Coloratura Comparison - Mozart Cheaters: Sopranos Who Dodge His Highest Notes!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- This video compiles several recordings of sopranos who chose to sing some of Mozart's most challenging arias -- but dodged the high notes. I’m not talking about them trying but missing them in a live performance, or transposing the aria down to a lower key. No, these are cases where the singer deliberately reworked the vocal line in order to not sing the highest notes. Many are world-class coloratura sopranos with names you will recognize.
It's important to note that these notes are not optional. They are not interpolated like most of those High E-flats at the end of bel canto arias and mad scenes, which are not written into the score. Sure, we feel let down when a soprano doesn’t take the E-flat at the end of "Sempre libera" in "La Traviata" or Lucia’s mad scene -- but those notes are not written in the score, so sopranos are only cheating tradition and expectations. Another example is the Bell Song from Delibes' "Lakme" -- those exciting High E’s are written as optional variations above the primary vocal line, and there is not even a final High E in the score! Can you imagine?
Of course, many sopranos would love to sing these incredible arias by Mozart - but not all of them are up to the task. Mozart pushed his musical collaborators to extremes (Wolfgang was a show-off himself, as any true virtuoso should be). Furthermore, the sopranos in his musical circle happened to be blessed with phenomenal coloratura voices that had easy access to the highest register. Especially his greatest muse: Aloysia Weber. Mozart wrote eight concert or insertion arias for Aloysia - nearly all of which leap into the stratosphere with Ds, E-flats, Es, Fs, and even the famous High Gs in K.316. He also wrote for her the role of Madame Herz in "Der Schauspieldirektor," which contains three High Fs.
I've noticed recurring patterns that Mozart used to incorporate these extreme high notes into the vocal line for her. Most common is a cadence of intervals that ladder up the scale and then hit the apex with two or three short Ds, Es, or Fs. The arias that follow this form are K.416, K.418, K419, and K.580 (written for Aloysia’s sister Josepha Hofer). K.505 uses a similar sequence, but only tops out at B-flats. In the cases of K.294 and K.316, it's a single high note that comes at the end of a long, ascending scale. Blonde's aria from "Abduction from the Seraglio" was not written for Aloysia (Theresia Teyber, a coloratura soprano, premiered the role) but very well could have been. It's a hybrid of both patterns, with three short High Es at the crest of a rising scale. These patterns make it fairly easy to alter the vocal lines by not taking the intervals or scales up as high, with most people being non-the-wiser if they didn't know the piece already or have a score to follow.
This all begs the question: should these sopranos have programmed these arias at all, if they had to rewrite the vocal line because they don’t have those pesky ultra high notes? One might argue: Sure, why not? The aria was written for another specific singer -- why not just make a small adjustment to fit another voice, which was fairly common in previous eras. In fact, Mozart might have adapted it himself (assuming he didn’t have time to write you your own custom aria tailored to your voice). It's just a couple notes amidst hundreds in the aria, and an aria is not defined solely by a few super high notes. Right?
Yes, but I do think something significant is lost. Those thrilling otherworldly high notes are part of the overall conception of the full effect of the aria. And it’s not like there are not dozens of other incredible florid Mozart arias to select from. What do you think?
This compilation is structured with each aria in numerical Köchel order, leading off with a soprano who sings the high notes as written (with a visual snapshot of the score for reference), followed alphabetically by the other cheating sopranos who skip the high notes. The singers are:
Concert Arias for Aloysia Weber:
K.294 - As written = Julia Koci / Cheaters = Irma Beilke, Erna Berger
K.316 - Natalie Dessay / Cheaters = Annemarie Kremer, Susanna Rigacci, Rita Streich
K.416 - Barbara Kilduff / Cheaters = Gwendolyn Bradley, Teresa Stich-Randall
K.418 - Aline Kutan / Cheaters = Ria Ginster, Beverly Sills, Maria Stader (x2), Joan Sutherland (x2), Benita Valente
K.419 - Jutta Vulpius / Cheater = Joan Sutherland
Abduction from the Seraglio:
K.384 - Andrea Bogner / Cheaters = Irma Beilke, Anne Elgar, Maria Kisonova Hubova
I have since found two other Blonde's who don't sing the High E, who are not included this video. If you know of any, mention them in the comments as I will add others below as I become aware of them.
