Thank you for sharing this. Luciana Serra is the main reason why I have come to adore opera. Ever since watching her performance of the Doll's Aria on YT twelve years ago, I have been entranced. Her voice is celestially beautiful. It is out of this world. Her technique is superb. Her students are lucky as well as those who were able to see her perform these operatic masterpieces live.
sono d'accordo pienamente, e è bella la sua storia d'incontro con la voce di M°Serra:-) Lei, avendo 74anni, ha la voce ancora totalmente sana, passaggio pulito, sovracuto brillante, agilità come dell'epoca giovanile, queste cose significano che lei ha la tecnica giusta. Grande soprano di coloratura.
Straordinaria Luciana Serra, dotata senz'altro di una splendida voce che lei accompagna però a una grande professionalità e un ferreo e serissimo lavoro. Si merita senz'altro il successo che si è conquistata negli anni. Fantastica! ❤
Grazie di cuore per avere pubblicato questo piacevole ritratto di una grande signora della lirica, probabilmente la migliore soprano da coloritura del tardo Novecento e dei primi anni del secolo attuale. Se hai altri contributi relativi alla lirica, ti prego di pubblicarli. Grazie ancora.
Che brava un'intelligenza e una Classe naturale....sempre un passo indietro il divismo...per diventare un'artista completa che emozione vedere il maestro Roberto Negri.
Here is the full translation of the video, as someone asked for it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Comments are within square brackets [ ]. I kept the technical terms in the original italian, whenever I thought that they would be commonly used in english as well (e.g. 'legato'), and tried to write a short explaination (to the best of my knowledge) for what I thought to be only italian (if you don't know some of them, this website could be helpful www.musicwithease.com/music-dictionary.html ). However, I'm not native english, so it could be that some terms are only used in italy or that some sentences don't come out fully clear. I apologize in advance and hope it's gonna be helpful and interesting for people that don't know italian. Cheers! P.S. if someone has the patience to integrate this into the video as subtitles, feel free to use my translation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Title: "A portrait of" - Luciana Serra: "I remember I always sang, until one day I've been told not sure if that makes sense in english, the sense is like 'understanding the persona'], find the character. And once you found that 'in prose' it'll become easier to sing it because the voice will follow up, and the voice really gives the idea of this 'mechanicality' of the persona. This must be expressed with the voice, and not just with the movements on stage, with the arms, also the voice has to give the idea of something 'mechanical', almost as a metal plate, as I always say. That thing that feels a bit like glass, like metal. And to find this you need to properly use your breath, specially, but also the quality of the voice, if you need to make it brighter, darker, lighter or a bit heavier...because before I tried and I realized together with the Maestro that I started this Aria a bit too dark/gloomy... Shall we try again the begin?" P.: "Yes" L.S.: "Before I sang it like this..." [studio performance] L.S.: "Excuse me, Maestro... Yes, it comes out good vocally, the voice is nicely round, the soprano sings and the notes are all there correctly one after the other.. but this is not Olimpia! I would make Olimpia like this..." [studio performance] L.S: "Here, I think that this helped to create a character that transpires already from the voice. Clearly also the head movements come natural, to give the idea of this mechanical movement, just like a mechanical doll should be... And most importantly, the voice has to be very light. This 'romanza' is very difficult, there are some agilities, some 'volatine' [-> 'volatina', a small 'volata'], in the second part there are also some cadences...and all of that, and it's very difficult, should sound the same way, all with the same tone because a mechanical doll cannot have many shades..." [live performance] [PARTS 2 and 3 in the sub-comments]
