Professional Singer Reacts to Queen of the Night
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- Опубліковано 30 жов 2022
- The great Diana Damrau performs the famous aria 'Der hölle rache', better known as the Queen of the Night Aria in the Royal Opera House's production of Die Zauberflöte by Mozart.
Please enjoy this breakdown + analysis of Diana Damrau's performance of Die Hölle Rache. Please feel free to watch the original video, which is linked below.
Thank you to the @RoyalOperaHouse for the video!
Original Video:
• The Magic Flute - Quee...
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I hope you enjoyed this video! What should I react to next? Let me know in the comments ⬇
Watch amadeus and you will understand a loot about mozart and salieri and his music its a 3 hours film
Us old ladies? My mom is German and I grew up on this stuff. I didn’t like it as a teenager but I went to my first opera at 29
i mean, where to start, nick? casta diva?
Diana Damrau really capture the spirit of the Queen of the Night. She is like Hecate made flesh. Thank you for the video.
This aria is so wonderful and Diana Damrau ruled it, she owned it, she killed the game as usual! I am addicted to this :)
She is incredible!
U should listen to Patricia Petibon. She’s my all time fav❤
@@nickhiggsthesinger tbh her pronunciation/comprehensibility is awful; in my opinion Robin does it much better in ua-cam.com/video/KQ_3gVL5790/v-deo.html
That being said, neither does he have to do the role nor to project quite that much (that recording was apparently a semi-spontaneous fun addon at a meet).
The rolling of the r is more common to the bavarian-austrian speakers so he’s got it down as Mozart intended, of course.
@@nickhiggsthesinger I like Edda Moser and Anna Maria Alberghetti. Both are technicallly superior, bringing more chest into their top notes, and Alberghetti's stacatti are just more crisp and precise!
@@nickhiggsthesinger This is a quite late comment, but please react to the rendition of this same aria by Cristina Deutekom and listen to how she sings it. More quasi-wagnerian, just like Mozart intended the singer to do. Please, can you do that?
So pleasant to see young people who keep the legacy of universal culture alive. Thanks.
❤❤❤❤❤🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹
Update! ... I've just listened to a few others and can still confirm that Diana is probably the best all round! ❤
She is incredible and very well known as being one of the best to ever do it!
@@nickhiggsthesinger Deutekom and Edda Moser offer a meatier performance vocally, but Diana is acting the role to perfection.
Absolutely. The other singers do just that - sing. But they don't act. Damrau IS the queen of the night, she IS the character.
Acting and drama wise she is best voice for me is excellent as well. But i agree with pureffm and Deutekom is the only one who can sing it to perfection. Here acting might not what Americans like but then again they never lived under a queen and like dramatic overexpressions unlike Deutekom who lived basically all her life under a real queen and she is just like her on stage.
The "flat sixth moment" get me every time for the way Damrau's arms perfectly echo the V-shape in clouds behind her. Her power is to command the night, and the pose powerfully underscores that. Absolutely perfect, and just another of the thousands of tiny details that make this the very best staging of Zauberflote of all time.
As far as "did Mozart write this for someone he hated," I can't say. But it's not unheard of. Patti LuPone once commented that Andrew Lloyd Weber must hate women, given the near-impossibility of some of the notes and phrases he makes them sing.
I wish I had discovered how much I like opera when I was younger and not 58.
I agree. I just discovered I loved opera at 56 yrs old. Now I am willing to travel to Europe just to see a specific opera, opera house or singer
It's never too late to appreciate and enjoy good, quality music. 😊
This performance of Diana Damrau woke my interest in opera. She is so brilliant and sinister in this scene. And what an actress. In real life she is a humble down to earth super-nice person. I am an absolute rookie when it comes to opera but I enjoy my discovery-journey.
For those who are curious about this history of this role/aria:
The role of the Queen of the Night was composed especially for Josepha Weber Hofer, who was Mozart’s sister in law. At the time, she was considered to be the best coloratura soprano in Germany/Austria. She was very young at the time of the premier of the opera but her age did hinder her technical ability or status during her career.
Did or didn't?
I too would like the answer to whether her young age was a hinderance, which I suspect it was not?
What? Did or didn't?
come on, people, klass obviously meant to write "did not"--look at the "or" which would have been an "and" if he meant that hofer was hindered
Fun fact: on his deathbed, Mozart whispered to his wife how great Hofer was singing Queen of the Night. He died five weeks after Die Zauberflote opened to great success, so you could say he went out on a...umm... high note.
