Richard Tucker & Licia Albanese sing "Traviata" brindisi at a party

[@jimdrake-writer]

The date of this event was Sunday, June 20, 1971, the 75th birthday of Wilfrid Pelletier. The party took place in the two-story Manhattan townhouse in which Pelletier and his wife, soprano Rose Bampton, lived at the time. I was fortunate to be at the party (I had interviewed Pelletier for a magazine), and I recall vividly that Tucker was in the midst of a conversation with record producer William Seward when Pelletier went to the piano. With absolutely no warm-up, and not having sung "Traviata" in years, Tucker (whose career Pelletier had helped nurture in the early 1940s) almost literally raised the roof by the effortless but overwhelming power of his voice.

[@bellavoice]

Thank you for sharing that Mr. Drake.

[@e-bikeskibum7141]

Tucker never had a bad day vocally!!!! Never!

[@swissarmytenor]

@@e-bikeskibum7141 one interesting story told in Jim Drake's WONDERFUL biography of Richard Tucker (thank you, Jim!) recounts a vocal crisis Tucker had somewhat early in his career. Tucker felt his career was in jeopardy, and was ordered to give his voice total rest for quite some time. Fortunately, his voice came back just fine. There was no worry over the problem reocurring as it had a simple solution - simple throat drops to keep the voice from drying out. Tucker has little pockets sewn into costumes for the drops so he could access one whenever he needed.

[@josephrubertone525]

Jim - thank you for sharing. Wilfred Pelletier was my great grandfather and I spent some family holiday's at this apartment. This video literally took me back in time to this space in my early youth. An amazing video and even more amazing that you were actually there for this party. Thank you so much for sharing. I would love to buy this video from you. And would be happy to connect with you to hear more about your interactions with my grandpartents.

[@jimdrake-writer]

@@josephrubertone525: The video is owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Company, so I neither have a copy nor do I know where one could be gotten. I met your great-grandparents when I interviewed your great-grandfather for an article I was commissioned to write about Caruso for High Fidelity Magazine. He had coached Caruso in “Samson et Dalila.” While interviewing him, I surprised and amused him by playing one of the recordings of the castrato Alessandro Moreschi, which he had never heard-and I caught your great-grandmother completely offguard by asking her, “How is your brother Frank?” Her brother, whom I knew about through a family friend who had known the Bamptons when they lived in northern Ohio, had played football at Massillon Washington High School with the legendary coach Paul Brown. During my interview with your great-grandfather, Rose Bampton Pelletier recounted a first rehearsal she had with the tenor Beniamino Gigli, who had refused to speak to her at all. At the next rehearsal, she said, Gigli could not have been nicer to her nor more apologetic for not knowing that she was the wife of Maestro Wilfrid Pelletier.

[@marcmitchel25]

Priceless archive.

[@tenorschofield]

What a solid wonderful voice Ricahrd Tucker had!!!!, he sang without any pryor advise, as if he was always 100% prepared!!!. He had a a wonderful spirit and personality as well, Bravo!!!!, great singing on a great person as both,!!!! He is one of my favorite tenors ever, Viva Richard Tucker!!!!

[@GermanOperaSinger]

Definitely the best thing that's been posted in a while. Wonderful to hear them all here, albeit past their prime years. They still sound wonderful, especially Tucker whose brassy voice still rings out even in that living room with terrible acoustics. Now that was a BIG voice.

[@tenore8]

Now THAT was a party. THANK YOU for this terrific post.

[@giudiciadanna4550]

Tutti i soprani e mezzosoprani invitati con la borsettina al braccio...deliziosi tutti. Grande Tucker. Queste erano tutte grandi voci, non quello schifo di adesso. CANTAVANO.

[@eugeniogentili1048]

Tucker tenore fenomenale.

[@johnnym58]

A light has gone out in the world! What a voice and such perfect diction.

[@ЗинаидаЗейналова-д5й]

Это моя самая любимая опера! могу слушать её в любом исполнении бесконечно! Браво великому Верди!

[@hankaustin7091]

It's fantastic!! wish I'd been there to witness that in person!