[PART 2] L.S.: "Studying the piece, getting deep into an opera [-> lit. from italian: 'putting it into the throat'], once you have trained a certain part and that part comes out almost automatically, I can understand how long the breath has to be, where do I have to breath, where do I need to be careful, and most importantly how can I breath to avoid to come to the 'acuto' [-> acute, high-pitched note], as we say, flooded [-> as in 'flooded engine']. Because if the breath is too much, you really risk to get 'flooded', it's not a nice term but that's how it is. And if the breath is few there is not enough push and the 'acuto' doesn't come out. It's a matter of balances, an 'acuto' of a Romace cannot be set up few notes before, but you prepare for it maybe already from the previous page. Because there are some notes that can be sang a bit heavily.. for instance, I made the example of Olimpia...if I was to sing Olimpia with a 'lyrical voice' I will never get to the Emoll at the end... So, this preparing these things that are rather light, clear, possibly with a smile (but not like I see it somethimes..), really this smile that helps also the voice to stay very high, this is a set up also for the final 'acuto', you arrive there not tired and you are already in this very high position to be able to do the 'sopracuto' [-> very high acute]." [live performance] L.S.: "[not understandable]... My teacher was called Michele Casato. He had a great experience in theater, he was leaving for Tehran, so I made an audition and I became the only italian singer in the theater [missing name] in Tehran. It has been a great experience for me because my school was a real theater. Activities would start in the morning at 9 with different singing classes, and after finishing my hours of studying, which included techniques classes, partitures preparation, I had the chance to debut in almost every opera in my repertoire as coloratura leggero soprano. When I was done with studying, I could indulge myself in the theater, I could go on the hird floor where they would prepare concerts or on the stage, sneaking in just like that I could learn some tricks from behind the scenes. My teacher, teaching me a lot of things, practically, he prepared me for working with the directors, to understand what they want, the right time to do something, the fluid movements, to be able to wear the costumes with ease. Comic roles are very beautiful, they seem light but in my opinion are the most difficult of all because you need to know how to act, how much to accentuate the character, which could exceed into a wrong parody or not come out enough and give a false idea of it" [live performance] L.S.: "To make a joke to her husband, Rosalinda is invited to a party at Count Orlovsky's home, and naturally it's a party with masks and therefore she'll be there in incognito, dressed with a beautiful dress that probably belonged to her hungarian grandmother. Obviously she pretends to be an hungarian duchess, to cath the husband out. So she sings these great Arie, with the great allure of an hungarian duchess sings an Aria from her country: it's the famous 'Czardas', 'the bat'." [live performance] L.S.: "Obviously this piece as well can be sang in different ways, it can be sang and it can be interpreted. Sang, it would be roughly like this..." [studio performance] L.S.: "So, instead I'd do it like this, Maestro... Can we try from the begin? At least, I feel Rosalinda like this, with great charme but you also need the hungarian liveliness, because...there needs to be..." [studio performance] [live performance] L.S.: "[singing in studio]... maybe I could also do it without taking this breath, but 'Patria lontana adorata..Ungheria!' [-> 'far and beloved homeland...Hungary!'], this is already something to put in evidence 'Ungheria' my homeland. This is not necessary to be done, but if it helps the expressiveness then why not?" [live performance] L.S.: "Naturally Czardas here is sang a bit exaggerated, because in the heat of impersonating an hungarian duchess and also for not being recognized from the husband, it becomes a bit emphasized." [live performance] L.S.: "The pause is music in my opinion. You can't do a gymnastic exercise with the longest breath..try to reach the longest breath.. this is wrong, and to keep the strong voice until the end, until you explode, in my opinion, it takes a lot of the expressiveness away." [live performance]
[PART 3] L.S.: "Of course, if you're used to the 'bel canto', this is rather like a folksong, therefore the line of singing is not well followed. It goes in lower areas, middle ones, higher areas all of a sudden.. for this reason, usually, at the end you make a small scream, I like the make the note so I stop and jump to the note, the D." [live performance] L.S.: "Normally, I first read the lyrics and study the prose, because this is very important to create the persona. Every persona needs to have a small detail that makes them different from the others. Even if the operas are different, there is the comic one, the dramatic one, but every persona needs to have its own very specific charateristic. For instance, in 'La Fille du Régiment' there is the drum, in the 'Lucia' there is the big mantle. There are some roles where the characteristic is the way you wear/bring the costume around. Costumes are not rags, costumes are costumes