Wow! Her vocal chords give me goosebumps every time. I loved that you analyzed it theatrically and musically. Also thank you for your great information about the original lyrics and explaining it. I wish more people would see your videos and reels, Nick! You’re the best❤
Thank you Sima!!
My 4 year old daughter loves watching this aria. She decided that she wants to be The Queen of the Night for Halloween this year. I told her a lot of people might not know who she is. I was just being honest. So to help her I decided that I would go as Papageno and my husband as Mozart. I’m still not sure if people will know who we are but we will post pictures on Reddit to enjoy the comments. It will be one of the best Halloween trios of the night!!!!
She might get mistaken for Maleficient. Btw who cares if people will know who you represent as long as the mask is so cool
Please post a link to the costume photos. I’d love to see them.
Your husband could have gone as papageno and you as papagena
Lady Damrau is truly a queen and Maestra. Those high F's thooo wow. They must be perfectly in tune to match with the flutes/winds which are completely exposed there...wow...0_o!
For me the most impressive vocal moment in the aria is the Triplets at 9:46 there’s a very easy trap of just scooping the notes instead of hitting each one and Diana does this moment with such perfection it’s soooo insane for me❣️❣️❣️❣️
omg - what beauty in sound! what a voice - what an opera - what a composer ...
I always interpreted Sarastro as being the Queen's ex and Pamina's father - she is living with her mentally ill mother, who has been gradually and steadily getting worse, and her father has been trying to figure out a way to get her out, but now this has reached a previously unimaginable level. And this production, and Damrau's singing, captures this sort of intensity and dynamic perfectly.
Diana's vowel modification during the staccati was amazing!
I’d kinda love a hint as to how to sing these staccati. I tried transposing the whole thing down one octave or even two octaves, so it’s not where in the range they lie but… well. Use the diaphragm… but, how at that tempo?
Watching Ms Damrau’s “Queen of the Night” powerful delivery, I have goosebumps each and every time.
A lot of people have said what a wonderful actress... I would go further and say: what a wonderful dancer, along with the chorus of attendants.This aria has been choreographed perfectly to marry the requirements of the singing body to the expression of regal power, intimidation, manipulation. And distill the rhythms of the piece. And even paint shapes into the set design with her magnificent costume. The whole team is here.
If I were on a desert island and could only listen to one opera aria ever again, it would be this one! And it would be this performance...fantastic! :-)
I agree
Me too. Goosebumps every single time.
11:50 The background colouring perfectly matches the colours of the dress (almost black ... which makes the queen seem like a "floating bust").
A very VERY well choreographed performance!
I just love this opera, seen it so many times and never tire of it!
Very nice video! I throughly agree with everything you said. When you mentioned the work of the body to hit the high notes, I realized I never noticed that before. I had seen this aria done in "Amadeus" where the Queen of the Night was standing still. When I saw Diana moving across the stage, that blew my mind! Great video, enjoyed every moment of it!
Thank you so much!!!
Yeah, how it's done in the movie is what's sometimes known as "park and bark", and was quite typical for soprano arias but in recent times has fallen out of favour in order to increase options for dramatic expression which come with enabling mobility. Despite that, nobody would begrudge a performer that preferred to park and bark for this role, which only makes it so much more impressive how Damrau makes full use of the stage while singing it.
An absolutely excellent choice. Diana really does it for me! Her vocal power and range is fantastic. Not only is she a brilliant opera singer but also a wonderful actress ❤ Your analysis was as I see it, spot on ❤
Thank you so much! I have done quite a few classical music / opera reactions, please check those out as well :)
Man, the best analysis i've listened to so far... This is great and very helpful as well... Thanks so much
Glad it was helpful!
Diana Damrau's performance is to Queen of the Night as Pavarotti's is to Nessun Dorma.
Her approach to the character is my favorite: she played the Queen of the Night as a comic book villain.
what thee says about singing's being a full body exercise is so true. I've always gauged how much I was working on my singing, either at a concert or a rehearsal, by how tired I was afterwards.
Thank you for dissecting this aria. It adds so much more to the understanding of the artist and her performance. Again, thank YOU!
Diana is amazing of course, but props to the director, makep artist and scenery designer! Truly perfect! Also the ladies-in-waiting, hemming poor Pamina in. Scary
It's one thing to hit the notes but totally another to convey the character and That Diana
does it so powerfully. She is definitely my favorite for this major coloratura aria 💥
Sem demérito de todas as demais sopranos, que cantam e interpretam essa ária, Diana é perfeita; quase que como se a ária tivesse sido composta para ela. ❤💐👏👏👏
Because she is a native German speaker, it sounds more organic.
