Bess, is you our woman now?
Or, to put it another way, could this soprano be what the Met needs for Roberto Devereux?
While you ponder the future, you can enjoy the past: the final act of Verdi’s Macbeth is now on Unnatural Acts of Opera.
While you ponder the future, you can enjoy the past: the final act of Verdi’s Macbeth is now on Unnatural Acts of Opera.
Sondra Radvanovsky can do that and much more.
Everything ‘ve heard of Sondra’s on Yooutube impresses me. Was this clip Sondra? If not, who was it?
No. I think its Alexandrina Pendatchanska, on a good day, that is.
well, just hearing bits of Radvanovsky doing Trovatore… Maybe it is her?
How curious, the timbres and general temperament our so close to Pendatchanska
still, the bulgarian girl has a much better stage presence
It’s definitely Sondra. It’s a rather strange and harsh voice to my ears, and I don’t
find her singing very expressive. I agree with Gelb. There is no one to sing
Elisabetta today. In addition, I would say that there is no one to sing Anna Bolena.
Netrebko is no bel canto singer. Di Donato might be passable as Stuarda.
I can’t see what i type on the extreme right side of the page, and there’s no way to preview what I have typed before I submit it.
I kinda like Sondra’s voice. At least it’s not bland.
While we’re assessing sopranos, the Washington Opera it doing Fliegende Holländer next month, and Senta is being sung by Jennifer Wiilson (and Lori Phillips in a couple of perfs). Has anyone ever heard Wilson (or Phillips)? Any good?
For those having trouble reading all of your entered text. May I suggest you load ‘notepad’ type your message fix it mess with it or whatever you want then do a copy/paste of the text here.
I didn’t realize it at the time but I have lived thru most of the great voices of the last 50 years. And how I miss them. Where is the trainning and skill that made a Diva a Diva.I could list 30 sopranos I would rather hear then any of todays unqualifed ladies. Guess I’m just getting old. Thanks La Cieca for the historic recordings that keep their memory alive and showing what true dedication to their art can produce. By the way I liked this lady shows promise.To bad I’ll never know who she is. Were do you post the answers to those questions you provide?
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I am surprized by all of the negative comments on the old site re Radvanovsky – even by people I almost
always agree with, like Evenhanded and ITDCS. Now she clearly does NOT have the
chops for this rep – her attempts at fioritura are laughable, and she has never had a good chest register,
but she is a very exciting Verdienne. Also, on this clip and the youtube Requiem referred to, to my ancient
ears her pitch problems are infrequent and minor by industry standards – she is certainly nowhere near as
ill-tuned as, say, Racette, Guleghina, Gruber . . . . .Evenhanded said earlier that Renee is better in this rep –
that may be true as far as fioritura goes, but when I have heard Renee sing in uncongenial repertory – the Met
Pirata and the Paris Alcina come to mind – her pitches had me constantly wincing. And since when is a fast
vibrato a technical problem? I agree that it has become sadly unfashionable.
Anyway – I have never understood the hostility to Radvanovsky. In the right rep she is thrilling.
Bolshoipavel – Lori Phillips sang Elisabeth de Valois (in English) with Opera North in Leeds, UK, a few years back and she’s the Ariane on Leon Botstein’s recent recording of Dukas’s Ariane et Barbe Bleu, so you can check her out for yourself. She was an okay Elisabeth, but I guess she was quite young then, and she is an okay Ariane on the discs. Don’t expect Leonie Rysanek or Astrid Varnay and you’ll be okay!!