Her interpretation of this role, and this performance in particular, have justly attained legendary status among opera aficianados. Brings to mind the old adage: talented amateurs practice until they can finally attain a certain level of excellence; professionals practice until they can never slip below a certain level of excellence
In the last performance (which I did not record) she ended the cabaletta with a breathtaking TOP G !.... when we asked her backstage why she said it was just 'so fun ' to do it LLOOLL
I saw Natalie Dessay perform this in Chicago and she was awesome! Even when rolling around on the floor her voice rang out all the way to the back of the hall. She brought down the house with this aria and stole the show!
I've watched this video many times. It's amazingly difficult, sung with wonderful confidence, extreme precision, superb legato. And on top of everything, Natalie Dessay does this while acting, lying on the floor...WAW she drives me nuts!
I've mentioned this before, but when I stumbled on this download, having been completely unaware of Natalie Dessay, I was overwhelmed. I've watched and listened so many times since I can't count them. Since then I have slowly become a Dessay fan, and between YT and buying her CDs I can say that my life has been enriched. She is not only a riveting actress and a singer of comedy and drama with bold strokes and unbelievable levels of subtlety, but she is a role model in terms of how she IS.
Natalie Dessay's Alcina is astonishing, great, glorious, fantastic, wonderful and lots of other nice things ^^ That high G in the end was... No words for that!
I can't stop watching this and it keeps running through my head even when I'm NOT watching it. Just a note to Lilith89ibz-Nathalie is singing Morgana; Renee Fleming is Alcina. I love them both. Now I need to find a dvd version to add to my collection.
Does anyone have this entire production on DVD??? God I love to see it!!!! Was this done at The Chicago Lyric Opera? If not, where please? Dessay was flawless in it.
the staging is perfectly fitted to the music and Ms Dessay has a wonderful sense of timing, besides a luminous voice: it's very professional, very talented, I'd love to be able to sing and act with that precision
Well said!! I feel EXACTLY the same. The technique is just flawless, and has that point on the sound that is ESSENTIAL for effective coloratura singing.
I feel so grateful for Natalie Dessay. I would thank god if I wasn't atheist. She is simply perfect. By the way, that high note at the end is the high F (at A=415). To hear Natalie's awesome high G (at A=440), one should listen to the Mozart concert aria (Popoli di Thessaglia!). I wish this production was commercially available on DVD. The CD is one of my favorite Handel opera recordings of all time.
I fully agree with you on this. But Mr Carsen is, IMHO, the most talented stage director of these days (one of the other great prod we had in Paris were his breathtaking Midsummernight Dream, and his so deeply clever and beautiful Rusalka - with renée - now both available in DVD). I know that Nathalie and Renée - both very much interested by the dramatic aspects of their roles and by stage direction issues - adore working with this great artist.
C'est vraiment chaud avec Natalie ! Elle adore ça et l mise en scène a dû la combler. Cet extrait est en outre superbe musicalement et Natalie y donne toute la mesure de son talent. Et dire qu'elle ne veut plus chanter d'opéra...Reviens Natalie !
About four or five months ago I stumbled on this Aria, here, this production. I was completely unaware of Natalie Dessay. I also have watched/listened to it a number of times. Now I must have spent a hundred hours on you tube stuff by and about Natalie. I have bought a bunch of her CDs and love them. She has a good voice, not a super one... but she sings and acts so well, and the human characteristics she has are so appealing I am a fan like never before. She wants to "change opera", and is.
I prefer this over Joan Sutherland's renditions, so far. It's a modern characterization (obviously due to the production concept) but Dessay plays more with the vocal line yet stays within the baroque style. Another gold star, Dessay!
It is very rewarding that you appreciate this clip ;)) Don't hesitate to like the video and subscribe my chanel, it will be helpful to continue this work of sharing many exclusive documents in future especially with Nathalie ;)
She sings like any true great diva in the operatic history and looks, acts, moves like a Broadway superstar. She's the true phenomenon that we should ever be grateful to be contemporary with. By the way, that high note ain't G, it's F, in the lowered Baroque pitch (A=415). No disrespect meant; fact is fact. Her true high G can be heard in that amazing Mozart concert aria, "Popoli di Tessaglia..."
I know the text in so far as it is based on the poem Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, completed in 1532. I am not criticizing Nathalie's costume; in fact, What I was trying to say was that she is lucky enough to be able to wear it. Joan Sutherland could not have done so. Robert Carsen has done another great job of bringing opera seria into the 20th and 21st century. I'm happy for that. It gives me one more version to enjoy and with my favourite singers.