- Aleksandra Kurzak (Chicago 2009)
- Birgit Nordin (date unknown)
Others Blonde's mentioned by viewers:
- Kathleen battle in the Solti recording
- Reri Grist in the Böhm recording
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Concert pitch in Mozart's day was lower, so even the high notes weren't quite as high.
True!
Thank you for posting Josephine Antoine. She’s my mom!! What a thrill to see her on another site.
Early in her career Nathalie Dessay had an easy G in alt and beyond . I heard her hit the note and sustain it during a duet at a Sunday matinee of Chabrier's Le Roi Malge Lui. A gorgeous , full toned note too!
Thank you for this fascinating insight. All I can say is.... all power to Margaret Price, who didn't dodge the Es in her recording of "Vorrrei spiegarvi"!
I love all the variations!! Mozarts tuning was not nearly as high as todays tuning. Therefore the pitches were technically not as high. They were almost a whole step lower. That makes a huge difference for any singer to be able to phonate what was supposed to be expressed from original writings. If you listen to recordings sung in period tuning, there is a beautiful natural ease and warmth to the tone. It sounds more natural and expresses on it own. If you have never compared period tuning with todays modern tuning, you wouldnt understand the "it sounds more natural and expressive" comment. However the difference is quite substantial. The colors take on a whole bew beauty in period tuning and the colors are much more strident in todays standard tuning. So, modern singers sometimes need to make adjustments. There is nothing wrong with that. It was done during Mozarts time as well. What matters the most is how beautifully the overall piece is sung. Thanks for sharing all the examples. This is a great resource.
@@melvinbernard4541 ■
Thank you for that explanation. It makes perfect sense. It doesn't make sense in respect to today's conductors & singers who claim to want to remain _true_ to the composers' intentions. This is one of my favorite Mozart Arias _( Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio ! )._ I would really like to hear it as you described it ( w / the period-tuning ). It does seem, according to your outline, that it would be less _strident ;_ more _expressive._
Great video! Interesting how many of the singers who DO sing the extreme high notes have a less operatic sound than many of those who avoid them
I've always been crossed on this, because first of all, we never know the circumstances of a live performance. These top notes can be very temperamental and if you know that you don't have it right then, better to succeed on a lower note than have nothing come out. I would hate to lose the rest of Rita Streich's incredibly-sung "Popoli" because she didn't have a G. But Sutherland shouldn't have done "Vorrei" that late (or that early) in her career; she topped out at a glorious E-flat and anything higher was very hit-or-miss. There are a few beautiful Es in "Art of the Prima Donna" but after that, really not.
the "Popoli" change quite possibly is just as good a shape I think
By the way: one of the technically best sung "Vorrei spiegarvi, o dio" is by Rita Streich in the studio-recording.
hahaha MORE OF THIS! there should be a video about unwritten appogiaturas in Mozart and how big a difference they make when they are done properly
I agree with your assessment.
A couple of things that I think might also be said on this subject. Sills certainly recorded that aria with orchestra with all the high notes. You picked a piano recording possibly at some concert. We also have to remember that when they vocalize for said concert, or recording studio date, that they know what they can and can't phonate. Do you cancel the whole concert over a high E? And, I had heard that Sutherland was already under contract for her Mozart aria album, and she couldn't get out of it. So, there are MANY factors that go into this! Did you just choose recordings (even live) that they happened to alter a vocal line? At least tell the whole story!
I appreciate you wanting to defend these singers. I tried to present it in a factual and educational way, acknowledging various possible viewpoints on the matter and adding in my own. The whole point of this video was the issue of the dodged notes, so yes -- I did just choose recordings where the vocal line was altered. I think the only factor that would cause them to alter the line is that they could not sing the written note/s -- though you are correct that there are different reasons that behind why the singer might not sing the note/s in that performance. They may not have ever had them, or lost them over time, or had a night when they were not reliable. In Sills' case, she did sang the Es in the safety of a studio where retakes are possible, but not in this live recital from the same time period. We don't know why -- hers might have been a spontaneous decision. As for Sutherland, even if she was contracted for the Mozart album, did she have to sing K.418? I wager she could have chosen another Mozart concert aria which had a vocal range more suited to her voice at that time.
