I keep listening, listening, coming back to this 1951 Aida and all I can say that this is the ULTIMATE, the ultimate document and reference for true VERDIAN singing, nothing out there is more Verdian than this. Nothing!
Maria Callas and Oralia Dominguez! What a match! Both of them with brilliant, awesome, beautiful, pure and powerful voices creating musical magic for the rest of us and the world.
Minute 5:01 = one of the most astonishing sounds that have EVER come out of a human throat! Oralia is the most accomplished mezzo voice the human race has on record and by far! Long before anybody was praising her here on TH-cam I had already discovered her about 10 years ago when I became obsessed with Callas entire Mexico Aidas.
she is the personification of Amneris... full everything... full low, full top, full middle and she does not hold the Voice back... Oralia was a mezzo soprano dramatic d'agilita
Lohengrin O She reminds me of Stignani (who also had brilliant agility) but with a significantly more gorgeous timbre. Her whole three registers hit you in the gut.
Callas’ Aida always had a sense of overhanging dread over it. Her phrasing is extremely frantic as is what the role calls for. She is never truly at peace until the very end. She was brilliant. And people still say Price was the greatest Aida...
Manoli S. Exactly, she shows us all the conflicts and ephemeral moments of hope of Aida and obviously the inevitable sense of loss and despair. Prime Callas was referential in everything she sang.
....a quality unheard today. Whether the audience was aware of that historic performance, I am not sure. A combination of MC, MDM plus Dominguez and Taddei!! Unbelievable. Nearly 70 years after that recording you still sit nailed into your hopefully comfortable seat. Mi piace moltissimo
Like someone once said, Price gives you pretty singing, but Callas sings it like a gargantuan tigress; she gives you the real deal. Callas is undeniably Aida HERSELF. It is the truth. The legendary high E flat in the triumphal scene merely icing to the cake. Price's O patria mia will make you shed a tear, but Callas' touches the soul, and moves hearts.
Ive always considered Callas the greatest Aida of all but was too afraid to say it... Now Im not... No one can even come close to Callas' early Aidas and probably no one ever will come close
Finally somebody that understands Maria. All these people thinking I consider my Maria I lost her voice for the time she was 54. And then there's in my opinion because of my mental giant of Opera blah blah blah blah blah how did you run on ignorance is bliss or is it LOL thank you Arnold Bourbon Amaral
I keep coming back to this... Starting 7:30 is one of the most brutal vocal smackdowns ever... Both singers unloading, Callas' enormous dramatic voice in certain phases 8:18 and 8:32 isn't just impressive in terms of volume, but convey an extra layer of pathos most Aida's couldn't compete with. And Dominguez' pure scornful and VENOMOUS phrasing all throughout, and extraordinarily powerful voice as well. My favorite interpretation of my favorite scene in this opera... Brilliant. Unfortunate that the audience sound like zombies at the end. Colossal and Titanic are spot on.
I think Callas is the only one who actually makes Aida sound interesting as a character. Dominguez is sublime as Amneris, better than anyone else IMO. Anyone who is to study Amneris should listen to Dominguez with the score in their hands.
I agree. Amneris should be the name of the opera. However, Callas realized that she had her work cut out for her to make Aida the leading female character. Normally, Aida is a boring character in most soprano's repertoire. Her music is drippy and somewhat boring...except the Nile Scene...and it is Amneris who really has the meaty part.
What night THIS must have been! You will never hear another Aida like this for sure. Two great artists at the top of their game --------- and what a game they played in 1951.
Two titans indeed, this night will live on as the greatest performance ever in Bellas Artes (and possibly the American continent). It is well known that up to this date every single singer who sets foot on the stage asks where Callas sang the legendary note that reached the stratosphere. A former director of the opera at Bellas Artes even told me there were talks to put a plaque on the spot it happened. Unfotunately that hasn't been done, I hope one day it is... If nights at La Scala and the Met are depressing nowadays, don´t get me started with Bellas Artes :(
everybody has gone Lyric in our days to preserve the Voice... but they forget NOT ALL roles were written for Lyric Voices... what is annoying is that they mock the singers who sing Dramatic
Totally agree, also they have institutionalized singing as a career that must be studied. those teachers/intitutions are killing them. For me the greatest example of a singer who whent against that dreadful machinery was Corelli. He is one of the greatest voices ever and despised those pretentious teachers. Very few know anything about singing... But today everyone has to have a degree in something, and that is madness for a profession like operatic singing.