Sour Lemon: Joan ALWAYS wore very elaborate, period costumes. Most sopranos are built such that a skimpy, modern costume would render them ludicrous. Nathalie is lucky in her physical size. However, a French maid's outfit is certainly not REALISTIC for the time in which Handel's opera is set. That being said, I'll listen to Joan Sutherland AND Nathalie Dessay no matter what they are wearing. Enjoy both interpretations.
This is an E not a G ... she did the G "for fun" only at the last performance ... I was there but did not tape it unfortunately ... it was ... incredible ... never heard something like that before or after in a theater ... weird in a way ...
Can someone explain? I have sheet music for this song (in the Schirmer Opera Anthology) in Bb.. is it being performed down a half step or is the music wrong?
It's pointless to compare Natalie Dessay with Joan Sutherlan both r amazing singers,there r not identical humans,and there r no indentical voices,specially when they r not even the same type of soprano voice,both performances r amazing...besides why Natalie Should even try to sing Turandot anyway? that's not for her voice type Natalie Dessay is going to figure as one of the top sopranos of our times and it will never going to be another Joan Sutherland
Imperdibile, Strepitosa. La parte tecnica è probabilmente meno nitida e meno calligrafica di altre interpreti e di come probabilmente sarebbe richiesto. La voce è piccolina (ma penetrante) e folleggia in acrobazie spumeggianti. Quello però che seduce perdutamente è che ti trascina in una intensità recitativa/canora che svela la fragile inclinazione di Morgana a perdersi nella pura passione, nella voluttà di sciogliersi in un innamoramento impudico reso intrigante ed estenuato dall'ambiguità della situazione. Questo puro abbandono ai sensi, rende eterno il contenuto della genialità di Haendel: quale eternità si custodisce con supremo egoismo sull'isola di Alcina, se non il sogno di possedere l'eterna bellezza, propria e altrui? E quale musica e quale teatro, se non quello di Haendel regala a piene mani la bellezza eternamente pura in sé stessa, l'idea sublimata e fatata di bellezza?
Dio mio che geniale analisi! Il sogno di mantenere e possedere la belta' in un contento amoroso e seducente. Questa e' la gioia e la dannazione di noi fragili umani Grazie 😙
great acting.....I just wish her voice was as big enough....it's pretty but it has often been said that she needs to be miked, b/c the voice is too small
Oh yes, this is wonderful. However, don't go through the trouble of watching the complete recording of this performance. It is overwrought and frankly rather tedious. No, not Alcina, but this particular performance
Quelle performance Nathalie! De la joie.
Her interpretation of this role, and this performance in particular, have justly attained legendary status among opera aficianados.
Brings to mind the old adage: talented amateurs practice until they can finally attain a certain level of excellence; professionals practice until they can never slip below a certain level of excellence
In the last performance (which I did not record) she ended the cabaletta with a breathtaking TOP G !.... when we asked her backstage why she said it was just 'so fun ' to do it LLOOLL
I saw Natalie Dessay perform this in Chicago and she was awesome! Even when rolling around on the floor her voice rang out all the way to the back of the hall. She brought down the house with this aria and stole the show!
I've watched this video many times. It's amazingly difficult, sung with wonderful confidence, extreme precision, superb legato. And on top of everything, Natalie Dessay does this while acting, lying on the floor...WAW she drives me nuts!
Absolutely astounding how she can be so physical and maintain such clarity and dexterity of tone!
Sometimes it actually helps the singing to move. Especially for coloratura.
Remember singing is a physical sport.
I've mentioned this before, but when I stumbled on this download, having been completely unaware of Natalie Dessay, I was overwhelmed. I've watched and listened so many times since I can't count them. Since then I have slowly become a Dessay fan, and between YT and buying her CDs I can say that my life has been enriched. She is not only a riveting actress and a singer of comedy and drama with bold strokes and unbelievable levels of subtlety, but she is a role model in terms of how she IS.
MrHbc3 she is a real gem
This is such a wonderful aria to watch because Miss Dessay is having so much fun with it.
I already admired Dessay's technique, her clear-as-glass sound and her acting ability, and now she makes me giggle aswell!
I was there in Chicago and was in heaven! I could have sat thru 3 more hours of da capo arias!!!
Natalie Dessay's Alcina is astonishing, great, glorious, fantastic, wonderful and lots of other nice things ^^ That high G in the end was... No words for that!
I can't stop watching this and it keeps running through my head even when I'm NOT watching it. Just a note to Lilith89ibz-Nathalie is singing Morgana; Renee Fleming is Alcina. I love them both. Now I need to find a dvd version to add to my collection.
the best version of this aria. very inspiring for me. :)
This woman doesn't exist!!! loooll
Just perfect!! Every note, every expression, every move...
Brava!
I love it I love it I love it !!!!! Great aria !! Great singer !!!
i've seen it more than 45 times and it still drives my crazy... she is really awsome!
