You can ring my bel canto
Since last night marked the debut of history’s newest and perkiest interpreter of the role of Norma, and (more to the point) since Bellini’s druid priestess will grace the woods of Katonah, NY during the month of July, La Cieca thought it would be exciting to organize a YouTube competition on the theme of bel canto. The very special prize to the winner of this week’s competition: a pair of tickets (complete with transportation) to the Bel Canto at Caramoor presentation of Norma on July 16. Your task, cher public, is to find and to embed a YouTube clip that illustrates or embodies the meaning of “bel canto.” Entries will be judged both on the musical quality of the clip and on your introductory paragraph explaining to us why and how this clip is a sterling example of the art of bel canto.
The contest will close on Monday, July 5 at midnight. The commenter who posts the clip and comment La Cieca judges the best (and her whim is final!) will receive a pair of tickets of the July 16 performance of Norma at Caramoor plus a pair of passes on the Caramoor Caravan departing from the Grand Central Station area at 4:00 pm and returning after the opera.
And now, a singer who has been ringing La Cieca’s bel canto for several seasons now, joyous Joyce DiDonato. In this selection, she perfectly balances the technical control necessary to bel canto (long breath, smooth legato, seamlessly blended registers) with the musicianship and emotion required to bring the piece to vivid life. In particular, note the aggressive vocal attacks on the strong rhythms of the main theme of the cabaletta, bordering on the declamatory but always within the context of a breath-supported legato.
So, cher public, let’s hear it from you: what is bel canto and who can show us how to do it?
I am the youtube user coloraturafan, and I posted this tribute to the belcanto singing of Mariella Devia. I cannot think of another singer singing right now who has the same capabilities in this repertory. I was present for both the performances highlighted in this video, Lucrezia Borgia Ancona 2010 and Maria Stuarda Naples 2010. Both were magnificent achievements in the art of belcanto singing.
BRAVA DIVA!! WOW….sensational!!
Wow, thank you for these clips. Her voice color, particularly in Lucrezia Borgia, reminds me of Maria Spacagna. BTW, does anybody have a recording with her, I can’t find anything on youtube.
George Loomis’s new review of Joyce (and Juan Diego) in Paris sure makes a feller want to hear some of that stuff.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/arts/30iht-loomis30.html?scp=1&sq=George%20Loomis&st=Search
Just heard La donna del lago, last Sunday, at the Palais Garnier / Paris, and sure it has been spectacular, the whole cast having been superb, Joyce di Donato thrilling all through the perilous arias, Daniella Barcellona spectacular, reminding us of Marilyne Horne, and Flores of course stunning, to perfection in the role of Giacomo V, but to have next to him and particularly so in a very striking duet, almost competetive in the required stamina and bravoura of each singer, the equally superb Colin Lee, a magnificent and very homogeneous cast for an otherwise very dull production, musically very demanding, a constant sequence of intense and fairly athletic arias, hardly any recitatives, but very poorly served by a rigid and monotonous staging, – could as well have been an orchestral version. Nevertheless a great operatic moment !
So why didn’t the Met do this last year or this upcoming year? And I’d love to hear Rossini’s Otello and abot a dozen other Bel Canto operas I have neve heard live.
Although I turn to Callas recordings of Norma as the ultimate, I do think Caballe’s rendition of “Casta Diva” in the Orange video is so amazing that it is appropriate for this competition. Caballe creates magic, and her voice sounds the way we picture moonlight to sound in this clip.
I would agree that the Orange Norma is magical. I had to get the whole thing after seeing the “Casta diva” clip on YouTube.
I was one of the several thousand in the audience that night and it has stayed in my memory to this day. There was a Mistral blowing, the performance was delayed in the hope that it would calm down a bit. When it didn’t the orchestra clothespegged their scores to the music stands and the performance went ahead. I don’t know what gods where in attendance that night but it was pure magic. We drove back to Avignon on clouds that night. I recalled that French Television had recorded it but when I found out there was a video available I was hesitant. After all these years was it just nostalgia that made it all seem so wonderful? No, it was truly one of the great evenings. And it was what it is all about, that one incredible evening where everything comes together. I don’t know about anyone else but in my years of opera going (57 years to be exact) I’ve experienced it maybe five or six times tops.
The best I’ve seen of this duet for the finesse, color and dynamism of both voices AND both characters! Excellent musically, excellent comedically -- ?? Ask me how do I feel when this Fig and this Rosi are singing? Well sir, all I can say is if I were a bel I’d be ringing! ??
that ‘Capuleti’ production with JDD looks and sounds beautiful.
this is ‘out of period’ but oh, so bel canto
Of course a countertenor in Rossini is not authentic performance practice, but DD so delivers the goods here that he’s got to be a contender.