[@dermotpelletier6858]

Hello VinylToVideo, A wonderful movie! It brought back great memories of my Grandparents home and the music that filed it. I would really enjoy seeing the rest of the movie! I have many still life pictures but no movies, thank you for sharing this part of the movie and I can't wait for you to post the rest of it. A small correction to the notes; the movie is shot at their home in NYC, not Montreal. Sincerely, Dermot Pelletier

[@jzannieri]

How wonderful and joyful to see this! Though Richard Tucker and others in this video have passed, Licia Albanese (b. 1913) will have her 100th birthday this year. She is still alive as of today, April 21, 2013. Thank you for posting!

[@OscarLevant1]

charming :) What a party, and Tucker sounds so youthful and fresh!!!!!!!!!!

[@CarloQuinto]

Oh what memories this video brings back! Licia Albanese was my first Mimi in 1964 when I was all of 18. What a vivid portrayl! I had the privilege to meet Richard Tucker on two occasions when he was appearing in Philadelphia. Those were not only great days at the Met but the glory shone all the way down to Philadelphia as many Metropolitan stars would take a busman's holiday and perform at our grand old Academy of Music. Such wonderful artists!

[@56beverley]

Thank you so much for putting this on Mr Drake. It is wonderful x

[@davidnewton9496]

I have no idea if they were drinking a little of the bubbly before, but what singing! Especially Tucker. What a voice! I wish I could have heard him in person. (And that goes for a whole slew of his contemporaries too.)

[@luissuyojimenez95]

Espectacular la voz de Tucker, su voz siempre en máscara y con tal resonancia. Bravísimo.

[@GermanOperaSinger]

Richard Tucker was famous for having an incredible aural memory which allowed him to memorize all his roles completely phonetically despite that he barely spoke a word of Italian. It is truly incredible since he fooled native Italians into thinking he was Florentine!

[@kennethwayne6857]

I recall reading that after a performance in Italy, Richard Tucker came offstage puzzled that the audience were calling him a beast. They had been shouting 'bis'.

[@shicoff1398]

@@kennethwayne6857 Well I have the interview with him where he talks about it, that was his debut then in Italy, in 1947, which was with the then very young Maria Callas, he sang Gioconda there with her with great response, as he then had a beautiful young Lyric tenor voice, but he also had power and very good top notes, so not really knowing all that much Italian, he thought after singing the aria "Cielo e Mar" they started yelling "Beast" but no it was "Bis" meaning Encore sing it again, which he did almost every night as the Italians loved his voice, there where several performances and in most he did encore it for them, it was in Parma.

[@kennethwayne6857]

@@shicoff1398 Of course if you could make it singing opera in Parma, you'll make it anywhere.

[@shicoff1398]

@@kennethwayne6857 True!

[@shicoff1398]

Sorry above I meant to say it was in Verona, which in 1947 it was, but much later he did sing in "Parma," (in 1971 the year of this party) he sang (Manrico) in Trovatore, it is on you tube also.

[@sospello]

What a terrific post VTV--one to treasure! How the sound picks up when RT begins to sing. You are always finding fascinating recordings of your favorite artists *****.

[@williamburnett4585]

My first opera ( in 1955 when I was in middle school in San Diego) was Gounod's "Faust" with Albanese Jan Peerce, Cesare Siepi and Cornell MacNeil (sic!) as Valentin. (San Francisco Opera's Southern California tour to Ten years later I saw Richard Tucker for the first time as Andrea Chenier with RenataTebaldi as Maddalena and Ettore Bastianini as Gerard at San Francisco Opera's War Memorial Opera HOuse. (Bastianini was only a year or so from his death from cancer.) This clip from the party long ago is of great significance to me!.

[@LiricumLord]

Hermoso, me encanta que hasta el dia de hoy los cantantes líricos nos divertimos con las mismas cosas! Viva Verdi y el Brindis, y también la Albanese!

[@susanwenner8738]

Amazing! Imagine the neighbors! There they go again. 🤗

[@shicoff1398]

Lucky neighbors! This is rare and the kind of thing I like, showing great singers having fun in a off stage moment, that room filled with great and many retired singers back in 1971, that was the actual year of this party.

