Your favourite aria

[val]

"D'amour l'ardente flame", from Berlioz "Damnation de Faust". For a soprano or a mezzo.

Also the great aria of Russalka in the first act of Dvorak's opera.

And, although it is not, in its structure, a real aria, "Mild und Leise", the last monologue of Isolde in the end of the opera.

[knight66]

So many great Berlioz set pieces!

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

"D'amour l'ardente flame", from Berlioz "Damnation de Faust". For a soprano or a mezzo.

How could I forget that aria? One of the most beautiful ever written.

[Mark]

Does it have to be an aria, correctly defined? If yes, then it's impossible for me to answer: I still have so much opera to explore. If no, then I'll go for one of Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne - 'La Delaissado', as sung by mezzo-soprano, Frederica von Stade.

[Brian]

I am astonished to be the first person to mention Che gelida manina! Check out Jaime Aragall on YouTube (note: the aria actually starts at about 1:15).

[CaroNome]

My favorite aria... how much time do we have? 

Nessun Dorma (got me hooked on opera!)
Marietta's Lied (Die Tote Stadt)
Salut, demeure chaste e pure (Faust)
Dove Sono and Porgi Amor (Le Nozze di Figaro)
Juliette's Waltz "Je veux vivre" (Romeo et Juiliette)
Ombra mai fu (Xerxes)
Song to the Moon (Rusalka)
A te, o cara and Vien diletto in ciel (I Puritani)
Tatyana's Letter Scene  (Eugene Onegin)
Un di all'azzurro (Andrea Chenier)
Fammi Combattere (Orlando) a rarely heard but spectacular aria!!!!!

~Pace e Gioia~
caronome

[Guido]

A clichéed choice perhaps but: Must the Winter come so soon, from Vanessa by Barber. Actually there are many fantastic arias in that.

[knight66]

A clichéed choice perhaps but: Must the Winter come so soon, from Vanessa by Barber. Actually there are many fantastic arias in that.

clichéed??

Mike

[Guido]

Well thats the only aria that most people even vaguely know by Barber... nothing as unusual as GMGers tend to come up with!

[Brian]

The Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 certainly makes my list, by the way.

[jochanaan]

Among many others, I have to mention Lensky's Act II song (I cannot think of its name) from Eugene Onegin; "Embroidery in childhood," Ellen's song from Britten's Peter Grimes; and "The Black Swan" from Menotti's The Medium.  Oh, and Mozart's tired, overworked "Dove sono" can still raise a lump in my throat, as can "Dido's Lament."

[Lady Chatterley]

Oh, and Mozart's tired, overworked "Dove sono" can still raise a lump in my throat, as can "Dido's Lament."

Hey,Dido's Lament ? Isn't that a tune by(gasp) Henry Purcell?

[Salome]

Casta Diva (Bellini - 'Norma')
Sublime !

[knight66]

Among many others, I have to mention Lensky's Act II song (I cannot think of its name) from Eugene Onegin; "Embroidery in childhood," Ellen's song from Britten's Peter Grimes; and "The Black Swan" from Menotti's The Medium.  Oh, and Mozart's tired, overworked "Dove sono" can still raise a lump in my throat, as can "Dido's Lament."

I don't know the Menotti, but for sure the others are all excellent. Although these arias work when heard in isolation, they work best in context. The Lensky aria has the duel right after it, he dies. The entire scene is so tightly written and the aria becomes an elegy. It is a beautiful haunting aria. One of my favourite versions, it ought not to be because it is in German, is sung by Fritz Wunderlich, he has exactly the right combination of sweetness, strength and plangency.

Heather Harper has exactly the right voice for Ellen, the disappointment and distress comes through clearly. A woman who has to face that her hopes are dashed. It is a sort of fulcrum in the opera, if even Ellen is ready to give up on Grimes, then his isolation and indeed his fate is sealed.

For the Purcell, I know of no recording that comes close to Janet Baker's first recording on Decca. here, the sorrow, the longing is tenderly evident and in that particular recording the chorus is exquisite and fades out unforgettably at the end.

For all of these, get a full performance!

