Cesare Siepi- "One Alone"

premiereopera.com
Siepi shows his mastering of operetta in this gorgeous song from Romberg's The Desert Song. The sound is almost unbelievably gorgeous, and just rolls out of the great basso. His wonderful high F at the end is held forever, and what a magnificent thing it is!

[@stevieg825]

Lonely as a desert breeze I may wonder where I please Yet I keep on longing Just to rest a while Where a sweetheart's tender eyes Take the place of sand and skies All the World forgotten In one Woman's smile One alone, to be my own I alone, to know her caresses One to be, eternally The one my worshipping soul possesses At her call, I'd give my all All my life and all my love enduring This would be a magic World to me If she were mine alone

[@stevendaniel8126]

Heard him sing Faust at the Fox in the mid 60's. Forever my absolute favorite...... RIP maestro.

[@Dadacomero]

Beautiful beautiful voice the high F is amazing indeed grande cesare!

[@jostreed]

Marvelously thrilling.

[@rbgreatestunknownartists9611]

JUST BEAUTIFUL!

[@Agorante]

Live the thing that you noticed about Siepi was the sheer size of the instrument and how easy it all seemed. The only other singer who had those same characteristics in quite the same way was Franco Corelli.

[@Agorante]

+TENORhighd Tenorhighd I heard him (Richard Fredericks) first of course on TV. He sang with Sills in her famous videos about English Queens. I liked him very much but when I heard him live in SF I found his voice to be a bit small. He sang the Herald in Lohengrin not the baritone lead. I heard him as Figaro too with Reri Grist. His voice was too small for American opera houses. Remember Parma has 1,500 seats and the Met has 4,000.

[@Agorante]

***** I sang a number of roles but never at level of the major houses. I might have but for two things - I always took too long to learn a role and I didn't get my vocal technique together until I was about sixty. Even then I wouldn't have been appropriate for major roles at big houses. The brutal fact is that there are only about six American men at any one time who can make a living singing classical bass in America. That's the figure given by Ara Berberian about forty years ago. I don't think the market has opened up since then. Many of my friends and one of my wives thought that they would break into big time opera. I never thought I would. They all ended up very unhappy except me. There was a time when I could go to almost any little opera company, sing an aria for them and be cast. I was usually only one of two or three basses who were available. But I was so slow at learning the music that I drove the conductors crazy. I wouldn't be asked back even though the audiences liked me. I was a musical dummy. If I were to have had any type of big career I would have had to have been like Taddei - a rock solid musician who could learn any role in a few days. Corelli for example could learn a complete role in two days without help. He wasn't particularly careful about the music in performance but he knew the notes. There are so few openings and so many basses available your only chance to work regularly is to be the conductor's favorite. That means the guy who causes the least trouble. Some star tenors like Pavarotti can get away with being troublesome but not baritones of basses. Pavarotti showed up at rehearsals without knowing his music. Usually that would be the end of your career. But star tenors are a bit different. How do you know you are a star tenor - people line up to give you money as a beginning student. People want to be a patron of the next star tenor. If you are a tenor and don't have a patron supporting you - you obviously aren't good enough. Even then you can not make it through no fault of your own. I have corresponded with Joe Shore for a couple years. I've read his autobiography. He's the reason I changed my technique. He's probably the only voice teacher anywhere who I respect. But he is a tragic figure. He sings up a storm. He was probably one of a hand full of top Verdi baritones in the world. But Sherrill Milnes got the roles at the Met not Joe Shore. Milnes was taller and looked better on TV. A dozen years earlier that wouldn't have mattered all that much but when the Met was looking for a replacement for Merrill they liked the way Milnes looked. A lot of people thought Shore sounded better, but Milnes certainly sounded good enough. In any ordinary field even Hollywood movie star there would have been other positions available but not the Met.

[@dinu-cristindumitrascu5982]

I would like to get in contact with you, sir I am a Young bass and need some tips regarding opera music. Could you please tell me your email so we can get in touch? Thank you in advance

[@Agorante]

The voice just wasn't very big. I heard Fredericks do Figaro (Rossini) at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. The voice was too small for that house. Bigger voiced baritones singing around that time were - Cornell MacNeil, James Morris, and Ingvar Wixell.

[@Agorante]

@@dinu-cristindumitrascu5982 [e-mail]

[@margaritapetrova9262]

Bravo!

[@operassassinOperaAssassin]

Exquisite!

[@harry82745]

I recently saw a revival of Showboat in San Mateo that was wonderful and well received. About thirty years ago I saw a revival of Desert Song at the Unitarian Church in Kensington. With the middle aged women from the Church choir playing the office's wives, it was quite convincing and fun. Also a no budget revival of Cole Porter's Gay Divorce recently in San Francisco stunned me. The case was carrying their scripts, but the play is so great it carried wonderfully nevertheless.

[@harry82745]

"The Desert Song" is the last Vienna style Operetta; "Show Boat", which came next, is the first truly American Broadway musical. "The Desert Song" has been nearly forgotten, apparently because it is considered archaic and it was never made into a musical that become popular.

[@sorbino9]

Luvverly, puts Samuel Ramey's broadway efforts to shame.

[@blonda.bacoviana]

I hope that after 12 years of listening to opera you changed your mind.

[@TheBryanmantilla]

Is the final note a F4?

[@Tkimba2]

Kevin Bryan Mantilla Quintero yes

[@TheModernMillennial]

It was popular for a while, but then it was pretty much left for dead once WWII rolled around. Also, it would be pretty hard to stage it now because many of the characters have politically incorrect stereotypes associated with them that today's audiences would find horrifying. The music in this show is one of Romberg's finest work, though.

[@petergraham8681]

When voice alone is being considered there are few basses to compare with this man since 1950 anyway. Some of Siepi's character roles in opera were not always exactly riveting (although as DON GIOVANNI he certainly was & a pity he often seemed to phone in some of his other interpretations). But the voice! Here is a prime example. Actually his Cole Porter album has its moments as well.

[@0692115575]

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