For my money there's no one to touch her for sheer beauty of tone and security of technique. you just sat back and "drank" it all in. 120% natural sound.
My date & I heard her sing this in San Francisco in 1957. I cried (trying to supress sobbing) & made an ass of myself. Years later I wondered if that's why she fell in love with me--because I was "sensative".
roy child’s: I hope it was more than just appreciating the greatness of Eileen Farrell because you could have had millions at your disposal. Like Solomon!!
In the 1950s, I studied with Eleanor McClellan. My dream was to get to her studio while she was giving a lesson to Eileen Farrell. Alas, it never happened and our paths never crossed. Farrell was one of the greatest singers of our time and all time.
Farrell was one of the 20th century's greatest singers. At a recital she gave at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago in the 70's three audience members were the proof of this. They were Birgit Nilsson [who had performed in Die Walkure the night before at Lyric], Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau [who was in rehearsal for one of the Mozart operas opening at Lyric three days later], and Elisabeth Schwarxkopf [who was giving a recital at Orchestra Hall the next night]. When three such singers take time in such schedules to hear a colleague you know that you are hearing the best that there is.
Wagner was a great admirer of Bellini, and I hear a lot of bel canto style in Farrell's rendition. I love it. Actual singing instead of blaring. It's not always about the "Wagner power". Sometimes it's intimate and introspective. She was a phenomenon.
@@catherinebrown3616 Whatever are you, in a poor attempt at humor and insulting poor Ethel Merman, trying to poorly communicate? Eileen Farrell is not ‘belting the aria out’ but singing it within the confines of how it is written. I am sad that there are not mor examples of her art preserved in complete opera recordings. But we should be greatful for what there is. But please, do not attempt humor where you’re insulting Ethel Merman. It ain’t delightfull, deluxe or delovely
Truly one of the greatest voices -- exquisitely beautiful -- Ma Nature ever gave to any human person! As a young college student I was was in my car, and the Bell Tel Hour was on, the soloist was Mmr. Farrell singing Doretta's Aria chi bel sogno di Doretta. About 3 min into the aria, with tears in my eyes, I pulled over as I could not drive and listen. I was overwhelmed by her vocal technique the warmth and beauty of her sound. I will never forget that and now at 82 I still can tear up listening to this magnificence of this great artist. TY for posting.
@@aliena2979 Since you are referring to a woman, a soprano no less, and refer to her as “His” in the English translation you ARE NOT QUALIFIED” to criticize Eileen Farrell’s German diction. And be warned arsehole: DO NOT CRITICIZE JOAN SUTHERLAND’S linguistic skill either let alone the vocal skills of each woman as they are beyond reproach as world class legendary vocalists but wives, mothers and humans. THEY’RRRRRRRE GREAT!!!😄👏😄👏😄👏😄👏😄👏😄👏😄👏👍
I find this video amazing. Farrell's powerful, sensual and smooth timbre sometimes remind me of Flagstad's, however she has a very individual tone to her voice and she does use it in the most dramatic and romantic - but properly contained - way.
What we don't get here is the sheer size of the voice. I heard her live in Indianapolis singing Wagner and the voice was like a blanket over the orchestra.
This is the first soprano voice I remember hearing as a child...Farrell singing Verdi, on my father's Telefunken stereo. Eileen never seemed to love singing opera as much as others loved hearing her sing it. But what a voice.
This is absolutely amazing. Such beautiful tone and such a glorious interpretation of this piece. The orchestra and conductor are also amazingly good - who are they?? How anybody can say this woman is scooping is completely beyond me.
Unreal!!! This is probably the best performance from Eileen Farrell that i have seen or heard! I have always loved this singer and her amazing full rich voice with flexibility, but, like my voice, when she is not fully on her air and support, she can get a tremolo, and since I suffer from that, too, I always have an eagle eye out for it. But here in this performance??? Pffttt.........not even a whisper of one - absolute PERFECTION of full rich free flowing tone! And so heartfelt and emotional, she just pulls you in! Ha, I was following along with my text as I'm learning the aria, and she fudged two of the lines, but you can't even tell, she's just so wonderful. I LOVE IT.
Sempre straordinaria la Farrell! Che la si ascolti in Verdi, in Wagner, in blues, in swing, in Giordano, in Rodgers... Stupefacente, poi, nella Medea di Cherubini, tutta risolta in canto, potente, espressivo, ineccepibile: indimenticabile Eileen!
