Let's share interesting videos found on Youtube (and other similar services). ;D
Montserrat Caballe sings Casta Diva (Bolshoi 1974)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwwcXssv4FE
Gundula Janowitz sings Ach, ich fühl's from Die Zauberflöte
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aFZ8xz-3gg
Diana Damrau as Queen of the Night
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuKxL4LOqc#
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuKxL4LOqc
I am particularily fond of Janowitz, there are a few clips of her work, some Bach for instance under Richter. Her Mozart exerpts are very fine.
Here she is making an unexpectedly strong impression as Fidelio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzpA19grheI
Mike
Speaking of Fidelio, here's Mattila as Leonora:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJPcf-v76NU :)
Les Troyens Act 1 Finale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izWp6XpNVGQ
Thanks for that, never can get enough of this opera.
Mike
I find the findings on this thread very enjoyable. Keep them coming!
Maciek
Tannhauser finale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi_iEfseCQA
I am breaking rules a little, not opera. Here is a rousing start to anyone's morning. The choir is a bit under nourished, but their embarrassment is covered by film of the Mexican forces invading their own country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck5oZgIYDjY
I think I read that the piece was written literally for a march and performed through the streets of Paris.
Mike
A bevy of dying Isoldes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6L0VC5dyy0&mode=related&search=
Right now looking and listening to a bonde wigged Caballé giving it a (rather good) shot. The semi-staged version with Ramon Vinay and Martha Mödl is astounding (Bernstein conducts). Mödl, as famous for her acting as for her voice, here simply stands up and delivers the (awesome) goods. Just before, Vinay pretty much chews up the scenery as he writhes and expires. But still, the voice is of a size one doesn't hear nowadays.
Quote from: Siedler on April 09, 2007, 01:50:14 PM
Diana Damrau[/b] as Queen of the Night
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuKxL4LOqc#
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuKxL4LOqc
I was searching up youtube for the
Queen of the Night aria for a student and was pleasantly surprised by Natalie Dessay, more than just a songbird here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUEbgNS15dw&mode=related&search=
Lucia Popp does it well too, only sound but with nice pictures of her
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ufeyarJxNQ
These obviously are a hard act to follow, so it's difficult to listen to Damrau's singing around the pitches and not on them. "The Great" Luciana Serra appears on the side menu, but I'd really pass and take the main course instead.
Now this was a nice find as well:
Crespin singing Tosca in the early 60's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9QgWdAm5fA
And hit the jackpot with:
Renata Tebaldi and Jussi Bjoerling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZJqR_8uE9s
Some comic relief with Corelli belting it out 1973 in Tokyo with Tebaldi...
She's TRYING to be the sweet Mimi, but under such a deluge...
The last punctured and truncated high C would be enough for me to ask for my money back...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZJqR_8uE9s
One can really believe the declarations of love between Jussi and Anna-Lisa Bjorling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48lpBNKBRMU&mode=related&search=
This was one of Caruso's faves but Bjoerling wears the mantle like it was made for him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46vuwLxRU7I&mode=related&search=
"La Mattinata" belongs with the "California Poppy" and " Dragonfly" danced by Anna Pavlova. I wonder if such a world with such a sensibility of innocence and delicacy will ever return...
"Vestii anche tu la vesta bianca
E schuidi l'uscio del tuo cantor
Nov'e tu sei la luce manca
Dov'e tu sei parla d'amor."ZB
Sorry, but the Crespin clip confirms right from the first note that she is singing flat and often thereafter. Swooning about and swimming up to notes, I think it is a fairly awful performance. Mind you, this piece seems to be a difficult one for many singers.
Bjorling is always such a pleasure to encounter.
Mike
Quote from: knight on May 09, 2007, 01:38:59 AM
Sorry, but the Crespin clip confirms right from the first note that she is singing flat and often thereafter. Swooning about and swimming up to notes, I think it is a fairly awful performance. Mind you, this piece seems to be a difficult one for many singers.
Especially if one happens to be a mezzo...
ZB
I just listened to Crespin singing Tosca again, thinking maybe I missed something.
I hear her first and foremost as a mezzo, not expecting a soprano sound.
She doesn't appear flat to me, only with the overtones of a lower voice type.
