These days are over (at least for the near future)! Italian opera at it's finest and I DO miss this kind of singing nowadays............ Call me old fashioned!
Tim....if you are still with us, nothing wrong with being "old fashioned" shows great taste and I'm old fashioned too.....those days are long gone I'm afraid.....
Opera IS old fashioned and We need to take care of the tradition and that includes the old technique. Only Then opera will be great and loved by the Modern audience also!
With Scotto & Giacomini, you can feel the passion and drama of the situation - kudos to both of them, perhaps the best version of this duet you are ever going to hear.
Great to hear these two in their prime. So often most recordings and video of great singers only captures them in vocal decline years after their best and largely due to a very slow and narrow process of gaining renown. With much improved technology and infinitely more recording tools available today...and so cheap...well the chance of catching today's and future greats in their prime is infinitely improved. Pity is we can glimpse in this video little more than a tiny sample of what we would gave if they lived in our time
Absolutely fantastic and outstanding... this is TRUTH and it gives you everything! Total singing... opera is dead but when it was alive it produced jewels like this one!!!! Thank you
Great video, loved it! The ending of the duet is a perfect example to follow what Puccini wrote. I don't like when tenors go up to the high C, I love when they sing the "Vien, sei mia" ... so full of passion ... Giacomini, sei grande!!!!
It's great to have this souvenir captured from a bygone era, faded as it is. When Renata Tebaldi retired from the Metropolitan I turned my affections on Renata Scotto. I loved her recordings of Lucia and Gilda. I saw her first in Le Prophete, then Boheme, Trovatore, Francesco di Rimini. I was at the fateful opening night of Norma which was disturbed by a lone fanatic but came back for the last performance which was triumph. She was a real succesor to Gioconda and Manon Lescaut (with Domingo) was her triumph. Her farewell Butterfly left me with beautiful memories.
wow. i can't believe someone here was insisting this isn't giacomini. good lord. and the camera is certainly close enough to show a close view of this very recognizable tenor, as if his voice wasn't distinctive and recognizable enough.
Didn´t have to wait till 6:25 to know this is Giacomini. I didn´t even know there was an argument about it and realized it from the beginning. My first thought was; "wow, Scotto sounds great here and Giacomini is fabulous sounds so fresh and beautiful. It is SO obvious!
Wonderful scene-- thank you, thank you. RS and GG are great. You know, even though he didn't fully understand the language, Puccini loved the "emotionalism" of Belasco's popular American plays--Madame Buttefly and Girl of the Golden West--and adapted those plays for his operas. He'd also adapted Sardou's melodramatic La Tosca (a vehicle for Bernhardt). The source plays have faded into oblivion, but Puccini's genius and music live on!
Hahaha, real singers yes! - good old Puccini, they felt his genius too! - let’s be fair though, there are some great voices today, and we shouldn’t really compare…
Ho letto tutto ciò che è stato scritto. Leggere che la Scotto è finta,ecc.mi intristisce e vorrebbe forse mortificare la più grande fraseggiatrice che l'Italia del dopoguerra abbia avuto...Credo che la sua Cio Cio San non abbia rivali(vocalmente negli anni migliori,ovviamente).Grande anche la Signora Kabaivanska che ho ascoltato tante volte nel ruolo.
The point is, Madama Butterfly is not a Japanese opera, just as Fanciulla del West is not an American opera. They are both intensely Italian operas, which portray these two countries from the point of view of an Italian composer living 100 years ago, thus your criticisms are superfluous. There are so many aspects of these libretti that don't represent historical fact, but so what? They are romantic operas, no more and no less.
I've recently encountered Giacomini here on UA-cam, and although most videos I've seen were apparently in the latter part of his career, his voice and range were beautifully intact. Not quite so for Renata Scotto, whose voice was embarrassing in her 20th Met anniversary Butterfly performance broadcast on radio.
Renata Scott la mejor actriz encima de un escenario de ópera junto al monstruo de la Callas. Giacomini una Tenor en mayúsculas!Felicitar a la persona que hizo esta grabación!