@@songbirdwatcher On Sutherland - maybe she was under pressure to record a certain repertoire due to its popularity. That is what sells records ..
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. You shared your opinion with evidence based on understanding of the material.
Unfortunately tessitura or range is not something that you can change about yourself and having those high notes is quite rare. I imagine these singers just accepted a job, even without having those notes. It would be absurd to do otherwise. It's not a single note or a pair that make a singer or make a role. Anyway, the video is very interesting! :) I just wanted to point this out for people that think range is everything!
Clearly, the biggest cheater here is Joan Sutherland. I can understand why she omitted the highest notes - even if she shouldn't have attempted to sing those arias anyway - but then to also ditch the low B under the staff when her voice was already lower, heavier and darker than a typical coloratura soprano, that is beyond me. It completely ruins the entire composition. Her 1979 recording of 'Vorrei spiegarvi oh dio' shows a voice in serious decline. Not sure why she insisted on recording it so late in her carreer. Not to mention the number of arias she completely transposed during her prime including both Queen of the Night arias and Lakmé"s Bell Song. She could have sung the Bell Song in its original key and follow the score as it is written without the high Es. But no, she had to lower the key for the entire piece and then interpolate high Ebs for the complete studio recording of Lakmé for Decca. She even lowered Lucia's mad scene to a contralto tessitura at the end of her carreer. Sorry, but a cheater does not deserve the title of greatest coloratura soprano of all times.
Well said. Cannot agree more.
@@shimmering6star6 I usually get vicious comments when I say something negative about Joan Sutherland, but I'm only speaking the truth. As far as I know, she's the only singer who regularly transposed her arias or entire passages in an aria to fit her own voice with all its limitations. Never mind that her pronuciation was horrible and that most of the time the sound of her voice did not suit the part she was singing. A true coloratura soprano should be able to sing the main coloratura roles without re-writing the scores. That's my opinion anyway.
EducateNotMedicate The objective is majority of the people avoid to hear the truth, for it is painful. Also, it is better to pretend that the singer sounds pristine, because ... she has been on the stage singing for ages.. so she must be doing something right... otherwise she would not been able to create such a big name in the opera world. It is easier to go with the crowd flow, isn’t it? Not to forget, the listeners may don’t have a good ear either 👌🏻 That is just my opinion.
@@russki1978 Several of the "golden age" sopranos transposed the "Bell Song" down to Eb...Ada Sari being one of them. Better that way than to make a mess out if. I'd rather hear a tenor transpose the Boheme and Faust arias down...then to struggle with the top C.
Here are more to add to the "transposed" Bell Song list:
Michelle Claverie - c1960 lp
Consuela Escobar - 1910 Edison
Sarah Fischer - 1919 disc
Mercedes Capsir - Columbia 1929
Anna Moffo (in D) - live usa 1968
Aida Garfulina - on Jenkins cd in D or Db.
Sutherland dodging the high Es was no big shock. But Bubbles!! Not Bubbles! 😢
I feel cheated and dirty without the G in alt in “Popolo.”
wow!Gute Arbeit! Danke!! In arie Blondchen solll E sein, nicht Es :-) Ja, es ist sehr wichtig zu wissen, dass nicht jeder Koloratursopran die Freiheit nach Es hat. Das ist ein seltener Fall und sollte geschätzt werden. Leider werden Sängerinnen und Sänger gezwungen, Partien zu singen, die nicht zu ihnen passen, und sie verlieren ihre Kostbarkeit. Wir haben die göttliche Nathalie Dessay verloren, weil sie anfing, Lucia und Traviata zu singen. Und ich habe auch meine 6. Oktave verloren, weil man im Theater alles singen muss....
Respectfully, I must say: Videos and comments like these make me glad that I don't know all the technical points of singing. This way, I can go to a concert and just enjoy the glory of their voices without analyzing it to death.
Is it just me, or does the potted plant behind Joan at 16:00 look totally desiccated?
