Verdi and Verrett go hand in hand. She excelled in all if his mezzo roles brilliantly. When she transitioned into the soprano rep she sailed through a few of his roles and left her mark. La Verrett was truly something.
This is not just singing (listen to her lower register!!!). This is performing, understanding what Amneris is going through at this moment (listen to her phrasing and intonation of 'gelosia') and conveying it to the listener. A real opera singer. And a great one.
Dante Walston I think Bumbry did that for a television special, but not Verrett. However, if, miraculously, there's a recording of Verrett singing both roles, it would be wonderful to hear!
foropera Thank you. Am I mistaken or AIDA was a role Shirley Verrett didn't sing too often throughout her career? (neither during her mezzo nor her soprano phase).
@@eduardobraivein8496 I think she just sang the title role of Aida in 2 productions in 1980 and 1989 in Boston. About Amneris,I don't know all her performances in this role. Firenze, Dallas, London, New-York...Not too much because the role lies too much in the medium when the orchestra is strong. She felt better in Eboli.
Это яркое и темпераментное исполнение, однако, при всем моём восхищении Веррет, ни она, ни какая другая певица не достигает в партии Амнерис высот, покоренных Еленой Образцовой. Думаю, это была лучшая партия Елены Васильевны, как она сама - лучшей из Амнерис.
Personnally I find often times Obraztsova excessively chesty, virile, but I agree that Amneris is a part more suited to a big mezzo with a stentorian medium. But I find Verrett more refined, feminine, and noble...at least with a microphone.
@@foropera I understand what you are talking about in relation to Verret. But the Amneris party has two serious demands. 1. Passion. She passionately loves Radames, passionately jealous of him for Aida, passionately indignant at his ridiculous choice, passionately curses him first, and then his executioners, and inconsolably shoots over his crypt. She is the last hero of the opera, whose voice reaches us through the melting orchestra and the fading chorus. 2. Vocal power. You know as well as I do that in opera passion is conveyed by vocal calories. No plastic poses, no temperamental gestures will be able to compensate for the "vocal underinvestment". The party requires megawatts of psychological and vocal impact. All this was managed by Obraztsova much better than her colleague - of course, in my opinion. In addition, in this party, she was still wonderfully plastic. The tessitura of Amneris is quite high (for example, in comparison with the Azuchena), but abounds in bright accents on low notes, which should sound full-sounding and powerful. All this perfectly corresponds to the vocal and psychological data of Obtaztsova. In addition, I would have noticed that Amneris is not at all a princess from the house of Habsburg or Valois, (like Aida herself, by the way), so the thesis about the "greater nobility" of Verret sounds strange to me. Obraztsova was a tigress on stage, but so is Verdi's Amneris.
@@purisermonisamator well I agree about the demands of the role, and if I listen to this live recordings of Verrett in Amneris ( and some other ones), she lacks power in the medium, in many crucial points. In the Amsterdam concert, and the London video, we have microphones not far away... She herself founded the role vocally difficult if the conductor had a "heavy hand" on the low side of the role. She stopped to sing it quite quickly. When I say noble it is because Amneris is the daughter of the Pharaons. Callas speaks of that, at Juillard, Amneris must keep behaving like a queen, always. That said, I must confess we all don't know why someone's voice resounds in us deeply, it is mysterious. I understand your love for Obraztsova's art, and I appreciate her in many parts, because of her beautiful warm voice, her vital force of nature, and her joy and laugh too. (Much more than Zajic or Cossotto for example). Both of them were good friends by the way. But to me, and it's only my personal point of view, I understand what Verrett wants to show, (and it doesn't seem wrong): she brings a kind of self conflict between betrayed love, pride, inner fragility, violent anger, royalty's obligations and loyalty to her country, despair, hate. At least this is what we see in the 1970 video in London. And I don't know if there was any stage director to help her there.
