So, today's probably the day everyone realizes that one of the drawback to "Letting Joseph Have His Own Little Corner Of The InterWebs" is that he posts whatever happens to interest him, regardless of anyone else's interest. (OK, so some of you might have already realizes that. But today's the day everyone else learns the painful truth for themselves.)
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a YouTube video called "14 World Famous Tenors Sing Nessun Dorma!" that was nothing but a series of excerpted clips featuring numerous tenors performing the same section of Puccini's famous aria from "Turandot." And I really loved it.
Comparisons have always been a big draw for me, because I very much love the way in which artists brings their own personality and technique and interpretation to something that is exactly the same on paper. But which ends up being very different in practice (given those personalities and technical and interpretive differences).
And then I thought: "The only thing better than this clips would be videos of the entire song!" I don't know if anyone else was thinking that, really. But remember the "This Is My Site" bit from before? Right. So...here. They're not the same versions as the original video, in most cases. But they give you the general idea, all the same.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Opera is not my thing. I'm hoping it will be, eventually. But right now, it's not. Never has been. So these performers are just a beginning, and match as closely as possible to the video that served as my inspiration. So, if you have others you'd like to mention, feel free. I encourage it, in fact.
First off, Plácido Domingo:
Next, Yonghoon Lee:
Mario Del Monaco:
I can't find an official/hashtagged version of Rudy Park's performance for embedding, so let's move on to Franco Corelli, instead:
Next, the legendary José Carreras:
Moving past Ettore and Alfred Kim -- again with the embed issue -- we arrive at Mario Lanza:
Nicola Martinucci:
No JaeChul Bae -- Yes, there seems to be a strong Korean flavor to this list. -- so let's head on over to Giuseppe Giacomini:
And now, we've arrived at Pavarotti. (Come on. You had to know it was coming.)
And closing things out with The Big Three:
Oh, hey. I found another list over at ClassicFM. So let's just keep on going, shall we?
Here's Joseph Calleja.
Also, Francesco Merli.
And Beniamino Gigli.
Jussi Björling.
And lastly, Andrea Bocelli.
Oh. And this. Heh.
There. That should keep you busy for a while. (Probably not as long as it took for me to put it together, but it's my corner, not yours, right?)
I'm a certainly open to additions, though. There's something about that high, high, tippy-top moment that gets me every time, died-in-the-wool non-opera-guy though I am.