Tag Archives: leonard warren
Recording of the Week: Leonard Warren 10 CD Set
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th July 2016Leonard Warren (1911-60) was the greatest baritone I ever heard. In the major Verdi parts no one else was close. He had everything. A voice of immense size, incomparable high notes, and a velvet control over his great instrument. He made his career at the Met, appearing at that great house 657 times between 1938 and…
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Rigoletto at the Met – 1945
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th February 2013Rigoletto was just broadcast by the Met. It was a nice performance, but check this one out. Its the broadcast of Dec 29, 1945. The cast is impossible to duplicate today. The difference between then and now is wider than the Grand Canyon. Warren and Björling seem another species; It’s on Youtube so I can’t…
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Leonard Warren’s 100th Birthday
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th April 2011Leonard Warren was born April 21, 1911. No baritone within living memory has matched him in the great Verdi baritone roles Below is the big second act aria from the most challenging of Verdi’s baritone roles – the title character from Rigoletto. He sang this part 89 times with at the Met both in New…
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Recording of the Week: Macbeth
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd March 2010First performed in 1847, Verdi’s Macbeth took 112 years to reach New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Part of the interval was unavoidable as the house didn’t open until 1883. When the work finally did reach the Met the company made up as much as possible for they delay with a superlative production. Verdi’s 10th opera was…
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Recording of the Week – La Traviata
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th May 2009This is the first post of a series “Recording of the Week”. Be aware that my “week” has between one and 365 days. Also the year that the week it belongs to is any since 1930. Now that we have the details out of the way, let’s start with Verdi’s La Traviata. Pierre Monteux conducted…
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The Perfect Il Trovatore
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 1st March 2009Verdi’s great opera currently on display at New York’s Metropolitan Opera rarely gets a good performance anywhere because of the extraordinary demands placed on its four protagonists. In 1952 RCA got the best cast ever assembled to record the opera. It’s as close to perfection as we’re ever likely to get. You can quibble about…
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Leonard Warren – The Great Verdi Baritone
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th January 2008Before the sound of Leonard Warren’s great baritone fades from living memory, I thought I’d try to recollect the impression he made on me during the 20 or so times I heard him sing at the old Met. Born Leonard Warenoff in 1911, he was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. Like his colleague Rubin Ticker,…
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