MovieJon: There is a CD studio recording on the Telarc label with Frederica von Stade as “Maria” and Farrell sings the “Mother Abbess” and she is magnificent. Sadly, they did not follow the stage musical in all respects and so “My Favorite Things” was sung by Maria as a solo and not a duet between the Mother Abbess and Maria. WHAT A FRIGGIN’ WASTE OF FARRELL!!!!
IM SO PROUD OF EILEEN SHE WAS NOT ONLY A WONDERFUL SINGER SHE WAS EXTREMELY FUNNY WITH MAGARET TRUMAN ON T.V. COMEDY SHOWS. IM VERY PROUD TO SAY SHE CAME FROM MY LITTLE KNOWN CITY OF WOONSOCKET,R.I. GOD BLESS YOU EILEEN YOU MADE US PROUD!!!
Can anyone name one other individual who was ever able to do with their voice what this woman could do? By that I mean, name one other classically trained singer who could perform at her level and sing jazz and pop at the highest level as well. She sings jazz and pop as an alto and she doesn't even sound like the same person. Some say that Sarah Vaughn could have been an opera singer had she wanted to go in that direction. But, this woman actually did it. Amazing.
but one way in which she did sound like the same person--at least in English--is the incredible skill she took with language, diction, and meaning--if you listen to her recording of Knoxville back to back with her jazz performances you get the continuity right away
I must have watched this 50-60 times over the years, and Eileen Farrell's Isolde blows me away every time. The power, nuanced emotion and the shimmering beauty of her voice, her soul, the passion and loss she brings to this. Apparently, her German, Italian, French phrasing was always flawless. And can she act! In that final minute...As those last moments build, Farrell's Isolde is incandescent. As her intense love for Tristan crescendos, that thrilling voice blazes and soars. My God, her face at the heartbreaking moment she remembers he's gone. The pain, grief and regret washes over her and she visibly dims. When she turns slowly to look back at her lover, you're convinced there really is a dead guy in that bed. Wow. Just wow. She delivers an experience as much as a performance. I've watched 7-8 wonderful singers perform Liebestod, the climatic peak of the Tristan and Isolde opera, and I still think Farrell's version works better than just about anyone. Farrell's Isolde is a woman experiencing her enemy/lover's death in what seems to be real time. As a love story, the libretto is beyond weird, but Wagner's massive opera, especially the passionate and heartbreaking Liebsteod, ushered in a new phase of opera's development. Eileen Farrell was a great, multi-faceted artist. She had a CBS daytime radio show as a young girl in the 1940s, and a whole other career singing pop, blues, standards, lieder, and some notable gigs as a ghost singer for movie musicals. She's one of the few opera singers who was also a talented, innate singer of popular music. Married a NYC cop and had two kids. Had a whole other career singing popular sings, jazz and the blues. Worked with Leonard Bernstein & Thomas Shippers on opera, classical, Gershwin and popular music. Became a great voice and opera teacher,
A marvelous rendition! Farrell was a great singer in several repertories. This performance looks like a Bell Telephone Hour TV presentation from the late 50's/early 60's. I don't believe she ever sang at The Met - a sad commentary on the management and a great loss to the public.
She did sing at the Met, but not as often as she deserved. Bing was not one of her favourite people. From the wikipedia article about her: "She made her Metropolitan Opera debut on December 6, 1960, singing the title role in Gluck's Alceste. She opened the 1962-63 Met season as Maddalena in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, opposite Franco Corelli. She remained on the Met roster through the 1963-64 season, singing forty-four performance in six roles, then returned in March 1966 for two final performances as Maddalena. Her other roles at the Met included the title role in Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Leonora in Verdi's La forza del destino, Isabella in de Falla's Atlàntida, and Santuzza."
Please, I'm so grateful for this upload. I must know the conductor here (he's superb too) and also the date! Many thanks. I assume the musical performance and what we see here are one and the same (sometimes there was post-dubbing during the '50s to '70s, Farrell's period), particularly since we clearly see Farrell do all the breathing here before the camera. So it may be easy to ascertain the date/conductor info for this appearance? I don't know when I've heard her better! Again, thanks.