and from each epoch there were different ways to carry the train of the dress, to wear a mantle, a hat, to wave a fan and there's even a language of the fan." [live performance] L.S. "So I study the prose, I prepare the character, then I also start studying the musical part. When the character is outlined as prose, vocally and musically then I start with the pianist. Then slowly you can start building up the sentences, accurately deciding where to take breaths. Obviously there are the expressive breaths, the...I call them the 'sentiment breaths', I try to carefully observe the pauses written by the compser, because in my opinion the pause is part of the music. It's quite some work, like building brick after brick, stone after stone, it's really a building up work." L.S. "[from studio performance] I do it again, and I'd like the do the breathing...so, the first time in...'convien partir, o miei compagni d'arme'..." [live performance] L.S.: "Maria is a very strong woman, grown up with men, with coarse soldiers in the regiment...she's a spontaneous girl, always cheerful, naive, a small soldier among the other soldiers. Naturally, like in every fairy tale, Maria falls in love, feels that something...because Tonio arrives. One evening Tonio saves her and she starts to soften a bit." [live performance] L.S.: "And obviously this girl is taken away from her fathers, because her fathers are the whole regiment." [live performance] L.S.: "In this Aria, I think that the main thing is the bewilderment of Maria, she's confused, frustrated, even scared." [live performance] L.S.: "There are vocalizes that prepare to this kind of singing..." [studio performance] L.S.: "When I prepare the 'legato', I always think of a string that runs uninterruptedly between two points, I think that this should be the idea of a 'legato'." [live performance] L.S.: "The second time, instead, very similar to the first except for a small variation and the words, I would do...[sings]... and here there should be two small breaths, not even breath, almost just a 'cesura' [-> or 'caesura'], to say 'il faut partir..adieu..'" [live performance] L.S.: "[singing the lyrics]" P.: "Light.." L.S.: "Yes, but here as well, with some kind of 'cesura', even if here it's written 'legato', but [reading lyrics] it needs to be made separately, 'pleasure...and suffering'." [live performance] [studio performance] L.S.: "..unless here you do..[sings]..no, but it gets boring then..[sings]..ok, like this it could be alright..[sings]..there, the second time, instead, 'il faut partir', 'portamento', I bring the voice almost on the F, and then I breathe before starting [lyrics], also to make it different from the first part." [live performance] L.S.: "I always listened with pleasure to all singers, not only female voices, also male voices, I think for instance that Gigli is a model of a singing school. This type of singing, always so elegant, always so soft, so light, or with strength, heroic..to have this possibility to change in no time, this to me it's a great technique, and already listening a performance from Gigli is really a singing lesson. [Gigli singing]. I've always been told that, because of my type of voice and a bit also because of my technique, I'm or I was very similar to Toti Dal Monte and Lina Pagliughi. A bit clear vocal timbre, a bit angelic, almost..not really like a 'boy soprano' voice, because with time you become more mature, but a voice a bit like asexual. And this, considering that they were comparing me to two big singers of the past, was always flattering for me, it was always a great pleasure for me, a great honor. [soprano singing]. The dreams are many, you should always dream, why not... Who knows, maybe one day it will be told of a certain singer from the 19th century that after a cold became mezzo soprano, and who knows maybe one day I'll find myself being a great Turandot! Why not... [excerpt from live performance] In my opinion there are two types of 'prima donna buffa'. The first one is lively, cheerful, it's the comical thing so you need to act well. And there there is the other type, the one that in my opinion is a bit like a parody, a caricature, somthing even more delicate as you risk being a caricature of the caricature." [live performance] L.S.: "In this opera, 'Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali' [-> 'Conventions and Inconveniences of the Stage', G. Donizzetti], it really is a great parody of the 'prima donna' of the 19th century. Corilla Scortichini is considered as a great 'prima donna' and therefore all the great attitudes of the great dramatics, and with the weaknesses, all the small vices and manias that usually all 'prime donne' have." [live performance] [studio performance] L.S.: "So, that's creating a persona." [live