leonora.
I wonder if Verdi copied from Donizetti- the ending to this aria is almost identical to the ending of "Tombe degli avi mei" from "Lucia di lammermoor." Anyways great singing
It's impressive how he gets away w/singin' SO open on certain notes. It has 2 do w/a certain perfect placement. 2 me, that's really what seperated Merrill from the others...that amazing head voice/resonance!!! But, havin' said all that, I still feel Tibbett 2 have THE most gorgeous Baritone voice of 'em all! He had it all: Incredible range, size, technique, phrasing, color & of course...2nd 2 none stage acting worthy of Chaliapin! His MULE & WAGON song is great:) No baritone 2day can pull it off
@pearlmuth3 I really like pearlmuth3. We traded emails. Does anyone know what happened to him??? His account is closed. I am afraid I will get bad news. His knowledge was encyclopedic.
Lipsynced... Hmm, some differences to Verdi's partuture... Il balen del suo sorriso D'una stella vince il raggio, Il fulgor del suo bel viso Novo infonde, novo infonde a me coraggio. Ah! l'amor, l'amore ond'ardo Le favelli in mio favor, Sperda il sole d'un suo sguardo La tempesta, la tempesta del mio cor. Ah! l'amor, l'amore ond'ardo Le favelli in mio favore, Sperda il sole d'un suo sguardo La tempesta del mio cor. Ah! l'amor, l'amore ond'ardo Le favelli in mio favore, Sperda il sole d'un suo sguardo La tempesta... Sperda il sole d'un suo sguardo Ah! La tempesta... La tempesta del mio cor.
Bravo, ottimo. C'è una sua versione del Barbiere di Siviglia (penso cinematografica), talmente vergognosa che me lo aveva fatto odiare. Non so come abbia potuto cantarla così male un cantante della sua stazza. Qui mostra una padronanza superba anche della lingua.
Robert Merrill, one of the greatest of Verdi baritones, but not yet a master at this still early point in his development, although he was soon to be consummate,.soon to be. Here the voice is still too light, the approach too lyrical (however, lovely the voice certainly is) and lacking in intensity and drama.
I find my tone above somewhat dismissive, and shame on me. This performance was for TV and the aria is out of context and should not be expected to have the same dramatic intensity as it would have were it from an opera performance.
eoselan7 I did not agree with your first assessment and was about to respond before I saw your reply. I was moved by your moral courage, for you were willing to take issue with yourself, as it were.
True, but as I'm sure you know, Merrill's tone continued to darken, while the top, of course, grew little by little less free. As silly as it may seem to try to score-card such things, I have felt that the absolute high point of Merrill's vocal development occurred around 1962-'63. It was at this time when the balance between the darken tone and added weight (so important in order to fulfill the dramatic requirements of the great Verdi roles which Merrill virtually owned at that time) with the ease of his upper register. However there are examples of later singing here on RU-vid as in the Forza duets with Corelli as late as 1968, where Merrill's singing was in every respect, simply magnificent.
@@photo161 love your writing, I like Ettore's voice too, but I cannot really know who is better or so, only from hearing the recordings, different time and quality, wish to go live...
Not as great as Leonard Warren but one of the greatest Baritones!! Loud voices like Merrill or Corelli don't make them great Singers,one needs to actually colour and phrase too to reflect the music and Character!!