@@foropera It is pleasant for me to talk with a person who owns the subject of conversation and understands the interlocutor's thought. The more necessary it is for me to make two clarifications in order to exclude the possibility of misunderstanding. 1. "Nobility". Paradoxically, this word seems inappropriate to me precisely because of the weakness of its meaning. Pharaoh was not just a king for his subjects - he was god, the earthly incarnation of God. Amneris feels more than just a princess, much more. Therefore, the attempt of a slave to encroach on her divine rights, she perceives not as a violation of subordination, but as what the ancient Greeks called υβρις. The nobility of Count di Luna is offended when the Duchess Leonora prefers an ostensibly rootless rival to him. The "erroneous" choice of Radames is much more, it is almost sacrilege. That is why it is so shocking and humiliating for Amneris. 2. I am far from being a fan of Obraztsova. For example, in Azucena, a part, by the way, which she herself loved very much, she never rose to the heights she achieved in "Aida"; moreover, in my opinion, she performed it quite superficially. She could sing de Falla perfectly, but she was unconvincing and not subtle enough in the German Lieder, and so on. If I were a fan Obraztsova, my worship of her Amneris would be worth a little. Fortunately, this is not the case.
I was dazzled by Bumbry's talent when I saw her in Eboli in 1987. But I saw Verrett first. I love the shadows, the mysticism, the velvet of Verrett's voice, the anger that is never malicious. Fortunately, we have her Verdi concert in Amsterdam 71 which shows her Amneris at her best. Bumbry had a brassy voice, with rare timbre throughout, clear articulation and taste for domination, sometimes venomous. I wonder what she would have done with softer roles like Alceste, Iphigenie, Desdemona, in which some high pianissimi are not enough to paint a vulnerable character
Verdi and Verrett go hand in hand. She excelled in all if his mezzo roles brilliantly. When she transitioned into the soprano rep she sailed through a few of his roles and left her mark. La Verrett was truly something.
This is not just singing (listen to her lower register!!!). This is performing, understanding what Amneris is going through at this moment (listen to her phrasing and intonation of 'gelosia') and conveying it to the listener. A real opera singer. And a great one.
BRAVA!!!❤
Oh please tell me you have her two big duets?
Dante Walston I think Bumbry did that for a television special, but not Verrett. However, if, miraculously, there's a recording of Verrett singing both roles, it would be wonderful to hear!
@@ciociosan i think dante is talking about the duet with aida and the one with radames, i want them too
There is a complete recording of Aida from Dallas 1969, with Verrett as Amneris.
Cast, conductor and date, please.
www.nytimes.com/1970/04/01/archives/miss-verrett-joins-aida-as-amneris.html
foropera Thank you.
Am I mistaken or AIDA was a role Shirley Verrett didn't sing too often throughout her career? (neither during her mezzo nor her soprano phase).
"...an opera she didn't sing too often throughout her career." Correction.
@@eduardobraivein8496 I think she just sang the title role of Aida in 2 productions in 1980 and 1989 in Boston. About Amneris,I don't know all her performances in this role. Firenze, Dallas, London, New-York...Not too much because the role lies too much in the medium when the orchestra is strong. She felt better in Eboli.
Это яркое и темпераментное исполнение, однако, при всем моём восхищении Веррет, ни она, ни какая другая певица не достигает в партии Амнерис высот, покоренных Еленой Образцовой. Думаю, это была лучшая партия Елены Васильевны, как она сама - лучшей из Амнерис.
Personnally I find often times Obraztsova excessively chesty, virile, but I agree that Amneris is a part more suited to a big mezzo with a stentorian medium. But I find Verrett more refined, feminine, and noble...at least with a microphone.
@@foropera I understand what you are talking about in relation to Verret. But the Amneris party has two serious demands. 1. Passion. She passionately loves Radames, passionately jealous of him for Aida, passionately indignant at his ridiculous choice, passionately curses him first, and then his executioners, and inconsolably shoots over his crypt. She is the last hero of the opera, whose voice reaches us through the melting orchestra and the fading chorus.
