curses!
Has it really been nearly two months since our last “serious” vocal identification quiz? (By “serious,” La Cieca means of course not only for glory but for the coveted amazon.com
Whichsoever one of you is first to email La Cieca with all 14 names in the correct order will not only be crowned “Irlands Königin,” but will receive a supersized amazon.com
This started out reasonably easy, but at near the halfway point Ich liess es fallen.
(1) Flagstad (which performance is this from?)
(2) Voigt
(3) Varnay
(4) Dernesch
(5) Jones
(6) Behrens
then I was verwirrt and verwundert until
(12) Mödl
but for all the others, I kept having this terrible nagging “I SHOULD know who that is!”
One thing I’m sure of is that I heard no Nilsson in the bunch.
No. 2 is Waltraud Meier.
It’s such a thrill hearing Flagstad! Has there ever been a greater voice?
Dear Nell Pozzo: Nilsson is indeed included, but from the very end of the career. I won’t say which one she is, as it is a “Contexst”; la cieca is messing with us.
I am in the same boat as you on the “I should know who that is…” I believe Silja is in there (perhaps it was Mödl? Didn’t think of that).
Can’t wait to see who the victor is!
geez its hard! no way i would get all 14, but i am pretty sure i got who is nilsson (methinks), flagstadt, varnay, meier, moedl, dernesch, behrens, jones (that vibrato!!!) and yes definately silja. of course this is not the order they appear in in the track…
as to the remaining 5 i have no clue, though of course (bad) guesses. is the brangaene to number 7 margarethe klose?!
waiting impatiently to see the full list…
O wonne voller Tucke! Never done one of these before but here goes:
1 – Flagstad
2 – Meier (Waltraud)
3 – Varnay
4 – Dernesch
5 – Jones
6 – Behrens
7 – Braun
8 – ???
9 – Ligendza
10 – Farrell
11 – Silja
12 – Modl
13 – ???
14 – Nilsson
Well, this is a brain teaser, and as I always loose count of which number I’m up to let me add a few names: Caballe is there, certainly, [and the Nilsson extract isn't where you'd think it would be]. Have you heard of Ludmilla Dvorakova? I think she’s there, along with my beloved Gladys Kuchta.
Can’t wait to see if I’m right.
Traubel is there, too. And Voigt (not No. 2). And Nilsson, of course, but at the age of, say, 83.
Trying really hard and failing not to personalize here. My intent with the Bachianas contest was certainly serious, whether or not anyone else took it seriously. I took great pride in that contest, and worked my ass off in it, not to mention spending a great deal of money at a time when I could ill afford it. I was thrilled when JJ changed his mind and posted it. To those few of you who considered it “serious” enough to post your guesses, thank you. I’ve been trying to decide what my next contest will be, but not really feeling it now.
My Brangaens for Sir Georg is the industry standard. And wasn’t that uppity Chicago dyke miffed to be passed over for the role! Poor thing, they loved her in Stuttgart.
I could bark Kurwenal *tomorrow*– it’s a question of color and tessitura…
Well.
Oh dear, once again, I shall be demoted to kitchen hag (or similar) rather than the royal titles to which I am surely destined. Ah well. TOUGH QUIZ! It is especially tough for those of us who don’t listen to a lot of Wagner. I cannot add much here, except that I think the fiendish #8 may be Jane Eaglen. Whoever is #11 is a S C R E A M E R. And isn’t Margaret Price in there somewhere?
I’ll anxiously await the answers from those much more knowledgeable than I.
I’m sure only of Flagstad, Traubel, and Nilsson (slightly sharp, it must be a late performance), and I’m reasonably sure Varnay is in there in the first few. Wonderful singer. Tough Quiz.
Sanford deserves a response here. I though his quizzes serious as hell, as they left me groveling in the dust. I believe our moderator didn’t mean to insult him, but rather indelicately to distinguish between prize and prize-less quizzes. At least I hope that’s La Cieca’s intention, and I’m waiting for him to clarify and apologize. I beg Sanford not to leave us quizzless, because I for one really appreciate his efforts (and expense) in constructing something providing all of us with lots of fun and serious musical inquiry.
I think n.08 is Norman… or Alessandra Marc
or … I don´t have a clue!
La Cieca clarified it with me and he did not, in fact, mean to imply anything about my quizzes. I found the responses to my Bachianas quiz rather funny, actually. Reri Grist? And someone in passing made reference to Brian Asawa, who was in the quiz. I promised in my next quiz to have abrupt key and tempo changes so it will be easier to tell where one singer ends and the next begins.
Actually, Meier as #2 resolves some niggling discomfort I felt at it being Voigt: it did sound like Voigt, but it also sounded fuller, more at home with the language than she usually does.
Is that Silja shrieking away at “Blinde Augen” as #11?
If that last one is Nilsson, it has to be very late (like when she did the Narrative and Curse at a Met Gala in the 1980’s).
Now, with the power of suggestion, I can hear that the one thing I thought for sure is wrong: Nilsson is definitely #14.
If Traubel is in there, I can only think of her as being #10.
I sure don’t hear Farrell or Caballe, nor do I hear Margaret Price. Ligendza could be #9 (sound isn’t great on that) or she could also be #13.
With lots of help from previous posters, I’ll give it a try. It is probably ALL wrong from about 7 onwards… Maybe it will inspire someone to find the right answers.
