Is This Nilsson's Best Recorded High C?? Siegfried 1960 Bayreuth
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- The climax of this live recording of Siegfried's final scene conducted by Kempe is to my hearing the best and fullest high C I ever heard from Birgit. I never heard her live much to my chagrin.So many overtones, so massive, so... Nilsson!!!!
I was fortunate to hear and see Nilsson many times from the beginning of her Met career...Always exciting with a very cool laser like voice of considerable size, at least the high notes. Flagstad, who unfortunately I never heard live had a warm and big even column of sound. Flagstad's voice was very unusual for a Wagner soprano. They were both the greatest in opera for different reasons. Nice for Flagstad she had the great Melchior.
When I hear Flagstad's voice it doesn't immediately spring to mind that it's a big voice. It dawns on me after a while. It's hard to describe, but maybe something like "a normal, but supersized voice". Like, you can tell someone is a giant because of their facial features being a bit wonky and different, but she's like a giant with normal facial features.
It wasn't the loudness or the bigness, it was the power, the strength that always seemed to be in reserve. It allowed her to convey intensity and overwhelming power, allowed her to color the voice with immense nuance without sacrificing volume. It was miraculous. I saw her throughout her career, from the 1960's until the end: Fidelio, Tosca, Turandot, Elektra, Salome (in concert with Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orch.), Farberin in Frau Ohne Schatten, Sieglinde, all three Brunnhildes, I think that was it.... I never saw her do Kundry, Elsa or Donna Anna.
I wouldn't worry about it. She discarded Elsa very early (before 1960), rarely sang Donna Anna (made two recordings of it and it was far from her best role), and she told Bing not to cast her in Parsifal because she disliked the role of Kundry. So you saw the best of Nilsson in her greatest and most remembered roles (though she was pretty good as Amelia in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera", and "Aida", both of which she recorded quite superbly)
Exactly, and there are many "power" singers who are all about power but without any color, squillo, or whatever Nilsson's power came form the music not from a human reaching for an effect.
I have heard that her sound was bigger than it appears on record, is that the case? She always said in interviews that recordings never did her justice as she usually sang with many overtones.
Wonderful description…probably the best!…of this Vocal Miracle!!…thanks….so tired of people referring to “Bigness “ of the voice when they are unable to describe the all -enveloping experience of ANY performance by This Great Human Being ….j.
She said that powerful singers should trust their power and focus on technique and interpretation.
I had the privilege of seeing Nilsson toward the end of her career -- Elektra, Frau, and her Met comeback concert. Surprisingly, her voice sounded much warmer in the theater than on record, and it wasn't so much huge, as well-focused/projected. I got her autograph too!
Dave Glo I saw Nilsson only once, as the Dyer's Wife at San Francisco in 1980, and I fully concur with your analysis. Her voice had great cutting power and could be heard THROUGH the orchestra. However, it was not the largest voice I ever heard. That palm goes to Gwyneth Jones, whom I saw on several occasions (Dyer's Wife, Elektra, Brünnhilde in Siegfried). Jones' voice was huge, and actually rode OVER the orchestra, even drowning it out on occasion. Phenomenal.
I totally agree that it was Nilsson's focus that was her trademark and not her power. I think several dramatic sopranos of her era had more power (Leonie Rysanek comes to mind), but Nilsson was the most distinctive.
@@kimmillard9445 I agree that Nilsson's distinctive sound and focus were what put her on the map. I regret, however, that similarly- endowed dramatic sopranos did not achieve her level of international acclaim. One such who comes to mind is the Viennese Gertrud Grob-Prandl. She concentrated her career on the Vienna State Opera; otherwise she would have been a serious rival to Nilsson. To say her voice was huge is a vast understatement. According to colleague Irmgard Seefried, 'When Grob-Prandl sang Turandot, the walls shook'. In addition, her vocal emission was steady and solid as a rock. Compare GGP with Nilsson in the same passage from Elektra, Brünnhilde, Turandot or Isolde, and the Swede sounds positively wobbly. It is a great tragedy for opera lovers worldwide that Grob-Prandl preferred to stay in Vienna.
I've heard that name Gertrud Grob-Prandl a few times over the years. I'll have to give her a listen.
