Great Historical Singers (Tancredi Pasero)

Tancredi Pasero was a bass who was a contemporary of the better known Ezio Pinza.  Pasero had one of the greatest bass voices of all time.  His bass was a true basso-cantante, which means singing bass in English.  A singing bass is a higher bass voice than a basso-profondo, which is a deep bass.  Pasero had a very solid top voice for a bass.  He even recorded Count Almaviva's aria "Vedro mentrio sospiro" from "Le Nozze di Figaro" complete with a solid f sharp at the end.  Any low male voice who haw studied that aria knows that the high f sharp at the end is an especially tough one.  This is especially true for a bass.  None the less, Pasero's timbre was clearly that of a bass.  Pasero's timbre was darker than Ezio Pinza's.  However they sang very similar repertoire, and both had fast vibratos in their younger years.  A successor to Pasero was Cesare Siepi, who had a similarly dark timbre, and an excellent upper range for a bass.  Pasero spent a good portion of his career singing at La Scala in Milan.  He did, however sing T the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.  As a matter of fact, he sang in a broadcast of "Don Giovanni" as Leporello with Ezio Pinza as Don Giovanni.  It is quite unfortunate that no recording survives of that broadcast.  Be that as it may, Pasero left a strong legacy of recordings.  One of his greatest is in the famous 1941 recording of "La Forza del Destino" in the role of Padre Guardano.  Pasero's singing in that recording is hard to top.  He also recorded many arias, and other operas such as "Aida", Un Ballo in Maschera",  and "Norma".  He even left some video footage.  He is featured in the video "Six Great Basses" singing the aria "La Calunia" from "Il Barbiere di Sivglia." Despite the poor sound quality one can hear the tremendous cut his voice had.  If I had to recommend one recording of Pasero, I would go with the recording of "La Forza del Destino" which I mentioned above.  This recording also features the great tenor Masini, and Verdi baritone de force Carlo Tagliabue.  Pasero's singing in this recording demonstrates his art at its finest.    Pasero's singing career lasted from 1917-1950.  He sang in many of the world's most famous opera houses.  After he ended his singing career, he devoted the rest of his life to teaching.  He died in 1983 at the age of 90.