Leopold Simoneau - "Dalla sua pace", "Il mio tesoro"

[@powermetal26]

I used to pick up Leopold every day from the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, BC Canada in my Taxi. He had to partake in Kidney Dialysis daily in is elderly years as he was approaching the end of his life. He was such a joy to drive, and he was always so happy during our drives. He would tell me wonderful stories about his life as an opera singer and his love of French Food and French cooking. He lived in a beautiful house in Cadboro Bay and he always gave me a $5 dollar tip once we arrived at his house. For some reason I was thinking about him this evening and typed his name into the WEB and this is now the very first time I have ever heard him sing. Wonderful! I am glad to have been able to have spent those months with him as his taxi driver and enjoy his company and conversation.

[@annacwiekala6280]

What a lovely story!

[@hansje7121]

@ocean master: thank you for telling this beautifull story. By hearing him singing it must have given you a warm feeling in your heart!

[@santividal9387]

I love your story. Thanks for sharing

[@jjlungdoc7472]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful story. I heard him live when I was young and didn’t know much but enough to notice that he was an exceptional singer.

[@goldiebrightcomet9129]

No one can compare to this tenor in Mozart's music!!He has the legato that nobody has,the purity of the tone and the easiness to deliver every note he sings!No wonder why he was called Mr Mozart in Vienna in his time!!

[@ericgarbutt8561]

Simoneau was a wonderful Mozart tenor. Someone who was never thought of as a Mozart tenor but turns in a beautiful rendering of this aria is Beniamino Gigli! yes I mean it. Just take a listen.

[@sukiserjeant9110]

Absolutely u r born wt this kind of ability and voice!!!!

[@lsmith145]

You can really hear the devotion in his voice. This right here is effortless lyrical singing, the epitome of Mozart tenor aria interpretation.

[@ariescythara07]

Simoneau's version of this aria as well as Una Aura amorosa are beyond reproach. Simply majestic. I just listen and enjoy .

[@marcocito]

Ce fut un des plus grands mozartiens! Quelle classe et quelle élégance!

[@vuyisajack6400]

Outstanding elegant singing. Wow

[@Hampshirehog]

An example of really great bel canto singing and a fine lesson to the many 'belters' who think they have to force the voice.

[@Zva26]

I've heard hundreds of versions of this aria. None can touch this one. It gets no better than this. Sublime beyond words.

[@martyrrt]

What a voice. A true tenor.

[@arturo8402]

This is Mozartean lyricism at its best!!

[@marcocito]

Tout simplement de la noblesse, de l'élégance et de la classe! Wunderbar!

[@pippo5745]

La perfection absolue je suis époustouflé à chaque écoute !

[@Schoolgirl325]

What a beautiful aria! I think this is my favorite rendition of the aria! Simoneau was a true Mozartian tenor, which is pretty rare to find. The way his voice just effortless glides over those high tenor notes is like like silk! What a golden voice! A true Mozartian hero in every sense!

[@LC-ig2jm]

Gorgeous phrasing...To think he wasn't even the Primo Tenore of his time, with a voice and technique like this. If he was singing today, he would be the toast of the Operatic World!

[@terrycloth6380]

Simply beautiful.

[@devonwalter6053]

Best version I've ever heard! His voice is so soft when he sings. That's how I want my voice to be when I sing.

[@marlyharris]

This is such exquisite singing, so refined and musical and beautifully phrased. It's so strange and wonderful to hear a tenor who does not push his voice. I'm thrilled with this video. Thank you.

[@francette19380]

"le ténor mozartien" (si rare) dans toute sa splendeur. Merci Mozart d'avoir inventé une telle musique pour ces voix-là. Je pourrais l'écouter sans lm'arrêter des jours entiers. Je l'emporterais sur une île déserte ou dans l'espace (avec Il mio tesoro, évidemment)

[@JoseAntonio-dt6zt]

D' acord 100% !!! Une voix celestial !

[@TheVerdiBaritone]

Excellent! I enjoyed his version as much any that have been posted.

[@downfromkentuckeh]

Why have I never heard of this superb tenor before?!?!

[@davidcotuit]

Time marches on. I'm 82. When I was a kid in the 1950s, he was the creme de la creme. I've never heard a more sublimely beautiful mozartian tenor. Pace pace Mr Wunderlich.

[@batmonkey]

This is wonderful, and the renditions of these arias by Luigi Alva and Cesare Valletti are also outstanding.

[@ziwenxiang5461]

what a beautiful singing!! so enjoyed !