Höchstes Lob für die Darstellung und den Gesang von Natalie Dessay!!! und für Georg !!!
Does anyone have this entire production on DVD??? God I love to see it!!!! Was this done at The Chicago Lyric Opera? If not, where please? Dessay was flawless in it.
the staging is perfectly fitted to the music and Ms Dessay has a wonderful sense of timing, besides a luminous voice: it's very professional, very talented, I'd love to be able to sing and act with that precision
INCREDIBLE technique! She is, indeed, an amazing singer.
Bellissima voce, ... bellisima dona! ... e naturalmente magnifico Haendel!
It is a glorious high Е actually :) Really great interpretation!! Thanks for share!
Well said!! I feel EXACTLY the same. The technique is just flawless, and has that point on the sound that is ESSENTIAL for effective coloratura singing.
WOW!!!! this is so beautiful! Loved it!
she's such an amazing actress!
She's incredible!!!
@Emily Amatulli - it's not wrong, it is baroque music performend on period instruments, and historic tuning at a=415' (half a step lower than today)
bellisima voce, bellisima donna! ... e naturalmente grandioso Haendel!
I feel so grateful for Natalie Dessay. I would thank god if I wasn't atheist. She is simply perfect. By the way, that high note at the end is the high F (at A=415). To hear Natalie's awesome high G (at A=440), one should listen to the Mozart concert aria (Popoli di Thessaglia!). I wish this production was commercially available on DVD. The CD is one of my favorite Handel opera recordings of all time.
It's actually an intense High E6.
I fully agree with you on this. But Mr Carsen is, IMHO, the most talented stage director of these days (one of the other great prod we had in Paris were his breathtaking Midsummernight Dream, and his so deeply clever and beautiful Rusalka - with renée - now both available in DVD). I know that Nathalie and Renée - both very much interested by the dramatic aspects of their roles and by stage direction issues - adore working with this great artist.
Lot's of Natalie fans on here, awesome...so...who's the other woman?
Kathleen Kulmann (sp?).
C'est vraiment chaud avec Natalie ! Elle adore ça et l mise en scène a dû la combler. Cet extrait est en outre superbe musicalement et Natalie y donne toute la mesure de son talent. Et dire qu'elle ne veut plus chanter d'opéra...Reviens Natalie !
C'est vraiment *EXTRA* !
Fifi ce n'est pas encore classé X ...tu pouvais en mettre un, MDR...
MDR !
I know it's passe to say things like "9 people missed the like button" but seriously, how can anyone not like this? Honestly curious here.
Her cadenzas are different in the video than the recording which is the most amazing recording ever.
About four or five months ago I stumbled on this Aria, here, this production. I was completely unaware of Natalie Dessay. I also have watched/listened to it a number of times. Now I must have spent a hundred hours on you tube stuff by and about Natalie. I have bought a bunch of her CDs and love them. She has a good voice, not a super one... but she sings and acts so well, and the human characteristics she has are so appealing I am a fan like never before. She wants to "change opera", and is.
je l'ai vu à l'opera garnier tt simplement sublime cet opera !!! :)
she's Morgana, Alcina's sister.
Joan Sutherland in her recording sang Alcina but she took this aria from the "sister's" role because she liked it
She is just the best singing actress of the moment!
I like also Renee Fleming, but Dessay is even better, she's the BEST!
Callas has found her pupil!
Hello, where have you been!?!?! Haha!
Dessay -- listen, enjoy, love her!
WOOOOOOW!!! She drives me crazy
I prefer this over Joan Sutherland's renditions, so far. It's a modern characterization (obviously due to the production concept) but Dessay plays more with the vocal line yet stays within the baroque style. Another gold star, Dessay!
This is the interpretation G.F. Handel watches and listens to in heaven.
Yes, it is a High F at 415 (that is, an E, aprox., in modern pitch)
Una demostración de que no está reñida la buena técnica de canto con la interpretación escénica.Brava Natalie Dessay¡¡¡
tutto stupendo e scena meravigliosa
HOLY GOD what a note!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is very rewarding that you appreciate this clip ;)) Don't hesitate to like the video and subscribe my chanel, it will be helpful to continue this work of sharing many exclusive documents in future especially with Nathalie ;)
Händel´s opera "Alcina" with a Toelzer boy soloist (Elias M. ?) as Oberto in July 2015 at ARTE: presse.arte.tv/apios/press_release/1522.pdf
She sings like any true great diva in the operatic history and looks, acts, moves like a Broadway superstar. She's the true phenomenon that we should ever be grateful to be contemporary with. By the way, that high note ain't G, it's F, in the lowered Baroque pitch (A=415). No disrespect meant; fact is fact. Her true high G can be heard in that amazing Mozart concert aria, "Popoli di Tessaglia..."