Marvellous! Both the coloratura and the analyst. Loved every moment. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
What makes Diana's performance so iconic compared to so many others I've seen is the acting and intensity and drama she is able to bring WHILE hitting every single not spot on. If you didn't know a single thing about the plot of this opera or the lyrics or anything and saw this performance, you'd have a pretty bang on idea what was happening. You FEEL the hoelle Rache.
OMG. I was looking for the Dimash videos you mentioned in reply to a comment to another vid, and see you checked out my absolute favorite performance of this aria. It’s a true, dynamic performance, which is tough to do when you have to sing something this difficult at the same time. Her stressed notes are like poisoned darts, and you can see how seasoned she is as a singer-the way she positions her body and uses her mouth, even her teeth, to help nail those high notes. You’re right that this is pretty much an unbeatable performance.
I have read somewhere that Mozart wrote this for his sister-in-law, to showcase her incredible range. Some articles suggest he also didn’t like her so he wanted to put her out there onstage with a truly difficult aria that she would have to sing before an audience nightly. It actually does sound plausible since at the time it had never been done before. Would be a way to take her down a notch if she wasn’t up to it. But tangible proof? It is probably one of those apocryphal stories that we’ll never know for sure.
If you’re bored one day, there’s a video of Dimash warming up for a performance onstage, and he’s just singing these staccato notes like they’re nothing.
It is said that on his death bed, Mozart had a flashback to that flat-6 moment. "Quiet, quiet! Hofer is just taking her top F; - now my sister-in-law is singing her second aria, 'Der Hölle Rache'; how strongly she strikes and holds the B-flat."
She was probably feeling good that night, too. Smooth as silk.
I'm glad I discovered your channel, especially with this aria. Mozart was a genius. This scene is one of my favorites. The staging is superb. Diana Damrau is fantastic. Thanks for the analysis. I look forward to more.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Really great explanation of a classic piece. You made me re experience it. Just awesome - thanks.
So incredible I would love to see that performance in person.
Thank you for this video
My pleasure
Damrau is my favourite Queen of the Night! Amazing performance.
I've watched a few singers perform this aria, all spectacularly well. But Damrau conquers them all in the way she inhabits the role. I think a lot of singers seem a little vague about what those staccato segments really mean; they're just trying to achieve them with perfection, and technically absolutely do. But Diana Damrau knows exactly what she means when she sings them at Pamina. She's not "laughing." A lot of reviewers/analysts talk about those sections as laughter, but not here. She's threatening. She's like the knife she wants to put in her daughter's hands, killing her hated husband. She's absolutely lethal. God, I love this performance.
I love your tutorials! Mozart's music speaks for itself. Historians speculate, because it is what historians do. Speculation is not all bad. It was curiosity that motivated a 1979 Broadway Play, later a move (Amadeus) that reawakened an entirely new generation of interest in this remarkable, truly gifted by the Creator man.
She's the best! Great review!!
Thanks so much! Have you seen any of my others? I have a few classical music/opera reactions on here
Diana Damrau and Mozart waited a long time for each other.
Diana Damrau is my Queen of the Night! She's perfect for the role!
i always think opera singers are amazing, and then I remember that they're belting everything out on top of 100 musicians also belting everything out, and i remember they're AMAZING amazing.
Nice analysis !
Definitely the finest performance of all time of this aria! (Haven't heard those before around the 1930s but suspect that none would be at this level.)
The thing I enjoyed most, beyond Diana setting the 'Gold' standard for this is precisely how it should always be sung, is the acting. The QoN is usually rather stationary if not fully stationary. She changed this and worked the stage. This became Diana Damrau in 'Die Zauberflote' by mozart and yes, little m
Nailed it 👍 great job ❤
Thank you for explaining to me what's going on in this aria. Now fully appreciate aria even more now.
Very interesting Nick... great job
Glad you enjoyed it
great analysis!
Thank you!
What you missed is the effectiveness of Damrau's use of props to convey the emotion like when she flings the coucg cover at Pamina
I have know real understanding of opera or singing. Just love the music. Thank you for a little insight
She is so beautiful. In every way.