I was so curious to see/hear Scotto‘s Butterfly on stage because on disc she seems to be singing for the microphone. And indeed,unless she's singing forte here, she can't be heard above the Puccini orchestra. All the "small" singing works in studio but not on stage.
This is just wonderful. How I wish I'd known of Giacomini years ago. I've been fooling around with Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras for all these years, though they are wonderful. But how Giacomini could have added to the thrill of those three. Is he still singing?
Che peccato, la registrazione è molto scadente le voci vanno e vengono e tutto viene ridimensionato.. Ma questa è stata una performance eccelsa da entrambi.
7:49 do you hear Giacomini hit a high C? The soprano Renata Scotto is so louder than Giacomini. I think Giacomini needs to bring the volume up for his high C! or is it an A? I am not sure?
Actually, having sung a few of these myself I can tell you that he did not sing it as written, which is with a lovely lower harmony. He attempted the optional C ...twice and went in for a kiss when the second one didn't make it either. Oops! But you know, it is live, he is human, crap can happen. And otherwise he is stunning!
he would have to go ruin it by trying to sing the high c. notwithstanding, this was truly great singing on the part of both of them. scotto's butterfly was a little over the top at times, acting wise, but musically and vocally, hers was the best.
@AfroPoli Scotto NEVER sang Butterfly w/Prevedi at the MET. This is definately the MET production. What does it matter what other tenors were listed? Check the MET annals. Then you don't have to make such absurd statements. This performance actually happened on April 8, 1978. She NEVER sang this part with Olvis, Theyard, di Giuseppe, etc. What are you saying when the archives are there for everyone to read????
No Japanese woman - especially in 19th-century Japan - would convey the body language that Scotto does here. It may seem a minor point, but to anyone familiar with Japanese women, Scotto's Butterfly seems to be an Italian woman galumphing about the stage in a kimono.
It really doesn't matter. It is an Italian opera composed by an Italian composer about what he thinks Japanese culture is about. Where in the world would we find the location of Mozart's Die Zauberflote(sp.)? Or Turandot?
@@shirleyrombough8173 TURANDOT is set in Ancient China but again it is seen from the perspective of a late XIX/early XX Century Italian composer like Puccini
@@edwardamosbrandwein3583 It would be nigh to impossible for a composer (or anyone, really) to erase all cultural effects on one's work. I think Puccini probably tried to see each opera as representing the culture in which it was set - La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, for example - each reflects enough cultural traits of its settings that we know we are watching a story set in Japan, 19th century Paris. e.g. To see Renata Scotto "galumphing about in a kimono" could be explained by her new-found freedom, after having f0und the thrill, joys of love for the first time (despite Lt. Pinkerton's being such a louse). Her marriage, though fake in Pinkerton's mind, was real in her own. And to Edward Amos Brandwein, I knew Turandot was set in ancient China but did not know how Puccini knew the culture of that place and time.
@@shirleyrombough8173 I don't know that, either. To be precise, I don't know whether Puccini was versed in Ancient China History AT ALL. But that's not really the point: the aim of composers is not "to teach History through Music" but to make the public enjoy their compositions. Don't you agree?
Yes to me it was better - but everyone has their own opinion of course- Jose Carreras transmitted the feelings of his operas to the audience and that is true opera and a true Tenor at his very best that beats all others -
@@ulrikewermann1268 Yes I did many times - I was lucky -He was so expressive on stage and he did transmit emotions no other tenor did - He was fantastic and today although older he can still hold an audience.
Toti dal Monte con tutto il rispetto non aveva la voce per questo repertorio. La più grande di quella generazione fu a mio avviso Licia Albanese, la più grande Butterfly di sempre
tra le più GRANDI BUTTERFLY ci sono state, ANTONIETTA STELLA E RAINA KABAIVANSKA!!!!! anzi la Kabaivanska E' LA MIGLIORE!!!! l'ha cantata per 30 anni, con più di 400 recite in tutto il mondo!!!!
