An interesting interview with a pleasant personality. The joking rivalry between a baritone and a tenor is amusing. Mr Merrill comes across as a very nice man. He certainly was a great singer.
Merrill loved being a raconteur, sharing many memories of stars he knew and worked with. I''ve often wondered about his experience working with Herbert von Karajan, who'd been a Nazi party member; RM's friend,Richard Tucker (both men were Jewish), once refused to work with HvK because of this.
I dont mean to be off topic but does someone know of a way to get back into an Instagram account..? I somehow lost my password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me
I love his Brooklyn accent. It's just so charming - the contrast between the highest art form and all the grandeur associated with it, and the reality of a Brooklyn kid who had an amazing talent and a well-deserved international career. And I agree, I so wish great singers of the past had been interviewed more. Their anecdotes alone, not to mention their personal histories and advice would offer priceless insights for singers and fans alike.
The interesting thing is that mr. Merrill tells different versions of this story, all very probable and equally enjoying. You just pick your own favorite
You gotta hear Leontyne Price gush over seeing Bob Merrill's photograph in the documentary "The Opera House". You can see that there was an endearing and nostalgic fondness for this man. Ironically, one of the last recordings Jussi Bjoerling did was with her as well, along with Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi .
Older opera goers 50 years ago told me that while Bjoerling’s tone was pure silver and his technique as close to perfection as one could imagine, the voice was not large. They got the most pleasure from his concerts rather than the opera house, where he was often covered by the orchestra.
I too have heard older opera goers say that Bjoerling's voice was not large -- but not that it was often covered by the orchestra; the beautiful, well-placed tone carried even though the sound was not large. And he often sang with big voices beside him -- Merrill, Warren, Milanov, Tebaldi, and more. And while he was also a concert singer, his greatest fame came from the opera house, so he must have carried!
@@galanis38 No doubt he was of course a very famous opera singer. My home base was Chicago, and I remember once being told that Rysanek covered him completely in ‘Aida’ Act III. Perhaps that can be attributed to Radamès being at the far end of his repertoire in terms of vocal heft required - and a young Rysanek at full throttle above the staff. I cannot recall being told anything about the ‘Manon Lescaut’ with Tebaldi. It was her first assumption of the role, and again, she would have been in prime form. The most intriguing Chicago pairing was the ‘Trovatore’ with Callas. The glory days of the Lyric Opera.
He actually personally preferred concert singing against opera, as he hated to rehearse and has said "I'm a concert singer who also sings opera' yes more famous in opera of course, but I liked his concerts very much, lots of different kinds of music and also languages . @@galanis38
True, the 1958 Aida for him was not successful in that big house as I saw him in Rigoletto not long before that also in Chicago, a better role for his voice which was not ever spinto large .@@ransomcoates546
Merrill, a Brooklyn boy, maintained the accent, Listen to his "hoid" for heard on this film. He did a recording of the "Brooklyn Dodger Baseball Cantata," which is hilarious and still available on cd.
Jussi Bjoerling was considered to be "charismatically challenged." I don't know by whom, but I do know Clyde Gilmour (late Canadian musicologist) thought he was the best. Not that Gilmour dismissed the likes of Pavarotti or Domingo. But the idea a guy from Sweden could join with a guy from Brooklyn and produce great art I just love.
Thanks, Airbuzz ... and to Robert Merrill. Robert explained the hows/whys of how certain takes were made, when there were options to accepting/rejecting them!
You cannot compare a barytone and a tenor! In this clip you can like the comparisione (don´t know how to spell it). How each of their voices compare with the other. In my mind it´s pure magic,,,
Smartass joking Merrill amazingly describing one of the best tenors of all time at the same time he belongs in the same class as Bjorling as a baritone.
