Mirella Freni and Nicole Car sing Mimi from Puccini's "La Boheme"
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- Опубліковано 11 жов 2024
- There have been many great Sopranos over the last 100 years who sang wonderful Mimis. And the most famous one might very well be MIRELLA FRENI. Freni hat the voice and the look of an angel and was pretty much untouchable in this role until - well, until I stumbled across a video from Covent Garden from 2018 and saw and heard the Australian soprano NICOLE CAR performing Mimi’s aria. And I was pretty much blown away. Is there a new "Mimi" in town?
Originalvideos:
Mirella Freni • La Boheme 2 - Mirella ...
Nicole Car • La bohème - Si mi chia...
Köstlich
OMG, these videos are killing me. I think I'm just too weak. When Mireilla sings Mimi, tears roll, such depth of feeling, even Zefirelli can't change that. And with Nicole? There too, but in a different, lighter way. At the same time, the comments make me laugh again. Wow, what a change in the early morning. I think - that's opera! Thank you Peter!
By the way, I remember seeing and hearing Mirella (not Mireilla) as Mimi live in the 85s at the Vienna State Opera together with her buddy Big P. The theatre was upside down then!
If you think YOU are weak then you should see the outtakes from my filming - can't share those with the viewers because they would think that I have permanent emotional breakdowns 😄 Yeah, Freni is magnificent but I can't help to favor Car. The range of emotions she is conveying through her facial expressions, her body language and the amazing singing, all this combined makes her in my opinion a "real person" whilst Freni always remains an opera singer 🤷♂️
Of course she and Big P were beloved by everyone, and rightly so!!!
Both amazing artists in their own unique ways. Nicole gets my vote….she gives such a complete performance….Freni might have a more luxurious tone, but Car is stunning
Yeah, in the end it's completely irrelevant: both are amazing artists. And then it's just about personal preferences. But I really love the natural way Nicole acts and behaves on stage, it's so relatable and real.
Thank you for your comment 🙂
Very difficult indeed! I am not one to put the singers from “once upon a time” on a pedestal, I welcome enthusiastically new beautiful modern singers like Nicole, I appreciate the freshness, the liveliness, the “spontaneity” - which I am sure is rehearsed in the smallest detail, as we know Richard Jones- while all the time beautifully sung. But. Mirella Freni sets the singing standard so high, her voice is pure emotion and perfection at the same time, if that’s possible. That’s opera, too. So, I will not choose a favorite here. But thank you for the opportunity to listen so carefully to both of them, with all the smiles inbetween :)
Thank you for your lovely and obviously very knowledgeable comment! There is a reason why they deem Freni to be the gold standard for singing Mimi. I am still with „Team Car“ though but I totally get why there are many very good reasons to be a member of „team Freni“ 😄
Mirela Freni is a singer to listen to without fear. She never made mistakes, and always found it easy to reach and sustain the high notes. He was excellent, despite her voice being a bit strong for some ears, and sometimes some difficulty with the pianissimos. Nicole Car sang wonderfully too. Ma quando vien lo sgelo.... so, so, so romantic, so beautiful, so moving.... Both singers sang it fantastically. I've always loved this second part of the aria.... ma i fior ch'io faccio, ahimè, non hanno odore.... so sad, and lonely. I prefer the ahimè of Mirela Freni, that seems much to Ohimè... I prefer the second pronounciation....lol. Thank you for such a delicate perception of the intensity of opera compositions.
Thank you for your wonderful and thoughtful comment 😊
i loved this video! i think Mirella Freni has, most definitely, the better voice-it is otherworldly. Her subtle interpretation, too, is touching and multifaceted. i still find myself endlessly won over by Nicole Car’s performance-her voice is beautiful but the acting is so so wonderful. she is not self-possessed like Freni’s but her lack of manner and composure also alludes to her loneliness-making the ending all the more heartbreaking, as these are simply two poor, lonely people, who only really have each other. Car imbues her with such charming oddness that I’m won over by Mimi within the first minute, when in some other interpretations i’m not won over at all. I also think the difference can be attributed to, at least in part, the difference in mediums: Freni is acting for a camera, Car for a stage (and thus must “overact”). both are just incredible versions of some of the most beautiful three minutes of music, maybe ever made. Thank you for the insightful video and chanel!
Thank you for your comment and your kind words! I am happy you enjoyed watching the video. I only wished you had written me with those exact words before I made my video (a paradox, I know 😄) The way you speak about the interpretations of these two amazing women - I wished I could have incorporated your words in the video 😊🙏
Ich hab mich heute bei Deinem Video mehr amüsiert, als gestern in der Staatsoper. Einfach köstlich ❤
Ich freu mich, dass du das Video mochtest, aber das live Erlebnis von Boheme ist halt trotzdem unschlagbar, oder? 😊
Mirella Freni, no hesitation, even if Nicole Car is doing a fantastic job. I'll try to find a complete version of La Boheme with Nicole Car, that should be something.
Btw, I remember something. In the 90's, I was visiting the Fontevraud abbay (where Richard Heart of Gold and his mother Alienor d'Aquitaine are buried), when I entered in the refectory, a big big room, there was a famous diva (shame I can't remember her name) giving a master class to a young soprano and it was this aria. So unexpected !!! I put myself very discreetly in a small corner and stayed until the end. The young soprano was good, but when the diva was singing, and specialy when she was showing her how to sing the second part (ma.....), oh my god, chills and tears ... Incredible moment.
Thank you for your comments and especially for this wonderful story about witnessing this obviously very special masterclass. Isn't it a miracle how music unexpectedly can make us so emotional? Out of nothing? One second we are perfectly normal and then we hear just one accord or one line of a melody and we can't hold back the tears...
I prefer Car for her very charming characterization. Even though Freni has a delicate, beautiful tone, I don't like watching productions that have been lip-synched. They feel lifeless, somehow. The physicality of singing has always been one of the things that make opera special for me. My favorite Mimi, though, is Ileana Cortrubas, in the 1982 Royal Opera production with Shicoff. I remember feeling the wave of chills running down my spine as she began that second part of the aria in question -- and though I've heard this aria many, many time, it still gets me. Federica Lombardi is also an astonishingly effective Mimi -- I love Mario Martone's filmed version from 2022. It's perhaps the only semi-lip-synched version that doesn't actually feel lifeless. Plus, Tetelman and Davide Luciano, you know.
I am glad you mentioned Cotrubas! Her voice has this very unique timbre which never fails to touch me
Okay, this is genuinely difficult. I tend to prefer the more complex approach Freni takes, trusting in the audiences ability to recognize several contrasting emotions and empathizing with all of them at the same time. On the other hand it is nigh impossuble not to be charmed by Cars more unfiltered approach. So I reckon my favourite will depend on my current mood. Right now, Nicole Car cheers me up, so I‘ll give this one to her for now.
Cheers!
As always a very thoughtful answer. And it’s true (and strange): in contrast to cookie dough ice cream- just a random example - which I could devour day and night independent from my mood music affects us every day and every moment very differently depending on our emotional state… And of course it was a stupid question to begin with and there is absolutely no need to choose. They are both great and basta 😄
Well it makes sense that Mirella Frena is good when she sings , ma... ,because she is italian. To foreign singer , ma, signify nothing
well, we can assume that foreign singers will at least try to inform themselves about the language when singing Italian operas. So "ma" will mean something to them as well. Take for example Maria Callas and her famous "ma" - and she was Greek 🙂