[@Michaelbos]

Wonderful, Great to have something like this on tape and too share it. Thank you

[@ShawDAMAN]

Wow, great video, thanks, and all things considered the quality isn't bad at all... in color too! What a treat for the people at that party =P I assume Pearlmuth sent this... if he sees this, thanks..

[@bigcuy41]

How I would have loved to be a fly on the wall at that party!

[@joelweisberg]

A fly? How about the family cat or dog? Or just a guest sitting in the corner. Anything at all. BTW, my father used to play the tables in Vegas and often would encounter Tucker throwing away tons of dough at the craps tables. He was an inveterate gambler.

[@jimdrake-writer]

Two of his close friends, furrier Ben Herschaft and stockbroker-magnate Joseph A. Gimma, husband of Licia Albanese, covered his losses. During one Las Vegas winning streak in 1954, Tucker proudly presented his eldest son, Barry Tucker, with a brand-new Ford convertible.

[@shicoff1398]

@@jimdrake-writer Yes, a brand new for 1954 from Ford, a Y block (overhead valve V8 )

[@jimdrake-writer]

@@shicoff1398: Barry was not a “car nut,” so I suspect the new overhead-valve V8 didn’t mean that much to him-but that shiny new ‘54 certainly did. You probably remember this but when it came time for the youngest of the Tucker sons to be given his first car, his two older brothers conspired to convince their father that the wisest thing to buy for their “little brother” was a late-1940s car, maybe a Hudson or a similar model that looked like an overturned boat. You know how well that went over …!

[@shicoff1398]

@@jimdrake-writer I don't recall exactly, but for Henry maybe a Hudson or a Nash.

[@АлександрБеляев-ь3ы]

Richard Tucker bravo !!!

[@ioSonoCallas]

Fantastic and so moving! Thank you so much for this treasure!

[@jmccracken1963]

WOW!!!!! Thank you very much for sharing this!!!!!

[@publicclammer]

What a treat! Thank you for sharing!

[@TheVerdiBaritone]

Thank you for this wonderful and real "slice of life"!

[@sprinter846]

What great fun it is to see these people impromptu. ...especially surprising and delightful to see Tucker so loose and playful (while singing so splendidly.), He was generally rather stiff on stage one rarely saw him even smile. How foolish he was to stifle his natural charm which the public would certainly have found most engaging.

[@shicoff1398]

Right, he was a serious singer on stage but he he seemed to enjoy himself as in his 1951 Met .singing in Fledermaus where he did play it carefree in reviews and I do have the live brdcst. and recording he made of it also in English in 1951 with Lilly Pons.

[@TenorDmitry]

Amazing!!! Thank you very much!!!

[@VinylToVideo]

I'm not even 100% sure myself. Sarah Tucker is the lady in pink leaning against the piano, I think it's Branzell beside her in the dark green, Glaz in the white or baige around them, obviously Uppman is the taller man in the suit standing in the group, and Votipka is the one Tucker pulls over towards the end. Some of the people who were there can't be seen as they're standing to the left of the camera used for the first shot. I can't identify the few others standing around.

[@jimdrake-writer]

Indeed, Sara Tucker is in the pink dress, and Karin Branzell and Rose Bampton Pelletier are also in the bend of the piano. Licia Abanese's powerful husband, Joseph A. Gimma, is seen briefly at the right. The singer whom Tucker reaches toward and implores unsuccessfully to join in the singing is Bidu Sayao.

[@jzannieri]

Licia Albanese was born 7-22-1913. She just turned 100 years old. Rise Stevens, who died this past March, was 2 1/2 months short of her 100th birthday at time of passing. I have also seen some speculation that Albanese is a few years past 100, but the best information is the 1913 birth year. Since we are talking centenarians, my godmother and aunt, my father's older sister, turned 100 years old on June 1. If they are happy and healthy, it's great. Go, Aunt Grace! (and Mme Albanese)

[@shicoff1398]

After she died it came out she was born in 1909, Not 1913. (Tucker was born in 1913)

[@novasafo]

Wow. Magic!