performance] L.S.: "The peculiarity of this piece is that they are Donizzetti-style agilities sang in Rossini's way. I try, if I manage, to give an idea of Donizzetti-style agilities.. [studio performance]..here, certainly all the notes are there, but they're all in 'legato' and also in Donizzetti there can never be the speed that you can have in Rossini, as for the agilities, right Maestro?" P.: "Yes, yes.." L.S.: "So they can be done in different ways, also 'picchettato' [not sure hot to translate this in english], should I try?" P.: "Yes.." [studio performance] L.S.: "Otherwise you could do a 'scherzo' like this.. Now what can I do...the 'staccato' agility, Rossini-style..." [live performance] L.S.: "I had a lot of fun singing this role because I put in it all that I could discover.." [live performance] L.S.: "I would sing the begin, all made with great parody, here Donizzetti really had fun with these things in Rossini's style." [studio performance] [live performance] L.S.: "Certainly, this 'romanza' is a very serious 'romanza', because 'E puoi goder, tiranno' [-> lyrics from 'Le Convenienze e Inconvenienze Teatrali'] they're also..terrible things to say, 'E puoi goder, tiranno, d'un cor che afflitto e geme', but here Donizzetti didn't want certainly a dramatic romanza." [live performance] [studio performance] L.S.: "..and here the great 'cadenza', with screams, ripped hairs, torn clothes, mantles.." [live performance] L.S. "Generally, I'm very shy and the idea of wearing the costume, the wig, the makeup..this parody of the 'prima donna', earlier maybe I wouldn't have had the courage to do that..but a long breath and off you go..and doing the most absurde things in front of an audience that, all in all, I know it loves me and has great respect towards me, because it knows that I respect it." [live performance] - The End -
Prima da tutto scusi per il mio povero italiano... Una signora che parla delle voci del passato come Gigli, Dal Monte, Pagliughi, etc, con quel rispetto si merita tutta la mia ammirazione. Guarda anche come prepara un ruolo, come usa il testo per dare un tono drammatico alla musica mostra che è una cantante di grande categoria. È stata senza dubbio una grande cantante. Perfezione, sentimento, drama, vocalità, voce, anima... Rispetto e ammirazione per la Signora Serra.
Luciana Serra è meravigliosa. Il ruolo di Olimpia ne "I racconti di Hoffmann" avrebbe trovato in Marìa Galvany una interprete insuperabile, ma stranamente non propose il brano né in concerto né in incisioni inedite o private.
Hi there, I was very happy to see someone so interested in this, so I translated the whole video. It took some days but eventually I managed to finish it and publish it as comment of the video. Hope you, as everyone else interested, will enjoy it. Cheers! P.s. At the moment, the comment with the translation does not appear if comments are sorted by 'Top comments' and I'm not logged in. If that's the case for any of you reading, try sorting the comments by 'Newest first'.
@@marcelloporcu1862 omg thank you so much she’s definently one of my Favorite sopranos is always wondered what was going through her mind when she was performing.
It’s interesting how Serra has a voice that is essentially a boy soprano toned timbre. She leaned towards an automaton like sound in all of her rôles. It was part of her accuracy control. Whenever she “let go” of that restriction and made a more feminine sound the voice was far prettier and appealing. She rode a horse between straight toned coloratura robot and feminine Italianate lady with an open sound with accented almost declamatory legati.
Los videos los pueden subtitular en español♡ porfisss se los agradeceria mucho ya que soy una estudiante de musica clásica...los quiero y gracias por el video aunque no lo entiendo :(...♡
Purtroppo non conosco la data precisa. Il video contiene degli spezzoni del Pipistrello e delle Convenienze ed Inconvienze Teatrali, che Luciana Serra ha cantato verso la fine della carriera. Direi quindi che il video potrebbe risalire ai primi anni 2000, quando Luciana Serra aveva tra 55 e 60 anni.
Thank you for sharing this. Luciana Serra is the main reason why I have come to adore opera. Ever since watching her performance of the Doll's Aria on YT twelve years ago, I have been entranced. Her voice is celestially beautiful. It is out of this world. Her technique is superb. Her students are lucky as well as those who were able to see her perform these operatic masterpieces live.
sono d'accordo pienamente,
e è bella la sua storia d'incontro con la voce di M°Serra:-)
Lei, avendo 74anni, ha la voce ancora totalmente sana, passaggio pulito, sovracuto brillante, agilità come dell'epoca giovanile,
queste cose significano che lei ha la tecnica giusta.
Grande soprano di coloratura.