Gino Pietracupa, ho ascoltato dal vivo entrambe, la De Los Angeles aveva piu' volume e inoltre aveva l'ottava bassa perfetta, quasi da mezzosoprano. Aveva un suono penetrante e omogeneita' nel suono...a parte gli ultimi anni. Non era voce piccola e aveva uno charme incredibile.
@@fabriziomariagarzi5534 La De Los Angeles Troppo limitata come voce e tecnica, limitata nell legato, nell volume E poi infantile, Quando la Victoria azzardava una smorzatura, eventualità rarissima, il suono diventava opaco e fisso. Nelle emissioni a piena voce era vetroso e duro. La voce era di timbro carezzevole, questo è vero..Ma voce non duttile e acuti duri. La Victoria messa male con gli acuti La de Los Angeles ha sempre avuto acuti stridulini e fissi, Ma è stridula e dura negli acuti Anche nel 56, Celletti stronca De Los Angeles , secondo lui é un doppio bluff, no ha colori no ha dinamica, la tecnica, La Victoria è una bamboletta a me De Los Angeles pare malensa Stucchevole,
@@ginopietracupa4305 scusa, ma tu la Victoria De Los Angeles l'hai mai ascoltata dal vivo? Era il contrario di cio' che dici e di cio' che diceva Celletti, che non era il Dio in terra ma portava solo acqua al suo mulino. Non era un voce molto fonogenica. Possedeva anche i sopracuti ma non li volle mai usare. In Manon arriva ad un Re nella Gavotta che e' perfetto.
Singers like this doesn't exist no more. We can bless the old era for such a gift.
Great!!!!
These days are over (at least for the near future)! Italian opera at it's finest and I DO miss this kind of singing nowadays............ Call me old fashioned!
Tim: If you are still alive, "you are old fashioned'.
Tim....if you are still with us, nothing wrong with being "old fashioned" shows great taste and I'm old fashioned too.....those days are long gone I'm afraid.....
Right there with you Tim.
Opera IS old fashioned and We need to take care of the tradition and that includes the old technique. Only Then opera will be great and loved by the Modern audience also!
@@pammyjones1151 They are, indeed!
Gone...NEVER TO RETURN!
With Scotto & Giacomini, you can feel the passion and drama of the situation - kudos to both of them, perhaps the best version of this duet you are ever going to hear.
Great to hear these two in their prime. So often most recordings and video of great singers only captures them in vocal decline years after their best and largely due to a very slow and narrow process of gaining renown. With much improved technology and infinitely more recording tools available today...and so cheap...well the chance of catching today's and future greats in their prime is infinitely improved. Pity is we can glimpse in this video little more than a tiny sample of what we would gave if they lived in our time
Absolutely fantastic and outstanding... this is TRUTH and it gives you everything! Total singing... opera is dead but when it was alive it produced jewels like this one!!!! Thank you
Great video, loved it! The ending of the duet is a perfect example to follow what Puccini wrote. I don't like when tenors go up to the high C, I love when they sing the "Vien, sei mia" ... so full of passion ... Giacomini, sei grande!!!!
Puccini also wrote in the high C (optional).
It's great to have this souvenir captured from a bygone era, faded as it is. When Renata Tebaldi retired from the Metropolitan I turned my affections on Renata Scotto. I loved her recordings of Lucia and Gilda. I saw her first in Le Prophete, then Boheme, Trovatore, Francesco di Rimini. I was at the fateful opening night of Norma which was disturbed by a lone fanatic but came back for the last performance which was triumph. She was a real succesor to Gioconda and Manon Lescaut (with Domingo) was her triumph. Her farewell Butterfly left me with beautiful memories.
Richard Woitach conducting so sensitively. And that violin solo is divine. And then the gloriousness of both of them. Superb.
I LOVE THESE VOICES TOGETHER!!!
