Well, he had much, much more to say in his American Enterprise Institute 2009 Irving Kristol lecture, but this comment from his introductory remarks is too sweet to pass up:
…I am so naïve about economics that I continue to think that we have a financial meltdown because the federal government, in its infinite wisdom, has for the last two administrations aggressively pushed policies that made it possible for clever people to get rich by lending money to people who were unlikely to pay it back.
Oh! *ROFL* (and hurting while I do… ) That’s rich.
Thanks for your great comment at The Pink Flamingo. I’m going to check out our John McCormick suggestion and use it quite soon.
I’m such a Placi fan – but you don’t know how it thrills me to get a comment about Opera!
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
The best recordings of John McCormack I have are remastered, because the technology in his day–early 20th century–just KILLED lower and higher freqs. It’s almost like listening to a conversation over tin can and string “telephones”. Still, his vocal quality and clear vowels and consonants place him in my personal top three tenors (number one slot firmly held by Placido Domingo). Baritones: only one–Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. so far head and shoulders above other baritone voices it’s just ridiculous (although there are some below his stratospheric status who have wonderful voices). Basses… a few, but none alive today really have the glowing quality I appreciate. Feodor Chaliapin was a shining star of a bass, and I really enjoyed some of the “popular” work Ravenscroft did (confession: I only really began listening to his stuff after doing a gig with his usual production engineer one time–about 40 years ago. Ah, those were the days, eh? *heh*).
Of course, this has nothing to do with the post above, but so? 🙂
Giorgio Tozzi was an excellent Bass don’t you think? (-;
Yes, David that was an excellent snippet, and an even better lecture. Good read? Indeed.
Tozzi, of course, though to my ear his voice is more of a bass-baritone and more in Nelson Eddy’s class (though with better classical training): a pleasing sound, just not the sounding (kinda imaging a whale sounding there *heh*) bass of a Chaliapin. But mentioning Tozzi brings to mind another fav tenor–not in my top five, but certainly in my top ten: Jan Peerce. I seem to recall a duet or twain featuring Peerce and Tozzi. Maybe that’s what’s influenced my hearing of Tozzi as a bass-baritone, you think? And going down that memory lane, I find Robert Merrill, a true baritone. Decent instrument, though nowhere near Fischer-Dieskau. But heck, the 20th century was FULL of decent vocalists–including Nelson Eddy and many, many others who weren’t “stars” in classical music genres–all of whom make almost all of the manufactured sounds that are popular in contemporary popular crap sound like the nearly tone-deaf whining puppies they are.
BTW, I may have been put off his voice by the poor recording technology available in his day (although that’s not affected my appreciation of John McCormack’s voice), but Enrico Caruso’s voice always grates in my ears. Purely a personal affliction, I’m sure.