Richard Tucker - Celeste Aida (Studio, now in stereo sound) video free download


3,220
Duration: 04:11
Uploaded: 2008/05/26

Been uploaded earlier, but now it's in stereo sound.

Richard Tucker (1913-1975) Born in Brooklyn, New York as Ruvn Ticker, Tucker was a Jewish American tenor. Tucker married the sister of tenor Jan Peerce, Sarah Perelmuth, who always attended Tucker's performances. Peerce and Tucker were famously rivals of each other.

Here Tucker sings a splendid rendition 'Celeste Aida' from Aida in a studio recording.

Note: 'Though his numerous recordings clearly reveal a great voice, they do not reproduce the visceral impact his voice had when heard live in the house. He was the opposite of his contemporary Jussi Björling. Björling sounds better on records than he did in performance -- his voice was not as big as seems on his recordings. Tucker was best experienced in person.' - grandi-tenori.com

In other words, there is no recording that does justice to the true brilliance of this man's voice. Never heard him live myself, he died before I was born, but I know a handful of people in New York who've frequented the Met for decades, and after hearing numerous great tenors through the years, they still insist Tucker was the greatest tenor of all time.

Thanks SheHadManHands for teaching me how to upload audio in stereo sound.

Comments

6 years ago

John Falstaff

Richard Tucker voice here in this record is much more opulent than in 1949 recording under Toscanini. I would even say that some helden traits are noticeable. Had he ever attempted to sing Wagnerian roles, I do not know. He could be a fine Siegfried, I think. Not only Italian repertoire.

7 years ago

sugarbist

I think Tucker is in top form. The better tenors were always great or better.

7 years ago

SHICOFF1

Gay tenor made a good comment here  years ago below  and actually as fine as this Studio rec. is for a younger Tucker ( in 195O) in his mid. 3O's (THE REC. DATE IS LISTED IN THE DRAKE BIOGRAPHY book  Richard Tucker) later he re- recorded it in Stereo and it is great, but this one is just a year after the 1949 Toscanini TV brdcst  he  did  Complete of the opera on NBC TV, this one uses the same   ending used by Toscanini and suggested by Verdi in the score, given to Tucker by Toscanini as a loan while he studied the score for the TV performance.. Tucker's complete studio recording in 1955 of the role with CALLAS was sung with the conventional ending of the aria and so where all later rec. of the aria, he made a few great ones after this,   This was his first studio Rec. of it after the live 1949 one on TV with Toscanini. That    Complete Aida opera performance with Tucker  is on you tube in HD sound,   one of two posts of the opera complete in 1949.

7 years ago

SHICOFF1

His early Studio Rec. of it in 195O, the only studio one of several with the Toscanini ending as he sang it live in the 1949 TV Brdcst complete and on you tube also. See my comment below this one about the original  LP this is from.

7 years ago

ursmue1937

1973 very good recording technique. Tucker sounds here as well as live, no better no worse.

10 years ago

Abraham Hoschander

I heard a story that Tucker had once remarked that 'good I was , maybe even great, but {Cantor} Moshe Koussevitzky I will never be.'

12 years ago

thlacy

The first opera ever I saw was Richard Tucker in Aida in Houston, Texas in 1966 or 1967.

13 years ago

gaytenor

@SHICOFF1 All too often the anti-Tucker faithful forget that there is a wealth of material that attests to Tucker's greatness as a singer. Its almost like Tucker as the years passed and the voice got larger and larger should have asked the audience "Am I too loud, if so I'm sorry." I wish these idiots would get a life and understand that the opera house is not their living room. In the opera house you need to project not croon.

13 years ago

SHICOFF1

Well he would have been 13 anyhow, too young to remember much. I heard Jussi at 18 and really only the La Donna is fresh for me now 52 years later and I have a very good memory. He had little impact on an 18 year old then, now would be different. i don't buy all i read anyhow.

13 years ago

SHICOFF1

TUCKER NEVER SANG BALLO IN LONDON, ONLY TOSCA. He did sing also Tosca in Vien and got 22 curt. calls

13 years ago

gaytenor

I have been told that a very great tenor known for biting wit once remarked that "Carlo Bergonzi should sing Radames like I should do a high wire act." My source was a friend of the tenor in question, not Tucker by the way, and he provided the witty remark to me in private correspondence.

13 years ago

gaytenor

@iduefoscari Never sang Ballo in London! Tucker sang Tosca in 58 and La Juive in 1973. I have no idea what Verret could have learned from Bergonzi since she was a formally trained mezzo-soprano with very elevated musical taste. To my mind she would have wanted to consult Jan Peerce, Jussi Bjorling, or perhaps Nicolai Gedda all of whom were paragons of musicianship. Verret sang Mozart and Mahler in her recitals and then finished with folk music and operatic arias. Her technique was exceptional.

13 years ago

gaytenor

@SHICOFF1 If iduefoscari heard Tucker in Ballo it must have been a command performance for him alone since there is no record of said performance. As to Bergonzi as Chenier I have some live recordings that really illustrate an over parted tenor up against it. There is no way with his very carefully scaled top that he could have made a real impact even in a telephone booth.

13 years ago

SHICOFF1

@iduefoscari I think you may mean Tosca in 58 at Covent garden? I never heard of Tucker singing Ballo in London, if so I would love to get a recording of it. I have sat up in the upper Balcony in the nose bleed area of the huge Chicago house and at the big met house, both much bigger houses than Covent Garden and been thrilled by Tucker's big voice that bounced off the back wall when he opened up on top. Chicago seats close to 3,600 and the Met is Slightly larger.

13 years ago

iduefoscari

@gaytenor I saw Richard Tucker in "Un Ballo" at Convent Garden in 1958 when I was a young teenager. I was lucky enough to sit in the stalls near the front and of course with Tuckers's powerfull voice it was a thrilling experience.BUT because I was lucky enough to be so close to the "action" I found Carlo Bergionzi something else.I once went to see a concert performance of "Chenier" and was sitting next to Shirley Verret. She told me that she still wanted to learn from Bergonzi.

13 years ago

SHICOFF1

Rt sang Mozart early, Flute and even the finicky Jackson in his book complimented him in Flute and Cosi. All live at the met. Fleder came in 1951 but in the 40's he also sang in Boris and in the Chicago opera theater, brdcst on WGN radio he sang in Student Prince, Gilbert and Sullivan, Eileen and even Otello and many more operetta's, all short versions for timing and in English. Every week it was brdcst. from downtown Chicago. He sang with Chicago even before the Met in 1944 and later.

13 years ago

SHICOFF1

@gaytenor was who i meant to address below.

13 years ago

SHICOFF1

@germanoperasinger You have made some very good points and in fact as Manrico Tucker also pulled off the trill better then Bergonzi in ah si ben mio. His Cadenza was better also but true he did not have the diminuendo but at times Domingo, Corelli and Bergonzi cracked doing it, for that Di Stefano was champion. Peerce told me nobody could do it as well. Bjorling managed it but a far as trills only once and that was early as Manrico live. Caruso did not really diminuendo either.

13 years ago

gaytenor

@iduefoscari Did you ever hear Tucker in the flesh? Tucker's voice, per-se could sing any and all ornaments of the vocal art try his 'The Art of Bel Canto" where trills, remarkable runs, and a ravishingly beautiful middle voice demonstrate his greatness as a singer. Tucker was a great singer and one frankly grows weary of the constant attention paid to the SIZE of Tucker's voice. Read the reviews from the Met they praised his vocal beauty and technique. I heard him in both recital and opera.

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