@@kimmillard9445 Yes, do! She also gets a chapter all to herself in Rasponi's book The Last Prima Donnas. She only made three studio recordings of which I am aware: Elettra in Idomeneo, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Brünnhilde in the Moralt Ring. However, there are lots of clips of her all over UA-cam. Her sound is not as individual to my ear as Nilsson's, but it is fuller and her emission is steady as the ground beneath your feet. She really is just about my favorite hochdramatisch soprano, next to Frida Leider, that is! ☺
The most thrilling singing ever. Mme Nilsson was without peer as a force of nature.
Jim Cadena Force of nature was also Joan Sutherland....and Callas....but Birgit was definitely superb
Jim Cadena Kirsten Flagstad was Nature itself then.
Flagstad and Nilsson were different. And we are lucky to have had such marvellous wagnerian sopranos in recorded time as Flagstad and Nilsson. Flagstad voice were warmer than Nilssons. Nilssons voice was astonishing well focused. In the opera house it sounded warmer than on record. I Heard Nilsson live in Brünnhilde X 3, in Isolde, in Salome, in Elektra. Her vocie was so focused that she was floating over the orchestra. I never heard Flagstad live, alas, but her warmth and beauty on records makes me melt. Thank you Kirsten and Bitrgit!
I absolutely agree that Nilsson in the house was larger and warmer and more dramatic vocally than on any recording, even the best ones. Like you, I never heard Flagstad but certainly she and Nilsson were the two greatest Wagnerian voices of the 20th Century.
@@wilsonwatt9283 I also really love Traubel in live recordings. I have two talks on her on UA-cam in my channel. Her voice was both beautiful and enormous. Nilsson was of course better at the top of the voice.
I heard Nilsson at the Metropolitan opera in Tosca and Tristan und Isolde and Die walkure/Sieglinde. I've me people who saw Flagstad and they favored Flagstad because her voice was warmer, feminine. Large voices never get true sound in recording studios. That's true with Sutherlad too.
I very much agree. I heard both Sutherland and Nilsson live, and - alas - we can never experience their voices in their full glory when we hear them on record.
What did Melba actually sound like? Calve? Caruso? Can we ever get an accurate audio-image of their voices?
I feel like if I squint my ears on the best Caruso recordings I can imagine him sounding similar to Jonas Kaufmann in his prime....I've wondered what contemporary singers would sound like recorded on early 1900s tech?
I was too young for Sutherland or Nilsson...but I did see Deborah Voight before surgery and her voice was huge....far bigger than any other soprano I've heard, her top notes especially seemed to be coming from everywhere...I was shocked and saddened when I heard her right after bypass...it sounded nothing at all like the voice I had heard live. I feel like it gave me some idea of what Nilsson and Sutherland might have sounded like. I never thought Voight had a voice for Brunhilde though.... Sieglenda maybe...it reminded me of Lotte Leiman a bit....
Solid as a rock, attacked from above, not a problem within earshot. Staggering singing. Amd she brings out the best in Hopf. Thanks for this.
....you had to be really good to stand and be heard besides BN. Those times were privileged with magnificent singers. Todays standard has developed not to its favor. BN besides a current tenor....? Giant and smurfs
That high C is otherworldly. BRAVA
I heard her live many times, in opera, concert and recital. She broke the sound barrier!
Goddess of the magical smile
Listen to Salome live Moscow 1963, its simply the best voice production I have ever heard. The final scene is on you tube,. " Ich habe seinen munt,,,, just sound on Tube. I too have heard her live, Stockholm concert hall, a romance evening, many arias she would normally not perform. Eg. Dorettas aria
Butterfly.." Un bel dia", Tosca,, " Visi" d'arte", etc.
Just one of a kind....
Simply Amazing, but in truth I would cherish her worst high C over any current dramatic's best high C.
Absolutely! Heard her and interviewed her once. What charm and humour! They don't make them like that anymore!