[@EccoRidente]

oh my god!!!!!!!! he's amazing!! That's real Mozart singing! Thanks for posting, I didn't know this Tenor.

[@skyhunk]

Achingly beautiful! It almost hurts me to say this performance may be even better than that of my hero of heroes, Fritz Wunderlich. No, I cannot decide - both superb.

[@francette19380]

Héhé... you swing, I can understand. However, for Mozart, my heart goes to Leopold - Simoneau, not Mozart ;-)

[@davidcotuit]

Both incomparable, in their own special and unique way.

[@fairlytaleofnewyork]

Simply beautiful....

[@violetta47]

Wondeful 💙

[@Lundy3112]

thank you - i was listening to our local FM radio station and heard this wonderful voice - and through that i was fortunate enough to find your postings - wonderful stuff - a gift from God surely

[@serenaluce]

Great! Bravissimo!

[@luigigiovanelli8929]

Così si canta Mozart: Campione !

[@skyhunk]

thanks for this gem!

[@clivepapayanis3121]

Great Mozartien! He's Ottavio in a Salzburg Mitropolous(!) recording with Grummer and della Casa that's amazing. Beautiful voice

[@roxalysmendez7941]

100% de acuerdo , que voz tan elegante y magnifica poseia , este noble cantor.

[@bianco1972]

The best Don Attavio EVER!!!! Simply gorgeous!! Even though Wunderlich is my god, I'd have to say Simoneau wins the Don Attavio battle.

[@einarkristjansson6812]

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

[@metteholm4833]

How perfect!

[@alecfeiss4514]

I like how he sings this brutal aria a half-step higher than it's written...

[@luecat4644]

Как же это прекрасно!

[@karlheinzkirchmann6469]

This is royale art of singing.

[@FranciscoFerrerGaliana1930]

MAGNIFICO

[@skyhunk]

I can't decide who I love best. No, I don't have to choose -- I love them both equally -- Fritz Wunderlich and Leopold Simoneau!!!

[@Agorante]

I'm sure everyone here knows the history of this aria but I'll repeat it in case someone didn't get the memo. Don Giovanni premiered in Prague. The big tenor aria was 'Il Mio Tesoro". But when they brought it to Vienna the tenor hired for Don Octavio couldn't sing it. So Mozart just whipped off another aria - 'Dalla Sua Pace'. But this simple aria was too popular and when they have had adequate tenors ever since the impresario has had both arias presented. Oddly enough neither Domingo or Pavarotti sing this little 'simple' aria very well. Villazon sings it very well which is also odd. I knew Simoneau personally. My wife studied with him at the SF Conservatory. Nice guy, wonderful singer.

[@skyhunk]

I've just finished listening during the past 20 minutes or so, to this aria sung by an assortment of very well known tenors - including Juan Diego Florez and Placido Domingo, just to name two. And then this!! To my ears this cannot be surpassed - every phrase is perfection. Mozart has never sounded better. Such delicacy and musicianship, almost as if Simoneau had a personal acquaintanceship with the composer and knew exactly how he would have wanted the aria to be sung. I almost feel as if I'm blaspheming in saying that, because Fritz Wunderlich has been such a long time fave (and will continue to be in many Mozart arias).

[@Agorante]

Ole Nielson You have discovered what so many before you have also discovered Simoneau was the best Mozart tenor ever.

[@powermetal26]

I was his taxi driver in the last couple years of his life. He lived in Victoria, BC Canada at the end of his life.

[@vanmusician]

Simoneau sang this role when Joan Sutherland made her North American debut as Donna Anna here in Vancouver in 1958. Others in the cast were George London as Don Giovanni and Simoneau's wife as Zerlina. I wish I had been old enough to attend - my first opera was Traviata 3 years later.

[@user-bc9mn7gq2c]

In "Dalla sua pace" he bests everyone I've heard. In response to a few recent comments here: Simoneau had an extensive recording career: complete commercial Carmen, Orphee, Zauberfloete (at least two) Idomeneo, The Pearl Fishers, etc. Many were classic high-profile recordings of their time. Admittedly, some were on European labels (harder to get in the US) and he didn't have a big Met career--unfortunately. It was an age of fine tenors, but LS was among the very best in Mozart & French repertoire. For me he sings Mozart with more nuances, shading, dynamic variation than Wunderlich. Also he is one of the few recorded tenors to do the B-flat climax in the Flower aria from Carmen pianissimo as Bizet intended.

[@germanquintero10121946]

RECORDANDO UNA GRAN VOZ

[@skyhunk]

Mozart as it was meant to be sung. I don't think the composer could have imagined a better voice in his head when he wrote the music.

