14 Dramatic Sopranos sing the 'Ozean du Ungeheuer' climax (High C)
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- I have never seen a video in this format for dramatic sopranos so decided to make my own. Here 14 dramatic sopranos (born between 1872 and 1990) attempt the climax of Reiza's Ocean aria from Weber's Oberon.
In my opinion one of the most challenging pieces for the heavy soprano and very rarely sung for that reason. I think most handled it well here.
Featured artists:
Johanna Gadski
Lotte Lehmann
Elisabeth Ohms
Gertrud Bindernagel
Kirsten Flagstad
Maragarete Teschemacher
Gertrude Grob-Prandl
Astrid Varnay
Birgit Nilsson
Eileen Farrell
Maria Callas
Leonie Rysanek
Anitta Cerquetti
Christina Nilsson
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Some great singing here, thank you! Ingrid Bjoner also did a very respectable job with this treacherous aria. I recommend that recording of the complete Oberon.
And Varnay. She was unique. So musical.
Flagstad singing that high is such a delight... Nilson is the best technique tho.
To my surprise, I found that only Callas and Cerquetti (of whom I had never heard) really make sure the low notes in those jumps in 7ths and 6ths are clearly audible. The others touch them so lightly that they play no real role in the construction of the melodic line.
@@uliwidmaier5192.....I don't care about sopranos low notes and don't care about contraltos high notes. It's not where their glory lies. Who ever criticizes a tenor on his low notes? Double standard.... you bet!
Fantastic collection. They are nearly all incredible. Thank you for the unknown first Ladies. And to all of them for exploding their throat and lungs for our pleasure.
Flagstad, Grob Prandl and Nilsson. Mostly just judging the high Cs here and I prefer a cleaner attack which, I understand, is a bit more difficult for this aria. For the entire aria though, Eileen Farrell is pretty hard to beat.
Lotte Lehmann, Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson are my personal favorites but all are revelatory and a joy to hear...well almost all.
ASTRID VARNAY....... SUPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It sounds weierd but I prefer Johanna Gadski to others. The full record is amazing and for 1914 it's a miracle!
Thank you so much for this wonderful collection. I really love Eileen Farrell and Leonie Ryasanek .... but wow they all had great moments. Joan Sutherland sings this very well also!
I was thinking of including Sutherland but wasn’t sure if she would qualify as a dramatic soprano?
@@dramaticsoprano5168 opps...sorry. But she started out as a dramatic soprano....
@@dramaticsoprano5168
With her diction she’s nothing 😆
Sutherland slays this aria.
I thought the same. She slays this aria and her sound is very heroic. There is a 1955 early recording published by desiree records which is amazing. Huuugeee voice
Purtroppo la Callas rivela il periodo del suo declino e nel mezzo dello splendore sfolgorante delle altre risulta ancora più malinconico. La Cerquetti è la mia grande passione e in questo finale è un lampo d'oro puro. Grazie per la significativa selezione.
Grob-Prandl is stunning, and Cerquetti does a great job in Italian. But of these I liked Eileen Farrell the most. And admittedly, it's only a few bars of a big aria. There is also a version somewhere of Agnes Nicholls (Mrs Hamilton-Harty) singing a slightly abridged version in English.
Would be interesting to have heard Dame Eva Turner in this aria...
This is a wonderful collection of Dramatics. Thank you!
Simply great! My rating:
Varnay, Grob-Prandl, Flagstad, Nilsson, Rysanek, Lehmann, Teschemacher.
Varnay is the biggest of all))
There are four extremely musical, exciting and lovely recordings of this awfully written aria. Grobe-Prandl, Cerquetti, Farrell and Sutherland. Notice all the old-school singers treat the top C as a passing note C-B-B flat-D-E Flat. You gott hear the tension in the C. It's not a tonic/dominant money note. Nilsson completely ignores the harmonic tension, just nails the top C. Highly unmusical. Farrell is absolutely phenomenal. Very probably the best I've ever heard, with the passage bang on with the violins. Of course Ohms and Lehmann. But Farrell's is one of the greatest vocal recordings ever in my opinion.