@mclaire12 Thank you so much.Bing at the Met also ignored the great Beverly Sill. look at the video of the finle to Thais with both Sills and Fleming. Sills High D is incredible.I absolutely adore Farrell. Mclaire12
Not only is the vocally unparalleled, I feel she’s one of the few who get this aria dramatically. Too many sopranos play it straight and earnest by the word of the libretto. Farrell presents it like a semi self-aware quixotic delusion. Way more emotionally impactful.
When she made her Met debut in 1960, a year after Nilsson, the critics wrote that it was the biggest voice heard at the Met since Flagstad. Had she decided to pursue Wagner, she would have been the true heir to Flagstad, with a voice bigger and far warmer than Nilsson's .
Shahrdad it’s very hard to tell from the recordings, but I think Farrell’s voice was larger than Flagstad’s. Even Franco Corelli, who himself had an enormous voice, said when he first sang with her “Who is this woman? She is making me deaf!”
@@stephenbeale4765 I had a friend who heard Flagstad, Farrell, Nilsson, Milanov, Tebaldi, and all of the other great singers in the theater. To him, their voices were big in "different ways". He said Flagstad's voice enveloped everything around it. He heard her, and the others, in an acoustically challenged hall that seated about 4,800 people. Yes, it was bigger than the Met. He said Flagstad's voice filled every inch of the hall and if the hall had been bigger it would have filled that too. He said Nilsson's voice had a piercing quality that hurt his ears, on high. I heard Leonie Rysanek in a live performance in the same hall, and people today have no idea what such a voice could do, and it was so beautiful and soft in texture.
@@Ruffiello I am very happy to see your enthusiasm for Leonie ... maybe the unreleased documents (mostly private) I am starting to upload on my channel would interest you ... I was a fan and friend of her during her last years and I still feel her missing so badly ...
Shahrdad: I believe she was offered some of the lighter roles but was concerned how it would possibly affect her voice. I think she might tried Elisabeth/TANNHAUSER and Sieglinde/RING when Nilsson sang it in the early sixties. Brian Kellow, who worked on her autobiography with her found that the Met offered her Ortrud/LOHENGRIN. But it was a beautiful voice and under appreciated. Wish Sony had gotten the rights to the “Interrupted Melody” soundtrack and included it in their box.
Dominique Rousselle: Thank you for your kind words on Leonie Rysanek who I remember from a ‘77 Met tour (finally a superstar on tour!) in TANNHAUSER and she might have been in LOHENGRIN and her last new Met production and ‘95 broadcast of QUEEN of SPADES. Not too many commercial recordings sadly.
She wasn't ignored. She was totally ambivalent about here career. Heard her in concert performance of this 1971. Will never forget it. She just didn't want to perform all that much.
This is not accurate. She had her own radio show in the 40's; she performed with the Bach Singers in the 50's & 60's; she finally performed at the Met once Bing realized that given her impact in concert performances of Wagner with Bernstein he had to hire her; she toured in concerts after her husband's retirement; she recorded although not too often; and of course there was her entire recording career in American popular song. What she did not want was to travel far to perform particularly because her husband was a NYC police officer and she did not want to be away from him. She was never "ambivalent" about performing per se.
Actually, Farrell's first Wagner performance with Bernstein was in 1968 well after, not before, she last performed at the Metropolitan.@@wilsonwatt9283
Hauntingly beautiful. I absolutely love opera and I love Wagner but I cannot take really really loud sopranos... I know that is a bit ironic! Eileen Farrel makes the soprano voice tolerable for me with my sensitive ears because her voice is as smooth as silk!!
Farrell was really loud, but her voice was well coordinated so that it sounds soft and beautiful in addition to being very loud. Listen to young Kirsten Flagstad and you will hear the same silky sound. This level of coordination and singing is completely lost at the moment.
What's strange about her otherwise superb singing is that she tends to become inaudible at the ends of phrases. Mild und leis .. Wie er laech .. It happens again and again.
To operafreak9,Do yourself a favor and never repeat that comment.One of your problems , as is the case with so many other dilatants is that you constantly making comparison while not now what you're talking about. In short. Shut up and just listen.
No one noticed her messing up the words towards the end? That’s what opera nerds are for. As to her career, first, by 1960 she was hampered by a top almost as short as Traubel’s, and second, I think it was never a question of management ignoring her, but more her professional diffidence and frankly lack of much interest in opera.
