info about 19th century bel canto singers
Hello everyone,
I just discovered this wonderful site about bel canto music. I am researching the 19th century bel canto singers and songs (1820-1880) and I would appreciate very much your help and assistance to the following questions:
1. if there are any recordings of songs of that era
2. If someone knows any particular songs that were very famous and popular in Rome or Italy in general, during the years 1820 to 1852 and who were the most famous and representative bel canto singers of the era in Italy?
3. Where could I get more info (place and date of birth, working profile) about the following bel canto singers: Titiens, Lima, DeMurca, Campanini, Ravelli, Giuglini, Aramburo, Trembelli?
I already downloaded the pdf books that are hosted here.
4. If someone knows any particular songs that were very famous and popular in USA, during the years 1855 to 1880 and who were the most famous and representative bel canto singers of the era there? Did any of the Italian singers visited USA for concerts during that period?
5. Are there any recordings (original or later) of these songs? Where could I listen online any of these?
Thank you very much,
Spiro
Considering that the phonograph was only invented in 1877 and took a few years to build widespread use, there can not possibly be any recordings of the 1st golden age of singing. The closest you can get is the 2nd golden age, when Bel Canto was revived again. This would include opera singers such as Lauritz Melchior, Richard Tucker, Beniamino Gigli, Joseph Schmidt, Leo Slezak, Richard Tauber, Ivan Kozlovskyetc.
There was however a space from about 1840 until about 1900, when the style fell out of graces and even though resurected, it is not clear that the techniques remained the same as the original Bel Canto era. It might be useful therefore to also look at some of the Orthodox Jewish Cantors, who were consistently trained generation to generation dating back to the prime of the Bel Canto era of 1805 and even earlier. I would recommend Yoselle Rosenblatt, David Roitman, Mordechai Hershman, Moishe Oysher, Moshe Stern, Chaim Adler, etc.
For the music, probably the place to start is with the big 3: Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti. Look specifically for those performances with the above opera singers, or even more recent ones who were known to have an appreciation for the Bel Canto style, such as Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, Kathleen Battle, Maria Callas, Juan Diego Florez, etc.