Scotto at her superb zenith in her most treasured role. Thank you kind sir
Слушать это сейчас ,как сувенир,восторг!!!!!Спасибо за запись...
It's not easy being a tenor :P we still love you Giacomini
wow. i can't believe someone here was insisting this isn't giacomini. good lord. and the camera is certainly close enough to show a close view of this very recognizable tenor, as if his voice wasn't distinctive and recognizable enough.
Stunning Scotto!!
Thank you for sharing 🙏
Merci. Quel duo... Giacomini, extraordinaire. Ténor unique...
Didn´t have to wait till 6:25 to know this is Giacomini. I didn´t even know there was an argument about it and realized it from the beginning. My first thought was; "wow, Scotto sounds great here and Giacomini is fabulous sounds so fresh and beautiful. It is SO obvious!
Wonderful scene-- thank you, thank you. RS and GG are great. You know, even though he didn't fully understand the language, Puccini loved the "emotionalism" of Belasco's popular American plays--Madame Buttefly and Girl of the Golden West--and adapted those plays for his operas. He'd also adapted Sardou's melodramatic La Tosca (a vehicle for Bernhardt). The source plays have faded into oblivion, but Puccini's genius and music live on!
oh yes, definitely Giacomini.
Her great period was short, but WHAT greatness, in this role especially.
REAL singers! Not today's substandard fakes that pass for "greats"!
Hahaha, real singers yes! - good old Puccini, they felt his genius too! - let’s be fair though, there are some great voices today, and we shouldn’t really compare…
WOUNDERFUL, OUTSTANDING ...BRAVI!!!
the great Giacomini!
FANTASTICO!!! INREPITIBILE!!! FAVOLOSO !!!
So glad he cracked, actually. I could enjoy Scotto's divine high note uninterrupted. The greatest Butterfly of all times!
Magnifici.
Outstanding. Magnificent conducting as well
I so agree. Do we know who the conductors is? Also the violin solos are gorgeously played.
Ho letto tutto ciò che è stato scritto.
Leggere che la Scotto è finta,ecc.mi intristisce e vorrebbe forse mortificare la più grande fraseggiatrice che l'Italia del dopoguerra abbia avuto...Credo che la sua Cio Cio San non abbia rivali(vocalmente negli anni migliori,ovviamente).Grande anche la Signora Kabaivanska che ho ascoltato tante volte nel ruolo.
BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The point is, Madama Butterfly is not a Japanese opera, just as Fanciulla del West is not an American opera. They are both intensely Italian operas, which portray these two countries from the point of view of an Italian composer living 100 years ago, thus your criticisms are superfluous. There are so many aspects of these libretti that don't represent historical fact, but so what? They are romantic operas, no more and no less.
And neither is "TURANDOT" a Chinese opera.
Yes, young Giacomini! ;)
I've recently encountered Giacomini here on UA-cam, and although most videos I've seen were apparently in the latter part of his career, his voice and range were beautifully intact. Not quite so for Renata Scotto, whose voice was embarrassing in her 20th Met anniversary Butterfly performance broadcast on radio.
Questa è la vera voce di Pinkerton e non i tenori leggeri di oggi che cercano di cantarla.
MARAVILLOSO DUO
Scotto e Giacomini, Butterfly, che domandare ancora? Ebbene si! Li amo.
Renata Scott la mejor actriz encima de un escenario de ópera junto al monstruo de la Callas. Giacomini una Tenor en mayúsculas!Felicitar a la persona que hizo esta grabación!
Scotto è Butterfly unica
Smashing
I was so curious to see/hear Scotto‘s Butterfly on stage because on disc she seems to be singing for the microphone. And indeed,unless she's singing forte here, she can't be heard above the Puccini orchestra. All the "small" singing works in studio but not on stage.
BRAVI!
Who is the amazing conductor???????!!!!!!
Tremendously good violin solo too!
Absolutely stunning! Is there a footage of "Quanto cielo, quanto mar, Ancora un passo or via"? Thank you!