@@fredsmith6310 Is that interview anywhere to be seen/read/heard? :)
Would we all kill to have vocal giants of the caliber of a Nilsson or a Flagstad or a Farrell or a Frida Leider around today? Give me Rita Hunter, a dramatic voice with astounding lyric capabilities. Nilsson certainly had one of the largest voices I ever heard live. Those top notes other came at you with a laser-like focus and thrilled with their sheer sonic splendor, which is what opera lovers go to the theater to hear. I'm so lucky I got to hear Nilsson at the end of her great vocal prime, before she disappeared from the United States for five years: ELEKTRA, SALOME in concert with Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony, and a concert of Strauss excerpts with the New Jersey Symphony. In each her impact was massive. The audience simply screamed their heads off. I heard Farrell sing the Immolation Scene with the New York Philharmonic--end of her career but still beautiful. I heard Rita Hunter sing a brilliant Leonora in IL TROVATORE in London before she came to the Met around 1974. Listen to her Brunnhilde in GOTTERDAMMERUNG at the Met with Helge Brilioth around 1975. She's amazing. I would have loved to have heard Harshaw, Shuard, Varnay, and Jones in their primes, however, they have left ample recorded evidence of their greatness. We don't have as ample a supply of great German dramatics as we did a few decades ago. Right now I'm grateful for Christine Goerke, who is wholly up to comparisons with these greats.
I LOVE early Rita Hunter from the time you heard her. Her voice lost some of the shimmering beauty as she aged. Her Ring is one of the best performances. I am very jealous you heard Farrell in Wagner. I heard her in a sports facility in a few arias in Jackson MS as a 10 year old. She was holding back for a 4th act that never came:-) I saw Jones in 70 in Bayreuth but at age 15 I didn't know I would kill to hear that performance again with mature ears!!!! To have heard Nilsson live, even late in career makes you indeed fortunate. That Isolde's Curse she sang at the Met Gala at age 64 or so is still staggering!!!!!!! Thanks for your reply
Spectacular singing.....
I have the Solti recording of the Ring - and in the act 3 of Siegfried you can experience her end of the duet on the top of what a human voice can perform! I’ve heard her live in Stockholm several times as Brunnhilde and Isolde, and NO recording can give you the experience of what she accomplished EVERY TIME YOU HEARD HER LIVE! She was absolutely FANTASTIC, filling your body and soul with an unbelievable experience! I heard her the first time in Bayreuth 1966, 17 years old. What I had head on the Swedish Radio was of course the Prelude act 1, and the “Liebestod” with BN - and in spite of my young age I was totally enchanted of four hours of Tristan und Isolde.
That was a magical performance!!!! P
I treasure live memories as I know recordings can't capture a voice like hers. THANKS.
The greatest voice I have ever heard, or hope to hear. Birgit Nilsson was a total delight, an incomparable voice paired with a delightful personality. Every recording of her performances, Brünhilda, Isolde, Dyer's Wife, Elektra, Salome, Turandot, Tosca, and so many other roles, are treasures to be savored over and over again. We'll not hear such a voice again, I am afraid.
Спасибо!!! "conducted by Kempe", "the great Melchior."... Гениально, супер...
Thank you for this! I have heard Nilsson around 30 times: Isolde, Brünnhilde, Tosca, Amelia, Turandot, Die Färberin, Elektra. In Stockholm 1972 her Siegfried Brünnhilde was equal to this. You can hear that she has NO limits and inspires both the tenor and the orchestra!
Saw her many times but not as many you, mainly Elektra and her Orest, Orest, Orest made me cry, die Faberin in Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt, and oh the word weib in tod rest sein weib in Fidelio at Covent Garden. Only saw her Walkure at Orange. Grew up with the Solti Ring
That is erst not rest
Thank GOD for recordings .....
For me, the most glorious high note ever to come from that phenomenal throat comes at 4:21 in the final scene from "Salome" at the Bing gala. I've heard she had a cold that night--can anyone confirm? I tend to believe the story. Anyone who could sing "Gotterdammerung" with her arm in a sling from a freshly dislocated shoulder would hardly let a few sniffles keep her from doing her best.. Not with every other soprano on the Met roster listening in the wings!
She was incredible that night for sure, but Salome never once goes as high as a C. Only once I believe it goes as high as B. I was surprised.The note you mention is an A5, but it may well be her best high note.
I was onstage with her in 1974 and this was often how she sounded live in performance
I was onstage during this very performance feeding Birgit her lines
from behind a fake rock.......and while Hopf was carrying on,
she would sometimes take quick snorts of the cherry schnapps I kept handy......
......it was a big rock.......
You rocked!!!
yeah.. me too!
so was I !
I only heard her once but it was Turandot and I think this recording is a good likeness of what she was like in the house. This and the DG Tristan recording from Bayreuth. More so than the Decca recordings.
I heard her once, albeit late-ish. Wondrous singer, but not an overtone-rich sound to my ear - hence the many references to her "cold' sound over the years. Extremely bright and with power to spare, and a much more lyric sound than dramatic. In addition to her superb technique, I think this accounts for her tremendous longevity. But whatever one thinks of Nilsson, there isn't a singer in the world today who can touch her.
