Thursday, April 21, 2011

Verdi Backup SIngers

Guido Loconsolo from www.guidoloconsolo.com
We continue our Verdi series with two great roles for baritone that aren't one of the lead characters, but critical to the story, Iago in Otello and Ford in Falstaff.

One of the most popular baritone arias is Ford's "E'sogno o realtà," where a singer can display great emotion as the character becomes consumed with jealousy.

We'll start with Lee Poulis who we recently featured singing in Bernard Hermann's Wuthering Heights at the Minnesota Opera. He has the type of voice that is often cast for this role. Poulis shows how well the aria works for recitals and competitions. For comparison listen to the rich, darker baritone of Guido Loconsolo with orchestra.





Few secondary characters are more critical to the plot line that the evil and sinister Iago, who sets in motion everything that leads to Otello killing the innocent Desdemona. A great Iago can easily steal the show from the tenor and soprano, much like a great Azucena or Amneris can steal the show in Il Trovatore and Aida respectively. Let's start with two of the greatest versions ever, Leonard Warren and Ettore Bastianini. We'll follow that with the thrilling duet "S pel ciel" with Placido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes from the 1979 "Live from the Met" telecast.





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1 comment:

  1. Secondary character? Iago? You've got to be kidding. A secondary character would be, say Cassio, but Iago is the man who makes it all happen. He's the prime mover in this play/opera. You need to rename this category, and quickly.

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