@@LohengrinO Nilsson also despised her vocal teachers and used to cry her way home back to the farm lol. She developed her famous laser technique by herself and a piano
Never thought I'd say it but the more I listen to this stupendous mezzo I believe she is even topping the superb Simionato in this role......Callas needs no comment!!! A simply glorious pairing! ......thank you Lohengrin xxx
as Amneris, she is far better than Simionato, if you focus on her voice in this particular role, u cannot locate flaw... this is how Amneris is supposed to be sung... endless chest voice, heavy and dark with blasting top notes
You just made me shiver right now. Two impeccably great instruments with an even greater intensity and musical intelligence and artistry that most Sopranos couldn't even muster up within their big toe! Aida is generally the most boring and blandest of the Verdi Sopranos (outside of Desdemona and to some degree Leonora from Il Trovatore) but when Callas is your Aida, you KNOW vocal fireworks and an uncanny musical intelligence is deemed to come out of it all.
The more o hear Dominguez the more I believe she may have been the great mezzo/.contralto of her time. Her voice and her handling of it were amazing! Her. Voice was even from top to bottom ! Wonderful singer!
Good lord Callas' power and supreme usage of middle/chest voice in this especially when both Amneris and Aida both go higher in the vocal scale, is just AMAZING and represents in totality what Opera SHOULD be! Great dramatic acting and even more bel canto vocal singing. Truly, the world is lacking this in opera today especially since now it's all about the look and the image as opposed to it being about the talent, the intelligence, and artistry that was once permeated with artists such as La Callas and La Dominguez. Now, we have gone backwards pre-Callas golden era of opera to the canaries taking over and now 100lb singers are singing repertory they shouldn't be singing because they don't have the voice for it.
She's an operetta singer -- nothing more, nothing less. She's only found success in "The Merry Widow" and things that would be even more appropriately sung by a lower Soprano/High Mezzo-Soprano.
As a lover of golden era singing I have to disagree about Susan Graham. She is a fantastic lyric mezzo soprano. I heard her a few times and for the zwischenfach repertoire (cherubino, der komponist, etc) her voice /technique was beautiful and very refined which led to her enormous successes as a Mozart/Strauss specialist. She does not sing Verdi however, and rightly so! The problem today is that lyric mezzos are now singing Amneris, the dramatic mezzos do not learn a proper technique and both ruin their voices early.
Questa è la vera grandissima lirica! Voci stupende! Emozioni che vanno al cuore ❤ Già che i cantanti d'opera odierni hanno tantissimo da imparare....e probabilmente non è più possibile....addio bel passato
The other star singer in this 1951. AIDA here is Dominguez who sings one of the most exciting Amneris’ I have yet to hear & was only in her mid 20’s at this time time! During this period I would rate her (& her own potential) along with Cloe Elmo. Neither of them, based on available LIVE or STUDIO recordings that I have located, received the acclaim they deserved. Some claim this 1951 LIVE Mexico City AIDA as the best of all & certainly there is a serious case for this. YOU be the judge!
I always feel sad that Dominguez was not paired with Callas more often, both on stage and in the recording studio. The chemistry between them here is electrifying. If only Oralia had been Adalgisa to Maria's Norma in her first studio recording rather than Stignani, who by that stage in her career I find lacked the control and youthfulness the role requires. I am glad we have this recording as a document of these two great singers' artistry.
Stignani though who indeed sounds as an old lady, was the prototype of Maria's voice in the mezzo category, the mezzo soprano dramatico d'agilita. A unique artist who actually managed to almost overshadow Maria's Leonora in her 1953 Scala Trovatore (the one where Schwarzkopf called Callas A Miracle). I think Oralia was the only Mezzo Soprano who could rival Callas in her Chest Voice, they both used it exceptionally
They make a ten minute scene seem like it is 1 minute!!! And to this day I sill have trouble discerning which is which when they go into chest voice. Oralia was a revelation here. She’s underrated but thankfully this recording is one of the most famous ever. Taddei, also underrated is thankfully memorialized here. Oralia had a column of sound from top to bottom of her voice. Quite amazing. She also sounds much more authoritative than other Amneris’ you really feel she is royalty. Simionato’s my favorite mezzo but I must admit that none will surpass Oralia here.