[@Tenortalker]

Amazing-- and Tippy or Thelma Votipka turns up in the last few seconds. This lady gave hundreds of performances in character roles like 'Mamma Lucia' at the Met. A later British equivalent in terms of service would be Elizabeth Bainbridge at the Royal Opera House.

[@kennethwayne6857]

Love Tippy! And like Ms. Bainbridge she occasionally sang leading roles. I'm pretty certain I recognize Theodore Uppman in there.

[@shicoff1398]

@@kennethwayne6857 Soprano Jepson mentioned there (not shown here) that the Otello recording she made with Martinelli had been re-released as Hilites on the RCA collector series label LP. Biographer James Drake told me, even though the room did not have good acoustics, his voice really filled up the room with a big sound when he opened up there.

[@shicoff1398]

I mean of Course when Tucker sang the duet with Albanese. By 1971 Martinelli was gone ..

[@Zva26]

This was simply a party, and they were having a good time. They were not on stage. Many opera singers have clips of "party records", in which they deliberately sang badly in order to add to the humor. Maria Callas once sang "Stormy Weather" at a party given by Elsa Maxwell. I'd love to hear it, but I'm sure it was never recorded.

[@AulicExclusiva]

The amazing thing is that Tucker seems to remember music and words better than Albanese, who was not only ITALIAN but the most famous Violetta of that generation!

[@paragod333]

She also still holds the record for the most Violetta's by any soprano at the Met ...something like 75.

[@donaldbowers5205]

In the backround in black with pearls is Bidu Sayao.

[@francias2012]

Auguri Licia, sei grande!!!

[@tenorschofield]

BRAVO!!!

[@joanketelby752]

My goodness thought that was Golda Meir sitting down near the beginning of the video.

[@VinylToVideo]

Sayao is the woman Tucker tries to bring over at 1:40.

[@VinylToVideo]

I believe I said something similar to my friend when he gave me this!

[@dermotpelletier6858]

I seem to remember that the CBC had come to do a documentary on Grand Pere. I will ask my sisters. As for the french speaking, I think it would have to do with the relationship that he had with Montreal and the french speaking people of Quebec. Will the rest of the movie be up soon? Be well, Dermot

[@VinylToVideo]

Oh great I see you are in France. My French is rusty (always was horrible in all honesty) so perhaps you can help with the translations. I'm sure Lesley (sospello) would gladly help as well!

[@ER1CwC]

Bidu Sayao was shy!

[@Baystreetboy1947]

Wow!!!

[@sospello]

My friend on YT, Jean-Guy in Canada can probably help as well.

[@VinylToVideo]

I will in the near future. Most of it is in French.

[@operabilia]

Portrait of Licia Albanese at: @t

[@kennethwayne6857]

Lovely Licia's hair tells me that this is the 1960's.

[@shicoff1398]

The correct date is given in a comment by the Tucker Biographer here, Mr. James Drake, it was Sunday June 20, 1971, which was the 75th Birthday party for Cond. Pelletier. Mr. Drake was at the party as he mentions in a comment below, much later he wrote the Tucker biography, and also two Biographies for soprano Rosa Ponselle. Jim did an excellent job in the books and lucky for him was there seeing all these fine singers that day, present in the room, sadly all gone now .

[@kennethwayne6857]

@@shicoff1398 I was about 9 when Mr. Tucker passed. I wish I had heard him in the house or met him, as it is well known that he was very generous with advice to young singers (of course I wasn't a singer then). I did have the opportunity to speak with his son Barry once or twice, who seemed very gracious. I heard somewhere that in the house Mr. Tucker's voice could be even larger than Corelli's or Del Monaco's.

