Roberto Alagna & Bryn Terfel sing the beautiful duet "Au fond du temple saint" from Bizet's "Les Pêcheurs de perles"... (Met 1996) Beautiful singinf... and visually funny (big Terfel vs little Alagna)
This duet turned me on to opera almost 40 years ago. If you have friends who are not opera fans, please let them listen to this and see how it should be performed. If they fail to be moved they have no soul. Just kidding. Opera is not for everybody, but this beautiful music and such strong voices should turn anyone on to opera. If you can afford it (Phew) seeing this performed live is just earth moving.
Bizet wrote this when he was 23 years old, after winning the commission in a competition. The opera's story is quite silly. When the librettists heard Bizet's music, one of them remarked, "If we had known the boy had such talent, we would have given him a better libretto."
I can't comment on others' preferences - I only know that for French diction, pronunciation, energy, intensity, and being in the moment - this is IT!!! The most thrilling of all the many versions available - and the first time I heard Roberto Alagna - but definitely not the last!!!
wow, I never thought Alagna ever sang that well in his life... he paid the price of trying to have a big voice, a tendency which is sadly frequent among singers. Here he sings with a voice that is lighter than now, but more natural and oh how more beautiful.
this is an excellent version and I am delighted to be able to hear such beautyful music. I think this is the best version i have heard and as jcamija says Alagna is pronouncing french the right way!
In addition to others comments, even if is not a rule in opera, the fact that Roberto Alagna is pronouncing French (he is french) makes this version magical for me.
Hey um i'm 17, i listen to all kinds of music (hiphop, rap, dub, flamenco) but just recently discovered such music. i love this song, and other things (time to say goodbye), canon & gigue in d major, tchaikovsky's dance of the sugar plum fairy was just wondering if people could direct me to more music like this? maybe some of the more famous ones i might have heard, and then i'll branch off from there :)
Alagna to me is truly great because he realizes that the vision of the composer is of utmost importance. Therefore, he doesn't sing with too many embellishments or ultra dramatic portamento. His singing of romantic arias is so simple and so appropriate! Bravo, Roberto and Bryn!
I agree that Merrill and Bjorling are perfect, but being able to see the live performers as they feel the experience adds a dimension to its fullness. That is impossible now, so I watch Alagna and Terfel with great appreciation and then llisten to Merrill and Bjorling, a totally satisfying experience.
There are't many pieces of music about which I can say I remember where I first heard it, but this is one. Years after that, it was played at my father's funeral. Words cannot express my feelings about it.
I concur, it's difficult to stay in your own voice with such a masterpiece, too easy to overdo, while such a piece calls for a listening ear to the other party. I wish you all the best, just as long as you don't try to replicate Bryn and Roberto and you'll be fine, Georg wrote this piece to accommodate most male voices ;)
Just think, this was for a Gala - James Levine's 25th Anniversary - and Roberto was making his debut at the Met in "La Bohême", and was married to Angela just the night before - on stage no less - you can see he is wearing his wedding outfit, probably no rehearsal with Bryn - and they hit it out of the ballpark - moving, heart wrenchingly beautiful voices, and the crowd goes wild!!! What more could you ask?
I think the recording your referring to was 1950 and is very beautiful. One of the golden standards. The version I prefer is one that I mentioned which is from 1927 and has Gigli/Deluca: watch?v=FsQJ6_XEJNc Having said that Roberto Alagna & Bryn Terfel are great artists and Alagna is multi talented covering so many different forms of music very effectively as well as his operatic career.
muy interesante :) Ambas grandes voces! Creo que la voz de Terfel es una de las mejores voces de barítono jamás escuchadas (no hay que dejar fuera a Dmitri Hvorostovsky). y Alagna, bueno... Alagna es Alagna! vaya dueto más gracioso! El enorme Bryn y el pequeño (en comparación) Roberto.
To johneunson - nothing "happened" to Alagna except people trashing him on You Tube - You can access a lhis performances from 1992 to 2009 on You Tube. Granted, he does not have the sweetness & purity of his early years, but his voice is warmer as well as darker. He is singing "Carmen" at the Met this January & I already have my tickets!