@@mdnk2565 What a lovely comment. Thank you. 👌😊
A true coloratura soprano and one of the best of the last 50 years. A living legend!
Straordinaria Luciana Serra, dotata senz'altro di una splendida voce che lei accompagna però a una grande professionalità e un ferreo e serissimo lavoro. Si merita senz'altro il successo che si è conquistata negli anni. Fantastica! ❤
GRANDE PROFESSIONISTA SOPRANO DI COLORATURA FANTASTICA!!!!
She’s magnificent, in a league of her own.
Grazie di cuore per avere pubblicato questo piacevole ritratto di una grande signora della lirica, probabilmente la migliore soprano da coloritura del tardo Novecento e dei primi anni del secolo attuale. Se hai altri contributi relativi alla lirica, ti prego di pubblicarli. Grazie ancora.
Grande Immensa Luciana!!!!!!
The best❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Insuperabile! Grazie per lo splendido video.
Artista meravigliosa!
che meraviglia
Che brava un'intelligenza e una Classe naturale....sempre un passo indietro il divismo...per diventare un'artista completa che emozione vedere il maestro Roberto Negri.
Here is the full translation of the video, as someone asked for it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:
Comments are within square brackets [ ]. I kept the technical terms in the original italian, whenever I thought that they would be commonly used in english as well (e.g. 'legato'), and tried to write a short explaination (to the best of my knowledge) for what I thought to be only italian (if you don't know some of them, this website could be helpful www.musicwithease.com/music-dictionary.html ).
However, I'm not native english, so it could be that some terms are only used in italy or that some sentences don't come out fully clear.
I apologize in advance and hope it's gonna be helpful and interesting for people that don't know italian.
Cheers!
P.S. if someone has the patience to integrate this into the video as subtitles, feel free to use my translation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Title: "A portrait of" -
Luciana Serra: "I remember I always sang, until one day I've been told not sure if that makes sense in english, the sense is like 'understanding the persona'], find the character. And once you found that 'in prose' it'll become easier to sing it because the voice will follow up, and the voice really gives the idea of this 'mechanicality' of the persona. This must be expressed with the voice, and not just with the movements on stage, with the arms, also the voice has to give the idea of something 'mechanical', almost as a metal plate, as I always say. That thing that feels a bit like glass, like metal. And to find this you need to properly use your breath, specially, but also the quality of the voice, if you need to make it brighter, darker, lighter or a bit heavier...because before I tried and I realized together with the Maestro that I started this Aria a bit too dark/gloomy... Shall we try again the begin?"
P.: "Yes"
L.S.: "Before I sang it like this..."
[studio performance]
L.S.: "Excuse me, Maestro... Yes, it comes out good vocally, the voice is nicely round, the soprano sings and the notes are all there correctly one after the other.. but this is not Olimpia! I would make Olimpia like this..."
[studio performance]
L.S: "Here, I think that this helped to create a character that transpires already from the voice. Clearly also the head movements come natural, to give the idea of this mechanical movement, just like a mechanical doll should be... And most importantly, the voice has to be very light.
This 'romanza' is very difficult, there are some agilities, some 'volatine' [-> 'volatina', a small 'volata'], in the second part there are also some cadences...and all of that, and it's very difficult, should sound the same way, all with the same tone because a mechanical doll cannot have many shades..."
[live performance]
[PARTS 2 and 3 in the sub-comments]
[PART 2]
L.S.: "Studying the piece, getting deep into an opera [-> lit. from italian: 'putting it into the throat'], once you have trained a certain part and that part comes out almost automatically, I can understand how long the breath has to be, where do I have to breath, where do I need to be careful, and most importantly how can I breath to avoid to come to the 'acuto' [-> acute, high-pitched note], as we say, flooded [-> as in 'flooded engine']. Because if the breath is too much, you really risk to get 'flooded', it's not a nice term but that's how it is. And if the breath is few there is not enough push and the 'acuto' doesn't come out. It's a matter of balances, an 'acuto' of a Romace cannot be set up few notes before, but you prepare for it maybe already from the previous page. Because there are some notes that can be sang a bit heavily.. for instance, I made the example of Olimpia...if I was to sing Olimpia with a 'lyrical voice' I will never get to the Emoll at the end... So, this preparing these things that are rather light, clear, possibly with a smile (but not like I see it somethimes..), really this smile that helps also the voice to stay very high, this is a set up also for the final 'acuto', you arrive there not tired and you are already in this very high position to be able to do the 'sopracuto' [-> very high acute]."
