Today is not the day to set out Evan's Grand Theory of Musical Interpretation, just to say that by the 1930s, opera had taken independent root in cultures non-native to itself, and evolved into a very different shape from its countries of origin where the stated interpretive wishes and stylistic norms of Verdi and Wagner were more closely honored. It is only when the music takes root elsewhere and is subject to these enormous changes that we find out if the music is truly classical, and can hold the same or greater value in a culture different from the one which birthed it. Here, however scratchy the sound, is a Verdi of far greater abandon than anything it must have ever experienced in Italy - an abandon only possible because during World War II, the greatest singers in the world congregated for a brief glorious moment in New York. Is it great music or drama? Not really. But then again, I'm not convinced much by Verdi is great music or drama either... Only Toscanini can convince me that that's what Verdi is. But as far as cheap thrills go, this is such spectacular opera, the hard rock of the 1870s, and the reason for hundreds of years even before Verdi that people listened with such exalted fascination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWOvo88etHo
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