Lucky for us we did not lose Robert Merrill to baseball or Hollywood(HAHA). The story he tells is true and Merrill did not have a mean bone in his body. What Mr. Merrill does not tell you is that Bjorling was sorry when he heard the loud recording of himself. Just to show you what sort of a man Bob Merrill was. he did not want to speak unkindly about his friend. The good recording was released unedited, not that Jussi could be stubborn in other ways.
No its not a typo but of course my memory could just be faulty. As I remember it, in his first autobiography he wrote that he went on a mostly fruit diet at one point and never again weighed more than 135 lbs. I still have his second autobiography but alas not his first.
Well, I compared Merrill and Dwayne Croft not because they share all of the same repertoire, but because they both had/have voices that are (IMO) a pleasure to listen to and are good, if not exactly subtle, interpreters. (Yet I've always found Croft to be a good actor, as in the Met's Nozze di Figaro telecast.) But you're right that it takes a rather special kind of baritone to make a career of singing the big Verdi roles, and that Croft isn't really that type of baritone.
Whatever, these two guys have recorded at least three immortal recordings: 1. La Boheme and 2. Tosca with Victoria de Los Angeles and 3. Rigoletto with Roberta Peters as Gilda. These are recordings that will be loved as long as this earth will remain.
That's precisely what struck me, but I quickly discarded that thought and slapped myself for making the connection probably just because he's Italian-american. But there might be something there beyond that after all.
Merrill wasn't Italian-American, he was of Russian ancestry. But he did have an Italian sound, and had one of the most beautiful baritone voices of the past century.
Robert Merrill had an incredibly rich voice and one that I truly appreciate. I have a very precious, fragile, ancient tape recording of him singing, "Begin the Beguine" that I recorded in South Africa over the Radio 20 years ago. Does someone have a recording they can upload to youtube?
Read which book? Merrill wrote two autobiographies - one bawdy, the other sentimental. The most amazing fact about Merrill? He only weighed 135 pounds. He was fat as a kid and resolved to lose weight. He kept it off for life.
Merrill kept his weight at 145, or so he said in either "Once More from the Beginning" or an interview. His speaking and singing voice was tremendous, not proportional to his lower-medium height and frame.
I began listening to Bjorling about 25 years ago on the radio. I had heard him before on an RCA LP with Anna Moffo doing La Boheme. But, it was after those programs that I really began to listen. I continue to listen to all the tenors, and most have a few amazing performances, but I think he has the highest number of great performances. His 3:30 Nessun Dorma continues to astonish me. Once (or twice), when I was seriously heartbroken, he could always bring me to tears.
well jussi could've meant the fact that it's his character leading the whole idea in this quartet, but it really looks like merrill didn't mean much by the comment anyway. he seems awesome
I'm a Tenor. Jussi Bjoerling is the absolute best Tenor, I think better than Caruso, Gigli, Martinelli, Di Stephano, and I like Tita Schipa as a close second., but not so close as Tita had a small voice and knew how to have it carry. Pavarotti and the others don't even stand a chance with the likes of Jussi Bjoerling. Their whole family were singers, his Dad a Tenor taught Jussi. As far as Baritones, you people aren't even talking about the Best Baritone ever...PAVEL LISITSIAN. Pavel was said to be of "The Russian School" and I heard him when I was 16-17 yrs old in Calcutta, India where I grew up. I'm now 69. RU-vid this guy and get a life about sonority, relaxed belly and relaxed delivery. He sang Baritone like Bjoerling sang Tenor. A relaxed diaphragm, belly and jaw. I have an article from a 1950 Etude Magazine where Jussi was interviewed. This is all Jussi talked about, the article is titled "Singing is Natural" I have laminated the article since 1950 pages are brittle....duhh... :-))
My friend, sorry, Bjoerling had a SMALL voice, small but beautiful. Get over it. You clearly had never heard him in the theater, moreover, you seem never to have so much as spoken to anyone who had done.