[live performance]
L.S.: "[not understandable]... My teacher was called Michele Casato. He had a great experience in theater, he was leaving for Tehran, so I made an audition and I became the only italian singer in the theater [missing name] in Tehran. It has been a great experience for me because my school was a real theater. Activities would start in the morning at 9 with different singing classes, and after finishing my hours of studying, which included techniques classes, partitures preparation, I had the chance to debut in almost every opera in my repertoire as coloratura leggero soprano. When I was done with studying, I could indulge myself in the theater, I could go on the hird floor where they would prepare concerts or on the stage, sneaking in just like that I could learn some tricks from behind the scenes. My teacher, teaching me a lot of things, practically, he prepared me for working with the directors, to understand what they want, the right time to do something, the fluid movements, to be able to wear the costumes with ease.
Comic roles are very beautiful, they seem light but in my opinion are the most difficult of all because you need to know how to act, how much to accentuate the character, which could exceed into a wrong parody or not come out enough and give a false idea of it"
[live performance]
L.S.: "To make a joke to her husband, Rosalinda is invited to a party at Count Orlovsky's home, and naturally it's a party with masks and therefore she'll be there in incognito, dressed with a beautiful dress that probably belonged to her hungarian grandmother. Obviously she pretends to be an hungarian duchess, to cath the husband out. So she sings these great Arie, with the great allure of an hungarian duchess sings an Aria from her country: it's the famous 'Czardas', 'the bat'."
[live performance]
L.S.: "Obviously this piece as well can be sang in different ways, it can be sang and it can be interpreted. Sang, it would be roughly like this..."
[studio performance]
L.S.: "So, instead I'd do it like this, Maestro... Can we try from the begin? At least, I feel Rosalinda like this, with great charme but you also need the hungarian liveliness, because...there needs to be..."
[studio performance]
[live performance]
L.S.: "[singing in studio]... maybe I could also do it without taking this breath, but 'Patria lontana adorata..Ungheria!' [-> 'far and beloved homeland...Hungary!'], this is already something to put in evidence 'Ungheria' my homeland. This is not necessary to be done, but if it helps the expressiveness then why not?"
[live performance]
L.S.: "Naturally Czardas here is sang a bit exaggerated, because in the heat of impersonating an hungarian duchess and also for not being recognized from the husband, it becomes a bit emphasized."
[live performance]
L.S.: "The pause is music in my opinion. You can't do a gymnastic exercise with the longest breath..try to reach the longest breath.. this is wrong, and to keep the strong voice until the end, until you explode, in my opinion, it takes a lot of the expressiveness away."
[live performance]
[PART 3]
L.S.: "Of course, if you're used to the 'bel canto', this is rather like a folksong, therefore the line of singing is not well followed. It goes in lower areas, middle ones, higher areas all of a sudden.. for this reason, usually, at the end you make a small scream, I like the make the note so I stop and jump to the note, the D."
[live performance]
L.S.: "Normally, I first read the lyrics and study the prose, because this is very important to create the persona. Every persona needs to have a small detail that makes them different from the others. Even if the operas are different, there is the comic one, the dramatic one, but every persona needs to have its own very specific charateristic. For instance, in 'La Fille du Régiment' there is the drum, in the 'Lucia' there is the big mantle. There are some roles where the characteristic is the way you wear/bring the costume around. Costumes are not rags, costumes are costumes and from each epoch there were different ways to carry the train of the dress, to wear a mantle, a hat, to wave a fan and there's even a language of the fan."
[live performance]
L.S. "So I study the prose, I prepare the character, then I also start studying the musical part. When the character is outlined as prose, vocally and musically then I start with the pianist. Then slowly you can start building up the sentences, accurately deciding where to take breaths. Obviously there are the expressive breaths, the...I call them the 'sentiment breaths', I try to carefully observe the pauses written by the compser, because in my opinion the pause is part of the music. It's quite some work, like building brick after brick, stone after stone, it's really a building up work."