@@user-bc9mn7gq2c I don’t have time to listen right now, but the mistakes occur in her confusing words in Wagner’s so-called ‘Stabreim’ form of rhyming. If you have a libretto handy you’ll see where she strays.
The one weakness I see in her performance, is that she's turning the attention towards her characterization, not the music. Expressions are there, but she's not into the sweep of it. The high breath is a symptom. Too much thinking. Gotta breath deep, and let go. Especially in Wagner. This music is titanic. Got to flow and sink in it.
She has a grret voice, sings all the notes, but does anyone else find there is no sense of direction or undrstanding what she is singing. Wagner is drama, and sacred moments in human lives. I find none of that here. Nilsson is unbeatable.
operafreak9 The tempo is unusually fast but I really like how she made a huge deal out of the “wehendem all” line. If that's Not understanding I don't know what is.
Nilsson loved this version... You know... I think you don't understand... That we can have Nilsson and farrell singing in different way but equally magnificents. Wagner, in any case, want a totally different soprano for this role... Times and execution practices are constantly changing
A voice I have always liked, and a very honest performer, but the breath is quite high, and so there are unfortunately many chopped up phrases and a few intonation problems throughout the aria.
![[Great sound] Early Kirsten Flagstad • Liebestod 'Mild und leise' - Tristan und Isolde (Perfect!)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HqtII_XdQN4/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Great sound] Early Kirsten Flagstad • Liebestod 'Mild und leise' - Tristan und Isolde (Perfect!)](/img/tr.png)
For my money there's no one to touch her for sheer beauty of tone and security of technique. you just sat back and "drank" it all in. 120% natural sound.
She sounds as if she were in love and has been granted the voice to encompass it.
I would give my heart to her more than any other.
My date & I heard her sing this in San Francisco in 1957. I cried (trying to supress sobbing) & made an ass of myself. Years later I wondered if that's why she fell in love with me--because I was "sensative".
I heard her sing it years later (the 70's?) and she still could sing it damn well
roy child’s: I hope it was more than just appreciating the greatness of Eileen Farrell because you could have had millions at your disposal. Like Solomon!!
The Irish maiden sung VERY, VERY WELL by a real Irish maiden. OUTSTANDING performance; thank you for sharing this with us!!!!!
In the 1950s, I studied with Eleanor McClellan. My dream was to get to her studio while she was giving a lesson to Eileen Farrell. Alas, it never happened and our paths never crossed. Farrell was one of the greatest singers of our time and all time.
Farrell was one of the 20th century's greatest singers. At a recital she gave at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago in the 70's three audience members were the proof of this. They were Birgit Nilsson [who had performed in Die Walkure the night before at Lyric], Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau [who was in rehearsal for one of the Mozart operas opening at Lyric three days later], and Elisabeth Schwarxkopf [who was giving a recital at Orchestra Hall the next night]. When three such singers take time in such schedules to hear a colleague you know that you are hearing the best that there is.
Wagner was a great admirer of Bellini, and I hear a lot of bel canto style in Farrell's rendition. I love it. Actual singing instead of blaring. It's not always about the "Wagner power". Sometimes it's intimate and introspective. She was a phenomenon.
You know the old song, Wagner style: Anything you can sing I can sing LOUDER quoting Ethyl Merman and Anna Russell
@@catherinebrown3616 Whatever are you, in a poor attempt at humor and insulting poor Ethel Merman, trying to poorly communicate? Eileen Farrell is not ‘belting the aria out’ but singing it within the confines of how it is written. I am sad that there are not mor examples of her art preserved in complete opera recordings. But we should be greatful for what there is.
But please, do not attempt humor where you’re insulting Ethel Merman. It ain’t delightfull, deluxe or delovely
My God! I had forgotten how wonderful she was. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Truly one of the greatest voices -- exquisitely beautiful -- Ma Nature ever gave to any human person! As a young college student I was was in my car, and the Bell Tel Hour was on, the soloist was Mmr. Farrell singing Doretta's Aria chi bel sogno di Doretta. About 3 min into the aria, with tears in my eyes, I pulled over as I could not drive and listen. I was overwhelmed by her vocal technique the warmth and beauty of her sound. I will never forget that and now at 82 I still can tear up listening to this magnificence of this great artist. TY for posting.
