When you see these performances, you understand why Rossini was not performed much in the early 20th Century…. No tenors could sing the roles! Even when Callas began to play a part in reviving these wonderful operas probably none of the contemporary tenors could sing Rossini as his works should be sung, hence recordings of Barbiere without Cessa di piu resistere! Thank God for Blake and the fact that today we do have tenors who can sing these glorious roles by Maestro Rossini!!
@@DiomedesDioscuro that's probabmt true but I do think Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Spyres, and Andrew Owens are really excellent in this rep and probably took a lot of inspiration from people like Rocky.
@@sodiariandrew8384 a friend of mine studied with Mr. Blake. He recounted Rocky's training, in which he and his teacher painstakingly built the voice one note at a time, for weeks at a time. Several lessons devoted to each semitone. Old school!
@@TrueConnoisseur I agree this is effective. Could you introduce me to your friend, the student. I’ll love to relate with him on his direct experience. I’ll be so glad to get the chance.
@@TrueConnoisseur The classic ways of teaching are what gave us Blake, Sutherland, Callas, Devia et al…. Just glorious singers who sang these roles because they could!
Young Rockwell, man, crazy how good he is. To be dead honest though, I prefer his high A's and B's here compared to when he got older; I think in an interview he said that you have to keep darkening the high notes above and beyond the G, as he himself did, but I really like how bright and free they sound here.
This is similar to what I was taught: I used to darken and cover above about F# but I was told that the tone was too dark to really get up into my high range. When I started singing with a more “forward” tone (NOT placement, resulting effect of correctly executed mechanics of singing), the voice was clearer, brighter, more resonant, and the high range became much easier. I sang B4s for the first time in lessons, whereas in the past, I had trouble with Gs and Abs because of the technical faults and resulting dysfunction.
Now THIS is what a TENOR should sound like. No constriction to the voice whatsoever. Sound is very open and free. Pure chest voice up to the high D. Bravo maestro!!
A very well blended voice from top to bottom, but, mechanically speaking, it's evidently not chest. Acoustically resembles to be, and that's the goal of technique precisely. And yes, he's so free. But at top he necessarily goes to a almost falsetto sound, but because of its lightness, not because of that it doesn't have focus, firmness and brightness. In his Terra amica and Ah dove il cimento is clearer that constant approximation to an M2 coordination. It's so beautiful.
@@moishemillerr We know that loud doesn't necessarily mean chest voice. Good comment. He is singing so much head voice and knows how to make the sound carry.
Que joven! Una joya esta grabación, en donde se aprecia su voz en toda su plenitud, más allá del minuto 5:25 con notas que no son frecuentes en otras de sus grabaciones. Su voz se aprecia mejor al estar solo acompañado con un piano. Personalmente me gustan más sus versiones posteriores con orquesta y ... a un ritmo más ligero. Gracias por compartir!!
Holy cow this was incredible. As a leggiero in training, I can’t fathom what it is like to be able to sing all of that as well as he does. I mean, I’ve got high Cs but they’re nothing like his!
He looks very young here. By the time I heard him in the theater the agility was still amazing, but the quality of the tone was not at all pleasant. This is altogether very, very good. Now we have turned this repertoire over to the mosquito tenors.
thats what you get for telling tenors to sing all the way to their absolute top in "pure chest voice" the thyroarytenoids are hyperactivated and cause such restriction that it makes tenors sound "mosquito-esque". God forbid people teach tenors to use their head voice these days.
Blake was always a favorite of mine but you are correct, in his later years his tone was more harsh and forced. Here, in his younger years, you can hear the beauty of his voice. Yes, the agility has always been superb. We were fortunate to have him as he was one of the few tenors who could handle Rossini and thus bring it back to the opera world in the 80s.
He had a lot of stamina and his voice was very full for a leggero, but I've always found his voice not particularly pretty. The beauty of the sound for me is lacking.
I like the score better than the singing. Although imagine what a disaster would be with Del Monaco or Corelli singing this. It s fine but too "come scritto" to be Rossini.
I personally enjoy his singing quite a lot, specially on his prime years… unfortunately this kind of singing with vowels open all the way up an A natural would eventually cost him a shorter career. Mr Blake left the stages at the age of 55 in 2005 and tbh anything beyond 1997 it’s pretty much unbearable.
When you see these performances, you understand why Rossini was not performed much in the early 20th Century…. No tenors could sing the roles! Even when Callas began to play a part in reviving these wonderful operas probably none of the contemporary tenors could sing Rossini as his works should be sung, hence recordings of Barbiere without Cessa di piu resistere! Thank God for Blake and the fact that today we do have tenors who can sing these glorious roles by Maestro Rossini!!
Yeah that made sense. No wonder we mostly got verismo
Actually there were Tito Schipa, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Cesare Valletti, Bruno Landi and Nicola Monti
I don't thing we have many tenors that can sing this. We have many tenors that do sing it, but that's different. 😅
Not anymore.
@@DiomedesDioscuro that's probabmt true but I do think Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Spyres, and Andrew Owens are really excellent in this rep and probably took a lot of inspiration from people like Rocky.
Magnifico insuperabile che gioia ascoltarlo grazie grazie che bello 110 e lodissime
Fantastico, Rossini con questi cantanti durerà in eterno
Maravilla. ¿Se ha escuchado algo parecido en las últimas varias décadas?