Scotto la mejor Chio Chio San
This is just wonderful. How I wish I'd known of Giacomini years ago. I've been fooling around with Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras for all these years, though they are wonderful. But how Giacomini could have added to the thrill of those three. Is he still singing?
Also, I would love to have heard Giacomini singing Turridu in Cavalleria.
He died a year ago.
I sang in performances with him his voice and musicality were beyond great!
Do we know what year and where this was filmed?
Merveilleux giacomani .il méritait encore plus de gloire
I love Callas ones too
@tenor23 It's in the title! Giacomini!
who is this amazing conductor?
Please tell when was this performance?
il suo "vogliatemi bene" non ha pari in nessuna anche se gli anni passano per tutti
Definitely giacomini,even with awful picture you can tell its him,the voice alone says it all.ps my favourite butterfly in scotto
e cmq l'audio non è originale del video, è stato aggiunto dopo.......
Che peccato, la registrazione è molto scadente le voci vanno e vengono e tutto viene ridimensionato.. Ma questa è stata una performance eccelsa da entrambi.
What year?!?!
7:49 do you hear Giacomini hit a high C? The soprano Renata Scotto is so louder than Giacomini. I think Giacomini needs to bring the volume up for his high C! or is it an A? I am not sure?
Giacomini doesn't attempt the High C at all. He sings as it's written.
Actually, having sung a few of these myself I can tell you that he did not sing it as written, which is with a lovely lower harmony. He attempted the optional C ...twice and went in for a kiss when the second one didn't make it either. Oops! But you know, it is live, he is human, crap can happen. And otherwise he is stunning!
He cracks trying to hit it.
he would have to go ruin it by trying to sing the high c. notwithstanding, this was truly great singing on the part of both of them. scotto's butterfly was a little over the top at times, acting wise, but musically and vocally, hers was the best.
@AfroPoli Scotto NEVER sang Butterfly w/Prevedi at the MET. This is definately the MET production. What does it matter what other tenors were listed? Check the MET annals. Then you don't have to make such absurd statements. This performance actually happened on April 8, 1978. She NEVER sang this part with Olvis, Theyard, di Giuseppe, etc. What are you saying when the archives are there for everyone to read????
Kind of the point...this is Puccini's version of Japanese...
He was great up until that high 'C'. How unfortunate. But that can happen
a little too often though ;)
Oh fuck right off..
@@caninbar Tucker absolutely risked that very dangerous high C, preferring instead Puccini's own lower, easier optional ending.
should read, "absolutely NEVER risked..." etc. sorry...
Ma lei cantava o faceva finta?
è la Tebaldi quasi come la Scotto questa è donna l'altra è frigida!!!!
No Japanese woman - especially in 19th-century Japan - would convey the body language that Scotto does here.
It may seem a minor point, but to anyone familiar with Japanese women, Scotto's Butterfly seems to be an Italian woman galumphing about the stage in a kimono.
David: Yes, it is a minor point. Now shut up and be grateful that this video is here for all of us to enjoy.
It really doesn't matter. It is an Italian opera composed by an Italian composer about what he thinks Japanese culture is about. Where in the world would we find the location of Mozart's Die Zauberflote(sp.)? Or Turandot?
@@shirleyrombough8173 TURANDOT is set in Ancient China but again it is seen from the perspective of a late XIX/early XX Century Italian composer like Puccini
@@edwardamosbrandwein3583 It would be nigh to impossible for a composer (or anyone, really) to erase all cultural effects on one's work. I think Puccini probably tried to see each opera as representing the culture in which it was set - La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, for example - each reflects enough cultural traits of its settings that we know we are watching a story set in Japan, 19th century Paris. e.g. To see Renata Scotto "galumphing about in a kimono" could be explained by her new-found freedom, after having f0und the thrill, joys of love for the first time (despite Lt. Pinkerton's being such a louse). Her marriage, though fake in Pinkerton's mind, was real in her own. And to Edward Amos Brandwein, I knew Turandot was set in ancient China but did not know how Puccini knew the culture of that place and time.
