I was reminded of this driving home from Mass.
After Lucia Di Lammermoor I intend to put on the complete works of Josh Turner and Johnny Cash. These are men whose singing voices suggest that they actually have the apparatus that is an essential of the virile state. I've heard so many singers and crooners of recent date with voices brittle as lace-cookies, with the depth of a silk hankie, and with the presence of violets among skunk-cabbage. Give me a voice with substance. A Bryn Terfel, even a Pavarotti (whose voice I don't particularly care for prefering Placido Domingo and other lesser-known artists) over what passes for male voices in most of the rock, hip-hop, and yes, I'm sorry to say, even country music that I hear.
Are you familiar with the works of the late, great Freddie Mercury? Now there was a rocker with a good set of pipes.
:)
Donizetti's String Quartets turn out to be most marvellously good! Not profound like Mozart and Haydn, but gossamer light and sparkly like his Oboe Concerto and other little things.
Very much worth hearing.
Dear Talmida,
One of my absolute all time favorites. Such a shame.
Dear Jeff,
I've never heard them. I shall have to see if they are available. You know the Viennese are often charged with being frothy, but Italian String Quartets are often utterly delightful--starting with Vivaldi and working forward. Thanks for the tip.
shalom,
Steven