1. Kirsten Flagstad 2. Waltraud Meier 3. Astrid Varnay 4. Helga Dernesch 5. Gwyneth Jones 6. Hildegard Behrens 7. Caterina Ligendza 8. Alessandra Marc 9. Linda Watson (in somewhat old sounding recording) 10. Helen Traubel 11. Anja Silja 12. Martha Modl 13. Nadezda Kniplova 14. Birgit Nilsson
Though not sure about ## 10 and 13 this is my list.
1. Kirsten Flagstad
2. Waltraud Meier
3. Astrid Varnay
4. Helga Dernesch
5. Gwyneth Jones
6. Margaret Price
7. Helena Braun
8. Leonie Rysanek
9. Catarina Ligendza
10. Eileen Farrell
11. Anja Sylja
12. Martha Moedl
13. Helen Traubel
14. Birgit Nilsson
Regarding at least Flagstad, Varnay, Traubel, and Nilsson, I agree completely with Vanderdecken—that’s how it sounds to my ears. And BTW, Cieca, thanks for that fantastic bonus live performance of Traubel and Thorberg in this music that you included in the Unnatural Act podcast of Walkure, Act 3. Just thrillingly sung…Do you have a date for that broadcast?
La Cieca reminds her cher public that this is a competitive contest; i.e. you email La Cieca with your answers and whoever is first with the 14 correct answers gets the amazon.com gift card.
La Cieca has no problem with socialism or team-building or whatever it is going on in the comments section, but she would like a few more (as we might say) serious entries. As it happens, there is already one entry with all 14 correct, but your doyenne is in a generous mood, so the second “all correct” entry will also win a gift card.
In the meantime, do go ahead and post in the comments as well.
8 and 13 are still bothering me. No way is 8 Leonie, and I may change my mind about 10. But I’m not sure what to.
La Cieca, you’ve created a community thing here and even though you’ve spec’ed it out was competition to be answered by email, this kind of a group is going to enjoy socializing their thinking just as much as getting a gift card. It’s all good.
8 is definitely not Rysanek. I’m not sure who it is, but it isn’t Rysanek.
Ricardo Muti. Chicago Symphony. Discuss.
Natalie Dessay. Santa Fe. Her first La Traviata’s. Discuss.
In re the CSO: it’s got to be better for operatic programming than Barenboim– aside of course from interpolated acuti.
Dessay in SF- It will be applauded reviewed as if a triumph, as was teh Amina, which really waq not very convincing or effecti8vely sung. And her voice had at least somewhat more colour back then.
Sanford,
Chicago pissed its collective pants when we heard the news. (Well, at least some of my colleauges did. I certainly experianced some dampness this morning)
We, or rather, I can’t wait to welcome our new Music Director.
¡Arriba Muti, mamis!
i am willing to agree with you, Nerva… but the production of Sonnambula was truly stupid, too. Will be interesting to see where Nats voice is in 2009.
I’m not sure Muti will be better than Barenboim was operatically. For a while there Barenboim was doing concert opera at the CSO pretty regularly, and completely showing up the Lyric in the process (not that that’s hard). But Muti will be welcome all the same, even if the most effective way of enlivening Chicago would be to sack Andrew Davis, the world’s most boring conductor.
I thought Dessay’s Violetta had been delayed until 2011?
This is the hardest one yet. I’m baffled. To the best of my knowledge Rysanek never recorded or even sang The Narrative and Curse. She did sing the Liebestod in concert, however.
Numbers 8 and 13 are indeed puzzling, are they not?
Santa Fe just recently announced it…
http://www.santafeopera.org/news/press.php#199
And its from the masterminds of Laurent Pelly and Chantel Thomas, creators of past hits in Santa Fe as La Belle Helene,Cendrillon and Platee, not to mention the La Fille everyones talking about… cant wait to see what they do with The Fallen One.
Santa Fe just announced it… and its a new production from the team that created the La Fille du Regiment everyones talking about… not to mention recent hits in Santa Fe like La Belle Helene, Cendrillon and Platee… cant wait to see what this team does with The Fallen One.
okay… i get it now… heres the link.
no i dont get it… find the link yourself.
I thought this was a quiz about identifying who the Isoldes are – not a pirating of the site for your own discussions, that’s what Opera-l is for, surely?
My best guesses (without actually listening to the recordings):
1. Kirsten Flagstad
2. Astrid Varnay
3. Else Schurhoff
4. Montserrat Caballe
5. Janet Baker
6. Felicity Palmer
7. Helena Bonham-Carter
8. David Daniels
9. Carol Burnett
10. Eileen Farrell
11. Fiorenza Cossotto
12. Izzy Anderson
13. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
14. Bidu Sayao
Mafketis, That is too funny. ROTFLMAO
I think #8 is Battle right after she got kicked out of the antique shop.
Well here my guess
1., Flagstad
2., Meier W.
3., Varnay
4., Dernesch
5., Jones
6., Behrens
7., ? Konentzni A
8., Price M
9., ?
10., ?
11., Silja
12., Moedl
13., Voigt
14., Nilsson
When will we have the results
Dear hab mir’s gelobt,
Brangane to # 7 is definitely Margarete Klose.
So, cher public, do you agree with Fred that we should close the contest? La Cieca can post the “solution” video as soon as you like.
#7 is definitely Helena Braun.
I vote for closing now, since not knowing for sure who 8 and 13 are is giving me Angst.
Lösche das Licht, please!
Dear Nell Pozzo,
M.Klose (Brangaene)to H. Braun (Isolde). Sorry if caused confusion.
Eugene, I knew you were right and was affirming what you said: it was Klose as Brangäne to Braun’s Isolde from the 1950 Munich performance.