This reminds me of something:
Being a life-long avid reader I often came across ( from a very young age and on)references to “The Great Caruso”(SP?). My parents listened to opera so I had a passing familiarity with the style (though I’d never heard Caruso). As far as I was concerned “all them guys with the deep voices” sounded the same.
One day, in my teens I heard an old recording of a young Caruso. It was, if I recall, a wax cylinder-not even a 78, but the pure (for lack of a better term) silvery speed and trueness of pitch I could hear DESPITE the crackly, tinny source absolutely floored me.
After that I wasn’t so quick to dismiss “them guys” as all the same.
The only thing I remember about hearing something classical on an old record in my youth was (probably) Caruso singing (sorry, but this is phonetic German) “Eine, Swie, Drie, Fier, lift your steins and drink your beer...drink drink drink.” My dad enjoyed that.
TalBlack,
Unfortunately, Caruso did not live long enough for his voice to be caught in all of its splendour by recordings. What remains is only a glimpse of his greatness. But I am perfectly willing to accept the words of those who heard him first hand that his voice was one of a kind. But there was some great singing back in the day - just after Caruso came Gigli and a personal favorite, French tenor Georges Thill. Their recordings from the 1930s are spine tingling.
Here’s a fun Caruso story I ran across a while back:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800850,00.html?iid=chix-sphere
My favorite singer ever is Kirsten Flagstad. She peaked in the 1930s, so when listening to her recordings, you still have to imagine just exactly how it sounded. Not until the 1950s did recording techniques improve to the point that big operatic voices were approximated well.
p.s. In this thread, I for the first time disclosed that I am a musician. Since I am responding to you, I might as well throw in the fact that, while in high school, I was the Houston chess champion. Strangely enough, this rather impressive accomplishment never helped me score chicks, so I rarely bring it up.