I know the text in so far as it is based on the poem Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, completed in 1532. I am not criticizing Nathalie's costume; in fact, What I was trying to say was that she is lucky enough to be able to wear it. Joan Sutherland could not have done so. Robert Carsen has done another great job of bringing opera seria into the 20th and 21st century. I'm happy for that. It gives me one more version to enjoy and with my favourite singers.
Perfection.
as I hear, it's one tonality lower than original in B flat. is it right?
but version - great. :)
Terrific aria - I think she wants to be his friend ....
Hee! That's one heck of a "little French maid."
Natalie est la meilleure!!!!!!!
Absolutely love this!
i like her voice
Sour Lemon: Joan ALWAYS wore very elaborate, period costumes. Most sopranos are built such
that a skimpy, modern costume would render them ludicrous. Nathalie is lucky in her physical size. However, a French maid's outfit is certainly not REALISTIC for the time in which Handel's opera is set. That being said, I'll listen to Joan Sutherland AND Nathalie Dessay no matter what they are wearing. Enjoy both interpretations.
me encanto esta mujer tan pequena de cuerpo y que VOZ que tiene que Dios la bendiga:)
uhm clssicvideofan, u said she hit a high G somewhere in this opera...can u tell me in which aria she did this??
BRAVA!
for those of you who have seen this, what is going on here in the scene? is that a woman she's kissing?
Yeah, I noticed just after posting the comment that it was not THAT high... lol I wish I could have heard it. I'm so jealous of you! =)
I wrote that se hit the HIgh G at the last perf. This is not the last perf ... so of course it is the 'regular' E ...
This is an E not a G ... she did the G "for fun" only at the last performance ... I was there but did not tape it unfortunately ... it was ... incredible ... never heard something like that before or after in a theater ... weird in a way ...
yes I posted other higlights of the same prod
"I kissed a girl and I liked it".. ;P
Can someone explain? I have sheet music for this song (in the Schirmer Opera Anthology) in Bb.. is it being performed down a half step or is the music wrong?
You better inform yourself about diapason frequence on ancient music
i THINK YOU HOUD READ THE TEXT AND HAVESEEN THE COMPPLETE PRODUCTION TO MAKE A JUDGMENT :-)
wow! first time i see Dessay kissing a woman! @_@ anyway....wut year is this? im pretty sure its before 2000 right?
I think she's hitting an F here.
An intense High E6.
well said :):):)
3:46
OH MY GOD
It’s E at the end of the aria)
It's pointless to compare Natalie Dessay with Joan Sutherlan both r amazing singers,there r not identical humans,and there r no indentical voices,specially when they r not even the same type of soprano voice,both performances r amazing...besides why Natalie Should even try to sing Turandot anyway? that's not for her voice type
Natalie Dessay is going to figure as one of the top sopranos of our times
and it will never going to be another Joan Sutherland
I am sure that if you just read the text you will find out !... :-))
Imperdibile, Strepitosa. La parte tecnica è probabilmente meno nitida e meno calligrafica di altre interpreti e di come probabilmente sarebbe richiesto.
La voce è piccolina (ma penetrante) e folleggia in acrobazie spumeggianti. Quello però che seduce perdutamente è che ti trascina in una intensità recitativa/canora che svela la fragile inclinazione di Morgana a perdersi nella pura passione, nella voluttà di sciogliersi in un innamoramento impudico reso intrigante ed estenuato dall'ambiguità della situazione. Questo puro abbandono ai sensi, rende eterno il contenuto della genialità di Haendel: quale eternità si custodisce con supremo egoismo sull'isola di Alcina, se non il sogno di possedere l'eterna bellezza, propria e altrui? E quale musica e quale teatro, se non quello di Haendel regala a piene mani la bellezza eternamente pura in sé stessa, l'idea sublimata e fatata di bellezza?
Cherubello, immagino chetu scherzi.
Dio mio che geniale analisi!
Il sogno di mantenere e possedere la belta' in un contento amoroso e seducente.
Questa e' la gioia e la dannazione di noi fragili umani
Grazie
😙
E gli Dei ,a consulto,decisero di fare un dono a l'umanità:crearono la Sig.ra Dessy
☆☆☆☆☆
Actually the high note at the end was an F
Umm.....
like the singing but really not a fan of the acting
great acting.....I just wish her voice was as big enough....it's pretty but it has often been said that she needs to be miked, b/c the voice is too small
Oh yes, this is wonderful. However, don't go through the trouble of watching the complete recording of this performance. It is overwrought and frankly rather tedious. No, not Alcina, but this particular performance
i've seen it more than 45 times and it still drives my crazy... she is really awsome!