Aida.....perhaps not Maria's finest role or one that at least suited here best in her Verdian repertoire. However, it was a mainstay of her early career and was always sung with the ultimate conviction and attention to detail we can always rely on her to deliver. Oralia Dominguez provides a vibrant, femine foil in her Amneris and as we know was vastly unapprecitaed and undiscovered as a superb mezzo.
Lohengrin O I never understand how anyone can say Callas didn't excel as Aida... it's the same confusion I have when they dare to say her Aida was bad.
I think they refer to her studio Aida and 99% of them have never heard her early live Aidas... I have to confess that I have never managed to listen to a complete Price Aida not once in my life cause the opera as deadwalke says is tremendously boring when not sung Full Voice with full dramatic outbursts... Price's Aida (As well as the studio Callas one) put me to sleep...
@@johnfalstaff2270 The 1955 studio recording of Norma is great. But the 1955 live performance is spectacular. Callas is brilliant. At the end of her arias you can hear the audience not only applauding but commenting in awe.
@@LohengrinO I just despair at the state of opera today. Movie star performers who get by on their looks but can't sing worth a darn. The recent Met Norma was pathetic. And the Netrebko Traviata? No thank you.
@@SymphonyBrahms Netrebko in her prime though gave descent singing in several ocasions.. for example her Bolena... I do believe Netrebko is overrated but she is not as bad of a singer as her detractors present her, over the years we have heard much much much worse singing in singers of the past who even achieved Legendary status
![30 ชั่วโมงคนเดียว บนรถไฟชั้น 3 โซเวียต [Around The World Ep. 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MlE9boAVqDA/mqdefault.jpg)
I keep listening, listening, coming back to this 1951 Aida and all I can say that this is the ULTIMATE, the ultimate document and reference for true VERDIAN singing, nothing out there is more Verdian than this. Nothing!
Maria Callas and Oralia Dominguez! What a match! Both of them with brilliant, awesome, beautiful, pure and powerful voices creating musical magic for the rest of us and the world.
Minute 5:01 = one of the most astonishing sounds that have EVER come out of a human throat! Oralia is the most accomplished mezzo voice the human race has on record and by far! Long before anybody was praising her here on TH-cam I had already discovered her about 10 years ago when I became obsessed with Callas entire Mexico Aidas.
I used to think Simionato was unrivalled in this role.... then I heard Dominguez.
she is the personification of Amneris... full everything... full low, full top, full middle and she does not hold the Voice back... Oralia was a mezzo soprano dramatic d'agilita
Lohengrin O She reminds me of Stignani (who also had brilliant agility) but with a significantly more gorgeous timbre. Her whole three registers hit you in the gut.
I had stignani in my mind as well... I will post one aria di bravura with Oralia next :D
Also how tenderly Callas sings the last phrases.... so much pain, so much life in her singing.
Callas’ Aida always had a sense of overhanging dread over it. Her phrasing is extremely frantic as is what the role calls for. She is never truly at peace until the very end. She was brilliant. And people still say Price was the greatest Aida...
Manoli S. Exactly, she shows us all the conflicts and ephemeral moments of hope of Aida and obviously the inevitable sense of loss and despair. Prime Callas was referential in everything she sang.
Agreed what a difficult role to get right. Can’t think of any others that really come close
This must be the best and most electrifying Aida ever! Oralia Domínguez: astounding!
it is
....a quality unheard today. Whether the audience was aware of that historic performance, I am not sure. A combination of MC, MDM plus Dominguez and Taddei!! Unbelievable. Nearly 70 years after that recording you still sit nailed into your hopefully comfortable seat.
