To: "Vocalist"
Subject: RE: The charm of the old (was Renee Fleming &C.)
Date sent: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 11:43:25 -0500
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Laurie Kubiak wrote:


>>I also feel sometimes that many singers
nowadays never listen to anything recorded before 1970, because of
lower
production standards before that date. For myself, the most a
recording is
'produced', the more I am conscious that I listening to an
electronic
signal, and not flesh and blood, catgut and cane. So perhaps the
appeal of
these old recordings is nothing more than the sense of listening to
real
people, complete with financial problems, ex-wives, halitosis and
unwanted
nasal hair.
>>>>>

I don't know about the last phrase but there is certainly a lot
that can be learned from the older recordings. It's critical that
the recordings have been corrected for pitch problems arising from
the recording technology. 78 RPM was often +/- 10%. Certainly the
recordings that Ward Marston has remastered are exemplary in that
respect. He has his own record label and web site at:
www.marstonrecords.com

A colleague of mine at work is going to see Turandot in a couple of
weeks and was telling me about a recording that she had been
listening to with Jose Carreras as Calaf and that he wasn't
satisfactory. I brought in my Bjorling/Nilsson version and told her
that this might be of interest. Needless to say she was blown away
by both voices!!

Alan