At age 29, i still look for the Bell Telephone Hour! Good to hear of your fantastic experience.
Thank you so much for sharing💖
I wish one could give a dozen "likes"
to your touching note. Thank you
for posting it.
You want a real shock? Watch her sing (and swing) S’Wonderful with Louis Armstrong on the Sullivan Show!
Her breath control and phrasing are fantastic. And her German is very good. And her voice is magnificent! What a wonderful singer she was!
His German is no German, awfully sorry.
@@aliena2979 Since you are referring to a woman, a soprano no less, and refer to her as “His” in the English translation you ARE NOT QUALIFIED” to criticize Eileen Farrell’s German diction. And be warned arsehole: DO NOT CRITICIZE JOAN SUTHERLAND’S linguistic skill either let alone the vocal skills of each woman as they are beyond reproach as world class legendary vocalists but wives, mothers and humans. THEY’RRRRRRRE GREAT!!!😄👏😄👏😄👏😄👏😄👏😄👏😄👏👍
I find this video amazing. Farrell's powerful, sensual and smooth timbre sometimes remind me of Flagstad's, however she has a very individual tone to her voice and she does use it in the most dramatic and romantic - but properly contained - way.
great control i don't think she got the recognition she deserved she is in the top ten sopranos shivers up my spine sing on
One of the greatest ever
What we don't get here is the sheer size of the voice. I heard her live in Indianapolis singing Wagner and the voice was like a blanket over the orchestra.
Gail Chamberlain I read in a comment on another video that she was louder than an ENTIRE brass section of one orchestra
Because she's not singing in that stupid masque. She's relaxed and letting it all flow out as it should. Why won't singers do this today?
This is the first soprano voice I remember hearing as a child...Farrell singing Verdi, on my father's Telefunken stereo. Eileen never seemed to love singing opera as much as others loved hearing her sing it. But what a voice.
A truly great singer. The world does not produce singers of this calibre any more.
Nilsson's favorite dramatic soprano, Eileen Farrell.
I was so fortunate to hear het sing this in 1970. I love her voice. A great lady! A fabulous talent.
One of the most beautiful interpretations of this aria I've ever heard. Brava.
Thank you for posting this example of singing by a very great soprano.
Absolutely ideal singing. German music performed with pure old italian manner. So, it si possible!!!
You're so tiresome with your unnecesaary "Italian manner ( of which Wagner has no need at all ).
This is absolutely amazing. Such beautiful tone and such a glorious interpretation of this piece. The orchestra and conductor are also amazingly good - who are they?? How anybody can say this woman is scooping is completely beyond me.
This is absolute musical bliss...O' Siren Sylph!
Really majestic and without affectation.
I heard heard her sing this ...in 1970. A thrill. She is was one of the greatest. So wonderful to hear this! Thank you
I kiss you for posting that great unmatched performance of Eileen Farrell for us - thank you so much!
My new Idol. Best Isolde I´ve ever heard! (so touching. Really moving. First time I cry when I hear this.)
Magnificent!!!!
La voix tres magnifique! Merci beaucoup.
One of the 20th century`s greatest soprano`s thank you a million times for posting this fab gem!! pxx
It is too bad Wagner did not live long enough to hear Farrell sing if only to remind him of his own genius.
wow, her timbre is so similar to flagstad! amazing!
True! Except she has a greater rhythmic sense than Flagstad; more élan.
Flagstad had the more beautiful timbre, but Farrell was the better interpreter of the words...
@@randysills4418 Eileen has such a gorgeous creamy tone...never metallic...warm. Her top notes were stellar💖
perfect
wunderschön!
Unreal!!! This is probably the best performance from Eileen Farrell that i have seen or heard! I have always loved this singer and her amazing full rich voice with flexibility, but, like my voice, when she is not fully on her air and support, she can get a tremolo, and since I suffer from that, too, I always have an eagle eye out for it. But here in this performance??? Pffttt.........not even a whisper of one - absolute PERFECTION of full rich free flowing tone! And so heartfelt and emotional, she just pulls you in! Ha, I was following along with my text as I'm learning the aria, and she fudged two of the lines, but you can't even tell, she's just so wonderful. I LOVE IT.