Mike

[bhodges]

The Lensky aria has the duel right after it, he dies. The entire scene is so tightly written and the aria becomes an elegy. It is a beautiful haunting aria. One of my favourite versions, it ought not to be because it is in German, is sung by Fritz Wunderlich, he has exactly the right combination of sweetness, strength and plangency.

Wow, I was just thinking I need to hear some other versions of this aria, and had no idea Wunderlich had recorded it.  (Having just become acquainted with his work in the last year or so.)  So thanks for that mention!

--Bruce

[marvinbrown]

  Favorite aria:

   The Prize Song from Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg - gives me goosebumps every time I hear it  0:).       


  marvin

 

[Tsaraslondon]

I don't know the Menotti, but for sure the others are all excellent. Although these arias work when heard in isolation, they work best in context. The Lensky aria has the duel right after it, he dies. The entire scene is so tightly written and the aria becomes an elegy. It is a beautiful haunting aria. One of my favourite versions, it ought not to be because it is in German, is sung by Fritz Wunderlich, he has exactly the right combination of sweetness, strength and plangency.

Heather Harper has exactly the right voice for Ellen, the disappointment and distress comes through clearly. A woman who has to face that her hopes are dashed. It is a sort of fulcrum in the opera, if even Ellen is ready to give up on Grimes, then his isolation and indeed his fate is sealed.

For the Purcell, I know of no recording that comes close to Janet Baker's first recording on Decca. here, the sorrow, the longing is tenderly evident and in that particular recording the chorus is exquisite and fades out unforgettably at the end.

For all of these, get a full performance!

Mike

As so often, Mike, your thoughts accord exactly with my own. The Lensky aria, though beautiful on its own, works so well in context, in what is one of the most subtle and succinct scenes in all opera. After the aria, there is a brief, but marvelously effective duet for Lensky and Onegin, before Onegin shoots Lensky. The scene ends with the bleak understatement of Onegin's question 'Is he dead' followed by the matter of fact response 'he's dead' and a mournful reminder of the aria to close the scene. I also love the Wunderlich, but, for a superb version in Russian, it's worth seeking out an early Gedda recital, recorded in 1954, when his voice was at its honeyed best. Most of it is available on EMI's Great Moments of Nicolai Gedda.

[knight66]

TL, Thanks for the heads up on the Gedda. He was such a superb singer, yet I rarely think to myself...I must get that Gedda disc out and give it a spin. I wonder why? He lacked nothing.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

TL, Thanks for the heads up on the Gedda. He was such a superb singer, yet I rarely think to myself...I must get that Gedda disc out and give it a spin. I wonder why? He lacked nothing.

Mike

I actually have a number of Gedda discs, to which I regularly turn. Apart from the wonderful operetta sets he recorded with Schwarzkopf (particularly his Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, his Camille in Die lustige Witwe and his Sou-Chong in Das Land des Lacehelns), his much underrated Pinkerton on the Callas Madama Butterfyl and his Don Jose on both the De los Angeles and Callas Carmens, I often listen to the follwoing arias and songs.

Rachmaninov's How Fair this Spot (that perfectly placed piano top B), and Spring Waters (the earlier recordings with Gerald Moore)
Richard Strauss's Befreit and Standchen
A magical and honeyed performance of Magische Tone from Goldmarck's Die Konigin von Saba.
A beautiful rendering of the lullaby from La Muette de Portici - Du pauvre seul ami fidele.
A stunningly free and breezy version of Mes amis, ecoutez l'histoire from Le Postillon de Lonjumeau.

There are many others, most of which come from early in his career. The voice did harden towards the end of his career, but his Faust in both the Gounod and the Berlioz is hard to beat. If only Janet Baker had been the Marguerite on the Davis recording of the Berlioz as Pretre does rather let them down in that version.

[knight66]

Befreit....that takes heft. I have him in a concert where he sings some of Benvenuto Cellini; he was a bit past his best, but there is indeed heft. I have him in Faust, Carmen and several other recordings....oh yes, Gerontius. Added to his other talents he was an very good linguist and must have had a very wide repertoire.

Mike