Norman Treigle sings "Mefistofele" arias (2)
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- Here is the great American bass-baritone Norman Treigle singing the two big arias from Boito's "Mefistofele". From June, 1968. This was perhaps his finest role.
1. "Ave Signor"
2. "Ecco il mondo"
Link to my Norman Treigle playlist:
• Norman Treigle (1927-1...
The man was frightening on stage. Along with Tito Gobbi, the greatest singing actors I ever saw! Mr. Treigle was totally psuychotic at the end of Mefistofele when Heaven "wins", as it were. He would writhe like a snake & roll all over the stage in a type of seizure! Would love to have seen him as Grand Inquisitor!!!!
In the Met production, he was doing back-flips!!
I saw him in Mefistofele in Houston in the ‘80s. Not only was his voice amazing, I was astounded to discover a singer who displayed such remarkable athleticism while singing. I will always remember this performance, and the production as a whole. It was beautiful.
I had the incredible pleasure of singing with Norman Treigle in San Diego Opera on several occasions, once as a rehearsal understudy for Gianni Schicchi, mostly in chorus and compromaio roles, (literally caught him as he threw himself off the throne in "Boris"!). The greatest singing actor opera has ever known
My mother sang with him when he sang this role in Houston, I think on more than one occasion. She always spoke of him as the most amazing theatrical singer she'd ever seen, as well as being the sweetest man offstage.
He was magnificent. I thank my stars I saw him. He was, perhaps, the closest thing my generation had to Chaliapin. His voice was large and distinctive and, to me and many others, beautiful as well. His Mephistofele and his Hoffmann villains were very balletic and he could command a great deal of menace on stage. His range was wide and his commitment total. I can't say enough. You had to be there.
Yes you are fortunate......I went to the State theatre many times during his reign and never caught him, but I swear by his recording of Mefistoles with Domingo. I was told that in "Hoffmann" in the last act, he would grab the baton from the conductor and devilished tried to get the heroine to sing.... and he rolled off the stage into the orchestra pit in the final act of Mefistoles. Shame he died so young with relatively only a small number of recordings for us to revisit his greatness,
He was magnificent. He performed with the Xavier University opera workshop. I was on stage in the chorus with him when he did Pigliaci. This was in New Orleans in 1955. There has never a bass baritone to match him. I have never recovered from my love of opera.
When he was on stage you COULD NOT look anywhere else. Riveting. Magic.
A fantastic artist. I had the pleasure to be with the New York city Opera when he, Sills, Cruz-Romo, Quilico, Wise, Domingo, Carreras and many other great singers and saw Treigle as Mephisto in Boito's and Gounod and he was just an incredible singer-actor. A tragic end which never was public the cause of his death. i know he was a chain smoker and maybe had something to do. I understand his daughter sang roles as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, and a fantastic voice as well
I was at several NY City Opera performances in the glory days of Rudel, Sills, Treigle in the 1960s and 70s. Treigle - how that huge voice came out of that wiry body - and his Mefistofele writhing around the stage. I can still hear, "Cammina, cammina, cammina ..."
I saw him in Faust several times. I can imagine no better devil. He added satire and humor.
Best Mefistofele ever.
I was a teenager when I saw him sing with the Summer Pops orchestra in New Orleans in the late 1950s -- it wasn't opera, it was "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and it knocked everyone's socks off. The audience rose to its feet and gave him a rousing standing ovation.
I had the rare privilege of being a spear-carrying bodyguard for Mr. Treigle when he sang Boris at City Opera way back in the 60s!
I heard/saw him perform this role twice in 1969 at the NYC Opera with Gilda Cruz-Romo as Margherita (once with my mother from the Orch and then again on my own nickel from the Balcony). Truly unforgettable. They borrowed NYC Ballet's premier star of the day, Edward Villella, from Ballanchine for the Witches' Sabbath scene, which made for the most amazing Total Opera experience I've ever heard/seen.
I heard him long ago at the NYC Opera as well when I was a teenager. Today I remember nothing else about the opera except him. He was an imposing presence.
What a pity that no film or video recording of that stunning production exists!
I saw him at the New York City Opera doing this role, and was amazing. At one point on the stage was like a count of what suppose to be sang and his costume was the same color of the sang, and winding like. snake, and singing with that lupus voice. With no question one of the best American basso, and a greatest actor. He was allowed to keep a litter cigarette back stage, and as soon he had a 5 bars without singing he will go back stage, take a pop, and return to stage. Once I was offered to do either Faust or Manon Lescaut; and the opera manager, told me: Better you do Manon Lescaut, because Mr. Treigel will be singing Mephistofeles, and HE WILL EAT YOU UP. So I sang my first Des Grieux, which later on I sang it all over Europe, as well as in the US, including the MET.
Heard him in so many productions- Those were great days at City Opera. We really didn't need the Met then. Wonderful singers & productions. Look at some of my videos (under the name of StuartLou).
I was very fortunate to see Norman Treigle as Mephistopheles in San Diego in 1973. I remember saying afterward that if I never saw another opera, I was content that I had seen and heard the ultimate. RIP, Norman, cut off as your star was rising further. Guess people were too ashamed to say that you did of alcoholism, a disease that takes too many brilliant people...
I also had the great fortune to see him in Mefistofele, Hoffman and Coq d'Or with Sills. I always called him the male Callas due to his magnetic stage presence. And I did see Callas 13 times so I can say that definitively. Only Schwarzkopf compared as a dramatic presence on stage and vocally.
Robert you are a very lucky man.........I never got to see either of these geniuses live
He was indeed incredible in this role - and in so many others.
Great ! I had the vinyl recording of Mefistofele, but lost it. My wife and I, we enjoyed this very much. A great singer, indeed. Thank you for uploading.
Treigle was a great singer. For the title role in Boito's "Mefistofele", he wore a bizarre costume and equally bizarre makeup that made him look like a mutated alien out of a science fiction film.
Stunning top notes! lost track of whatever I was trying to do with the end of the aria :)
Wonderful singing:)
A Major influence on my life...
WOW!
Treigle was a BASS, not a bass-baritone.