Divina soprano y una buena persona. La amamos.
I was very fortunate to attend the Met Tristan performance with Jon Vickers when her Isolde was exquisite. Her sound did have a warmth that recordings do not capture.
YES it was AMAZING
I was there as well, 1974 yes? So awesome was her sound that easily filled the enormous hall! However Siegfried was the first time I was fortunate to hear this wonder in person.
Just LOVELY !!!
The voice, wonderful as it was aside, the Met production was memorable for something else. The dance of the 7 veils! Nillson was quite zaftig to put it kindly, so at the very beginning of the dance they had her twirl behind a column and a lithe dancer in a matching costume twirled out of the other side to complete the dance.
The Met production ... of Salome :)
Saw her in Turandot with Corelli and as Isolde, both at the met. The Liebestod transfixed me. She rose on a pillar of light and not as in the disgusting current Met production.
That was the great Gunther Schneider-Siemsen production of Tristan for the new house. It was an abstract stage set. It was the best production of Tristan, or anything I have ever seen in the theatre. As you say, she rose on a pillar of light. During Act II she and Tristan came together from either side of the stage, and walked down almost to the prompter's box at then end of the duet.
The one she launched as Amelia in the famed duet opposite Tucker in the MET production of Un ballo in Maschera is also gigantic.
The one on the Solti studio recording is pretty spectacular too.
Strong and beautiful but I'm sure she sang even better than those. What a fabulous voice!
She will rest as the best Brünnhilde, Isolde and Turandot ever!
And Elektra, and I think Tosca too.
She made a great Minnie too.
Elisabeth too
I do not know if this is her best but I heard her several times in the opera house where the voice expanded and became fuller and warmer than on most recordings. That does seem to be captured here so perhaps you are correct. Of course, Nilsson herself said that her voice never recorded completely accurately.
MARAVILLOSA VOZ
Senza dubbio, è un bel Do! Pulito, potente e senza angoscia!
Thank you.
Is there any recording at all that got to capture the warmth and richness of her voice that only those who had the privilege of watching her live got to hear?
Unfortunately I don't think it's possible such a recording exists.
Even today's microphones would fail to perfectly the richness and full harmonics and timbre of a voice as big as hers.
That such a feat would have been possible decades ago is highly unlikely
@@lucaslion1390 For me her Solome came the closest. It was among the most memorable nights at the Met. Her recording comes pretty close.
@@lucaslion1390 For her Elecktra you had to be there.!
@@g_vezz Which recording of Salome do you mean?
I disagree with some of these postings. Nlsson had unequalled power. I heard Jones and was never impressed. She was uncomfortable to listen to. Her Donna Anna at Covent Garden was an ordeal to sit through. Speight Jenkins in the huge 100th year tribute to Nilsson said it best. He said he felt her power pierce his chest with laser focus but at the same time FILLING the house with sound. I never heard another singer, male or female, come near this phenomenal feat.
Interesting. Jones actually sang Verdi and likely Mozart well early in her career and you can hear it on UA-cam, but singing Wagner and Strauss changed her voice over time. Nilsson taught herself to sing the way she did as her teachers were ineffective.
C'est sublime. L'interprétation magnifie la musique de Wagner.
It's hard to elect Birgit's best High C, cause all of them were laser beam like, ultra resonant, powerful... and so on....
Thrilling.
I'm a big fan of Nilsson but I have to say that in this performance there is a lovely girlish, vulnerable quality to her voice which I don't detect in later recordings, even just a few years later. Here voice had peak bloom and beauty of tone here.
Surprisingly check out her O mio Bambino Caro. She was in her sixties but she sounded very girlish
@@nwdixieboy I may have seen that. Was it in recital? I didn't think it was anything special. Even so, I was thinking about how Nilsson sounded in her main roles. I did here her live, but that was in master class in 1985. She cupped the microphone and demonstraed how to sing high notes from time to time.