2. Vocal power. You know as well as I do that in opera passion is conveyed by vocal calories. No plastic poses, no temperamental gestures will be able to compensate for the "vocal underinvestment". The party requires megawatts of psychological and vocal impact. All this was managed by Obraztsova much better than her colleague - of course, in my opinion. In addition, in this party, she was still wonderfully plastic. The tessitura of Amneris is quite high (for example, in comparison with the Azuchena), but abounds in bright accents on low notes, which should sound full-sounding and powerful. All this perfectly corresponds to the vocal and psychological data of Obtaztsova.
In addition, I would have noticed that Amneris is not at all a princess from the house of Habsburg or Valois, (like Aida herself, by the way), so the thesis about the "greater nobility" of Verret sounds strange to me. Obraztsova was a tigress on stage, but so is Verdi's Amneris.
@@purisermonisamator well I agree about the demands of the role, and if I listen to this live recordings of Verrett in Amneris ( and some other ones), she lacks power in the medium, in many crucial points.
In the Amsterdam concert, and the London video, we have microphones not far away...
She herself founded the role vocally difficult if the conductor had a "heavy hand" on the low side of the role. She stopped to sing it quite quickly.
When I say noble it is because Amneris is the daughter of the Pharaons. Callas speaks of that, at Juillard, Amneris must keep behaving like a queen, always. That said, I must confess we all don't know why someone's voice resounds in us deeply, it is mysterious. I understand your love for Obraztsova's art, and I appreciate her in many parts, because of her beautiful warm voice, her vital force of nature, and her joy and laugh too. (Much more than Zajic or Cossotto for example). Both of them were good friends by the way. But to me, and it's only my personal point of view, I understand what Verrett wants to show, (and it doesn't seem wrong): she brings a kind of self conflict between betrayed love, pride, inner fragility, violent anger, royalty's obligations and loyalty to her country, despair, hate. At least this is what we see in the 1970 video in London. And I don't know if there was any stage director to help her there.
@@foropera It is pleasant for me to talk with a person who owns the subject of conversation and understands the interlocutor's thought. The more necessary it is for me to make two clarifications in order to exclude the possibility of misunderstanding.
1. "Nobility". Paradoxically, this word seems inappropriate to me precisely because of the weakness of its meaning. Pharaoh was not just a king for his subjects - he was god, the earthly incarnation of God. Amneris feels more than just a princess, much more. Therefore, the attempt of a slave to encroach on her divine rights, she perceives not as a violation of subordination, but as what the ancient Greeks called υβρις. The nobility of Count di Luna is offended when the Duchess Leonora prefers an ostensibly rootless rival to him. The "erroneous" choice of Radames is much more, it is almost sacrilege. That is why it is so shocking and humiliating for Amneris.
2. I am far from being a fan of Obraztsova. For example, in Azucena, a part, by the way, which she herself loved very much, she never rose to the heights she achieved in "Aida"; moreover, in my opinion, she performed it quite superficially. She could sing de Falla perfectly, but she was unconvincing and not subtle enough in the German Lieder, and so on. If I were a fan Obraztsova, my worship of her Amneris would be worth a little. Fortunately, this is not the case.
Everything said is true but IMHO Bumbry was far superior.
I was dazzled by Bumbry's talent when I saw her in Eboli in 1987. But I saw Verrett first.
I love the shadows, the mysticism, the velvet of Verrett's voice, the anger that is never malicious.
Fortunately, we have her Verdi concert in Amsterdam 71 which shows her Amneris at her best.
Bumbry had a brassy voice, with rare timbre throughout, clear articulation and taste for domination, sometimes venomous.
I wonder what she would have done with softer roles like Alceste, Iphigenie, Desdemona, in which some high pianissimi are not enough to paint a vulnerable character