L.S. "[from studio performance] I do it again, and I'd like the do the breathing...so, the first time in...'convien partir, o miei compagni d'arme'..."
[live performance]
L.S.: "Maria is a very strong woman, grown up with men, with coarse soldiers in the regiment...she's a spontaneous girl, always cheerful, naive, a small soldier among the other soldiers. Naturally, like in every fairy tale, Maria falls in love, feels that something...because Tonio arrives. One evening Tonio saves her and she starts to soften a bit."
[live performance]
L.S.: "And obviously this girl is taken away from her fathers, because her fathers are the whole regiment."
[live performance]
L.S.: "In this Aria, I think that the main thing is the bewilderment of Maria, she's confused, frustrated, even scared."
[live performance]
L.S.: "There are vocalizes that prepare to this kind of singing..."
[studio performance]
L.S.: "When I prepare the 'legato', I always think of a string that runs uninterruptedly between two points, I think that this should be the idea of a 'legato'."
[live performance]
L.S.: "The second time, instead, very similar to the first except for a small variation and the words, I would do...[sings]... and here there should be two small breaths, not even breath, almost just a 'cesura' [-> or 'caesura'], to say 'il faut partir..adieu..'"
[live performance]
L.S.: "[singing the lyrics]"
P.: "Light.."
L.S.: "Yes, but here as well, with some kind of 'cesura', even if here it's written 'legato', but [reading lyrics] it needs to be made separately, 'pleasure...and suffering'."
[live performance]
[studio performance]
L.S.: "..unless here you do..[sings]..no, but it gets boring then..[sings]..ok, like this it could be alright..[sings]..there, the second time, instead, 'il faut partir', 'portamento', I bring the voice almost on the F, and then I breathe before starting [lyrics], also to make it different from the first part."
[live performance]
L.S.: "I always listened with pleasure to all singers, not only female voices, also male voices, I think for instance that Gigli is a model of a singing school. This type of singing, always so elegant, always so soft, so light, or with strength, heroic..to have this possibility to change in no time, this to me it's a great technique, and already listening a performance from Gigli is really a singing lesson. [Gigli singing]. I've always been told that, because of my type of voice and a bit also because of my technique, I'm or I was very similar to Toti Dal Monte and Lina Pagliughi. A bit clear vocal timbre, a bit angelic, almost..not really like a 'boy soprano' voice, because with time you become more mature, but a voice a bit like asexual. And this, considering that they were comparing me to two big singers of the past, was always flattering for me, it was always a great pleasure for me, a great honor. [soprano singing]. The dreams are many, you should always dream, why not... Who knows, maybe one day it will be told of a certain singer from the 19th century that after a cold became mezzo soprano, and who knows maybe one day I'll find myself being a great Turandot! Why not... [excerpt from live performance] In my opinion there are two types of 'prima donna buffa'. The first one is lively, cheerful, it's the comical thing so you need to act well. And there there is the other type, the one that in my opinion is a bit like a parody, a caricature, somthing even more delicate as you risk being a caricature of the caricature."
[live performance]
L.S.: "In this opera, 'Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali' [-> 'Conventions and Inconveniences of the Stage', G. Donizzetti], it really is a great parody of the 'prima donna' of the 19th century. Corilla Scortichini is considered as a great 'prima donna' and therefore all the great attitudes of the great dramatics, and with the weaknesses, all the small vices and manias that usually all 'prime donne' have."
[live performance]
[studio performance]
L.S.: "So, that's creating a persona."
[live performance]
L.S.: "The peculiarity of this piece is that they are Donizzetti-style agilities sang in Rossini's way. I try, if I manage, to give an idea of Donizzetti-style agilities.. [studio performance]..here, certainly all the notes are there, but they're all in 'legato' and also in Donizzetti there can never be the speed that you can have in Rossini, as for the agilities, right Maestro?"
P.: "Yes, yes.."
L.S.: "So they can be done in different ways, also 'picchettato' [not sure hot to translate this in english], should I try?"
P.: "Yes.."