If you check the score there is actually no B-flat after the C, I don’t know why so many slide down into one. Also the B is technically written as C-flat though equivalent of course. I agree with most of your comments, but am not a fan of doing a portamento into the C (Farrell). However, Farrell in the full piece is definitely one of my faves.
@@dramaticsoprano5168 Well my 19th century version of the score certainly prints Eb-C2-Cb2-Bb2-D-D-Eb, all done with a huge slur so in a way Weber asks for a portamento into the C2 which makles perfect musical sense. That's the way a violinist would phrase this cadenza in a concerto and i don't think singers should be an exception to the rule to produce the most fully rounded and secure money note. Hamonically aware singing comes for me first. That's an art that was gone gone gone by the tijme verismo mannerisms were encouraged in between WWs and by the 50s-60s when the biggest stars were operating it was mostly forgotten. What is de rigueur in Bach singing post the HIP revolution and is thankfully creeping back into Mozart is still largely overlooked elsewhere. Certainly the really musical singers of the german dramatic rep usually phrased with harmonic awareness and there's always Callas (not here) who used the soft palette to alter overtones and color the sound according to the progression. I hear it with Scotto, Farrell, Cerquetti, Lipovsek but nowadays it's gone when it was once part of the schooling and you hear 'harmonic' singing even with a cold fish like Melba. I always demonstrate this lack of harmonic awareness with Nilsson Vs Farrell in the cadenza and in Numi pieta pitting Callas against anyone else post 1930s. When you go for effects, you lose the sense of binding, of line, of what the composer was going after re harmony as a language depicting emotional states.
Harmonically-aware singing is part of the fabric of Western culture and was ever prevalent from folklore through popular music to opera. The versimo school (later technique) encouraged effects for their own sake and estranged opera from hramonically-aware singing. It's extremely pravalent in pop and rock singing up until the over-embellishment hurled upon us from the 1980s onwards. Actually originally embellishment (in soul music or any other kind of folklore music) served to puntcuate the harmony but in American pop music it has invariably begun to exist for its own sake. With opera when you compare Ponselle with Leontyne Price, Ponselle always sings with the deep undercurrent of folk music, sometimes it sounds as rich as a Neapolitan melody. With Price its "Opera" - completely estranged from the folk quality. I don't mean it in the way of technique, just the sheer ability to color the harmony and make the music sound as simple as folk music. It is also always evident with Farrell with her Irish background. So there's a firm basis of folklore music which renders harmonically-aware richness to everything she did. We lost that quality of simple musicianship and replaced it with technical aplomb which in the last decades turned into... not much for the 19th century main repertoire.
@@kedemberger8773 My bad, I just checked again and it is there, I must have read the wrong line. Thank you for your very interesting comments!
@@dramaticsoprano5168 My pleasure. Love your channel. BTW if you want to check out the most beautifully endowed recent singer I've heard with the most absolutely gloriously secure top, check out Cardiff's 2nd runner from 2021 I think, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, the kind of security, fullness and innate musicianship I havent heard in a long time. A real spinto.
Bindernagel Nilsson and Grob Prandl
Wonderful collection. It’s too bad however, that only Callas was not captured in her prime. The result would have better represented her among such illustrious singers.
Varnay is super!
They're all great, but Callas was recorded about ten years past her vocal prime. I would love to have heard her sing this before her massive weight loss, after which her voice was never the same. From what I have heard, Flagstad, Grob-Prandl, and Farrell probably had the biggest, flooding voices. Of course Nilsson was unique with her amazing projection.
@@dramaticsoprano5168 I've heard that Grob-Prandl voice was not only well project and loud, but also equal in colour and sound in all register. Ingmar Seefried said "When Grob-Prandl sang Turandot at the Wiener Staatsoper, the walls shook".
It's true: it's nit fair to put a recording that Callas song without voice specially when the others are in top vocal conditions.
I think Astrid Varnay also had a very big, heavy, huge voice.
@@hugoarmasaustria1732 Maria had lost control at this point.
This video proves Callas wasn't a dramatic soprano. She was a dramatic coloratura which is very different. A dramatic soprano, remains dramatic. She may become mezzo but the weight and steel in the voice remains. Callas ended up singing in falsetto.
Leontyne Price’s recording is well worth listening to.
Ryzanek ,Cerquetti ,Varnay , Flagstadt.
