Go to your cd's and please find the EMI recordings of Turandot with Callas/Fernandi/Schwarzkopf/Zaccaria and
Il Trovatore with Callas/Di Stefano/Barbieri/Panerai/Zaccaria.
Good.
Now check the cast list. Anything weird?
Have you ever wondered who is Giulio Mauri who 's singing "il mandarino" and "uno zingaro"?
Google him.
Did you find anything apart from the reference to these two recordings? No? I thought so...
Giulio Mauri never existed.
Both the mandarin and the zingaro are sung by Nicola Zaccaria himself !
Go check it!
Just listen to first few minutes of Turandot!
This little secret had been revealed by Nicola Zaccaria himself to 2 friends of mine some years before his death (2007). Although we 're not sure about the reasons, rumour has it that the singer who was to sing the Mandarin was not good and that Zaccaria agreed to sing it himself with the condition that the other singer would get fully paid.
Giulio Mauri was just created by Zaccaria to pay tribute to Giulio Neri while he was recording Il Trovatore with Karajan and then re-used it for Turandot.
*John Ardoin in his book "The Callas Legacy" also makes mention to Giulio Mauri as a pseudonym of Zaccaria.
Zaccaria + Bastianini
Il Trovatore with Callas/Di Stefano/Barbieri/Panerai/Zaccaria.
Good.
Now check the cast list. Anything weird?
Have you ever wondered who is Giulio Mauri who 's singing "il mandarino" and "uno zingaro"?
Google him.
Did you find anything apart from the reference to these two recordings? No? I thought so...
Giulio Mauri never existed.
Both the mandarin and the zingaro are sung by Nicola Zaccaria himself !
Go check it!
Just listen to first few minutes of Turandot!
This little secret had been revealed by Nicola Zaccaria himself to 2 friends of mine some years before his death (2007). Although we 're not sure about the reasons, rumour has it that the singer who was to sing the Mandarin was not good and that Zaccaria agreed to sing it himself with the condition that the other singer would get fully paid.
Giulio Mauri was just created by Zaccaria to pay tribute to Giulio Neri while he was recording Il Trovatore with Karajan and then re-used it for Turandot.
*John Ardoin in his book "The Callas Legacy" also makes mention to Giulio Mauri as a pseudonym of Zaccaria.
Zaccaria + Bastianini
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8 comments:
I already knew about this, but that's not surprising since I am such a Callas freak that I almost know John Ardoin's book off by heart.
N.
Very interesting, I think I remember an interview dear Kyriakos took from Nicola Zaccaria some years ago that was broadcast in his "Dictionary of the Voices" on ERA 3, where he said that! I must have it on cassette!
But do you know what I loved the most on this post, dear Parsi? The fact that you took it for granted (and quite right you did!) that everyone has in their classical collections these two complete opera recordings from the mid-fifties! They truly are a must, no?
WTF??? Of course they are a must have! Why, are there any people out there that don't own them?? Huh????
Have you been snooping in my record collection again?
There are a few examples of that - I believe there's a Nozze with Schwartzkopf doing one of the peasant girls in the little Act 2-I duet. Also a Nozze with Lisa della Casa and Roberta Peters where they sing the peasant girls.
I'm sure there are more out there.
A similar example occurs in Gianni Schicchi with Mirella Freni and Leo Nucci: the role of Maestro Spinelloccio is sung by a Colin Cue... Try to swap the letters and guess who it is? Leo Nucci himself! Though I ignore the reason of that.
Veryy intersting!!! Is there something you don't know? ;-)) Lovely bits of historic gossip :-)
And the Tosca where la Bartoli sings the song of the "pastore" in Act 3. But that doesn't count 'cause la Ceci was about 12 y.o. at the time...hohoho.
to έχω ακούσει αυτό.
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