ZB
This is obviously where we literally hear the voice differently. Though to my ears she is not consistently flat, but often is. If my ears are at fault, I wonder why only some of the time. She sang Seglinde and Brunhilde also Marchalin. I thought she was supposed to be a soprano?
http://www.nycoperafanatic.com/crespin/regine.html
This site lists tracks and the arias are almost all soprano roles. Mind you, I don't hear her as a soprano frankly. Anyway, I won't keep going on about her. I am just a bit disappointed no one has been able to show me the error of my ways.
Mike
Crespin and Callas were both sopranos that late in their carreer descended into the mezzo range when they didn't command the highest notes any more. More often than not that was in concert (opera performances were severely curtailed in both cases). Carmen is a case in point - at least on records (Callas never sang it on stage). In her Paris recital, fully half of the arias Callas sings are for mezzo. I don't know if there were any transpositions (soprano pieces taken down or mezzo ones taken up) ?
In the german repertoire, the same thing happened with Varnay, Mödl and Rysanek, although these ladies seamlessly switched ranges while retaining a full operatic schedule carrying them well into their 'senior' years :D. Despite the reputedly harsh demands of Strauss and Wagner on the soprano voice, it didn't seem to have adverse effects on their voices!
Re: Diana Damrau's Queen of the Night. I didn't notice pitch vagaries so much as being enthralled by her rivetingly dramatic presence. Woe to her disobedient daughter! :o
Quote from: knight on May 10, 2007, 02:11:21 AM
This is obviously where we literally hear the voice differently. Though to my ears she is not consistently flat, but often is. If my ears are at fault, I wonder why only some of the time. She sang Seglinde and Brunhilde also Marchalin. I thought she was supposed to be a soprano?
http://www.nycoperafanatic.com/crespin/regine.html
This site lists tracks and the arias are almost all soprano roles. Mind you, I don't hear her as a soprano frankly. Anyway, I won't keep going on about her. I am just a bit disappointed no one has been able to show me the error of my ways.
Mike
Honestly, I haven't heard enough of Crespin to make any kind of judgement. My first impressions of her were from "Les Histoires Naturelles" by Ravel which for me placed her voice squarely in the mezzo camp. It could be she finally came to terms with what she was, as it fits her like a glove.
She would not be the first mezzo to try to cross into dramatic soprano territory and maybe that is where the trouble ultimately came from. While typing I'm listening to the Habanera and yes, she does flatten in the most embarrassing places like at the end of the first verse where she is nowhere near the orchestra. Now, it's the
Ave Maria. Yikes, maybe I should quit while I'm ahead and spare the unkind comments...
As much as Callas drew out the dramatic spirit of Carmen, it was not a comfortable fit. The exceptions prove the rule in both cases. Callas was not a mezzo and Crespin was/is not a soprano.
ZB
Here's a recent one (July), from Teatro del Liceo (Barcelona):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5tEuRaxJIw
Dessay sings Gavotte from Massenet's Manon,
too bad I was unfortunate and couldn't get tickets :(
Quote from: knight on May 09, 2007, 01:38:59 AM
Sorry, but the Crespin clip confirms right from the first note that she is singing flat and often thereafter. Swooning about and swimming up to notes, I think it is a fairly awful performance. Mind you, this piece seems to be a difficult one for many singers.
Mike
I didn't feel Crespin was singing flat, Mike, but I did think the singing was altogether too civilised, sophisticated and
soignee. It tells us nothing of Tosca's pain and plight at this stage of the opera. compare it to
Callas, in 1958
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiOIi1nUsM0 (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiOIi1nUsM0)
or even
Sylvia Sass here http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8PpBqbVQ5U (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8PpBqbVQ5U). Admittedly the climax goes a little awry, and the singing is nowhere near as accomplished as Crespin's, but she does bring out more of the character's angst and self pity.
Then there's
Angela Gheorghiu http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_OIExoUb8jk (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_OIExoUb8jk). Intonation here is sometimes suspect, but the dramatic instinct of the performance is not.
QuoteDiana Damrau as Queen of the Night
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuKxL4LOqc#
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuKxL4LOqc
This chick is amazing! Soo evviiilllll!
Elina Garanca & Anna Netrebko sing The Flower Duet from Delibes Lakmé
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3z8zicW1g
Quote from: Siedler on August 12, 2007, 09:36:47 AM
Elina Garanca & Anna Netrebko sing The Flower Duet from Delibes Lakmé
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3z8zicW1g
Amazing! How did you ever find this one?