The mix is OK, just don't believe that either of the recordings from which this clip was made sounds as false as they do together

Overall Bjoerling scores on points with me, but I'd rather choose them both over many other tenors. Regarding this clip, I much prefer Pav's recording of Boheme with Freni, under Karajan, to Bjoerling's with De los Angeles under Beecham.

Cheers,

EJ 

Perhaps the mixed video doesn't give a true representation of their talents.

That's more like it. Bjoerling here sings with Renata Tebaldi on an episode of NBC's Producer's Showcase - he is in better shape than for Beecham and Tebaldi is brilliant. On the other hand, the Pavarotti video shows Pav and Freni in a San Francisco production nearing the end of their long careers, some 15 years after they had recorded the complete opera with Karajan. His voice had become a bit heavier - by this point he was singing Radames (Aida) - but he still sounded good.

EJ

One of the last recordings by Jussi Björling is his singing the great Lohengrin aria "In Fernem Land", in Swedish. Incomparable.

Cheers,

EJ

And here is Pavarotti in his hugely underrated first appearance as Radames, in Milan in 1986. This is the performance that hooked me on opera, in 1989 (when the recording was finally issued).

Cheers,

EJ

Una Furtiva Lagrima from Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore...

And Björling's...

I think that better tenors exist than either.

I prefer Bjorling. I don't enjoy the Belcanto styre. For me, it has never recovered for me from the play on words, "Can belto." Just sing loud.

Aksel Schiotz [Danish tenor] rather shows that intensity may be both virile and achieved by far more subtle means:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5_PmZCOC4Y

ATB from George

And Jose Carreras, in 1982 still possessing most of his gleaming voice. For a brief time, he was the finest IMO.

EJ

George, he's singing the tenor version of an aria written for an alto... a castrated boy. That's not considered 'virile' in today's society.

EJ

Placido Domingo, a spinto (halfway between lyric and dramatic) tenor, also did a good Nemorino. He sounds a bit the generic hero, a far cry from the yokel he's supposed to be portraying, but purely vocally a miracle.

EJ

Yes, but the Dane Schiotz is singing music written for a man, not a boy. Or even a Catstrate.

In those days the the castrato roles were assumed by women, and often they did rather well, in spite of the conflicted gender role that implied!

Why does loud equate to impressive in so much tenor singing?

Heddle Nash was one of the very greatest of tenors  but he never actually sang loud at all. Elgar complimented him as being "good!" This was an extra-ordinary eespecially  from Elgar, who regarded tenors as a disease, rather than a type of musician!

ATB from George

Mind, all this was before The Three Tenors act pretty much destroyed any legacy Carreras had left, and made Pavarotti more known for tax evasion and the white hanky than for serious singing. Domingo's rep pretty much survived, and he was the only one to continue to do great things on a large scale.

EJ

Different worlds, George. Axel was a Lieder singer, more similar to Wunderlich and, more recently, Bostridge. They probably could do Donizetti although would hardly impress - not even think about Verdi; likewise Pavarotti never made a splash with Schubert or Handel.

Want loud? Here's Mario del Monaco and Ettore Bastianini, the two biggest guns from the last century. It's not just loud; it's gold. The duet is from Verdi's La Forza del Destino.

EJ

But Loud is just loud, and Heroic is sensitive to human failure.

Both Wagner and Verdi required more than is reasonable.

Handel accompanied great singing with an appropriately scaled orchestration as did Mozart, and perhaps surprisingly Beethoven.

Loud is crude Wattage, and sensitive is quality.

Sensitive is even more heroic than just plain loud!

IMO, of course, and Italians love loud, so I must be a northern European!

ATB from George

Bjorling any day. Strange but I don't rate Carreras at all. 

EJ and George

Some great links. To be honest I'm not a fan of opera, I have quite a few opera box sets but never managed to listen to any of them to the end. Although, I recently picked up the box set of Madam Butterfly with Victoria Angeles and Jussi Bjorling, which I will be listening too.

As far as I'm concerned, recommendations of great songs/performances is very useful.