You were right on point, guessing that the first performer of the Queen of the Night's part - Josepha Hofer (nee Weber) - indeed was Mozart's family member - being a sister of his wife. However, not out of spite or with tormenting intent, and not to sabotage deliberately - by giving the part to a bad singer, but to exalt and extol his music, Mozart just used the given virtuoso skills and vocal gifts of his sister-in-law, which she demonstrated with aptitude, and not just at the higly successful premiere night - under the batton of Mozart himself, but for the next 10 years - to universal acclaim.
I love how Damrau attacks and then backs off of so many of the notes, like they were knife stabs. She’s incomparable!
That woman is SCARY! 😱
Further analyzing her body language, not only does she whisk away as if in a puff of smoke, but instead of storming off, her shoulders rest and she walks levelly away. She's delivered her emotionally abusive tirade and then walked away, relaxed and calm once again. Classic abusive mother. Well done.
Great review! I thought this guy was a micro managing dick, but at the 5 minute mark I understood his approach. It's technical and well informed from a professional of the art. Well done.
Thank you 😅
As a total amatuer, I’ve tried singing this (my sister is in a professional opera) and I find the part at 9:43 WAAAY harder than the coloratura.
And her Acting is wonderful. Shes so scary.
She really is
Often overlooked is the aria preceding the Hölle Rache, the "Zittre nicht, mein Lieber Sohn", my personal favorite, where Damrau's exceptional talent of voice and acting works like a steam roller...
It was Mozart’s sister who first performed the Queen of the Night, whom he loved very much. The character is fictional but Empress Maria Theresa could have been one inspiration, since she wanted to stamp out Freemasonry of which Mozart was a member and this opera is loosely about.
Sister-in-law.
@@lohphatYes, Josepha Hoffer, nee Weber.
the best ever, including gracenotes before the sixteens
Not bad at all. Your German pronunciation is pretty good. Mine pretty much sucks as I've almost forgotten how to speak my original language.
Thanks!
Try watching movies in German.
I just laughed at Sarastro’s costume 😂😂 that must have been a really creative production
Sei veramente preparato e competente. Congratulazioni.
E sei anche un bel ragazzo.
Well, this piece ends on a B-flat D Minor and there’s also a lot of octave jumping between the upper and lower register
The most iconic mother screams at her daughter
Would you perhaps be interested in doing a similar reaction video to a performance of the Papageno/Papagena duet? Some of that stuff seems impossible to me to sing (how the hell do they sing pa-pa-pa-pa that fast xd?), yet opera singers routinely do it with little visible difficulty.
Hello Nick. , I completely screwed this aria thanks to you, for the first time👍🏻
Andy aus Deutschland 😉
Love this aria ❤ and you do a very engaging job of dissecting it for us normal people. What else do you do?
4:42 As a trumpet player, my lips can vibrate that fast :)
I cannot imagine anybody singing this aria better than Diana Damrau. I think Mozart would agree with me
I have seen technically excellent performances of this aria, as good as this one, but none comes close in terms of emotional intensity. You notice that she feels and lives every single word she sings. This is a prime example for showcasing that singing opera is so much more than reproducing nice sounds.
Cristina Deutekom destroys damrau...
Adelina Patti - Cristina Deutekom, Diana has better acting skills than any other coloratura soprano who sings this aria, but her technique is not appropriate at all.
I can think of at least five: Deutekom, Popp, Moser, Streich, and Sutherland. I will have to compare one of Edita Gruberova’s better efforts, but she might be in there also.
Mozart wrote this piece for his niece/cousin/who knows to show off her incredible range .and versatility.. So this wasn't a disgruntled revenge song......however he did write a song for his critics titled "Kiss My Ass." ..............I'm not making that up. It's on here. Nothing but poop jokes. Written for and sung by a boys choir. And yeah, she does the crazy eyes a little too well...
Edit: Okay, maybe I'm not entirely right. I went looking for sources, and .apparently he was also pissed off with his mother-in-law and her constant naggitty nagging. That might be just another part of the theme though, as it is undisputed she wrote it for the sister in law's range.
Mozart wrote that aria for his sistere-in-law Josepha Hofer but he didn't hate her, instead he made it so difficult because he knew she could pull it off. He was right and was very impressed with her performance.
Merci!
Thank you so much!!!!
There is a UA-cam-Video of Verdis "I Lombardi alla prima crociata"! Would be nice to have Your comments, what You think about! Its my most beloved opera in that production! With Michele Pertusi, Dimitra Theodossiou and Francesco Meli! Best Regards from Austria!
