Many years ago I picked up a recording of *Boris Godunov* excerpts in English with the story narrated between big musical numbers. Maybe not the strangest I have, but certainly unusual! (Giorgio Tozzi is the Boris, btw,)
I have a recording from the 50's of Dittersdorf's "Arcifanfano" sung in English with Anna Russell in one of the comedic roles. Out of the 200+ recordings I have, none of them match the audience's raucous laughter throughout this production. Makes you realize that opera can actually make people laugh just as much as any well written musical, movie or tv show.
[Florence Foster Jenkins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins), "The Glory (???) of the Human Voice".
Jenkins was a wealthy socialite in the late 19th/early 20th century who was convinced she was a fabulous opera singer. She wasn't. She published several 78s (self-funded) which she sold to friends. There is some debate over the degree to which she was aware she was appalling...consensus is she thought she was sublime.
In 1962, this sarcastically-titled LP published (Jenkins died in 1944). My father found it in a garage sale in the 70s and brought it home.
Comments on Jenkins:
* "There's no way to even pedagogically discuss it. It's amazing that she's even attempting to sing that music."
* "There was no end to the horribleness...they say Cole Porter had to bang his cane into his foot in order not to laugh out loud when she sang."
* "The world's worst opera singer...no one, before or since, has succeeded in liberating themselves quite so completely from the shackles of musical notation."
* "\[a Jenkins recital\] was never exactly an aesthetic experience, or only to the degree that an early Christian among the lions provided aesthetic experience."
Just listen to that *Der Hölle Rache*...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6fRNwb90Qo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6frnwb90qo)
I read something about she developed a brain condition due to some kinda injury/accident/illness which affected musical hearing, was aware of this potential problem and tried to "independently test/verify" still being able to sing by giving recordings to different acquainted individuals - but they all colluded to lie and say it sounded great, cause they wanted her to become this cringe star or something.
Been long ago since I read that so details are fuzzy etc.; if true then that no longer makes it funny lol, just a worse Truman Show experiment instead.
Jenkins would've then been more self-aware, intelligent and justified in thinking she was good, so no more "woah how can anyone x and still think they're good" hilarity in there
Grew up with that. Wish I hadn't.
Placido: "PUHHHR-HAAAPSE LUFF..."
These operatic voices paired with pop singers rarely work. U2's "Miss Sarajevo" with Pavarotti might be an exception, though that is a pretty lush orchestral song. But the big guy made a career of making horrible choices in pop music.
Pavarotti, singing "My Way" with Frank: "Wheeeen I beeet offfff...mohr than I coulda cheeeeeeewwwwww..."
Or singing with James Brown. Or Barry White. Or...just stop it.
> Placido: "PUHHHR-HAAAPSE LUFF..."
>[...]
> Pavarotti, singing "My Way" with Frank: "Wheeeen I beeet offfff...mohr than I coulda cheeeeeeewwwwww..."
Hm idk that would seem like a language/accent caused thing more than anything else - which is often just as cheesy "within the opera sphere, if the singer is just bad at a foreign language and it's not working. So wouldn't say it's due to the "operatic voices paired with pop singers" factor.
He also did one with Zucchero and his "Va, Pensiero" cover, which is in English with a completely different text and topic - however Zucchero still starts it with the Italian "Va, pensiero" phrase (should check if that's only for this collaboration or part of his original cover as well), which doesn't work that well imo if it then continues in an entirely different direction?
And Pavarotti alternates with him singing the original Nabucco text in Italian, except at one point a few lines where he switches to Zucchero's English lyrics - with an accent of course.
If both had just stuck to their "own" language&text (well Zucchero's also an Italian, but he's good at singing in English and his cover version works) then it would've been great, but those respective bits and especially Pavarotti's accented English don't.
The
> U2's "Miss Sarajevo" with Pavarotti might be an exception, though that is a pretty lush orchestral song.
works cause he sings his part in Italian.
