Nelson Eddy & James Melton: The Pearl Fishers Duet
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2019
- James Melton, American Tenor (1904 - 1961)
Nelson Eddy, American Baritone (1901 - 1967)
Eddy appeared as a guest on The James Melton Radio show which was aired in 1945/46. This duet is from that show, it was released in the early 1980s on a Parnassus LP compilation of MacDonald/Eddy opera and operetta recordings. The album liner notes were rudimentary - they listed "Au fond du temple" from Bizet’s LES PECHEURS DE PERLES with James Melton as 1938 but Melton’s show was on the air in the 1940s. Eddy also teamed with John Carter to perform this duet on The Chase and Sanborn Hour in 1938, however, no recording of that radio performance has (to date) been found.
Our Nelson Eddy did it all! He had a magnificent voice! And, he was a very handsome Actor!
Singing like this has all but disappeared. Thanks to people like you we won’t forget. Thank you.
Many thanks. Absolutely gorgeous.
So beautiful! Thank you for sharing this!
Just beautiful to say it is old.
Angela
Thank you! Thank you! What a wonderful, well sung as always (and rare) recording. This is also on my "saved" list as are all you post.
Angela. I love this duet and in all honesty never knew Nelson sang it. It's wonderful and even though short, still managed to reduce me to tears. Thanks so much for sharing this.
MadDiMoody7 So glad you enjoyed it, Di!
Beautiful.❤
Magnificent! Thank you angela! xxx
Loved this duet
Fabulous! Love anything with Nelson!!
The best male operatic duet with the best baritone. Melton is good, but wouldn’t it have been fabulous to hear Nelson and Jussi Bjorling?
Karla Herbold Yes - totally agree and the entire aria unlike this. The recording of this duet by Bjorling and Merrill is sublime!
Angela Messino yeah...Merrill was a wonderful baritone too. But Bjorling is something else (as tenors go)
@Nicholas Ennos What happened? Melton did not fulfill those expectations.
@Nicholas EnnosYou would have done better to have prefaced that with the words "in my opinion...". Quite one of the most unintentionally funny statements I`ve seen in quite some time.
@Nicholas Ennos That`s intriguing. I`ve never encountered that nominal testimony by McCormack previously, and it seems to me unlikely. I`d be interested to know your source. Melton`s somewhat patchy and intermittent operatic career, beginning in 1938, lasted little more than a decade after which (from 1950 on), he concentrated on recordings, television and night club work. McCormack of course abandoned his operatic career in 1923 thereafter becoming exclusively a concert singer in the classical tradition and with occasional film appearances. He died in 1945, just five years after Melton`s professional debut and it`s difficult to consider how McCormack would have assessed Melton as "the only tenor he considered as competition" given that between 1940 and his final appearances in 1943, the Irish tenor`s concert appearances were very few and far between indeed.
Also of course, given that McCormack left America to return to England in 1937 it might perhaps be questioned whether he actually ever heard Melton in person.
I take it that your statement that "Melton was a better singer than Bjorling who had a flawed technique" (an absurd statement and one clearly not based on any technical knowledge) is in fact entirely your own opinion and not McCormack`s.... Bjorling`s astonishing technique has of course always been widely noted as superb, as it is to this day, exceptionally well developed (actually *"flawless"* in the view of one author) and it was the application of his impeccable technique that enabled his voice to remain astonishingly pristine and untarnished right up to his death at 48. You might care to read the assessment of vocal coach David L Jones on the specific subject of Bjorling, his exceptional technique and his vocal production generally .
Beautiful...is there a CD with this and O Evening Star??? Thank you Angela - like Judy K. , I keep them on my saved list, as I love the classical music Nelson sing so well.
Angelic
Tragically Short.
Wm. Traynor Agree. I wish we had the full version but it’s kind of miraculous to have anything at all after all these years.