Fully equipped with fire and music
“The Greek drama affords us one character which, had Shakespeare studied it in the three great tragedians of that people, and then, preserving Greek manners as ably as he did Roman, written it from his own heart and mind, might have been worthy to succeed the greatest achievement of the stage. The character I mean is Electra, the daughter of Agamemnon, the sister of Orestes.”
That’s an excerpt, as you all surely recognize, from Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons: interspersed with anecdotes of authors and actors. Sad to say, neither Shakespeare nor the Queen of Drury Lane (pictured) ever created an Electra; however, fortunately for posterity, her contemporary Mozart did set this wild and whirling creature to music. And thus we are brought in a roundabout way to yet another of our beloved vocal identification quizzes.
The following sound file—compiled and curated by none other than Our Own DeCaffarrelli—contains snippets of 16 performances of the scena “Oh smania! oh furie!… D’Oreste, d’Ajace” from Idomeneo. Your task will be to identify all 16 singers in the correct order. Make your guesses in the comments section below, and the first commenter to guess all 16 correctly, or, failing that, the commenter with the highest number of correct identifications as of midnight on Monday, July 23 will win a coveted Amazon.com Gift Card
Here’s the clip, cher public, and off you go!
This is what I’ve got so far:
1. Nilsson
2. Antonacci
3. ?
4. Behrens
5. ?
6. Vaness
7. ?
8. Varaday
9. Frittoli
10. Moser
11. Gencer
12. Gruberova
13. ?
14. ?
15. Milanov
16. Netrebko
Thank you for this fabulous quiz, DeCaffarrelli.
Having listened to Pauline Tinsley for the first time just now, I take back my Milanov and replace it with Tinsley.
Kashie! You must be joking! I cannot imagine two voices more
unlike than Zinka and Pauline. Each had what the other did not, in
my experience of hearing each many times, and knowing them and
hearing them sing in private. Tinsley was history’s finest Lady
Billows; can you see Zinka as Lady Billows? Hah. On second thought,
just for the hell of it, why not? To be serious, Tinsley was a matchless
Lady Macbeth and similar Verdi, and I don’t mean Aida. She was the
English Ljuba Welitsch, but she knew what not to sing (for the most part).
I don’t need to tell you about Zinka. Noel Coward once wrote that Zinka
“was hilarious” as Santuzza. I know what he meant!
MM: I’m completely new to Tinsley and I’m not saying that they have similar voices. I’m just saying that in that one clip I heard a “Milanovism”. I think it’s a downward portamento that reminded me of Zinka.
Milanov! Was this opera performed anywhere other than Glyndbourne during her career?? I’d be surprised if she sang this aria….
Don’t think Delunsch is in the mix (and what a nasty job of singing she does) but this video is cool:
1. Nilsson
2. Antonacci
3. Roberta Alexander
6, Carol Vaness
7. Elizabeth Grümmer
10. Edda Moser
11. Leyla Gencer
14. Alexandra DeShorties
16. Anna Netrebko
This is somewhat of a consensus, stabs in the dark and two for sure. I believe Pendantchaska, Gruberova are in there somewhere but haven’t figured it out yet.
14. DeShorties
1. Nilsson
2. Antonacci
3. Harteros
4.
I know that bloody recording/voice but the name just doesn’t want to pop up! Dasch?
5. Devia
6. Vaness
7. Grümmer
8. Orgonasova
9. ?
10. Moser
11. Gencer
12. Gruberova
13. ?
14. Kermes
15. Udovich
16. Netrebko
I thought Orgonasova too, Spiderman. And like you, I’m pretty sure Behrens is not involved.
15 is not Udovick BTW, 4 i#m pretty sure now is dasch.
neither behrens nor varady or frittoli are in there!
1-8 are definitive
as are 10-12 and 16
My guesses: 9. Alexander, 13. whoever, 14. Kermes and 15.’s laugh sounds like Emma Bell, though the voice doesn’t sound like her (maybe it’s the recording quality?)
I would say that number 13 is Roberta Alexander… Gertrude Grob-Prandl and Christel Goltz could be among the historic recordings, but I don’t really know were to put them.
