Dear Listers,
The other day I picked up Volume 1 of the "great voices" series,
which is the autobiography of the great Titta Ruffo. There are four
other volumes in the series: Corelli(an interesting book with
excellent CD examples), Simionato, Tebaldi, and Ponselle. The
books/accompanying CD cost $38 each. The editor of the series is
Andy Farkas, who is the author of "Caruso"(1990), and "Jussi"(1996).
So far I have made it through about one hundred pages of Ruffo's
book(which was originally published in 1937- in Italian). Ruffo had
quite a rough childhood and his father was not at all supportive of
his interest in singing. The father was an iron-worker and wanted
Ruffo(actually Ruffo was his first name, which he later switched when
he became a singer) to take up the same trade.
The CD which comes with the book is fabulous. It shows us Ruffo
from 1907-1922 singing nineteen operatic selections. A definite
highlight is "Si, pel ciel" from 1914- with Caruso. What a amazing
pair they make. Some of my friends at school think I'm stange for
buying all these "old singers." Granted, about 85% of my extensive
collection are of singers long gone.
My only response is that when the singers of today start
sounding anything like the singers of the past- I'll reconsider my
position. Until then I'll keep replacing the needle on my record
player :)
Take Care All,
Taylor L. Ferranti
DMA Candidate in Vocal Pedagogy
Louisiana State University
|