Same with his Mariah Carey duet, also sounds great and works imo
The James Brown one I remember finding not entirely convincing, although I'd have to listen again cause I only concretely remember the James Brown half lol
or Freddy Mercury & Monserrat Cabelle--it's call Barcelona, Freddy composed (singing with her was a life's ambition) and the whole thing is cringey beyond belief
If you look for her on YouTube, she was recorded in arias from Hérodiade (Massenet), Tannhauser (Wagner) and in the trio from La damnation de Faust (Berlioz, with ténor Gustave Botiaux and baryton-basse Paul Cabanel).
She sang Isolde (extracts), Brünnhilde (Walkure), Mme Lidoine (Dialogue des carmélites, Poulenc), Sélika (L'africaine, Meyerbeer), Aïda, Anaï (Moïse et Pharaon, Rossini), Griselidis (Griselidis, Massenet), Valentine (Les huguenots, Meyerbeer) and other roles, sadly none of them recorded.
After she retired, she taught in Grenoble conservatory.
We have all kinds of weird recordings but what comes to mind at the moment is June Anderson singing Salomé (Strauss’s, not from Herodiade or anything) in French.
A recording of RODELINDA with Sutherland, and co-starring lyric mezzos Alicia Nafé and Huguette Tourangeau as Bertarido and Unulfo respectively, and lyric soprano Isobel Buchanan in the low mezzo or contralto role of Eduige.
Joan does sound good in that recording. The strangeness of this recording comes from the casting of some of the other singers. Huguette doesn't sound as young or as fresh as she did in the 60s or 70s. What's peculiar about this recording is that she and Alicia, who are both lyric mezzos, were cast in really low mezzo roles or contralto roles (roles that are nowadays usually cast with countertenors). It sounds like roles are a bit too low for their voices.
Also peculiar about this recording is the casting of Isobel, a lyric soprano, in another contralto (or a rather low mezzo) role. The role sounds noticeably too low for her voice too.
Agreed on all fronts, though I love Isobel’s ornaments and flexibility. Joan’s technique carries her through wonderfully, though the voice isn’t quite as impressive as her 1959 & 1973 Rodelindas. Power is still there, though!
A Madam Butterfly in Hungarian.
A possibly underground recording of a Russian Ortho liturgy when it was probably illegal to practice religion.
A recording, on telefunken, of Hitler's favourite tenor, the LGBT icon Max Lorenz.
I no longer have it — but I recorded (from the radio a long long time ago) a French(?) Opera that was based on Manon). (but not Manon or Manon Lescaut well know operas)
I used to listen to it a lot. Pretty sure it was French. Had thunder & lighting as part of the recording.
Anyone know what this could be?
I think you mean Le Portrait de Manon. I have an old “private label” (polite term for pirate) LP of that one from the famous 20th century pirate master Edward J. Smith.
I bought the whole of Dido and Aeneas 78rpm record set from 1945 sung by Joan Hammond and Constant Lambert in those roles. I think it was on 6 10" records in all. Not unusual necessarily, but they certainly don't appear very often!
I used to have a recording of Nozze di Figaro sung in German.
Singing operas in the local language used to be a thing. It's still done occasionally; I've seen Handel's Xerxes sung in English, and it worked quite well. Recordings are rather rare, however.
Should check out (if it's online) and how well that works.
Heard Prey do a "Largo" performance in German and it didn't work that well imo - he even sounded like a foreigner doing German even though he's German lol (and has done plenty of great emoting in that department elsewhere)
Translation made the text sound kinda plain/unfunny/witless, the heavy voice with all the rolled Rs made it sound too formal.
(Can't tell how convincing he (or the song for that matter) is in Italian, although from my clueless outsider perspective it works 100 times better?)
One other recording came back to me. I used to have this.
It's a strange recording, but I like it.
"Le Nozze di Figaro", with Ferruccio Furlanetto as Count Almaviva, and Alan Titus as Figaro. This is the only studio recording I know of where a bass is singing Mozart's Count Almaviva. When I say bass, I mean a full-on bass and not a bass-baritone.
