Apollo Granforte sings Largo al factotum LIVE, 1932. Insanely powerful Italian baritone!

This is the only known film footage of the one of the very GREATEST Italian baritones Apollo Granforte, here in the ultra difficult aria from Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia (Barber of Seville). It is extremely rare footage and has probably rarely, if ever, been seen by anyone outside of Australia, where it was filmed in 1932. The audio of the transfer was pitched a half-tone too high. Since no baritone in his right mind would transpose the Largo *UP* on purpose, I have re-pitched the audio to its true key. As a result, Granforte’s voice takes on it the more sonorous quality that we know from his studio recordings. #Baritones #Opera #BelCanto ..................................... Yes, the singing is... extra. Trrill™ is about florid passages, improvisatory underpinnings, staccato’d intuitions, and virtuosities even at their most ridiculous. But it’s also about the biggest, boldest form of vocal emission, with aural examples of basically correct singing, correct impostazione—chiaroscuro, vowel clarity, firm and centered pitch, correct vibrato action, absence of throatiness or thickness, sounds free from constriction and from the acoustic noise that accompanies it—with occasional video examples that demonstrate what the body, face, mouth, jaw, and tongue look like when used with correct impostazione—the vocal emission of the one and only Italian school. Caveat: I’m biased in favor of #baritones and baritone literature, but if you want to learn about and listen to all the greatest singers in the old-school tradition, explore this spreadsheet (voice parts are separated by tabs):