Classicalite's Five Best: Opera Singers in Musicals

Ever since always, opera singers have enjoyed either crooning their way through a musical theater number, or bending it to their own classical style.

Some have been better than others (mentioning no names).

But when it succeeds, and you get those glorious, God-kissed voices in those stage pieces which so often have singing-actors rather than acting-singers, the results can be unforgettable.

Here, then, are Classicalite's five best opera singers in musicals...

Lawrence Tibbett in Gershwin's Porgy

I know, he's not a bass, but something about this great American baritone's cavalier style suits Porgy's devil-may-care song of absolute joy.

Buy it here.

Giorgio Tozzi sings South Pacific

Again, I know--the famous bass who created the role of Emile in this Rodgers and Hammerstein masterpiece was Ezio Pinza. But I've always preferred Pinza's Metropolitan Opera rival, Giorgio Tozzi, on the movie soundtrack. Tozzi's sovereign tones are more romantic, more graceful than Pinza's. Hear it for yourself and decide.

Purchase this one here.

Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras in Bernstein's West Side Story

This is ridiculous, yet magnificent. The casting for Leonard Bernstein's recording of his own greatest musical was totally topsy-turvy. A story that depends on having a Hispanic girl falling for an all-American boy, and Bernstein cast an Anglophone soprano and a Spanish tenor! Rumor, in fact, has it that Bernstein wanted the American Jerry Hadley but, in his cups one night, mistakenly called for the sort-of-similar-sounding José Carreras (well, they both begin with "j"). Nevertheless, the pair produce some of the most beautiful singing on any musical theater album--just listen to them in "One Hand, One Heart." Melting.

Once more, you can buy it here.

Josephine Barstow and Richard Van Allan doing Oliver!

Right, right, who? Though they had international careers, I know that neither this soprano nor the bass might be best known to readers in, say, the U.S. But both were great performers (Barstow of course is still with us, though Van Allan sadly passed away a few years ago), and both have character to spare as Nancy and Bill Sikes, respectively, in the hugely enjoyable TER recording of Lionel Bart's Oliver!

Get it here.

Bryn Terfel sings Something Wonderful

The (then) shaggy-haired Welsh bass-baritone made this classic album in 1996. I think it's a classic, anyway, with Terfel modulating his rich, beefy tone with a Lieder-like care for words and shading. Best track? A knock-'em-dead "Soliloquy" from Carousel.

Buy Bryn here.