So do you agree with me about the voice having a different quality here? Compared to you I'm s casual listener but I certainly have heard many clips
@@marksmith3947 I think it's because she was recorded live and she sounded very different live. I'm jealous that you got to hear her even at a master class. I always wanted to hear her live. To me the apparently truest to her real sound was in the several minutes leading up to her live immolation scene. The voice is much much darker and more beautiful sounding because it was recorded from back of the house in Bayreuth. I actually prefer flagstad in Wagner to her. It was a more beautiful and bigger voice. Have you heard her? Varnay in the first stereo recording of the ring from Bayreuth is thrilling if you haven't heard it. It's on UA-cam. For video I love love love Gwyneth Jones video recording of the Ring from the same place. She doesn't sound as good when you can't see her but she's so exciting
@@nwdixieboy I love Flagstad but I do agree that Nilsson had better high notes. About Flagstad there is something I would like to verify, in terms of vocal pedagogy. I'm not a singer professionally but I was studying in the 1980's. My teacher was born in 1910. Even in his 70's he could sing a pianissimo high A and high b flat full on. He was a bass baritone. He said that one exercise he did came from Gillis Bratt, who taught Flagstad. The exercise is in the low middle voice and only for a minute or two. You make a very harsh sound like the vowel in "laugh" in a three tone scale. The aim of the exercise is to sing without any falsetto at all. Then you sing falsetto after and then scales in regular voice. According to my teacher this was quite controversial and people around her thought she should quit with Bratt. I once discussed this with Vinson Cole ( friend, not teacher). He understood the idea and had an exercise with the same intent. His version was not nearly as harsh sounding as what I learned. I hope you found this interesting. You can see me singing Kazakh songs on UA-cam by the way. Not this account
@@marksmith3947 I'm a huge fan of Dimash. Do you know of your countryman?
Wow just wow
Auch Hans Hopf geht nicht in den Fluten der schier unglaublichen Stimme von Birgit Nilsson unter !
Solid as titanium.
The Solti studio Elektra
ua-cam.com/video/FHGEyNwEkYc/v-deo.html
14:58 & 51:02: Nilsson's high Cs
51:46 - 53:17: Regina Resnik's evil laughter
53:43 - 53:56: Marie Collier's demented yowling
1:32:14 - 1:32:25: Regina Resnik's death screams (the second one sounds like she's vomiting up her guts)
Hopf gives a great heldentenor performance too.
Hopf needs to sing a tenor high C with the soprano.
please check her nabucco aria in Decca. Nilsson, one of the best in her repertoire.
I hate to see the comments here! I envy all these people who saw Nilsson live haha. When I was born, she had already retired.
She came to the nearest big city when I was a teen and it took me years to forgive my dad for not letting me go. Now I can understand that it would not have been safe for me to go by myself at 15. Oh, well.
It is impossible to capture her voice on a recording. When she got wound up you literally could not hear the orchestra. When she was in her prime all the old timers were saying she was a great singer but her color was not right for Wagner, they all preferred Flagstad. Nilsson's greatest achievement was her Turandot. That has never been matched and likely never will be.
Hearing personal reactions to singers I never was able to hear live is always very valuable to me. Thank you for taking the time to tell me all that. I had a possible chance to hear her when I was 15 and she was in New Orleans and I was up in Mississippi but my daddy didn't want to me to go down there by myself and looking back I could understand why he would feel that way. I was really pissed
J'adore Nilsson, mais aussi ce ténor au timbre barytonant. Hopf, un des derniers vrais ténors wagnériens.
Is the tenor Hans Hopf?
A W E S O M E. The end.
Möglich… aber es ist eine der einfühlsamsten interpretationen der Brünnhilde die Birgit gesungen hat…. Aber bitte vergessen wir Wolfgang Windgassen nicht.
I cant say anything just thanks
3:42 the C6 (Do6)
Laser...
Even when she was 65 at the met gala it was still a laser beam and she had no wobble in her voice
"Anything you can sing, I can sing louder!"
"I think probably she wins..."
"I'm not making this up, you know!
goldenthroat86 You mean "better".
???
Tomba 2 Nilsson sang almost everything better 😊
Who is the Siegfried ? He sounds pretty awesome too. Very heroic and masculine
I agree but it was from a CD from my public library that is no longer there and I can't find it on Amazon. I am pretty positive it is Wolfgang Windgassen from Bayreuth but I am not positive.
@@nwdixieboy Hans Hopf gets my vote.
Hopf
Hans Hopf, huge fabulous voice
@@nwdixieboyWindgassen sounds very different
I’m just really sad that I had to listen to that horrible male singer as I waited to hear Nilsson’s extraordinary feat. I love her, but cannot abide Wagner, so this was triple torture. After the second massive, horrid flip of the man’s glottis at the end of phrases, I decided I’d endured enough aural torture and quit! Maybe this is a reason the man isn’t named in the description?? UGH!!