OUI ...on porte aux nues JB ..mais personne n'osé dire qu'il avait une voix peu audible ...on parle de SCHIPA. .dont la voix se projetait et que E CARUSO respectait.. LA CARRIERE DE JB S' EST FAIT AU MET ...OU L'ACOUSTIQUE EST "PARTICULIERE " ET OU LA COLONIE ITALIENNE DEVAIT AVOIR UNE INFLUENCE ..MAJEURE.. MAIS JB EST LE CHoU CHOU de YT...ce qui m'inquiète puisque les idolâtres de LANZA pullulent comme des cafards ...Curieux quand on sait de quels trucages M LANZA a bénéficié..dans les studios HOLLYWOODIENS..et n'est jamais monté sur scène ..ce qui en fait un roi du micro comme A BOCELLI. .mais ne lui donne aucun droit d'entrer dans le HALLE OF FAME ..DES GRANDS CHANTEURS.. C'ÉTAIT BIEN IL Y A 60 ANS D'ATTIRER DES NOUVEAUX AMATEURS DE CHANT OU D'OPERA. ...MAIS EN 2017. C'EST TROUBLANT QUANT À LA CONNAISSANCE REELLE DU CHANT ... ELUZALYRICS
TITO SCHIPA ? OK mais le volume vocal de JB..était limité lui aussi .. Quant à le faire numéro 1 ..je suis étonné car même si la voix était belle .il était peu nuancé et ses aigus étaient toujours pleine voix ..de poitrine ...il a surtout bénéficié de sa carrière au MET ..où il y a beaucoup à dire.. Le placer derrière GIGLI..MARTINELLII ..ET SURTOUT CARUSO ..VOIRE D'AUTRES TÉNORS ÉCLECTIQUES. .ME CHOQUE ELUZ
Seems to me that Merrill is a little acidic when he speaks of Bjorling. Do I detect a hint of jealousy ? He should have regarded it an honour to have sung with a man who was certainly regarded as the greatest tenor of his day and by many as the greatest ever. Merrill was good, but never the top of the tree.
I think you're mistaken. Merrill was certainly at the top of the tree, singing with many great tenors and sopranos throughout his career to fine reviews. There were also many great tenors during Bjorling's time in the 1940s and 50s. JB received better reviews at the Met after 1955, but not so good in the 1940 and early 1950s. Bjorling was a great lyric tenor, but I always ask the question ''what criteria are you using in arriving to the conclusion that JB was the greatest tenor of his day or the greatest tenor ever?
@@sugarbist Everything is comparative of course and I know nothing of, ‘Music’, other than my personal likes and dislikes. In that regard Borling is my favourite, but I thoroughly enjoy many others. It was, as I recall, Pavarotti who said that there is a Pavarotti every decade, but a Bjorling only once every century. I am happy to accept what he says. Undoubtedly, Merrill had a great voice but, for me, there are others who are or were, at least, his equal. I cannot recall where I saw it, but in one interview it appeared to me he landed a few low blows on Bjorling. But, whatever shall we agree to differ.
@@johnlewis9745 Dear John, fair enough, as I have a favorite tenor and tenors as well. But I don't believe he or they were the best in history, but enjoy them the most. It's good to accept what Pavarotti stated, but there's not ''ONE WORD'' about Bjorling in Pavarotti's book. Pavarotti's favorite tenor was Giuseppe Di Stefano.
Of course, there is no such thing as " the best tenor..." etc.. There is far too much that must always remain largely subjective about all aesthetic judgements to ever arrive at an objective measure. But as for Bjoerling, three attributes of his that clearly result in his not being my favorite tenor include the relative small size of the voice, as can be attested to by the many opera lovers still alive who heard him in person, and is apparent in recordings, especially live ones... The absence of "squillo" on the top, which I find really an unacceptable short-coming in many of the big Italian roles he assumed, and then, and here I realize I am on particularly personal grounds, but I don't feel he ever fully captures the "Italian" style, neither interpretively nor vocally-(as contrasted with Di Stephano, or MDM or Corelli, to name but a few.}