Sempre straordinaria la Farrell! Che la si ascolti in Verdi, in Wagner, in blues, in swing, in Giordano, in Rodgers... Stupefacente, poi, nella Medea di Cherubini, tutta risolta in canto, potente, espressivo, ineccepibile: indimenticabile Eileen!
How is it that no one thought of her to portray the Mother Abbess in "The Sound of Music?" She would have killed it!
MovieJon: There is a CD studio recording on the Telarc label with Frederica von Stade as “Maria” and Farrell sings the “Mother Abbess” and she is magnificent. Sadly, they did not follow the stage musical in all respects and so “My Favorite Things” was sung by Maria as a solo and not a duet between the Mother Abbess and Maria. WHAT A FRIGGIN’ WASTE OF FARRELL!!!!
IM SO PROUD OF EILEEN SHE WAS NOT ONLY A WONDERFUL SINGER SHE WAS EXTREMELY FUNNY WITH MAGARET TRUMAN ON T.V. COMEDY SHOWS.
IM VERY PROUD TO SAY SHE CAME FROM MY LITTLE KNOWN CITY OF WOONSOCKET,R.I. GOD BLESS YOU EILEEN YOU MADE US PROUD!!!
She was lborn in Willimantic, Conn. Her parents worked at UConn!
until now my favorite interpretation
Can anyone name one other individual who was ever able to do with their voice what this woman could do? By that I mean, name one other classically trained singer who could perform at her level and sing jazz and pop at the highest level as well. She sings jazz and pop as an alto and she doesn't even sound like the same person. Some say that Sarah Vaughn could have been an opera singer had she wanted to go in that direction. But, this woman actually did it. Amazing.
but one way in which she did sound like the same person--at least in English--is the incredible skill she took with language, diction, and meaning--if you listen to her recording of Knoxville back to back with her jazz performances you get the continuity right away
Listen to Jessye Norman's Stormy Weather. It's shockingly idiomatic.
Both Helen Traubel and Dorothy Kirsten could sing both.
Peruse Eileen Farrell on UA-cam and mix it up a little. I’d say “one in a million” but that doesn’t even cover it!
Jessye Norman but maybe no other
Oh my...stunning!
No one does it better. Period.
Mais elle est tout simplement Géniale!! Quelle beauté! Merci! AV
Just WOW
I agree with others who say the Metropolitan Opera dropped the ball with Miss Farrell. Their loss!!
Did did pretty well at the Met. She sang both Gioconda and Andrea Chenier with star tenors among other performances.
I must have watched this 50-60 times over the years, and Eileen Farrell's Isolde blows me away every time. The power, nuanced emotion and the shimmering beauty of her voice, her soul, the passion and loss she brings to this. Apparently, her German, Italian, French phrasing was always flawless. And can she act! In that final minute...As those last moments build, Farrell's Isolde is incandescent. As her intense love for Tristan crescendos, that thrilling voice blazes and soars. My God, her face at the heartbreaking moment she remembers he's gone. The pain, grief and regret washes over her and she visibly dims. When she turns slowly to look back at her lover, you're convinced there really is a dead guy in that bed. Wow. Just wow. She delivers an experience as much as a performance.
I've watched 7-8 wonderful singers perform Liebestod, the climatic peak of the Tristan and Isolde opera, and I still think Farrell's version works better than just about anyone. Farrell's Isolde is a woman experiencing her enemy/lover's death in what seems to be real time. As a love story, the libretto is beyond weird, but Wagner's massive opera, especially the passionate and heartbreaking Liebsteod, ushered in a new phase of opera's development.
Eileen Farrell was a great, multi-faceted artist. She had a CBS daytime radio show as a young girl in the 1940s, and a whole other career singing pop, blues, standards, lieder, and some notable gigs as a ghost singer for movie musicals. She's one of the few opera singers who was also a talented, innate singer of popular music. Married a NYC cop and had two kids. Had a whole other career singing popular sings, jazz and the blues. Worked with Leonard Bernstein & Thomas Shippers on opera, classical, Gershwin and popular music. Became a great voice and opera teacher,
Stupenda
Thanks for correcting my statement about the Met. Dialogue is a good educator!
Lol! But you have to admit, it's a wonderful sound, really wonderful.
A marvelous rendition! Farrell was a great singer in several repertories. This performance looks like a Bell Telephone Hour TV presentation from the late 50's/early 60's. I don't believe she ever sang at The Met - a sad commentary on the management and a great loss to the public.
