BELCANTO - THE TENORS OF THE 78 ERA, PART 1 (PAL)

ENRICO CARUSO
BENIAMINO GIGLI
TITO SCHIPA
RICHARD TAUBER
LEO SLEZAK
JOSEPH SCHMIDT

Cat no.: DV-DOCBEL1

Picture Format: 4:3 Full Screen
Sound Format: Dolby Digital 2.0
Running Time: 180 mins
Region Code: PAL All
Booklet Languages: GB, F, D
Recording Date: Various

Their names are synonymous with the art of singing and they are among the first tenors in history, whose voices we can still enjoy today. Caruso, Gigli, Schipa, Tauber, Slezak and Joseph Schmidt are the outstanding singers of the early era of recording. It is the time of the old shellac records and the gramophone when the proliferation of recorded voices opened up new audiences for opera and operatic singing. The first part of the documentary film series Belcanto features six half-hour essays of the "arch tenors" whose influence can still be detected in today's singing.

Jan Schmidt-Garre, German director and opera specialist has embarked on a journey back in time to portray these early "superstars". Old film, audio recordings, friends and family of the singers have been drawn upon to provide fans with lively, informative and entertaining thirty-minute features on each singer.

The sound documents span over the full singing career of the tenors and cover the whole variety of genres they sang - from folk music to operatic arias. Some of the musical examples can be heard from several tenors, which allows comparing singing style and interpretation. Especially the aria "O Paradiso" from Meyerbeer's L'Africaine can be heard from almost every tenor in the series. The first part also includes works by Bizet, Donizetti, Flotow, Halévy, Lehár, Leoncavallo, Massenet, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Rossini, Schubert, Tosti and Verdi.

The first part of this documentary series now made available by TDK on DVD features the Italian and German star tenors of the time. The second part (also to be released by TDK) will concentrate on the tenors of the first half of the 20th century, mostly from Northern Europe.