I am once again in an environment where I can’t play music, so this maybe an utterly useless post, but a stirring in my memory has resolved into the idea that maybe Felicity Palmer is in there somewhere?
The mind reels at the thought of a Felicity Palmer ‘D’Oreste d’Ajace’, but then I’ve heard her (utterly strange) ‘Idol mio’ so no doubt such a thing exists.
She’s Harnoncourt’s Elettra, with Hollweg, Kenny and (my favourite Idamante) Trudeliese Schmidt.
And every Elettra ends up doing this, right?
Next February she’ll be playing Mrs Peachum to Sir John T’s Mr Peachum, opposite the Jenny of Meow Meow. She certainly likes to mix things up…
AND Mark Padmore as Macheath--I can’t imagine! And we’re talking the Weill-Brecht Threepenny Opera, not the John Gay!
Ok, here is my attempt:
1. Nilsson
2. Stadler
3. Harteros
4. Dasch
5. Devia
6. Vaness
7. Grummer
8. Orgonasova
9. Alexander
10. Moser
11. Gencer
12. Gruberova
13. ?
14. ?
15. Deshorties
16. Netrebko
with a couple of frustrating question marks!
A couple of changes to my original list, plus a desperate attempt to fill in the blanks:
2. Antonacci
9. Jurinac
13. Sofia Soloviy
14. Enriqueta Tarrés
and now I’ll try to put my OCD in check (I’ve been waking up every morning with “Giuraseti, serpenti”! going round and round in my head!).
An insufferable pedant writes: Ceraste.
In the words of La Cieca:
“At last, I have a son!”
Please accept my humble apology for such crass mistake. In all fairness, I never actually checked the Idomeneo libretto. Erroneously, I thought all those Elettras were singing “Giuraste”. Nonetheless, I stand corrected, and wiser for it.
1. Nilsson
2. Antonacci
3. Harteros
4. Dash (?)
5. Devia
6. Vaness
7. Grümmer
8. Orgonasova
9. Tarrès
10. Moser
11. Gencer
12. Gruberova
13. Alexander
14. ?
15. Annelies Kupper (?)
16. Netrebko
1. Gunilla af Malmborg
2. Martha and the Vandellas
3. Patsy Cline
4. Umm Kulthum
5. Rowna (you sly little minx, you! why didn’t you tell us you could sing like this?)
6. Claramae Turner
7. Clarabelle Cow
8. Gypsy Rose Lee
9. Queen Mary
10. Queen Latifah
11. Miyoshi Umeki
12. Gruberova after a dinner of pickles and sauerkraut
13. Doris Lessing
14. Dame Edna Everege
15. Walther Pondman as they were removing the colonoscope
16. Placido Domingo the day after his annual monkey gland injection
Spot on, except that 13 isn’t Doris Lessing, it’s Margaret Drabble.
Well, I vacillated on that one. Don’t I also hear a hint of Fay Weldon in there?
Though Clarabelle’s top was never that great, boy could that cow low!
Low blow, croche -- but very amoosing.
Yes, a deeply mooving artist.
and an udder professional.
Her cousin, Maggie Teate, was even better.
Better still is Nicole Cowbell.
She really slaughtered her competition.
…but one should stay away from Susan Bullock.
Yes, I don’t understand how Bullock has got so many people buffaloed.
Karina Bauvin and Inva Moola did not stand a chance.
Just shows how far you can get by being Bossy.
And Marilyn Horn was sometimes full of bull.
But she often got her singing down pat.
http://tinyurl.com/c858v4t
Oh, she had her share of flops too.
Ruminating on this subject has driven me to drink (milk).
Yes, it’s turned a little cheesy, hasn’t it?
La vache Kiri?
Well, it’s true she wasn’t cut out to be a hoofer.
You omitted Galina Vachenevskaya,Anna Cattle-ina Antonacci and Adelina Patti
That’s because they’re all horse de concours.
Was she not know as the British Greet Koeman?
Don’t know, but John Wayne was certainly a Greet American Koe-man.
heheh