Unparalleled athleticism and skill in the leggero rep. The man was a god.
He knew no fear.
@@sodiariandrew8384 a friend of mine studied with Mr. Blake. He recounted Rocky's training, in which he and his teacher painstakingly built the voice one note at a time, for weeks at a time. Several lessons devoted to each semitone. Old school!
@@TrueConnoisseur I agree this is effective. Could you introduce me to your friend, the student. I’ll love to relate with him on his direct experience.
I’ll be so glad to get the chance.
@@TrueConnoisseur The classic ways of teaching are what gave us Blake, Sutherland, Callas, Devia et al…. Just glorious singers who sang these roles because they could!
Young Rockwell, man, crazy how good he is. To be dead honest though, I prefer his high A's and B's here compared to when he got older; I think in an interview he said that you have to keep darkening the high notes above and beyond the G, as he himself did, but I really like how bright and free they sound here.
This is similar to what I was taught: I used to darken and cover above about F# but I was told that the tone was too dark to really get up into my high range. When I started singing with a more “forward” tone (NOT placement, resulting effect of correctly executed mechanics of singing), the voice was clearer, brighter, more resonant, and the high range became much easier. I sang B4s for the first time in lessons, whereas in the past, I had trouble with Gs and Abs because of the technical faults and resulting dysfunction.
Unbelievable! At the limit of the human capability. Such a technique... Almost otherworldly
His best recording.
Rocky in his prime was a force of nature.
Sills nabbed a great one in his younger years at NYCO.
Awesome as Ever!
Rocky was 31 here
Mister Fiato!!!
Perfección absoluta
Qué potencia y elegancia para los sobreagudos. Maravilloso.
One of the greatest examples of singing I have ever heard !!
MARAVILLOSO ROCKWELL BLAKE!!!
Now THIS is what a TENOR should sound like. No constriction to the voice whatsoever. Sound is very open and free. Pure chest voice up to the high D. Bravo maestro!!
Good luck building a voice like this with chest voice only!
I'm afraid you got that wrong - the role only goes up to high C.
Ever heard the note in 5:24?
A very well blended voice from top to bottom, but, mechanically speaking, it's evidently not chest. Acoustically resembles to be, and that's the goal of technique precisely. And yes, he's so free. But at top he necessarily goes to a almost falsetto sound, but because of its lightness, not because of that it doesn't have focus, firmness and brightness. In his Terra amica and Ah dove il cimento is clearer that constant approximation to an M2 coordination. It's so beautiful.
@@moishemillerr We know that loud doesn't necessarily mean chest voice. Good comment. He is singing so much head voice and knows how to make the sound carry.
Que joven! Una joya esta grabación, en donde se aprecia su voz en toda su plenitud, más allá del minuto 5:25 con notas que no son frecuentes en otras de sus grabaciones. Su voz se aprecia mejor al estar solo acompañado con un piano. Personalmente me gustan más sus versiones posteriores con orquesta y ... a un ritmo más ligero. Gracias por compartir!!
Immenso!
Holy cow this was incredible. As a leggiero in training, I can’t fathom what it is like to be able to sing all of that as well as he does. I mean, I’ve got high Cs but they’re nothing like his!
Grandissimo!
¡Mr. Fiato!
Impeccable!
Canto libre y apoyado ! 👏👏👏👏. Que placer escuchar este repertorio bien cantado , y no como lo hacen la mayoría de los tenores de hoy en día
He looks very young here. By the time I heard him in the theater the agility was still amazing, but the quality of the tone was not at all pleasant. This is altogether very, very good. Now we have turned this repertoire over to the mosquito tenors.
31
thats what you get for telling tenors to sing all the way to their absolute top in "pure chest voice" the thyroarytenoids are hyperactivated and cause such restriction that it makes tenors sound "mosquito-esque". God forbid people teach tenors to use their head voice these days.
Blake was always a favorite of mine but you are correct, in his later years his tone was more harsh and forced. Here, in his younger years, you can hear the beauty of his voice. Yes, the agility has always been superb. We were fortunate to have him as he was one of the few tenors who could handle Rossini and thus bring it back to the opera world in the 80s.
Don’t delete this please
I always find his singing thrilling.
Un artista completo
BRAVOOOOOOOOOO!!
Simply amazing!
Exceptionnel 💝💝💝
Formidabile. E matto come un cavallo.
Incredible
No se puede cantar mejor
Genial!!!
Stellare….
Marvelous.
My goodness!
Bravo
👏👏👏👏👏👏
Que tio
Sheeeeeeesh
2:22
大哥作为一个美国人，意大利话太牛屄啦
🤐
He had a lot of stamina and his voice was very full for a leggero, but I've always found his voice not particularly pretty. The beauty of the sound for me is lacking.
I like the score better than the singing.
Although imagine what a disaster would be with Del Monaco or Corelli singing this.
It s fine but too "come scritto" to be Rossini.
Los spintos jamás harían lo que ha hecho Blake.
I personally enjoy his singing quite a lot, specially on his prime years… unfortunately this kind of singing with vowels open all the way up an A natural would eventually cost him a shorter career. Mr Blake left the stages at the age of 55 in 2005 and tbh anything beyond 1997 it’s pretty much unbearable.
No stupid nasal placements or cover. Open all up to C
He’s definitely covering above the G