Round 3: Nabucco- Vieni, o Levita: Siepi and Ghiurov

Oh god just in the first few passages of Siepi it gave me goosebumps. Lord......what a magnificent sound, and the flawless legato phrasing as it goes on is exquisitely beautiful, silken smooth and pouring out in breathtaking arcs over and over and over again throughout the entire range, geezus we have no basses like this in decades, god I miss him. He's technically perfect in bel canto technique, the breath support steady as a rock, this man must have had lungs like an ox. Not a single hint of ingolata, intubata, nasality. I hear literally no deficits here. Maestro Erede's conducting is perfectly supportive to great singing and great artistry in music altogether. He keeps the flow going beautifully without breaking that critical Verdi rhythmic pulse and underpins Siepi wonderfully in the arcs of the phrases, so delicate, so masterful.

Ghiaurov is a lesser instrument with lesser technique and lesser phrasing, yet a very respectable showing. Muti is less successful in his orchestra management, somewhat affected, it seems to draw attention to this or that but ends up being much less cohesive as a whole than Erede here. Ghiaurov doesn't maintain his breath as well and the legato phrasing is good, but definitely not as consistent as Siepi and to my ear he reaches a bit both on the bottom and the top which Siepi never does. His voice is wooly in comparison to Siepi and I personally prefer it much less.

At least as heard here, Siepi is notably superior to Ghiaurov in native vocal endowment. I was initially impressed, but as the aria proceeded I was lulled into a semi-torpor by the slow tempo and the unvarying darkness, weight and smoothness of Siepi's voice. I never did find Siepi a very interesting artist, and so it is here. I was hoping that Ghiaurov would find some way to wake me up. Well, he did sound a bit more emphatic or fervent in spots. But when these estimable gents had finished I turned to the first singer I ever heard in this aria, Ezio Pinza. It was a late recording, and his voice had lost a little of its ease and lustre, but he took the piece at a tempo that that shaved a whole minute off it, much to its benefit.

Of these, I'll have to give sheer voice its due despite the absence of anything interesting happening as that voice pours out its richness for five long minutes. I suppose Verdi is partly to blame, but at least with Pinza it ends before the first yawn.

EDIT: Returning to Rossi-Lemeni and Pasero in the first round of this contest, I find my estimate of the aria slightly raised by both of them, but especially by Rossi-Lemeni. Those two are tied, so it'll be interesting to see who we get in the finals.