Alagna, an Italian voice (production) on a Frenchman... Finally.. An Italian voice where the French cannot complain about his French ! They must be ecstatic...
If young tenors could sing like Alagna it would be enchantments and musical pleasure in the theater all over the world! even if we don't have to like his personality, he is a great singer!
I have been listening to all the version " here" , sorry for that , but it the "best" version of this beautiful duet ! Why ??? The two voices are absolutely well balanced together , Alagna does ALL the pianissimi WRITTEN and Terfel is very impressive (what a legato and a colour ) , there is (maybe??) another "old" version with José Luccionni and Paul Deldi in the 1950's (two French Singers stars of that time )
This is an example of why I once thought that Alagna had a great future before him. Sadly, it didn't turn out that way, but this performance here is wonderful.
Saudade do Alagna, do tempo em que sua voz ainda estava intacta. Pena que ele, assim como tantos outros, tenha ´danificado sua voz com papéis inadequados. Parecem Laurell & Hardy, com todo o respeito, mas as vozes são sublimes.
I'd like to know what is the problem with Alagna ? Do you know what lyrical practice is ?(to "spyderwalk"&"FaulkesN")Sure Björling would have been better but nowadays nobody has that kind of voice! Do you really think somebody else can do it better now? Maybe Villazon,Alvarez,Vargas,etc? I really don' think so !
It does look funny, but with a sound like that he can do whatever he likes. He has quite a small mouth for someone with such a giant head, maybe that's why. Is he a giant? Or is Alagna just tiny?
Terfel trots out this party piece at every available paid opportunity, and he's recorded it with Bocelli, Alvarez, and for all I know, Kiri te bloody Kanawa - but none so outshines him as much as Alagna, just the perfect voice for this.
They both were sporting the I'm-too-hip-to-shave look which were popular a few years back. Mr. Terfel pulled it off, but Mr. Alagna looked like he just got off the red-eye from Paris.
@SquabTheBlob First of all, this is not an aria. Second of all, where are the scoops? This is long before he started scooping. This Alagna would have gone down as one of the great tenors.
what happened to alagna? why no great future? i haven' heard him for ages. is he ill? this is a genuine enquiry and you seem to know the opera world well.
@somewiseguy84: There is actually some truth to that. Sure, as domesongwish said, singers come in all shapes and sizes. But it is especially more frequent with male singers. It's not always true, but tenors tend to be shorter and more stout and baritones tend to be taller and longer. Like I said, it's not ALWAYS true, but there is a tendency for this. I remember when I was in music school, one of the vocal instructors pointed it out to our class and every began to laugh. Fond memory.
Apart from the fact that Pavarotti has passed on, (and for the matter of Bjorling, I'm a n00b) why not? I think it was NG that once made a very nice documentary of Bryn's career to some point in '97, could be BBC though, what I see from there, is that no musician is prone to typicality
This is a lovely version, but the chemistry doesn't feel quite right between these two. For me, the perfect version is the Brit Awards 2003, between Terfel and Bocelli - it's simply magic the way the voices blend, the chemistry works and the atmosphere is just electric. I'm surprised it hasn't made it here yet!
There's a recording of these two singing this duet at some sort of gala in NYC in the 1990's (I think). It was gruesome in the extreme. Their voices were grotesquely unmatched. This rendition is considerably better. However, I can't help thinking that Alagna is singing at the very upper limit of his range. He really should desist. I know it's unfashionable to say so, but give me the Bjorling/Merrill rendition any time. Stuart
The greatest French tenor since Thill and, in his repertoire, still the best. If you have any questions of this watch Villazon trash the role of Romeo. Constant comments about the state of Alagna voice forget how much longer he has lasted than DiStefano for example.
Alagna does not outshine Terfel, but he is Bryn's equal. This is a fabulous rendering - and maybe the fact that BT does this 'at every turn' means there are not even duets of this sort for male singers? coraclewoman