This is awesome but there are better top C's in her recording of Elektra.
Kevin Rainey Totally agree! Her Cs in the Solti Elektra are unbeatable. I also love her C in the love duet in the Solti Götterdämmerung.
Jason Hurd I agree with YOU. The Prologue C in Solti Götterdämmerung, the “Allein ganz allein” and “Was bluten muss” Cs in Solti Elektra are among her best Cs (damn, there are SO many other great ones too!!).
However, I’m going to go out in a limb here and say i believe the high Bb at the end of “Was bluten muss” on the word “freun” is one of the most spectacular sounds to have ever come out of a human throat.
Jeffrey Miller i agree about Nilsson's B flat on 'freun' on the Solti Elektra; wonderful! And, while I have never heard a better C in the Götterdämmerung Prologue than Nilsson's studio Solti, there is, IMO, a close second in this example from Gertrud Grob-Prandl(the 'Heil's begin at 31:16:
ua-cam.com/video/4ni5_ETWJ84/v-deo.html
Jason Hurd G G-P was a wonderful Wagnerian singer who was also a great Turandot also. Then there was Rita Hunter. Both, alas, were overshadowed by Flagstad, Nilsson, Varnay, Mödl (😳) and Jones. Another overshadowed titanic-voiced singer was Nadežda Kniplová. Her Götterdämmerung recording is thrilling as is her Kostelnicka. She’s still alive and teaching I believe. God i wish we still had singers like these ladies but I think they’re extinct. Seriously.
Jeffrey Miller Kniplová's Götterdämmerung was my first set of the work when I was thirteen years old, on LP. Always loved Rita Hunter and Mödl, and while I can appreciate the firmness and steadiness of Flagstad's voice, I am afraid her matronly manner leaves me cold. Isolde and Brünnhilde are fiery, passionate characters, and Flagstad's phlegmatic approach, to my ear, does them a dramatic disservice. Two ladies I have always been sorry did not have longer careers are Ursula Schröder-Feinen and Linda Esther Gray. I saw the former as the Färberin in San Francisco in 1976, and despite occasional intonation problems she was magnificent. Gray I never heard live, but a Walküre broadcast from Dallas turned me on to her, and I am fond of her Isolde under Goodall. I think you are right: the huge, firm, steady voices are gone, and all we have now in the hochdramatisch roles are shrieking, wobbling caricatures. Tragic.
age? thanks!
43
No, Kirsten Flagstad was NOT a mor technically gifted singer than Birgit (or Caballé). And she did certainly not take High C or B better than Birgit. There are simply too many performances that shows that Birgit was technically superiour to Flagstad when it comes to the upper register. And you can not really compare them because they had different approaches to the roles. Kirsten had a warm and beautiful voice and she made magnificent Brünnhildes and Isoldes. But she never did them technically on fire the way Birgit did, and not so steelish and cool as La Nilsson. And it is totally true that Kirsten her self said that Birgit had better upper notes. I think that we should respect and above all, enjoy their different versions of these roles, because they are great in their own and different ways. But, if we are going to compare Wagner sopranos, the Wagner family them self regarded Nanny Larsén-Todsen as the most suitable Wagner soprano until Birgit came along
Magnus Jakopsohn they were very different singers and there's no question that Nillson had the better upper register but flagstad had the better lower register
Oh yes I agree with you on that one. I think that the only time Nilsson has a superb lower register, is in Salome
Of course Nilsson had incredible technique. You just have to listed to her sing O Mio Bambino Caro at 63 to know that. What I have gathered from people who heard Flagstad live was that the things that led many to say she was the greatest Wagnerian soprano of all time was the way she never seemed to be singing in more than 3 out of 6 gears but that the voice always seemed as though she was sitting right beside you and singing right in your ear. They said no one else had that effect It was the biggest soprano sound ever heard in Wagner. The other thing was the absolutely unearthly beauty of her voice, the total eveness from top to bottom. This is just what I have heard.
John Roberts Those claims are absolutely true! I remember hearing Nilsson in 1973; I was 14. I remember the beautiful sound. They were like waves making way from the theatre and wrapping around you. She had what I called an 'empty' voice; A voice that fills itself with the listener and completely indulges the listener inside of it. I have been to see several Opera and Broadway singers, though none gave me the experience that Mme Nilsson did.