Mi piace moltissimo
The Gods Edition of Aida aria
Oralia Domínguez Great Amneris !!!❤❤
Like someone once said, Price gives you pretty singing, but Callas sings it like a gargantuan tigress; she gives you the real deal. Callas is undeniably Aida HERSELF. It is the truth. The legendary high E flat in the triumphal scene merely icing to the cake. Price's O patria mia will make you shed a tear, but Callas' touches the soul, and moves hearts.
Ive always considered Callas the greatest Aida of all but was too afraid to say it... Now Im not... No one can even come close to Callas' early Aidas and probably no one ever will come close
Finally somebody that understands Maria. All these people thinking I consider my Maria I lost her voice for the time she was 54. And then there's in my opinion because of my mental giant of Opera blah blah blah blah blah how did you run on ignorance is bliss or is it LOL thank you Arnold Bourbon Amaral
I keep coming back to this... Starting 7:30 is one of the most brutal vocal smackdowns ever... Both singers unloading, Callas' enormous dramatic voice in certain phases 8:18 and 8:32 isn't just impressive in terms of volume, but convey an extra layer of pathos most Aida's couldn't compete with. And Dominguez' pure scornful and VENOMOUS phrasing all throughout, and extraordinarily powerful voice as well. My favorite interpretation of my favorite scene in this opera... Brilliant. Unfortunate that the audience sound like zombies at the end. Colossal and Titanic are spot on.
I cannot handle listen to this duet with anyone else other than Callas...
@@LohengrinO Absolute truth for many of us!
I think Callas is the only one who actually makes Aida sound interesting as a character. Dominguez is sublime as Amneris, better than anyone else IMO. Anyone who is to study Amneris should listen to Dominguez with the score in their hands.
listen study and weep cause she cant sing Amneris like this :D
I completely agree. She actually exhibits more than today's singers can process, let alone repeat it!
I think, and I have never said that for anyone else, that hearing Oralia's Amneris is the closest possible thing to hearing Callas' Amneris
I agree. Amneris should be the name of the opera. However, Callas realized that she had her work cut out for her to make Aida the leading female character. Normally, Aida is a boring character in most soprano's repertoire. Her music is drippy and somewhat boring...except the Nile Scene...and it is Amneris who really has the meaty part.
Dominguez gave Maria a run for her money. She was fearless...and Maria must have been shocked at how intensely Oralia put it out.
Irripetibili, stellari, da brividi! Dove sono oggi due così? Non bastano le parole
Raza extinguida lamentablemente
About Callas everything is already said, but what about Oralia?! She was a HUGE Mezzo, just listen to her in this memorable duet!
What night THIS must have been! You will never hear another Aida like this for sure. Two great artists at the top of their game --------- and what a game they played in 1951.
Two titans indeed, this night will live on as the greatest performance ever in Bellas Artes (and possibly the American continent). It is well known that up to this date every single singer who sets foot on the stage asks where Callas sang the legendary note that reached the stratosphere. A former director of the opera at Bellas Artes even told me there were talks to put a plaque on the spot it happened. Unfotunately that hasn't been done, I hope one day it is... If nights at La Scala and the Met are depressing nowadays, don´t get me started with Bellas Artes :(
everybody has gone Lyric in our days to preserve the Voice... but they forget NOT ALL roles were written for Lyric Voices... what is annoying is that they mock the singers who sing Dramatic
Totally agree, also they have institutionalized singing as a career that must be studied. those teachers/intitutions are killing them. For me the greatest example of a singer who whent against that dreadful machinery was Corelli. He is one of the greatest voices ever and despised those pretentious teachers. Very few know anything about singing... But today everyone has to have a degree in something, and that is madness for a profession like operatic singing.
The Teachers know well one thing... how to make their students Insignificant :D
@@LohengrinO Nilsson also despised her vocal teachers and used to cry her way home back to the farm lol. She developed her famous laser technique by herself and a piano
Never thought I'd say it but the more I listen to this stupendous mezzo I believe she is even topping the superb Simionato in this role......Callas needs no comment!!! A simply glorious pairing! ......thank you Lohengrin xxx
as Amneris, she is far better than Simionato, if you focus on her voice in this particular role, u cannot locate flaw... this is how Amneris is supposed to be sung... endless chest voice, heavy and dark with blasting top notes
Lohengrin O ..... she's astonishing in this role no question, I do love Simionato aswell but she definitely has the edge..... marvellous mezzo..