She did sing at the Met, but not as often as she deserved. Bing was not one of her favourite people. From the wikipedia article about her: "She made her Metropolitan Opera debut on December 6, 1960, singing the title role in Gluck's Alceste. She opened the 1962-63 Met season as Maddalena in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, opposite Franco Corelli. She remained on the Met roster through the 1963-64 season, singing forty-four performance in six roles, then returned in March 1966 for two final performances as Maddalena. Her other roles at the Met included the title role in Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Leonora in Verdi's La forza del destino, Isabella in de Falla's Atlàntida, and Santuzza."
It is The Bell Telephone Hour from 1960.
When Bing fired Callas she said “ the Met doesn’t have everyone; they don’t have Farrell!”
Please, I'm so grateful for this upload. I must know the conductor here (he's superb too) and also the date! Many thanks. I assume the musical performance and what we see here are one and the same (sometimes there was post-dubbing during the '50s to '70s, Farrell's period), particularly since we clearly see Farrell do all the breathing here before the camera. So it may be easy to ascertain the date/conductor info for this appearance? I don't know when I've heard her better! Again, thanks.
Himmlisch! Ich verbeuge mich vor dieser einmaligen Künstlerin.
@mclaire12 Thank you so much.Bing at the Met also ignored the great Beverly Sill. look at the video of the finle to Thais with both Sills and Fleming. Sills High D is incredible.I absolutely adore Farrell. Mclaire12
Perfect Isolde! Thanks for the posting- do you have any more?
Хороша.
Tut mir leid, Dir zu wiedersprechen, aber man versteht jedes Wort! I swear, her German's above the average! And her voice unic!!!
Not only is the vocally unparalleled, I feel she’s one of the few who get this aria dramatically. Too many sopranos play it straight and earnest by the word of the libretto. Farrell presents it like a semi self-aware quixotic delusion. Way more emotionally impactful.
@mutinyinheav3n On her desk she had a plaque that read "Stamp out Opera."
When she made her Met debut in 1960, a year after Nilsson, the critics wrote that it was the biggest voice heard at the Met since Flagstad. Had she decided to pursue Wagner, she would have been the true heir to Flagstad, with a voice bigger and far warmer than Nilsson's .
Shahrdad it’s very hard to tell from the recordings, but I think Farrell’s voice was larger than Flagstad’s. Even Franco Corelli, who himself had an enormous voice, said when he first sang with her “Who is this woman? She is making me deaf!”
@@stephenbeale4765 I had a friend who heard Flagstad, Farrell, Nilsson, Milanov, Tebaldi, and all of the other great singers in the theater. To him, their voices were big in "different ways". He said Flagstad's voice enveloped everything around it. He heard her, and the others, in an acoustically challenged hall that seated about 4,800 people. Yes, it was bigger than the Met. He said Flagstad's voice filled every inch of the hall and if the hall had been bigger it would have filled that too. He said Nilsson's voice had a piercing quality that hurt his ears, on high. I heard Leonie Rysanek in a live performance in the same hall, and people today have no idea what such a voice could do, and it was so beautiful and soft in texture.
@@Ruffiello I am very happy to see your enthusiasm for Leonie ... maybe the unreleased documents (mostly private) I am starting to upload on my channel would interest you ... I was a fan and friend of her during her last years and I still feel her missing so badly ...
Shahrdad: I believe she was offered some of the lighter roles but was concerned how it would possibly affect her voice. I think she might tried Elisabeth/TANNHAUSER and Sieglinde/RING when Nilsson sang
it in the early sixties. Brian Kellow, who worked on her autobiography with her found that the Met offered her Ortrud/LOHENGRIN. But it was a beautiful voice and under appreciated. Wish Sony had gotten the rights to the “Interrupted Melody” soundtrack and included it in their box.
Dominique Rousselle: Thank you for your kind words on Leonie Rysanek who I remember from a ‘77 Met tour (finally a superstar on tour!) in TANNHAUSER and she might have been in LOHENGRIN and her last new Met production and ‘95 broadcast of QUEEN of SPADES. Not too many commercial recordings sadly.
I quite agree, but it's amazing that so many people are not prepared to hear a constructive assessment of her singing.
fantastic voice for Wagner.
Very good, very very decent
???? Decent????
