some great soave fanciullas

what a great concert that was

what a great voice -- beautiful high note she finishes on

the cover image, below, is not right -- the voices, though,....

what a gorgeous voice elizabeth holleque has

what a concert that must have been

there they are again -- before

he's such a cutie

she gets around,...that mimi -- very popular

he gets around too

a bucharest duo

all we need now, is a bohemian boheme

gheorghiu & sutherland: vissi d'arte

another great vissi d'arte

and another

rex harrison's voice

another great voice

this clip is preceded, immediately, by harrison...laughing...an identical laugh..., at the ball, when he hears that count zoltan karpathy, 'that harry hound from budapest -- never have i ever known a ruder pest,' has uncovered eliza as a...frrrawwwd -- that she...was...booorrrn...hun'gay'rian -- and of royal blood, to boot

the thing about harrison -- as they say about ginger rogers -- that she did everything fred astaire did, but, backwards, and in high heels -- is that he...'sang'...in speak-voice -- didn't sing, but...spoke...the song

audrey hepburn, on the other hand, didn't sing...at all -- well,...i'm sure she did, in the shower, but...not...in the movies -- except, i think, 'moon river,' in 'breakfast at tiffany's'

here, now, is another example...of harrison's 'singing'

after the movie, ben mankiewicz, t.c.m.'s host, said that hepburn had a fine singing voice, but didn't possess the range...required

my niece, cinderella, vivica genaux, cenerentola

in honor of my second-grade niece, who just starred in cinderella -- as one of the mice

vivica genaux was cenerentola in pittsburgh, last spring

her voice seems perfectly suited...for this part -- boy, does she do some amazing things with it

alec guinness's voice

a few days ago, i watched the 1979 tv series 'tinker tailor soldier spy' -- what a beautiful...smooth voice...alec guinness has

pavarotti-freni boheme

i finally watched the pavarotti-freni boheme, from san francisco in '88

oh, my goodness -- what can one say -- pavarotti is beautiful -- freni is adorable...in acts one and two -- amazing...in voice, too

at the end, the flowers fly -- brought tears to my eyes -- what joy

the video of the whole...on youtube...has some 'scratches,' especially early on, and as it goes on, the audio and video grow progressively more out of sync

such synchronicity, though, between pavarotti and freni

i'll have to get a quality video...audio...of it

i'll also have to find pavarotti's first boheme -- in '61 -- his debut -- again, i think, with freni -- or, is it,...'deja vu,...all over again' -- backwards -- back to the future

it says, on his wikipedia page, that they were childhood friends, and that their mothers worked together in a cigar factory

i just found another pavarotti-freni pairing, from 1969

again, o soave fanciulla

how many times did they do it together

on a pbs special about him, he said that boheme was his lucky opera -- did it, every time he premiered in a city...with a company

here's another pavarotti-freni pairing -- 1996 -- just as moving -- maybe more,...by the end

wow -- they did it, together,...for maybe over 35 years

there's an exquisite rendition by enrico caruso and antonio scotti of the gorgeous rodolfo-marcelo duet from act four -- i just love those chords...near the end

this 1907 recording (on youtube) is a little scratchy -- the one you can access via the wikipedia page for boheme is much cleaner

on a youtube page featuring the two, it says they were close friends

finally, pavarotti, doing it with domingo -- with freni, watching on -- on stage -- looks like feruccio furlanetto, on stage too -- on the left side of the circle -- luciano comes up to him, early in the duet -- looks like quite a constellation of stars...on stage -- i caught thomas hampson

a shorter version -- without the fiori...that surrounded them, at the beginning

'to rome with love,' fabio armiliato, daniela dessi's vissi d'arte

i just saw the movie 'to rome with love'

so i looked up the great tenor in the movie, fabio armiliato

he's got nine operas-for-tv to his credit -- and, in almost all of them, fellow genovese daniela dessi is his co-star

the reigning queens

i think joyce didonato and sondra radvanovsky are the two...premier divas...of america

makes me wonder...if we have any...comparable tenors...or basses

gibsonburg

just watched this terrible baseball movie

bad script -- terrible dialogue -- poorly acted -- but...it is...a baseball movie -- which makes it great

has a 'cute phillie' -- looks familiar, too

list of credits...doesn't land her...close to me (nothing i've seen..., as far as i know), but, then,...she's from cleveland -- maybe...on stage...in town

just looked at her blog -- didn't see anything,...going back...about a year -- neither...in this local article

[addendum, 1.15.14: i forgot to note, old friend kent mercker...made an appearance -- in the broadcast booth, for the last couple of games, and also as a technical adviser -- must've been why they had a couple of great leftie pitchers]

gargantua & pantagruel

i'm about two-thirds in -- loving it -- what a joy -- how clever -- learned -- fun with language...and ideas -- in all fields