[studio performance]
L.S.: "Otherwise you could do a 'scherzo' like this.. Now what can I do...the 'staccato' agility, Rossini-style..."
[live performance]
L.S.: "I had a lot of fun singing this role because I put in it all that I could discover.."
[live performance]
L.S.: "I would sing the begin, all made with great parody, here Donizzetti really had fun with these things in Rossini's style."
[studio performance]
[live performance]
L.S.: "Certainly, this 'romanza' is a very serious 'romanza', because 'E puoi goder, tiranno' [-> lyrics from 'Le Convenienze e Inconvenienze Teatrali'] they're also..terrible things to say, 'E puoi goder, tiranno, d'un cor che afflitto e geme', but here Donizzetti didn't want certainly a dramatic romanza."
[live performance]
[studio performance]
L.S.: "..and here the great 'cadenza', with screams, ripped hairs, torn clothes, mantles.."
[live performance]
L.S. "Generally, I'm very shy and the idea of wearing the costume, the wig, the makeup..this parody of the 'prima donna', earlier maybe I wouldn't have had the courage to do that..but a long breath and off you go..and doing the most absurde things in front of an audience that, all in all, I know it loves me and has great respect towards me, because it knows that I respect it."
[live performance]
- The End -
@@marcelloporcu1862 Thank you so much for taking the time to translate that interview! Serra is definitely a gem from Italy!
Prima da tutto scusi per il mio povero italiano... Una signora che parla delle voci del passato come Gigli, Dal Monte, Pagliughi, etc, con quel rispetto si merita tutta la mia ammirazione. Guarda anche come prepara un ruolo, come usa il testo per dare un tono drammatico alla musica mostra che è una cantante di grande categoria. È stata senza dubbio una grande cantante. Perfezione, sentimento, drama, vocalità, voce, anima... Rispetto e ammirazione per la Signora Serra.
una vera DIVA! ❤️
La vive veramente magnífica
I love this video you can really hear the how her voice aged.
Divina !
Luciana Serra è meravigliosa. Il ruolo di Olimpia ne "I racconti di Hoffmann" avrebbe trovato in Marìa Galvany una interprete insuperabile, ma stranamente non propose il brano né in concerto né in incisioni inedite o private.
Sono rimasto senza parole.. Wow
Numero uno, non ci sono storie
Прекрасный голос! Браво!
Bella figura di signora della lirica, complimenti
Will someone make a translated version I’m dying to understand what she’s saying.
Hi there, I was very happy to see someone so interested in this, so I translated the whole video. It took some days but eventually I managed to finish it and publish it as comment of the video.
Hope you, as everyone else interested, will enjoy it.
Cheers!
P.s. At the moment, the comment with the translation does not appear if comments are sorted by 'Top comments' and I'm not logged in. If that's the case for any of you reading, try sorting the comments by 'Newest first'.
@@marcelloporcu1862 omg thank you so much she’s definently one of my Favorite sopranos is always wondered what was going through her mind when she was performing.
It’s interesting how Serra has a voice that is essentially a boy soprano toned timbre. She leaned towards an automaton like sound in all of her rôles. It was part of her accuracy control. Whenever she “let go” of that restriction and made a more feminine sound the voice was far prettier and appealing. She rode a horse between straight toned coloratura robot and feminine Italianate lady with an open sound with accented almost declamatory legati.
Los videos los pueden subtitular en español♡ porfisss se los agradeceria mucho ya que soy una estudiante de musica clásica...los quiero y gracias por el video aunque no lo entiendo
:(...♡
A quando risale? Quanti anni aveva qui?
Purtroppo non conosco la data precisa. Il video contiene degli spezzoni del Pipistrello e delle Convenienze ed Inconvienze Teatrali, che Luciana Serra ha cantato verso la fine della carriera. Direi quindi che il video potrebbe risalire ai primi anni 2000, quando Luciana Serra aveva tra 55 e 60 anni.
Oh god, I need this
Sentita in Lucia di Lammermoor in Fenice. Non male anche se la voce, a mio avviso, troppo chiara e un po' da bambina.
Io quando vedo e sento una persona di questo calibro,mi sento inutile e ignorante