Of one your best! Thank you so much. I never expected to see Maria Stader of T. Stich-Randall in that repertoire so I am not surprised they avoid the high notes. I was surprise for Sills’s lack of Es (as she had them and superbly recorded the aria with those notes). She was probably tired. She was constantly singing high notes in those years and added them everywhere. Sutherland should have recorded these arias at the same time she recorded The Art of the Primadonna as she had powerful Es at the time. I knew about Streich but she said she had Gs so maybe she sang the two Gs earlier in het career. She had easy sustained Fs
I forgot to add that there is also a live recording with Reri Grist avoiding the Es in Blondchen but this was late in her career and she was still amazing. Let’s wait for Lisette Oropesa’s Mozart concert arias recording, but I don’t think she sings higher than a E flat those days so not sure she will sing the most iconic Aloysia Weber’s arias.
@@oliviero.m750 ya, Lisette said herself she is not comfortable with a High E. But nonetheless she did hit High E as recent as last year in Bel Raggio so who knows. For a studio recording maybe she have many chance to hit the High E as long it does not need to be sustained
Have you ever heard the Boston performance of Beverly Sills as Zerbinetta where she sung the 1912 version of the great aria? She left out the F#6’s and with good reason but she did a magnificent job nonetheless.
Oh yes. she has a magical way with all the filigree.
2:06 made me laugh so much
I would rather listen to Erna Berger and Ria Ginster's cheating than the ones who were "singing" as written
I think that leaving out a very high note that the composer wrote as not being acceptable, versus interpolating and very high note that he composer didn't write as being unacceptable, is anything but splitting hairs. One might argue that justifying the modern fashion of ornamenting baroque arias, just because it was traditional to do back in the day, is OK. A recording of John Vickers singing "Comfort Ye" from Handel's Messiah, nary an ornament in sight, compared to a contemporary performance with lots of creative ornamentation....both are completely OK, because they reflect the singers' best abilities. 'Cheating' it is not.
Wow the Popoli ones are especially painful. Why anyone would sing this without a secure High G is beyond me, considering this is the climax of the piece, especially egregious in studio. I need to cleanse my ears with Moser’s version
The first “cheater” didn’t even have a high “E”. Not even close.
We ask you to share K.416 with Stich-Randall. Conducted by Paumgartner? And Beilke from 1936.. and Petrescu with Cristescu, please))
Margret Price and now Sabine Devieilhe 🌹🌹🙏
Poor Dame Joan😎
I feel that sometimes these high notes can be omitted tastefully but not always.
Also a bit weird for a young Sutherland not to sing that high E..
Young Joan left us some wonderful high Es, both in the form of studio recordings and live performances. I do think she felt the note was at the very top of her range, and by the early 70's, she'd more or less retired the note (her 1971 studio Lucia has a high E in the Enrico duet, but even by the mid 60's, she had lowered both the Bell Song and Bel raggio lusinghier half a step). And let's not get into her high F - I can think of one studio, one live recording, and one anecdotal.
True. I found that especially the two alternative versions of "Mia speranza adorata" sounded weird.
Sadly the scores that we see now were not what went down in the original performances or even revisions. Many high acuti notes were part of the original productions or very close after. There are also traditions that enhances the composers arias often approved by the composers. Abs then the concert pitch transformations where F’s were actually Eb’s then. It’s a very goofy thing to change so many things out if desperation go include it in a a performance. Sometimes the Queen of the Night is transposed if a soprano isn’t feeling 100% and that still does happen. Just like Che gelida in Boheme for tenor etc. That some of these changes are absurd for the seasoned listener. Cessa di Popoli is a very extreme and specific aria.
