Some days you don't need to go dredging the depths of the internet to find something relevant to write about or discuss. Some days all you need is 1-minute 26-second mp3 to revive your overriding desire to share with other people the strangest, most exhilirating, most difficult and variable artform the human race has yet conjured—opera.

It's easy to get excited about sopranos' Violettas and Toscas or tenors' Radamèses and Rodolfos, but what about baritones? There's a good handful, if you look in the right place: Bastianini's "Nemico della patria" or Cornell MacNeil's rise to the high A-flat at the end of "Oh de' verd'anni miei," but here's something that might top them all in terms of return on a very risky investment. A live Attila [Verdi], presumably from 1975 at La Scala. Piero Cappuccilli, as Ezio, interpolates a stunning high B-flat at the end of his cabaletta. Sherrill Milnes does a similar thing on an RCA recording, but things like this are always better live for one fairly distinct reason: you get to hear people go nuts for it. You wonder why we bemoan a decline in singing nowadays? Take a listen and prepare to die.


Download Piero Cappuccilli -È gettata la mia sorte.
Zipped MP3 [48 kbps] | 497 KB

È gettata la mia sorte,
Pronto sono ad ogni guerra;
S'io cadrò da forte,
E il mio nome resterà.
Non vedrò l'amata terra
Svenir lenta e farsi a brano…
Sopra l'ultimo romano tutta Italia piangerà.

Many, many thanks to Charlie Handelman for the sample.