Belcanto - The Tenors of the 78 Era - Part 2 - DVD

ENGLISH

Their names are synonymous with the art of singing and they are among the first tenors in history, whose voices we can still enjoy today. They performed in the time of the old shellac records and the gramophone when the proliferation of recorded voices opened up new audiences for opera and operatic singing. Lauritz Melchior, Helge Rosvænge, Jussi Björling, John McCormack, Georges Thill and Ivan Kozlovsky were all outstanding singers in the early days of recording.<br /> <br /> TDK presents this documentary film series about great tenors in the first half of the 20th century, singers who served the ideal of beautiful singing. The first part of Belcanto (released on TDK DV-DOCBEL1) featured the Italian and German star tenors of the time ' Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa, Richard Tauber, Leo Slezak and Joseph Schmidt. This second part will essentially concentrate on the Northern European tenors of the first half of the 20th century. In entertaining essays, it portrays some of the "arch tenors" of our century, whose influence can still be detected in vocal styles today. As an extra, it also presents "The Singing Robot" with some of the earliest recorded singing voices, including that of Fernando de Lucia.<br /> <br /> Jan Schmidt-Garre, German film director and opera specialist has embarked on a journey into the past to portray these early "superstars". He gathered old film und audio recordings, visited the singers' friends and families, interviewed experts and fans, and thus produced lively, informative and entertaining thirty minute features on each singer. The series won the Chris Award at the Columbus Film and Video Festival and received a Special Mention at the festival "Classique en image ".<br /> <br /> The sound documents span the full singing career of the tenors and cover each of the genres ' in which they worked - from folk music to virtuoso operatic arias. Some of the musical examples are performed by several tenors, which allows the listener to compare both style and interpretation. The aria "O Paradiso" from Meyerbeer's L'Africaine in particular, is interpreted by several of the tenors in the series. This second installment includes works by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Edvard Grieg, Giacomo Puccini, Hugo Wolf, Ludwig van Beethoven, Georges Bizet, Franz Schubert, Gaetano Donizetti, César Franck, Johannes Brahms, Charles Gounod, Piotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Modest Mussorgsky, Johann Strauss et al.<br /> <br /> The films are in black and white, and "boards" displaying facts and figures about the tenors reinforce the old silent movie atmosphere. The interviews open up new perspectives with up-to-date background knowledge about the music scene, the economic possibilities and the art of singing at the time of Caruso and his successors. Statements by Elisabeth Bergner, Alan Bilgora, Rodolfo Celetti, Jürgen Kesting, Paula Lindbergh-Salomon, Michael Scott, Robert Tuggle, Stefan Zucker and others are included in the film.