That was wonderful, thanks for posting!
Can either you, keypro, or Dr. Thorne recommend music to buy that is similar to this? Opera, male/female duet, fresh, maybe with a heldentenor? I want to hear more music like this. Today!
I awoke this morning with this song “The Prayer” playing in my head. Moments later, I came upon this video. It sorta gave me chills and a bit of blurry vision. As for this kind of music, I will defer to the good Dr Thorne.
You'll hear some fine duets and trios in Mozart. My favorite is Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen (lyric baritone & soprano) from Zauberflöte/ Magic Flute. (Don't worry if you don't recognize the words - it's all in Swedish. Bergman. Best movie of Magic Flute ever made. I believe it's still available.)
There's a nifty duet in the same opera by the two armored men guarding the dungeon . . . Der, welcher wandert diese Straße. Hang with it and you'll hear the tenor/soprano duet afterwards. Plus you can hear real soprano fireworks from the Queen of the Night. This is an excellent version (I have it): Von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic
About the only place you'll hear a Heldentenor is in Wagner, and "fresh" is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of old Richard. Mozart is the place to start - he has a much lighter touch.
Among the great tenors of yesteryear, the heldentenor to beat them all was Lauritz Melchior, also called the Great Dane. The quality of the recordings are not up to today's standards, but the voice! What a voice! And his singing was always effortless. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera into his 70s!
For a real dark voice like Jonathan's try Ramon Vinay. The Canadian Jon Vickers is another of my faves along with American Jess Thomas. These were great singers of the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s.
Nowadays there are few great ones. Two of my favorites are South African Johan Botha and German Jonas Kaufmann. Neither has a voice as dark as Jonathan's, but their techniques and range of color and dynamics are superb!