Pour Callas je ne peux pas juger car cet enregistrement est très tardif , à une époque où l'illustre cantatrice ne possédait plus les moyens de chanter cela .Il aurait fallu avoir un document de cet air au début des années cinquante ,et là sans aucun doute ,elle serait en tête du palmarès .
I think the only problem with Callas was the top C, the coloratura was still excellent. She also sang it in English which has much harder vowels imo.
@@dramaticsoprano5168 oui je suis d'accord ,c'est bien le contre Ut qui lui pose des problèmes à cette époque .Et c'est vrai que tout le reste de l'air est assez convaincant.Meme la petite vocalise descendante vers la fin ,qui n'est pas si facile à faire ,est rendue par Callas avec beaucoup de précision ( les restes d'une excellente école de chant ).
There is a complete live version of Callas in which she was in much better voice! It's very good
@@pbt6775 je ne connais pas de version live de cet air d'Oberon , chanté par Callas .Sauf peut être lors de ses concerts de fin de carrière au début des années 70 ,et ce n'est pas convaincant .C'est dommage de ne pas avoir de témoignage du début des années 50 ,car elle avait la voix pour ça .
@@pbt6775 Do you have a link? I have found her London 1962 and Paris 1963 concert performances and she seems to be in similar voice?
Great collection:
My rating:
1.the electrifying Gertrud Grob- Prandl.
2.Leonie Rysanek
3. Kirsten Flagstad
Lehmann, Flagstad, Varnay, Callas.
Not really a fan of the tempo in Varnay’s rendition. Also seems she struggles with the ascending scale in the run (as does Flagstad).
I was very surprised by the accuracy and speed of the first singer who I just discovered today. Lehmann of course has great accuracy also.
@@dramaticsoprano5168 But Varnay’s coloratura in Lady Macbeth’s aria is way better than Nilsson’s. Not everyone is Callas.
Lol.....Callas was absolutely horribly tight and wobbly in this. I love her in coloratura bel canto however..
@@jimbuxton2187 she was out of her prime, that's why
I have another contribution: Chloe Owen, which I shall endeavor to post forthwith.
Just imagine DIMITROVA singing this/
All do a fine job, IMO. My personal preferences go to Grob-Prandl, Rysanek, BIrgit (perhaps numero uno) NIllson, & Cerquetti. Also not featured here but worth considering is Karitta Mattila who,although lighter of voice than many here, is still very impressive IMO.
Thank you. I like these comparisons! I miss Helene Wildbrunn, one of the greatests Hochdramatischen ever; interesting is also Schröder Feinen, anyway a real unbelievable big voice, also in the middle area. We all miss of course Bahr-Mildenburg (Gustavs Mahler lover): she sang marvellous just the beginning. Also interesting to compare jus the beginning of all those ladies! Again: thank you!
Elizabeth Connell also sings this go look it up you can thank me for it later
I have just listened and she is excellent! The diction and interpretation are astounding. Others who sang in English (Callas and Sutherland) are unintelligible.
She was such a brilliant technician huge voice but clear as a bell
Lotte Lehman was a real lyric soprano that belong in opera. She was not even a spinto soprano.
Oh, I agree, but she sang roles that were conceived of as 'for' spinto and dramatic sopranos so I included her. A lot of the ladies featured in this video (and others on my channel) are not really dramatic sopranos naturally.
@@dramaticsoprano5168 Lotte Lehmann is the definition of how a real lyric soprano should sound like.
@@beachfanatic2010 How can you even guess the size from these very primitive recordings?
@@tsquare076 It is not very primitive at all. She also considered herself a lyric soprano. She did not considered herself a spinto. There are many interviews and documentary.
@@beachfanatic2010 but certainly she's much much louder than other lyrics like freni or scotto no?
La primera voz en un momento grita o me pareció ?
0:29 What was that?? That must be so loud in person
ewa plonka would be a perfect match for this role
oh you just remind me of that thx🌷🌷and also what vocal type do you think she is? a spinto or merely a lyric?
okay i see🤔guess modern techs does make things more deceptive
In this compilation i liked Birgit Nilsson the most, even for the most secure high C, but very near comes Eileen Farrell. A good laugh was to listen to Johanna Gadski with her desperate scream and Florence Foster Jenkins qualities. I'm surprised that she let this recording be published.