@@shirleyrombough8173 I don't know that, either.
To be precise, I don't know whether Puccini was versed in Ancient China History AT ALL. But that's not really the point: the aim of composers is not "to teach History through Music" but to make the public enjoy their compositions. Don't you agree?
En este duo y en esta opera a quien le preocupa lo que haga el tenor?
I loved the Butterfly with Scotto and Jose Carreras - now that was pure magic !
no
Yes to me it was better - but everyone has their own opinion of course- Jose Carreras transmitted the feelings of his operas to the audience and that is true opera and a true Tenor at his very best that beats all others -
@@margybickerton1016 Carreras for me was a great pretender....like Kaufmann.
@@margybickerton1016 Did you ever hear him on stage? His hands were expressing what he could noch express with his voice....as you said. My opinion.
@@ulrikewermann1268 Yes I did many times - I was lucky -He was so expressive on stage and he did transmit emotions no other tenor did - He was fantastic and today although older he can still hold an audience.
@AfroPoli
Oh dear, what a fail.
It is obviously Giacomini. Your perception of reality is so very warped.
Sorry dear... but this is Giacomini. Vocally and physically. It is Obvious!
Great voice crack on the High C! Giacomini's original style :)
dicono che la migliore sia stata Toti Dal Monte.
Toti dal Monte con tutto il rispetto non aveva la voce per questo repertorio.
La più grande di quella generazione fu a mio avviso Licia Albanese, la più grande Butterfly di sempre
@@damianhunziker2132 Toti Dal Monte only attempted the role on record (witj Gigli, 1930).
tra le più GRANDI BUTTERFLY ci sono state, ANTONIETTA STELLA E RAINA KABAIVANSKA!!!!! anzi la Kabaivanska E' LA MIGLIORE!!!! l'ha cantata per 30 anni, con più di 400 recite in tutto il mondo!!!!
Beato te che ci credi...ho udito dal vivo entrambe...le grandi sono state Callas, Moffo, Price, Tomowa Sintow...
Per me la Tebaldi è insuperabile
Scotto ha una voce piccola per il ruolo...
Si.
se la Scotto ha voce piccola.... allora la De Los Angeles aveva una voce che doveva essere rilevata con un microscopio
Gino Pietracupa, ho ascoltato dal vivo entrambe, la De Los Angeles aveva piu' volume e inoltre aveva l'ottava bassa perfetta, quasi da mezzosoprano. Aveva un suono penetrante e omogeneita' nel suono...a parte gli ultimi anni. Non era voce piccola e aveva uno charme incredibile.
@@fabriziomariagarzi5534 La De Los Angeles Troppo limitata come voce e tecnica, limitata nell legato, nell volume
E poi infantile, Quando la Victoria azzardava una smorzatura, eventualità rarissima, il suono diventava opaco e fisso. Nelle emissioni a piena voce era vetroso e duro. La voce era di timbro carezzevole, questo è vero..Ma voce non duttile e acuti duri. La Victoria messa male con gli acuti La de Los Angeles ha sempre avuto acuti stridulini e fissi, Ma è stridula e dura negli acuti
Anche nel 56, Celletti stronca De Los Angeles , secondo lui é un doppio bluff, no ha colori no ha dinamica, la tecnica, La Victoria è una bamboletta
a me De Los Angeles pare malensa Stucchevole,
@@ginopietracupa4305 scusa, ma tu la Victoria De Los Angeles l'hai mai ascoltata dal vivo? Era il contrario di cio' che dici e di cio' che diceva Celletti, che non era il Dio in terra ma portava solo acqua al suo mulino. Non era un voce molto fonogenica. Possedeva anche i sopracuti ma non li volle mai usare. In Manon arriva ad un Re nella Gavotta che e' perfetto.
Scotto was not great, Ermonela Jahos Butterfly today is far superior.