Magnus Jakopsohn I have read just about everything wrote and said about other singers and I never saw such statements. I don't believe she ever said anything about Nilssons' high Bs and CS being better. Sorry!!!
Who's the tenor again?
HANS HOPF
E la Waltraute Meyer va a spasso...
Forgot Salome!
Who's the Siegfried?
Hans Hopf
Help me. What's the name of this music?
ua-cam.com/video/miSJ_wZTE3g/v-deo.html
Hans Hopf als Siegfried muss nicht sein... better avoid...
Nilsson produces many unattractive, overbright, and shrill notes here. Doesn’t anyone notice?
Kirsten (Flagstad, obvi) sang Cs better than this even on her not-so-good nights, and the way she sang when she was on fire was far beyond Nilsson's reach. Guess why? She had a better technique - that is, the real technique, one which is now gone completely.
Никита С. certainly Flagstad was the greatest Wagnerian soprano of all time but she conceded herself that Nilsson had the better upper register and that she could have never sung all those Turandots
You're right, but my point was that, in my opinion, this high C is not really phenomenal. And Nilsson had better upper register by nature, while Flagstad had something more important - absolute steadiness of the vocal production, which allowed her to sing so well for so many years.
Никита С. What on earth does it matter who you think is better. Both are phenomenal singers, and one is not better or more technically brilliant than the other. They are separate stand alone superstars.
As a matter of fact, Kirsten Flagstad had always difficulties reaching the high Cs and she could not even reach the note at the end of her career. Famously, they actually had to bring Elizabeth Schwarzkopf to sing the high Cs and also the high Bs in the extraordinary recording of Tristan Flagstad made with Furtwangler. Flagstad was simply unable to sing those notes at that time.
With all respect and admiration for one of the great Wagnerian singers her day, I don't see how the inability to sing securely above A-natural should be considered incidental in the work of an artist who sang repertory which constantly calls for secure, powerful, thrilling high B-flats, B's and C's. Flagstad never had a reliable top. There are enough live recordings of her and "Mir lacht das Abenteuer" was never really good. Siegfried Idyll was problematic, as was "Lachender Tod " Nilsson was the better singer and IMO also the better interpreter. Nobody matched her hurt, despration and outrage in "Wie lachend sie mir Lieder singen," or the heart-breaking tenderness of such phrases as "Zu Wotan's Willen sprichst Du, sag mir jetzt was Du willst." usw. Just my opinion.
Very labored, Nilsson is struggling here, no doubt, for the high C desperately. Hans Hopf sounds like he knows what he is doing, more evenly. The voice shrieks, it is strident, hardly any enunciation. A too heavy and cold voice, without expressivity. (She recorded an admirable Lady Macbeth though.) Nilsson was always detectably insecure in the high register, laboring, if not even almost manipulating. Something like this does not show in Flagstad's singing, visibly with ease all throughout the range, and later on she moved away from what she admittedly could no longer do justice to. (While Nilsson kept going on with Bruennhildes when she was no longer up to them...) (But she was and remained Nilsson for the public; like Tebaldi whose high notes later were hit-or-miss but to the public she was still and always Tebaldi...) Flagstad's voice had warmth, expressiveness, flowing and evenness, something natural about is, something to listen to. But voices are different, they are what/as they are, almost like apples and oranges. Above all a lovely pleasant sound, after all, which Nilsson never had. All in all she was a phenomenon, like Tebaldi, Callas - of that last great generation, whereas nowadays there is none. And yes, they all had their flaws, shortcomings and vocal problems. (I have sang in opera for long enough...) :)
FINALLY someone knows what they're talking about!!! i've said that about Nilsson's singing and everyone said I was nuts.. well NO MORE - I now have backup- thank you Good Will !
I grant you that Flagstad's technique was more complete, but you don't know what you're talking about in terms of forced high notes. More diction, yes, and more evenness of scale. She went through periods where the intonation for split seconds between words was off. But an easy top and also had power? No question about it.
Also, ...you know these Wagnerian Operas are...3-5 hours long...the fact that she sang a PLACED C6-SUSTAINED! Makes her an immaculate technician in her own right, whether you like her voice or not
Nilsson "laboring" in the upper register? Said no one ever. But you.
Opera queens are caricatures of true lovers of the art form