One thing You should bear in mind is that Damrau is a natural German speaker. Italian is an open language, which means that every syllabel ends on a vowel. German is rather the opposite where the vowel is hidden between consonants.
You should note how she starts on tip-toe and has to be VERY carefull in building up the crescendo, because she will crack one of the high F's. She probably did, and pensioned herself off the role. Erika Köth once did that, and say she could not sing it, because her throat stiffend up.
The other thing is, You can't set it down a notch, because then Sarastro in second Act will be in deep shit.
In diesen Heil'gen Hallen goes deep - real deep. Here with Gottlob Frick:
ua-cam.com/video/ryi39iYKmnk/v-deo.html
One should recall that Mozart died two months after the opera opened.
Lol he wrote himself to death
Don Giovanni - Commendatore Scene. Seriously intimidating!
I'm scared to suggest another aria. Lol thanks for the details.
The Great Diana really captured the spirit of the Queen of the Night, like a Hecate made flesh. Every single sound hits like enraged knife, she even have some of the gestures for a spell. The dress and hair is perfect, she only need a black ringling tatoo on her left side of the face like a farrow. That would have been more sinister and more in conform with tradition of ancient times.
This is my favorite Minbari opera!
Queen Diana Damrau!!!!!!
I always heard that he wrote it for his sister to sing, to show off her coloratura talents ... But absolutely no credible sources
I haven’t heart that one!
Woow!😍😍😍😊
Какой Вы умница.
simple she is unbeleiveable
❤❤
you know what was hard. to kneel down on the bed or what ever it is and keep on singing not missing a beat and tone to completely change body position
Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen,
Tod und Verzweiflung flammet um mich her!
Fühlt nicht durch dich Sarastro Todesschmerzen,
So bist du meine Tochter nimmermehr:
Verstossen sei auf ewig,
Verlassen sei auf ewig,
Zertrümmert sei'n auf ewig
Alle Bande der Natur.
Wenn nicht durch dich Sarastro wird erblassen!
Hört, Rachegötter, hört der Mutter Schwur![1]
Hell's vengeance boils in my heart,
Death and despair blaze about me!
If Sarastro doesn't feel the pain of death through you,
Then you will not be my daughter anymore:
Disowned be you forever,
Abandoned be you forever,
Destroyed be forever
All the bonds of nature.
If not through you Sarastro will turn pale!
Hear, gods of revenge, hear the mother's oath!
i read once that it was written for his sister-in-law who was capable of the needed range.
She is putting a "magical spell" or a "magical charm" on her daughter to force her to obey to her order.
Yep!
Of course the very next aria is the exact opposite--and also a much-,performed classic. Sarastro's "In Diesen Heiligen Mauen" is calm, warm, reassuring, and balances the Queen's high f with his own f 4 octaves lower. I love that Mozart placed the highest pitch and the lowest pitch of the entire opera right next to each other.
could you please include the date of the productions you are highlighting> thank you in advance.
Sure!
My guess is, Mozart may have written this aria to make full use of a particular singer's exceptional ability - as Benjamin Britten did when writing the solo parts of his Serenade for tenor voice, French horn and orchestra - because, if he had written something which the soprano could not sing, the resulting performance AND the composer would have got bad reviews.
Thank you. Watching Damrau makes other performances disappointing. My son loves opera & we had tickets for The Magic Flute in Vienna. The singer did not hit the notes fully, which was sad.
Damrau is great :)
Here's a completely random fact about the basis of the hairstyles. Just the basis, because there is NO explanation for the hairstyle overall other than someone really likes toy trains too much and considers them a wearable accessory (????) Anyway. At several points in time,. it was popular for women to pluck their hairlines in order to achieve the belief that having a high forehead was a sign of superior intellect. Queen Elizabeth 1 popularized that belief after all her hair fell out and she started wearing wigs... ...which I really can't blame her for that; with all the stress that poor woman was under from every direction. (I mean look at the before and after photos of US presidents. They age spectacularly in just 4-8 years...she did it for 40, in an age when women were second class humans who didn't have the intellect to do ANYTHING except babymaking and witchcraft. which led to women all over the country doing it too. (They also copied her rotting black teeth look, for god only knows what reason they did THAT for) And also lead poisoning. Lead poisoning def had something to do with that. So the high forehead is pulled from history, but I have to say the attendants being mostly bald is a bit....eeesh...it freaked me out right until I learned they were men.