[@shicoff1398]

@@kennethwayne6857 I knew him very well, had dinner with him after he sang on occasion and we talked on the phone, I do know all 3 sons very well, we keep in touch. I had the pleasure of being his guest a few times when he was Cantor in Chicago, yes the voice was very large, especially up top and I when I worked in classical radio discussed it with Neil Shicoff and once with Domingo, Domingo is just a little younger than I am, but he told me Tucker had the biggest high B in the house he ever heard and Neil Shicoff told me basically the same thing, as you know Neil studied with Corelli for a time, but I saw MDM in house sing Otello, his voice was big like a trumpet, Tucker's was wide and so it's a different type, MDM was a sensational dramatic in his prime, I saw FC in his prime also in the 1960's, and when I first saw Tucker in 1961 he was in his prime at age 48 with a top B that was like a jet plane landing in your living room!, so much is made of voice size, there isn't a huge difference among the biggest voices in size, too much is made of it, so it also depends on the night and how the singer feels etc. Tucker;s got larger in time compared to when he sang in Verona in 1947 with Callas, by the 1950's his voice was a real true Spinto and in 1971 on you tube is a Trovatore with him live in Parma, I'll let you know the poster name, the house gave him huge applause and approval and he was already 57 years old, I'll let you know the posters name etc. soon. Sorry you never heard him in house, as with MDM he sounded better in house, listen to his last act live of Chenier with Tebaldi duet, from 1956 Chicago or 1960 at the met. on you tube, his final high B with her and it also is on the Ed Sullivan TV show 1957 on you tube and see them together.

[@shicoff1398]

​@@kennethwayne6857 Look up Trovatore, Parma Italy, 1971 Tucker and Ricciarelli, Ah Si Ben Mio, Di Quella Pira. Posted by Andrei U. as Soprano "Rosa Ponselle" told the Tucker Biographer James Drake Tucker sounded different in house then his records, she felt he sounded far better in house. Some record better then others, Del Monaco did not record as well either, when I saw him in 1959 in house as Otello, I thought he was far more impressive then the London Studio records , he was the greatest Dramatic tenor I ever saw and I was really impressed.

[@shicoff1398]

@@kennethwayne6857 There is a poster on you tube who is Italian and knows the language well, (Sugarbist) a bit younger by a few years than I am and his parents of course in Italy saw many older Italian greats there, one tenor who also sang here for a short time was said (Also by an older friend of mine said, to have the biggest voice of them all) I don't know, I didn't see him in house, but he didn't last long in good voice, he sang at the Met in a few opera's, but I didn't see him so cannot say, Gino Penno was the tenor, anyhow it's not all that important and I only go by those I saw in the house, like the great Jussi Bjoerling said, forget about loud, quality is what is more important not size, if the voice is big enough too carry well in a demanding role OK, great, I've seen so many with big voices, Vickers, Tucker, Corelli, Del Monaco, all in their prime years, but the beauty of voice is #1. My grandfather born in 1880 saw Caruso twice in house and told me he was the greatest tenor he ever saw, yes he also liked Tucker a lot, also Gigli and a great tenor of Wagner, the great Melchior, but he said Caruso was far better then the sound on the old acoustic records, he stopped going to opera in his 90's in the early 1970's but saw them all long ago (I'm 82 now and don't attend opera's anymore, but mainly because none as great as what we had IMO)

[@clefnoteproductions6695]

Was that Loretta di Franco and Ljuba Weiltsch in the background? And after how Traviata's could they forget the lyrics?

[@shicoff1398]

No, it wasn't Loretta C. but Soprano's Jepson, Branzell, Sayo and Munsell, Votipka and Tucker's wife Sara Tucker, Plus the Maestro's wife Soprano Rose Bompton (it was at their house for his 70 something Birthday) Albanese and Tucker sang Traviata but hadn't sung it in years, this was in 1971, Tucker had last sung it complete at the Met. in 1967 with Caballe. also Albanese was born in 1909 not 1913 as once thought, Tucker was born in 1913, Theodore Uppman is the younger looking man standing there smiling as they where singing, Tucker motions to Sayo to join in singing but she doesn't, however finally Thelma Votipka (called Tippy at the Met. by many singers) joins in when Tucker motions to her. The date as Jim Drake mentions here was 1971, Drake was there and later wrote the Tucker Biography, the book, title" "Richard Tucker" (Helen Jepson recorded Otello with Martinelli for RCA records( all those people and singers there in 1971, are now deceased.) RIP.

[@orion8835]

Ticker incredible. Piano lively. Licia..Yikes.