Corelli

Re-reading my posts, I felt that I should give more credit to Franco Corelli. I will admit that I hadn't listened to him much, except for an old recording of "La Forza del destino", which is unfortunately of such poor technical quality that it is difficult to judge the man's voice (the wild cheers from the audience do give an indication that there was something there that got lost in the recording...)

Enter youtube.com. This sesspool of copyright violations is heaven for opera lovers who look for inspiration. I searched on Corelli and found gold. The man was unbelievable! Those rumours I had heard about him ruining his voice with the "lowered larynx technique"... Hah! Some clips from 1973, with a 52 year-old Corelli singing Andrea Chenier should certainly put those rumours to rest.

Here are some of the clips I found:

Come un bel di di maggio (Andrea Chenier - Correlli 52 years old)

Un dì all'azurro spazio (Andrea Chenier)

Non piangere Liu (Turandot)

Ch'ella mi creda (La fanciulla del West, Tokyo in 1971, I think)

Forza del destino, act 4, duet with Ettore Bastianini

Forza del destino, act 1, duet with Renata Tebaldi

Torna il Sorrento (looks like a 70s TV production)

O paese d' 'o sole (old TV show, it seems. A young Corelli)

Enjoy.