Customer Reviews

Cesare Siepi: Classic Recitals - Operatic Arias for Bass

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Cesare Siepi's recordings aren't many these days. I've got Kleiber's Figaro and Krip's Don Giovanni. Glorious singing by Siepi in those two great recordings.

But the songs in this album none the less present Siepi's bass cantante to great effect.

The role of Philip II in Verdi's Don Carlos is well-presented here, very moving. It is a big shame that Cesare did not otherwise leave many recordings for this role that fits him so well! If you like "Don Carlos", and want to have a superb version of Philip II's famous aria, this CD is the answer.

The arias from Meyerbeer's Les Hugenots are also great, the latter one 'Piff-paff' sung to a great rhythmic lilt by Siepi following the greaat Lutheran hymn from the same opera.

I could not imagine a bass could be so melodious. The album is a great joy to listen, and a true gem to own. In fact, of all my solo recital albums, Siepi's album has always remained on the top as being one of the most listened to at whatever time of the year, whatever hour of the day.

You have to love bass ... the unsung heroes of the operatic aria world ... and I do, perhaps because my father had a bass voice and sang in paid choirs on Sundays (for joy), while earning his living as a lawyer. Somehow you descend to the depths with the bass, and Cesare's voice is beautiful. I coach, teach and train emotional intelligence, and there's a theory in psychology about the bass voice and depression. Whatever it is true or not, that males with higher voices have more emotional resilience, the bass voice takes you to the profound depths of things. You can't help going there. I find it soothing, like an anchor. If you're a bass fan, buy this and listen, you'll love it. If you're not, buy it and learn! I think it's an acquired taste. The tenors get the big roles, but the bass bears the weight.

Cesare Siepi remains one of my favorite post WWII basses, and this recording confirms why. Though recorded in 1954, the audio quality is surprisingly good, and every selection so well performed. The aria from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots has a nice strong low C - quite a pleasant surprise; also has arias by Verdi, Gomes, Meyerbeer and Halevy.

There is absolutely nothing to disappoint - a fabulous recital from one of the greatest voices of all time. If we can get Sony to release "Operatic Saints and Sinners" recorded by Jerome Hines to commemorate his 20th anniversary at the MET, I'll have my other favorite bass recital on CD.

I had the LP of this when I was a kid, and was delighted to find it in CD. It has stood the test of time, and memory. Maestri Siepi is still with us, though well stricken in age; of course, he hasn't sung in years. I remember him as a superb Don Giovanni, and he was certainly the premiere basso of the 1950's and 60's. The perhaps apocryphal story of the performance of Don Giovanni where the trap door to hell didn't work is a classic. The recorded legacy is, sadly, small. All the more reason to grab this. You won't be sorry.

As to specifics, the whole album is well done. Particularly fine are the selections from "Don Carlo" [very well known], and "La Juive" [not at all well known...the opera is rarely performed due to the virtual impossibility of finding a tenor worthy of the lead]. Of course, the aria from "Ernani" is a standard of the repertoire.

Thanks are in order before I close...thanks to Maestro Siepi for helping to make me an Opera fan...and thanks to the publisher for a wonderful trip down memory lane.

ADDENDUM: Maestro Siepi recently passed away at age 87, and I had the honor of writing his Find a Grave bio. All the good things I said about this disc remain true...God rest his noble soul.

This is beautiful singing by a wonderful basso. I ordered this for sentimental as well as vocal reasons. It is the CD version of an LP I was given in 1964. Siepi was one of my favorites then, and he still is. My first LP of "Don Giovanni" was the Krips recording with Siepi as the Don, and I still measure others against it. On this recital CD I remembered two selections more than any others- "Infelice" and "Piff paff," and they are everything I remembered them to be. After several trips through the CD, the other arias are on a par with these.

I 've ordered this CD with two others,which are in different style.

I think Siepi's voice and his art stays a "master" level still a long time.

and it seems simply unsurpassable.