Robert Merrill on Joan Rivers show

[@bl59957]

BELLISSIMO!!!!!!!

[@bharp4390]

This is a very insightful interview for newer singers to listen to. Robert Merrill is one of the best operatic baritones to ever grace the world.

[@bharp4390]

I just wish Joan hadn't kept interrupting the voice teacher.

[@Sacha_Kudli]

As a singing apprentice, I can confirm ! 😃 His recommendations are interesting

[@Sacha_Kudli]

@@bharp4390 lol yeah

[@VinylToVideo]

@@bharp4390 Don't worry, you didn't miss anything of substance. There's a reason Merrill didn't agree with anything she said.

[@BaroneVitellioScarpia1]

Love both Merrill and Rivers.

[@Sacha_Kudli]

Both are awesome, there not throaty

[@BaroneVitellioScarpia1]

@@Sacha_Kudli Much better than the overrated Thomas Hampson and Leo Nucci.

[@Operafiend22]

@@BaroneVitellioScarpia1 When Bob stopped with these gimmicks, which was part of his charm and popularity, he was and could be a formidable baritone....the greatness was always there...at the turn of a switch

[@Perrosiutico]

Robert Merrill's singing seems effortless just like his charm and sense of humor. I love it that the coach mentions in passing music director Peter Howard. He was a terrific Broadway music director but not so well known outside the business.

[@St.Garoosh]

Fascinating video. Merrill absolutely did not sing "in the mask" though. He sang in chest through and through. That's why he had such clarity and scuro to his voice. Its interesting to hear this coach completely not understand what he was doing.

[@photo161]

...nonsense, ..

[@photo161]

....Sang in the chest?!...nonsense!

[@VinylToVideo]

@@photo161 You display your ignorance in operatic technique with such a comment. Merrill absolutely sang with chest voice.

[@tonshaad1230]

@@photo161 male singers sing in the chest voice and the greatest female operatic singers also did, too. This isn't controversial at all.

[@cadaverdog1424]

You are so ignorant!!! Please!!! Merrill had great placement. I was two feet from him many times when he sang. And his sound rang through the house with squillo, metal, ping. Better than any current baritones [which isn’t saying much of course]

[@sgnmath1234]

Joan was quite effective in convincing us how little she knows about opera.

[@achmedmohamed4708]

Moishe Milstein, aka Robert Merrill, was an early accomplished singer. Hear his early radio-recordings.

[@meltzerboy]

Moishe Miller

[@shicoff1398]

Yes true, your right, in Europe that was his fathers family name "Milstein", and when the family came to America, it was shortened to Miller, he was born "Moishe Miller"

[@achmedmohamed4708]

@@shicoff1398 Moishe Milstein (Mühlstein) from Poland. Jacob Pinkus Perelmuth from Russia. Reuben Ticker from Romania. George Burnstein from Russia. Leonard Warrenoff also from Russia. All did sing with the art of the cantor. Merrill, London and Warren were and are still my favorite baritones. When you are Neil Shicoff then I saw you 1977/78 (?) in Rigoletto in Munich. I have a very fine boot leg recording from this performance made by my late friend Kurt. Of course not recorded with a boot leg. I collected more than 30.000 complete operas in my long life.

[@shicoff1398]

Yes, though I'm much much older than Neil S., he was born in 1949 ( he and Dawn his wife are friends of mine) I did know both Tucker and Peerce very well and have been a guest at both their homes long ago, that was in the 1960's when I worked in classical radio in Calif. , I'm in my 80's . BTW about Tucker, his father "Sam" (Israel Ticker ) and Yes Reuben Ticker (Ruby was his nick name ) was born August 28th, 1913, a sensational spinto tenor, I saw him over 20 times, and Peerce of course Many times also starting the 1950's . Have been attending opera since 1957. Saw the great Warren in the opera house only once. He had very powerful rich voice, Yes, his mom's Maiden name was Sara Kantor and of course I saw both George London and often saw the great Merrill in the opera house with Tucker in both opera and concert. Enjoy.

[@achmedmohamed4708]

@@shicoff1398 You lucky man! From this singers I saw only one time George London in Munich long ago in a concert close to his end as a singer almost sick.

[@johnconway3834]

Sue Seton (or anyone else talking about mask placement and "throwing a ball" for crying out loud!) didn't know what she was talking about.

[@VinylToVideo]

It does sound somewhat quackish; I've never even heard of "mask placement." She did train Bette Midler, Lainie Kazan, and Abbe Lane according to her 1992 New York Times obituary. It also said she was involved with an early classical radio show; "The Bell Telephone Hour," as well as Radio City Music Hall.

[@clefnoteproductions6695]

Who was the vocal teacher, I didn't catch her name

[@xjAlbert]

New York Times obituary, printed Jan. 11, 1992: Sue Seton, a vocal coach for many stage and film stars, died on Dec. 30 [1991] at her home in Manhattan. She was 85 years old. She died of natural causes, said her son, Joseph Seton, of New York City. Among the singers Mrs. Seton coached were Bette Midler, Lainie Kazan and Abbe Lane. She worked with Carol Lawrence in the original production of "West Side Story," Shirley MacLaine in "Sweet Charity" and Katharine Hepburn in "Coco." Mrs. Seton, born in Pittsburgh, studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and early in her career sang in the stage shows at Radio City Music Hall and on the Bell Telephone Hour radio program. In addition to her son, she is survived by a daughter, Peggy, of Westchester County; a sister, Rose S. Allen, of Newton, Mass.; a brother, Benjamin Seiger, of Chevy Chase, Md., and two grandsons.

[@achmedmohamed4708]

@@xjAlbert But all of these were not opera singers. To be able to sing operas you need another voice and long years of training.

[@andymanland]

Robert didn’t buy that ))

[@achmedmohamed4708]

Robert Merrill was not able to speak one single sentance in Italian nor in French.

[@Operafiend22]

....and? Pavarotti couldn't read music notation

[@sw5114]

@@Operafiend22 He didn’t need to. Merrill would have been enhanced with greater language fluency.

[@allenjones3130]

​@@Operafiend22Ezio Pinza couldn't read music either!

[@shicoff1398]

True but neither could Bjoerling or Tucker, both great and successful tenors in the Italian operatic field in their days long ago. The famous excellent Italian born Conductor, the late Bruno Bartoletti (and one time leading Cond. of the Chicago Lyric opera company) Bruno told me long ago that both the American born Richard Tucker and Swedish born Jussi Bjoerling sang Italian with excellent clear fine diction and yet spoke no Italian in conversation, the Swede Bjoerling singing in Italian had improved even more into his prime years and he always sang in English with hardly any foreign accent and Tucker who was born in Brooklyn when he sang in English had none of the slight Brooklyn NY. accent that he had in conversation, both men where totally professional with long careers and I saw both men in the opera house, starting in the late 1950's . Merrill was a terrific Baritone and is right about the singing today

[@shicoff1398]

Yes, and many great singers didn't read music besides Pavarotti, neither did the great Italian Bass Ezio Pinza and some others, they spent lots of time learning their roles with coaches etc. and had long successful careers. @@Operafiend22