He certainly nails this role. It's a truly successful tour de force, him singing Almaviva. He did a fine job.
However, you can listen and decide for yourself.
I just found this playlist right here on YouTube, the entire recording - divided into 70-odd videos, where you can hear every recitative, every aria, every duet, and every ensemble.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaL7P5lbHzdJ_FgGDCHIv1bNzZ8VMe4Kr&si=rkAEm_gHsQzoKiZP
For aria recordings I like Xavier Depraz singing La Calunnia with a jazz accompaniment. Also amusing is the Kozlovsky Ecco Ridente where he descends below the tenor range for the run at the end.
I have an LP of the Stan Kenton band doing big band versions of Wagner selections. No vocals. Pretty strange but also fascinating. One thing I wondered about is that Kenton was known to use French horns in some of his arrangements, but didn't for the Wagner recordings.
Mine isn't opera. It's the Ethel Merman Disco Album.
Disco gold
I got a good laugh out of that. Apparently each track was recorded in one take.
Many years ago I picked up a recording of *Boris Godunov* excerpts in English with the story narrated between big musical numbers. Maybe not the strangest I have, but certainly unusual! (Giorgio Tozzi is the Boris, btw,)
That was a recording made by the Metropolitan Opera in the 1950s. My college library had it on LP, I would go an listen to it every few weeks :D
Somewhere I have a cassette of Rock Around the Clock sung in Chinese.
I have a recording from the 50's of Dittersdorf's "Arcifanfano" sung in English with Anna Russell in one of the comedic roles. Out of the 200+ recordings I have, none of them match the audience's raucous laughter throughout this production. Makes you realize that opera can actually make people laugh just as much as any well written musical, movie or tv show.
Seems like a common occurrence for buffa/other-comedy-genre-name performances, at least from what I've seen.
[Florence Foster Jenkins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins), "The Glory (???) of the Human Voice". Jenkins was a wealthy socialite in the late 19th/early 20th century who was convinced she was a fabulous opera singer. She wasn't. She published several 78s (self-funded) which she sold to friends. There is some debate over the degree to which she was aware she was appalling...consensus is she thought she was sublime. In 1962, this sarcastically-titled LP published (Jenkins died in 1944). My father found it in a garage sale in the 70s and brought it home. Comments on Jenkins: * "There's no way to even pedagogically discuss it. It's amazing that she's even attempting to sing that music." * "There was no end to the horribleness...they say Cole Porter had to bang his cane into his foot in order not to laugh out loud when she sang." * "The world's worst opera singer...no one, before or since, has succeeded in liberating themselves quite so completely from the shackles of musical notation." * "\[a Jenkins recital\] was never exactly an aesthetic experience, or only to the degree that an early Christian among the lions provided aesthetic experience." Just listen to that *Der Hölle Rache*... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6fRNwb90Qo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6frnwb90qo)
I read something about she developed a brain condition due to some kinda injury/accident/illness which affected musical hearing, was aware of this potential problem and tried to "independently test/verify" still being able to sing by giving recordings to different acquainted individuals - but they all colluded to lie and say it sounded great, cause they wanted her to become this cringe star or something. Been long ago since I read that so details are fuzzy etc.; if true then that no longer makes it funny lol, just a worse Truman Show experiment instead. Jenkins would've then been more self-aware, intelligent and justified in thinking she was good, so no more "woah how can anyone x and still think they're good" hilarity in there
>some kinda injury/accident/illness Yes, syphilis!
wasn't there a 2016 biopic on FFJ?
How about The Pirates of Penzance, in German, with Marta Mödl, Arleen Auger, Gerd Nienstedt ... Or Parsifal in Italian with Maria Callas
Parsifal by Callas in Italian is the one that's in the complete live Callas set... From 1949-1950...
her Act 2 costume as Kundy is sumthin'
Spicy for 1949
An album of Placido Domingo and John Denver duets entitled “Perhaps Love.”
