Pavarotti / di Stefano - Ah fuyez douce image (live)

I've had some requests to do some comparisons of different singers singing the same roles.

This is also somewhat inspired by Mr. 'ShawDAMAN's 'Dueling tenors' posts.

Anyways, here are two great Italian lyric tenors singing the role of Des Grieux in a very beautiful French opera, Manon. The aria is 'Ah fuyez douce image', or in Italian, 'Ah dispair vision'. Giuseppe di Stefano sings it in French in a 1951 broadcast production (although this seems to have been recorded in the prompter's box). Luciano Pavarotti sings it in Italian in a 1969 production. This particular aria with its killer tessitura is one of the most difficult to sing in the repertoire. Even more difficult than hitting all the notes without cracking is the fact that one has to sing the passages convincingly, paying particular attention to the phrasing and dynamics. I'm not going to name a favorite here (though I have one in mind). I'll let you do that. Be sure to state your reasons though.

On the issue of di Stefano, everyone knows that he sang dangerously open and burned his voice out quickly. The style he used would not have been damaging had he remained within his repertoire. His voice was a textbook tenore di grazia, think Tagliavini, Schipa, young Gigli, singers of that nature. All of these tenors sang with this very open bright sound like di Stefano. The problem with di Stefano was that he pushed his voice using this open way of singing when he ventured into the heavier roles. Young vocal cords are capable of sustaining tremendous amounts of punishment, but when the voice ages, it simply cannot withstand this pressure. As di Stefano aged, the location of his passaggio became more and more undefined due to his excessive pushing. The high notes lost their luster and in a desperate attempt to regain it he pushed even more, further damaging his ailing voice.

Pavarotti is an example of a singer who was wise and implemented a technique which allowed him to sing with an open bright sound without subjecting the cords to unnecessary pressure. This is the ideal technique, as one should never modify vowels for vocal protection. True modification occurs automatically due to correct vocal mechanism, one does not have to cover physically, rather, cover happens on its own. This is true for virtually everything about singing. Terms like raise the soft palate, or sing from the diaphragm only confuse the student. All these things happen automatically as a result of correct vocal mechanism; one does NOT DO them TO have correct vocal mechanism.

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