To be fair, Gadski's recording is being played about 4-5% too fast which does make her sound a bit thinner and shriller than she actually was. Also it's worth mentioning the age of the recording (1914) means that it probably fails to capture the overtones or size of her voice properly.
Despite this, her agility is one of the best in the video.
@@dramaticsoprano5168 , the faster playing is maybe really a reason for the shrill high C here. And to be honest- i never heard her singing a C like this, she's a remarkable soprano. That isn't her standard and so i wrote that i was surprised about the release of the recording. I didn't wanted to injure someone with my comment. Regards :)
It's not fair: La Callas had lost her voice when she recorded it, while the others are on top voice conditions.
The ending is strange... after all great ladies
My favorite for this aria is Maria Callas, however NOT this particular recording, where she is having some serious vocal problems. There's a much better earlier recording of her singing this, though I'm not sure when. My favorite of THESE recordings is Eileen Farrell. Too bad Sutherland is missing. Hers was very good also. Thank you for posting.
All of Maria Callas’s recordings of this piece, live and studio, are from 1962 and 1963.
The video should end at 04:55 - no need to continue.
Farrell sings this really well....
Brava, Callas.
And where is Florence Austral???
To 05:28
Why is posted here the "turkey-sound" of Maria Kalogeropoulou?
This recording should not be published.
@@hansjancker5057 why?
callas is the best
@@judygarland7186
Yes.
But only for gay boys.
Not for heteros.
@@achmedmohamed4708 someone's sexuality has nothing to do with appreciating Callas' voice and what she has achieved
The last one must be a bad joke...
I tend to include some modern singers in my compilations just for comparisons sake and also did so in my new Isolde video.
Would people prefer I just stick to the 'greats'?
@@dramaticsoprano5168 your videos are great and it's good that you can see the difference...
I disagree!
I'd add Moser. She recorded the aria quite late in her career, when the illness affected her voice, but the result is still interesting (at least without wobbles, compared to another unnamed lady included in this selection). ua-cam.com/video/N74AiC02Adw/v-deo.html
На мой взгляд, лучшие Ohms, Grob-Prandl, Flagstad, Farrell. Оценить по достоинству ноту Флагстад может помешать та непринуждённость и лёгкость, с которой Кирстен её берёт (как раз это меня особенно восхищает). Если обратить внимание, как спето всё кроме верхней ноты, то на последнем месте окажется Б.Нильссон, а на первом, скорее всего, все-таки Каллас.
No Sutherland?? Blessings on all those who _did not_ portamento up to the High C. The wonderful surprises for me were Varnay and Grob-Prandl. I also prefer the versions that are sung at a reasonable tempo. The music is exciting enough without making it sound frantic or breathless!
Maria sang it better in the live version from the Royal Festival Hall in 1961!
Only the ones born last century plus Flagstaff qualify for the competition
All great though
Cerchetti seems on fire 🔥
( the ones from the ninteeeth century had much smaller physical configuration, being shorter with smaller chests: they sung with the sgolato style but they were limited in comparison with the others; when I hear their highest notes I think of myself trying the same; pathetic…
Yes it’s written often in the comments… Sutherland, Sutherland and only Sutherland can ‘sing’ the arias climax
29.3.2022 Da grande ammiratore della Callas devo dire che in questi confronti è vocalmente la peggiore. Sempre la salva la forza dell " accento.
Why does Callas sound so awful here?
because it's incredibly late in her career, she had lost her voice
Cerquetti was a dramatic soprano and Christina Nilsson is a lyric while Callas sounds like a strangled cat.
Almost always the same assessment of Callas as far as I am concerned.
@@Operafreak9 this was a bad c6 from callas though, she has much better, this was terrible and out of her prime
Probably Grob-Prandl is the most exciting and Farrell is also fine. Flagstad to be sure with her rich middle. Rysanek has
splendid top notes (as always) - Callas is an abomination huge vocal spread on the high notes, almost unlistenable.
Nilsson recorded the full opera but Rezia's other arias are a bit florid for Nilsson.
this was a bad c6 from callas that was not in her prime