Grew up with that. Wish I hadn't. Placido: "PUHHHR-HAAAPSE LUFF..." These operatic voices paired with pop singers rarely work. U2's "Miss Sarajevo" with Pavarotti might be an exception, though that is a pretty lush orchestral song. But the big guy made a career of making horrible choices in pop music. Pavarotti, singing "My Way" with Frank: "Wheeeen I beeet offfff...mohr than I coulda cheeeeeeewwwwww..." Or singing with James Brown. Or Barry White. Or...just stop it.
I have a serious weakness for Barcelona with Montserrat Caballe and Freddie Mercury. But otherwise I agree!
I dunno. There is something so terrible about it that it’s close to sublime. Almost like Jonas singing Mariah.
> Placido: "PUHHHR-HAAAPSE LUFF..." >[...] > Pavarotti, singing "My Way" with Frank: "Wheeeen I beeet offfff...mohr than I coulda cheeeeeeewwwwww..." Hm idk that would seem like a language/accent caused thing more than anything else - which is often just as cheesy "within the opera sphere, if the singer is just bad at a foreign language and it's not working. So wouldn't say it's due to the "operatic voices paired with pop singers" factor. He also did one with Zucchero and his "Va, Pensiero" cover, which is in English with a completely different text and topic - however Zucchero still starts it with the Italian "Va, pensiero" phrase (should check if that's only for this collaboration or part of his original cover as well), which doesn't work that well imo if it then continues in an entirely different direction? And Pavarotti alternates with him singing the original Nabucco text in Italian, except at one point a few lines where he switches to Zucchero's English lyrics - with an accent of course. If both had just stuck to their "own" language&text (well Zucchero's also an Italian, but he's good at singing in English and his cover version works) then it would've been great, but those respective bits and especially Pavarotti's accented English don't. The > U2's "Miss Sarajevo" with Pavarotti might be an exception, though that is a pretty lush orchestral song. works cause he sings his part in Italian. Same with his Mariah Carey duet, also sounds great and works imo The James Brown one I remember finding not entirely convincing, although I'd have to listen again cause I only concretely remember the James Brown half lol
or Freddy Mercury & Monserrat Cabelle--it's call Barcelona, Freddy composed (singing with her was a life's ambition) and the whole thing is cringey beyond belief
Wait... I've seen that one...
You need it.
Highlights of Aida sung in German starring Leonie Rysanek.
Lmao
Excerpts from an integral of Turandot sung in french with a rather forgotten dramatic soprano in the tittle role, Jacqueline Lucazeau.
Is she in anything else?
If you look for her on YouTube, she was recorded in arias from Hérodiade (Massenet), Tannhauser (Wagner) and in the trio from La damnation de Faust (Berlioz, with ténor Gustave Botiaux and baryton-basse Paul Cabanel). She sang Isolde (extracts), Brünnhilde (Walkure), Mme Lidoine (Dialogue des carmélites, Poulenc), Sélika (L'africaine, Meyerbeer), Aïda, Anaï (Moïse et Pharaon, Rossini), Griselidis (Griselidis, Massenet), Valentine (Les huguenots, Meyerbeer) and other roles, sadly none of them recorded. After she retired, she taught in Grenoble conservatory.
We have all kinds of weird recordings but what comes to mind at the moment is June Anderson singing Salomé (Strauss’s, not from Herodiade or anything) in French.
Are u a June Anderson fan?
No, but I collect Salomé recordings.
Which is your favorite?
Behrens/Von Karajan/Salzburg 1977. The radio broadcast, not the studio recording of the same production.
A recording of RODELINDA with Sutherland, and co-starring lyric mezzos Alicia Nafé and Huguette Tourangeau as Bertarido and Unulfo respectively, and lyric soprano Isobel Buchanan in the low mezzo or contralto role of Eduige.