John Falstaff ....agree with you completely, especially in your classification of Taddei.....an immense baritone in my opinion....
John Falstaff ......lol!...if I were you I would be careful airing those sentiments 😊....but I do agree with you completely....😉
Callas Power and intensity are an example of suprem mastery of dramatic interpretation
....and I have come to believe that Oralia is the greatest Amneris of the 20th century
Lohengrin O of course
Lohengrin O only because Callas never sung that role... imagine her Amneris next to her Abigaile 🎵🎶💘
I think what we hear here from Oralia, is the closest to what Callas would have been as Amneris
You just made me shiver right now. Two impeccably great instruments with an even greater intensity and musical intelligence and artistry that most Sopranos couldn't even muster up within their big toe! Aida is generally the most boring and blandest of the Verdi Sopranos (outside of Desdemona and to some degree Leonora from Il Trovatore) but when Callas is your Aida, you KNOW vocal fireworks and an uncanny musical intelligence is deemed to come out of it all.
The more o hear Dominguez the more I believe she may have been the great mezzo/.contralto of her time. Her voice and her handling of it were amazing! Her. Voice was even from top to bottom ! Wonderful singer!
What a beautiful voice !
Good lord Callas' power and supreme usage of middle/chest voice in this especially when both Amneris and Aida both go higher in the vocal scale, is just AMAZING and represents in totality what Opera SHOULD be! Great dramatic acting and even more bel canto vocal singing. Truly, the world is lacking this in opera today especially since now it's all about the look and the image as opposed to it being about the talent, the intelligence, and artistry that was once permeated with artists such as La Callas and La Dominguez. Now, we have gone backwards pre-Callas golden era of opera to the canaries taking over and now 100lb singers are singing repertory they shouldn't be singing because they don't have the voice for it.
today's opera is concentrated into Susan Graham's advice to Piotr Beczała: Be careful not to fuck up that voice!
Susan Graham? That hollow-point "lyric" Mezzo-Soprano who's really a lyric Soprano with a limited chest voice? Don't even get me started on her!
Lohengrin O Susan Graham? ‘Fraid I don’t know that one!
She's an operetta singer -- nothing more, nothing less. She's only found success in "The Merry Widow" and things that would be even more appropriately sung by a lower Soprano/High Mezzo-Soprano.
As a lover of golden era singing I have to disagree about Susan Graham. She is a fantastic lyric mezzo soprano. I heard her a few times and for the zwischenfach repertoire (cherubino, der komponist, etc) her voice /technique was beautiful and very refined which led to her enormous successes as a Mozart/Strauss specialist. She does not sing Verdi however, and rightly so! The problem today is that lyric mezzos are now singing Amneris, the dramatic mezzos do not learn a proper technique and both ruin their voices early.
Proud to be Greek !!!
Questa è la vera grandissima lirica! Voci stupende! Emozioni che vanno al cuore ❤ Già che i cantanti d'opera odierni hanno tantissimo da imparare....e probabilmente non è più possibile....addio bel passato
The other star singer in this 1951. AIDA here is Dominguez who sings one of the most exciting Amneris’ I have yet to hear & was only in her mid 20’s at this time time! During this period I would rate her (& her own potential) along with Cloe Elmo. Neither of them, based on available LIVE or STUDIO recordings that I have located, received the acclaim they deserved. Some claim this 1951 LIVE Mexico City AIDA as the best of all & certainly there is a serious case for this. YOU be the judge!
THE greatest amneris ever
...and one my most favorite singers: th-cam.com/video/kdRxkUed9VU/w-d-xo.html Callasian level of singer
Domínguez really Astounding ❤
Si...Maria Callas è molto di più che soltanto una voce...ogni personaggio che interpretava sulla scena lo era davvero....ormai è UNICA.
Absolutely FABULOUS TOGETHER....again thank you !!