Beautiful! Thanks for posting this. Has he done other bel canto?
Actually, that is not entirely accurate. Rossini’s Aureliano in Palmira was composed for the castrato Velutti.
The story goes that at first Rossini was quite impressed with Velutti’s artistri in performing ornamentation but that he grew increasingly frustrated as Velutti’s ornamentation become more and more excessive. Apparently Rossini was not happy about the fact that his melody was beyond recognition and started writing out the fioritura in his operas.
Yes, but you seem to be making a leap to castrato=countertenor, aren’t you? And that ain’t so. Two different animals. The music Rossini wrote for Velutti can’t really be duplicated by any voice type today.
In a certain way, yes and no. While you are correct in saying that a Castrato’s voice can’t be duplicated, a countertenor is as close as we are going to get to a male singing in the right register. Saying that a countertenor subbing for a castrato is not authentic performance practice in Rossini is as much of a stretch as saying a soprano or a mezzo is. Personally, I would prefer a good countertenor like Daniels, but that is just me.
Agreed. And Velutti was an exception anyway. By Rossini’s day the treble-register male hero parts were generally assumed by female singers. The first Tancredi was a woman, and Pasta and Malibran both assumed the role. If countertenors, or anything like them, even existed in Rossini’s Italy, they certainly had no place in opera.
I should say my “agreed,” above, is with Richard. But I’m happy to hear David Daniels try his hand at just about anything.
The finale to Sonnambula by two classic singers:
Cavatina
Claudia Muzio sings AH NON CREDEA
Cabaletta
Maria Callas sings AH NON GIUNGE -- Cologne Germany 7/4/57
Love your choices, Operacat, but no fair posting two! LOL
there are so many I want to post including a lovely CASTA DIVA by MARION ANDERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the Male side of bel canto
ALFREDO KRAUS sings “Spirto Gentil” from Donizetti’s LA FAVORITA
Elegant and heartbreaking. Everytime I listen to this 1975 performance with Shirley Verrett I wonder why this opera is not in the standard repertory.
I like Favorita also and wish it were more popular. I think the Met should offer it to Dolora Zajick (who sang it in Spain, I believe). She has shown to be a good bel cantist as Adalgisa, and the Met needs to repay her for all her countless Amnerises and Azucenas. She has helped them cast those two operas for years. In return they should throw her a bone and give her Favorita.
I’ve been saying the same thing for years. And I believe Zajick would love to do the role as well. I don’t think it was a coincidence that she sang “Ah mon Fernand” at the Volpe gala.
I believe Zajick has done Favorita a few times. the one excerpted on YouTube is from Barcelona 2002
THANK YOU!!! I had no idea this video existed!
Funnily, I’ve been listening to this on my ipod and was just marvelling at Kraus in this aria last night. Certainly one of his greatest performances that I’ve heard. And Verrett is thrilling. A great performance all around.
May not be the prize winner but it sure is for me. This sure ain’t Carman, I’ll tell you that!
Stunning! Thank you so much!
I love her voice too. I think she’s great. Thank you so much.
This aria and ensemble is one of my favorite things in Bellini, and this is my favorite recording of same.
Why?
Well, there’s the beauty and luster of the tone,
the ease of emission and messa di voce,
the control of dynamics,
the integration and almost casual variety of graces and rubato.
His technique enables him to phrase in long musical sentences. The manly tone, the phrasing, and the sensitivity to the musical language create a character: a refined and capable gentleman, somewhat nervous (his wedding day…), struggling to make the perfect impression and not to be overwhelmed by his feelings.
More than anything about this particular recording, though, I love it sexiness and glamor. It tells you why perfectly sane people can become addicted to this stuff. Bartoli can be very interesting, but I never get sexy or glamorous from her singing. It’s great to be smart and to study hard but, in the performing arts, sexy and glamorous are going to win out in the long run.
In the same vain, I’m posting Pavarotti’s live recording of the same aria (“A te o cara”) from a few years earlier. To my ears, the tone is even more lustrous here plus it’s LIVE! But I agree with everything you say about why Pavarotti is so great in this aria. Arturo needs more heft than a light Rossini tenor, yet also requires the facility with high notes (that high C should soar). In other words, the role require Pavarotti — able to sustain the tessitura while maintaining a beautiful line and still have a heroic quality to the singing.
c-sharp, I believe, rather than c.
You’re right. I thought Bellini saved that for that for the final duet, but no. Even more impressive cause Pavarotti doesn’t at all sound like he’s straining.