[@germanquintero10121946]

Una de las grandes voces de su época

[@skyhunk]

Sad that he isn't better known. Simoneau sang the role of Belmonte in Sir Thomas Beecham's recording of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio, and the role of Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte opposite Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Nan Merriman, Rolando Panerai, Lisa Otto, Sesto Bruscantini, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, both considered classics. Why does he not get the recognition that is his due - he was one of the outstanding Mozartean interpreters of his time.

[@dubbelhenke854]

His voice reminds me of Gedda but it is more beautiful. One of the most underrrated of all tenors.

[@helmutdienstmann9696]

No he isn't underrated. The Mozart specialists know him as one of the best or maybe the best Mozart singer. There was an other specialist for Richard Strauss Lieder. This was a certain Peter Anders. These things - to be forgotten - happen.

[@brendant19]

@@helmutdienstmann9696 But certainly within the broader opera world he's relatively unknown, despite being one of the best within his niche. I could see being unknown if his niche was German lieder like Peter Schreier, who is also great and fairly unknown. But Simoneau was singing a lot of fairly popular repertoire and many opera fans don't know who he is.

[@robertocasu]

Favoloso

[@vully70]

Wonderful voice, great technique, superb Mozart singing. My favorite Ferrando. I prefer his live performances to his studio recordings - e. g. his Don Ottavio at Salzburg Festival, conducted by Mitropoulos (1956). There he is as good in this role as my alltime favorite - Anton Dermota.

[@augustinesimoneau9231]

Le divin simoneau

[@use-c7o]

Прекрасный голос и чудесное исполнение, хотя мои фавориты Джильи и Альва в роли Дона Оттавио

[@OrbisonTributeArtist]

Wow!

[@GermanOperaSinger]

@tenor9216 Agree with you and the poster above. He certainly gives Wunderlich a run for his money here. But I always consider Wunderlich the finest tenor for Mozart's operas in the German language, namely Entführung and Zauberfloete.

[@marinakoreytem5821]

👏👏👏👏👏👏❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@Antenorix]

I think this singing is much better than Wunderlich's. Leopold is the real Mozart- tenor!

[@forallyouknow]

You're very welcome. :D

[@petergraham8681]

Why is Simoneau not listed (at least as far as I am aware) among the greatest Tenors of the 20th Century? There is really no one to compare with him in voice & artistry within his repertoire. Mozart tenors? Perhaps Wunderlich had he lived offers as stiff a competition that I can think of despite the fact that their voices were of a different texture & weight: Simoneau a very light lyric & Wunderlich’s voice a full lyric that may have matured into a Lohengrin had he lived. Perhaps the one Simoneau recording that I cherish above all the other superb ones was his version of the SANCTUS from the Berlioz Requiem. If one believes in angels, Simoneau’s singular sound is certainly representative of one.

[@gemmadestate3216]

Sicuramente repertorio più adatto alla sua voce

[@Antenorix]

@tenor9216 That's exact my opinion! Thank you!

[@pippo5745]

Difficult to find better rendition of those arias!

[@MusicalTenor23]

@gruberosa i know someone.. i forgot his name though.. damn.. now i remember.. john mark ainsley..

[@tenor9216]

totally ! especially for anything in Italian, Wundelich just doesn't have the feeling. but he's still a wonderful Tamino though :)

[@MagaliDamonteVocalCoach]

Problème technique du support .l enregistrement est trop rapide ...1/2 ton plus haut que la réelle interprétation de ce Merveilleux Ténor...!!!!c est tellement plus beau dans la vraie tonalité...allez écouter la vidéo suivante sur la liste des dalla sua pace de Simoneau

[@audioslave001]

NO ONE????? Really? Well, Luigi Alva, he's the one who does not have a suitable match, Mozart and Rossini's specialist his beautiful voice and his brilliant technique make them quite a splendid and amazing singer, you're welcome. lol

[@robert111k]

Suena como una señora mayor.

[@rubenorta7189]

ruben orta

[@forallyouknow]

@gabrioxxx No one.

[@MusicalTenor23]

@forallyouknow i can try.. ^^ watch my video of un'aura amorosa.. ^^

[@vully70]

@operareigns Thanks, but no thanks.

[@nihan.aytekin]

Kusursuz!

[@Ale-zl9zd]

Non me ne vogliano i suoi fans, ma lo trovo troppo affettato, preferisco Alva e Wunderlich

[@lucianogualtieri6721]

CONDIVIDO