Este dúo es puro fuego!!! Una batalla vocal entre dos Titanes Gigantescos!!! 🔥🔥🔥👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿🔥🔥🔥🔥👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥😍😍😍😍
Oralia and Callas would be a invencible duo of Opera
I always feel sad that Dominguez was not paired with Callas more often, both on stage and in the recording studio. The chemistry between them here is electrifying. If only Oralia had been Adalgisa to Maria's Norma in her first studio recording rather than Stignani, who by that stage in her career I find lacked the control and youthfulness the role requires. I am glad we have this recording as a document of these two great singers' artistry.
Stignani though who indeed sounds as an old lady, was the prototype of Maria's voice in the mezzo category, the mezzo soprano dramatico d'agilita. A unique artist who actually managed to almost overshadow Maria's Leonora in her 1953 Scala Trovatore (the one where Schwarzkopf called Callas A Miracle). I think Oralia was the only Mezzo Soprano who could rival Callas in her Chest Voice, they both used it exceptionally
In this case, you could also call it "Oralia Dominguez interrogates Maria Callas"
Indeed!
They make a ten minute scene seem like it is 1 minute!!!
And to this day I sill have trouble discerning which is which when they go into chest voice. Oralia was a revelation here. She’s underrated but thankfully this recording is one of the most famous ever. Taddei, also underrated is thankfully memorialized here.
Oralia had a column of sound from top to bottom of her voice. Quite amazing. She also sounds much more authoritative than other Amneris’ you really feel she is royalty. Simionato’s my favorite mezzo but I must admit that none will surpass Oralia here.
I will post her sing an aria di Bravura soon... she is the prototype of mezzo soprano dramatico d'agilita
plus.. about your 1 minute remark... Im so crazy with this excerpt that makes me fall asleep with all other combinations
Lohengrin O please do!!!
Lohengrin O I completely agree, this scene is simply not the same without these two ladies together
have u heard Horne singing Amneris live? I really wonder why she didnt get thrown rotten tomatoes at... she was vulgar bad
Qué bravas!!!
TEATRO VIVO!!!
Oralia was 23. *23.*
I must ask, what is happening in this scene? They're voices are just so gorgeous and I can't tell what is happening lol
La potenza e la perfezione!!
Ultra Potenza
Aida.....perhaps not Maria's finest role or one that at least suited here best in her Verdian repertoire. However, it was a mainstay of her early career and was always sung with the ultimate conviction and attention to detail we can always rely on her to deliver. Oralia Dominguez provides a vibrant, femine foil in her Amneris and as we know was vastly unapprecitaed and undiscovered as a superb mezzo.
she is the greatest Aida of the 20th century in this recording with no one ever come even remotely near her sorry to burst your bubble
Lohengrin O I never understand how anyone can say Callas didn't excel as Aida... it's the same confusion I have when they dare to say her Aida was bad.
I think they refer to her studio Aida and 99% of them have never heard her early live Aidas... I have to confess that I have never managed to listen to a complete Price Aida not once in my life cause the opera as deadwalke says is tremendously boring when not sung Full Voice with full dramatic outbursts... Price's Aida (As well as the studio Callas one) put me to sleep...
I have no doubt in my mind that she was the greatest Aida....but I know there are doubters, fools as they are. Glad you re so pro Maria Lohehgrin.
@@johnfalstaff2270 The 1955 studio recording of Norma is great. But the 1955 live performance is spectacular. Callas is brilliant. At the end of her arias you can hear the audience not only applauding but commenting in awe.
Callas forever la Divina.
I never heard before Oralia Domínguez Great Amneris !!
Giants fight.
chest voice for days
If only I was able to hear them “live”... you guys are spoilt, you should hear what I have to listen to in this part of the world...
thank God the Internet exists!!! same case here mate :D
@@LohengrinO I just despair at the state of opera today. Movie star performers who get by on their looks but can't sing worth a darn. The recent Met Norma was pathetic. And the Netrebko Traviata? No thank you.
@@SymphonyBrahms Netrebko in her prime though gave descent singing in several ocasions.. for example her Bolena... I do believe Netrebko is overrated but she is not as bad of a singer as her detractors present her, over the years we have heard much much much worse singing in singers of the past who even achieved Legendary status
what year was this exciting recording?
Mexico City, Palacio de Bellas Artes, July 3th, 1951
1951! Live! The one with the Eb! Possibly the most famous live recording ever!