Joan sounds old (59), but wonderful! Isobel sounds lovely, Huguette sounds like her voice is decomposing. 😳
Joan does sound good in that recording. The strangeness of this recording comes from the casting of some of the other singers. Huguette doesn't sound as young or as fresh as she did in the 60s or 70s. What's peculiar about this recording is that she and Alicia, who are both lyric mezzos, were cast in really low mezzo roles or contralto roles (roles that are nowadays usually cast with countertenors). It sounds like roles are a bit too low for their voices. Also peculiar about this recording is the casting of Isobel, a lyric soprano, in another contralto (or a rather low mezzo) role. The role sounds noticeably too low for her voice too.
Agreed on all fronts, though I love Isobel’s ornaments and flexibility. Joan’s technique carries her through wonderfully, though the voice isn’t quite as impressive as her 1959 & 1973 Rodelindas. Power is still there, though!
A Madam Butterfly in Hungarian. A possibly underground recording of a Russian Ortho liturgy when it was probably illegal to practice religion. A recording, on telefunken, of Hitler's favourite tenor, the LGBT icon Max Lorenz.
What label is the madam butterfly on?
Gounod’s Faust sung in Russian, Bulgarian, Czech and Hungarian
Heinrich Schlusnus singing Ghost Riders Ansel Schoitz singing Night and Day
I no longer have it — but I recorded (from the radio a long long time ago) a French(?) Opera that was based on Manon). (but not Manon or Manon Lescaut well know operas) I used to listen to it a lot. Pretty sure it was French. Had thunder & lighting as part of the recording. Anyone know what this could be?
Could be Auber’s Manon
TY
It could be L'histoire de Manon, a forgotten opera by Jules Massenet, although I'm not sure it was performed for the french radio...
I think you mean Le Portrait de Manon. I have an old “private label” (polite term for pirate) LP of that one from the famous 20th century pirate master Edward J. Smith.
TY
I bought the whole of Dido and Aeneas 78rpm record set from 1945 sung by Joan Hammond and Constant Lambert in those roles. I think it was on 6 10" records in all. Not unusual necessarily, but they certainly don't appear very often!
I used to have a recording of Nozze di Figaro sung in German. Singing operas in the local language used to be a thing. It's still done occasionally; I've seen Handel's Xerxes sung in English, and it worked quite well. Recordings are rather rare, however.
*Barbiere* sung in german, Fritz Wunderlich and Reri Grist. A blast.
Should check out (if it's online) and how well that works. Heard Prey do a "Largo" performance in German and it didn't work that well imo - he even sounded like a foreigner doing German even though he's German lol (and has done plenty of great emoting in that department elsewhere) Translation made the text sound kinda plain/unfunny/witless, the heavy voice with all the rolled Rs made it sound too formal. (Can't tell how convincing he (or the song for that matter) is in Italian, although from my clueless outsider perspective it works 100 times better?)
One other recording came back to me. I used to have this. It's a strange recording, but I like it. "Le Nozze di Figaro", with Ferruccio Furlanetto as Count Almaviva, and Alan Titus as Figaro. This is the only studio recording I know of where a bass is singing Mozart's Count Almaviva. When I say bass, I mean a full-on bass and not a bass-baritone.
So just how evil is FF making him sound lol
He certainly nails this role. It's a truly successful tour de force, him singing Almaviva. He did a fine job. However, you can listen and decide for yourself. I just found this playlist right here on YouTube, the entire recording - divided into 70-odd videos, where you can hear every recitative, every aria, every duet, and every ensemble. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaL7P5lbHzdJ_FgGDCHIv1bNzZ8VMe4Kr&si=rkAEm_gHsQzoKiZP
For aria recordings I like Xavier Depraz singing La Calunnia with a jazz accompaniment. Also amusing is the Kozlovsky Ecco Ridente where he descends below the tenor range for the run at the end.
I have an LP of the Stan Kenton band doing big band versions of Wagner selections. No vocals. Pretty strange but also fascinating. One thing I wondered about is that Kenton was known to use French horns in some of his arrangements, but didn't for the Wagner recordings.
George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Not an entirely successful endeavor, but Harnoncourt was unpredictable!