You took a date to see Tristan und Isolde?! I suppose you don't get points for subtlety, but damn...
I feel so inadequate. I took a date to see Falstaff. Lol
this voice is incomparable. there is nothing even close to it
mclaire12
Who's conducting what orchestra?
... in the world All breath billowing, drown, drown, unconsciously, the highest pleasure! ...
Did she sing the rôle complete?
baritonoguapo,who is de orchestra and dirigent please?thx
She wasn't ignored. She was totally ambivalent about here career. Heard her in concert performance of this 1971. Will never forget it. She just didn't want to perform all that much.
This is not accurate. She had her own radio show in the 40's; she performed with the Bach Singers in the 50's & 60's; she finally performed at the Met once Bing realized that given her impact in concert performances of Wagner with Bernstein he had to hire her; she toured in concerts after her husband's retirement; she recorded although not too often; and of course there was her entire recording career in American popular song. What she did not want was to travel far to perform particularly because her husband was a NYC police officer and she did not want to be away from him. She was never "ambivalent" about performing per se.
@@wilsonwatt9283 She also had two children
Actually, Farrell's first Wagner performance with Bernstein was in 1968 well after, not before, she last performed at the Metropolitan.@@wilsonwatt9283
@EmilyGreene1984 On her desk she had a plaque that read "Stamp out Opera."
Hauntingly beautiful. I absolutely love opera and I love Wagner but I cannot take really really loud sopranos... I know that is a bit ironic! Eileen Farrel makes the soprano voice tolerable for me with my sensitive ears because her voice is as smooth as silk!!
Wagner singers have to be loud and powerful. Big Orchestra
Farrell was really loud, but her voice was well coordinated so that it sounds soft and beautiful in addition to being very loud. Listen to young Kirsten Flagstad and you will hear the same silky sound. This level of coordination and singing is completely lost at the moment.
Gorgeous sound, not too many German words in there though.
Sorry.
fan-tas-tic.
What's strange about her otherwise superb singing is that she tends to become inaudible at the ends of phrases. Mild und leis .. Wie er laech .. It happens again and again.
To operafreak9,Do yourself a favor and never repeat that comment.One of your problems , as is the case with so many other dilatants is that you constantly making comparison while not now what you're talking about. In short. Shut up and just listen.
No one noticed her messing up the words towards the end? That’s what opera nerds are for. As to her career, first, by 1960 she was hampered by a top almost as short as Traubel’s, and second, I think it was never a question of management ignoring her, but more her professional diffidence and frankly lack of much interest in opera.
I only heard an extra syllable in "unbewusst" -- was there more?
@@user-bc9mn7gq2c I don’t have time to listen right now, but the mistakes occur in her confusing words in Wagner’s so-called ‘Stabreim’ form of rhyming. If you have a libretto handy you’ll see where she strays.
this amazing singer for me i have to say is on a par with Callas................her voice is sepuchral and so arresting
What world are you living in? You probably never heard Callas in person. Farrell is miles above her.
The one weakness I see in her performance, is that she's turning the attention towards her characterization, not the music. Expressions are there, but she's not into the sweep of it. The high breath is a symptom. Too much thinking. Gotta breath deep, and let go. Especially in Wagner. This music is titanic. Got to flow and sink in it.
Eat your heart out, Birgit Nilsson - Eileen did a better job.
The no-talent troll Emily strikes again. She loves to insult singers who had talent she will never have.
Ironically she hated Opera.
She has a grret voice, sings all the notes, but does anyone else find there is no sense of direction or undrstanding what she is singing. Wagner is drama, and sacred moments in human lives. I find none of that here. Nilsson is unbeatable.
operafreak9 The tempo is unusually fast but I really like how she made a huge deal out of the “wehendem all” line. If that's Not understanding I don't know what is.
Nilsson loved this version... You know... I think you don't understand... That we can have Nilsson and farrell singing in different way but equally magnificents. Wagner, in any case, want a totally different soprano for this role... Times and execution practices are constantly changing
Nilsson, Varnay, Mödl.
@@aliena2979 Yes.
A voice I have always liked, and a very honest performer, but the breath is quite high, and so there are unfortunately many chopped up phrases and a few intonation problems throughout the aria.
Pretty boring
????????
Coitadinho meu querido, és mesmo um coitadinho