I think it’s unfair to call these sopranos cheaters because even if they could handle every note in the piece you don’t know how they were feeling that day. I’m a lyric tenor who studied the Petrarch Sonnets by Franz Liszt. I have sung them straight through several times at home with all the high B’s, Bb’s and Db’s with great power and radiance but if I’m feeling shitty come performance day, I’m not taking any chances. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
But that's the reason for studying...to control all of that on stage and if you choose and opera aria is cuz you can do it
Erna Berger's recordings must have been late in her career? She had sung Queen of the Night early on, Same for the Sills excerpts because in her studio recording of Vorrei, she sang the high Es. Sutherland in 1956 was probably still discovering her top, because she clearly had Es and Eflats for Traviata, Semiramide, Lakme, MIgnon, Esclarmonde,Ophelia, Lucia etc. I wonder if each artist had been given the opportunity to record all these selections at 415 to 432 tuning, if they would have recorded them as written? Sills version of Vorrei with piano sounds later in her career probably after 1975? Just my thoughts, but all the voices were lovely
Hi -- the Sills recording is from a Chicago recital in 1970 which is the same year she made her studio recording of K.418 and that she sang it live in recital in NY with the E's (you can hear those in the other K.418 compilation on my channel). So, it seems likely that she might have been a little tired or ill in Chicago and felt the E's were not going to be there, so chose to sit on the High C instead as a "back up plan" -- if so, who knows if it was pre-planned with her accompanist, or spontaneous? The other singer in this series like that is Gwendolyn Bradley -- she had the F's in K.416 in a 1994 live recording (posted on my channel), but here, earlier in 1987, she dodged them. I agree that Sutherland sang K.418 too early and then too late. There was a window in the very early 1960s she likely would have been right in the sweet spot vocally!
@@songbirdwatcher she makes it work better than any of the other sopranos did
Teresa Stich-Randall may not have had the upper-levels, but her voice had the richest sound.
Do one where sopranos fake the trill near the end of "Dove sono"-not omit, but fake in some way or other. It's not as bad as the cheating done in this video, but the way some sopranos fake it is so sad and merely calls attention to their inability to trill. Dorothea Röschmann is one, Barbara Frittoli is another.
Yes! The myriad ways to fake or “suggest” a trill.
Streich only omitted the G’s in Popoli, you annotated it as being without F’s and G’s. In 419 Sutherland only omitted the E’s, you wrote no D’s and E’s.
I think consideration for contemporaneous pitch standard and temperament are important here; late-18th century pitch Mozart’s operas would have been performed in was around A=420, which is nearly a full semitone lower (415 is a modern equal-tempered Ab). While the Popoli G’s are anomalous, all of the F’s were “actually” E naturals approximately, so it’s arguable (sort of) Mozart “didn’t write” those high F’s as we know them, and I believe every recording you chose was at modern pitch (though, it’s worth acknowledging historical-pitch performance of Mozart is hardly unheard of).
That aside, I agree altering lines like that bastardizes the musical intent, although I find it somewhat less offensive if it’s essentially within a cadenza as opposed within an accompanied line. It’s a matter of taste if a singer should be singing something or not if they don’t have all the written high notes, but I think needing to remove things as low as C# or even D probably means it shouldn’t be attempted at all.
Hi Evan. For Streich and Sutherland my notes say "High F / No High Gs" or "High Ds / No High Es" which was meant clarify that they *did* sing the first high notes that others in this video had cut, but they did *not* sing the second high notes. But it looks like my attempt to be extra clear had the opposite effect of being confusing. Your point about period vs. modern pitch is a great one. I actually did a bunch of research around that and had a section in my "script" talking about that as factor to consider, but I couldn't get to a succinct way of discussing it in this context so in the interest of keeping the video intro shorter I dropped the topic altogether. All those performances are a modern pitch. Going from memory here, but the only singer recordings of these pieces I'm aware at period pitch are by Patricia Petibon (live and studio) and Cyndia Sieden's disc of Aloysia arias, where they do come in about a 1/2 step lower. But good to remember that if it is all lower, then notes like that low B in K.418 would be a low B-flat! Mozart really did push his colleagues (and himself) to the extremes!
Thank you ! Very interesting..
let's forgive the " cheaters " ..
.Mozart wrote music for Angels...not human beings !
I heard soprano Laura Aiken attempt the "Popoli" aria with NY Phil....and she rewrote it singing C...B...C...D...E...yet the Times critic said she sang 2 glorious high G's!!!!
Was it Tomassini?
@@onigbajamo Of course....
@@ronsdivas Unsurprising. I make it a point to avoid his reviews because more often than not he misrepresents (at best) what happened on stage.
@@onigbajamo ..and it was obvious that he did not know the aria...only that it had high G's. I heard Erie Mills also sing the aria with the NY Phil....but she did sing the 2 G's!!
Embarrassing on Tomassini’s part
Rita does sing a f then down to E in Populi.
Joan does the D in k 419 not the E
@@geiger Yes -- for both of these singers my notes say "High F / No High G" and "High D / No High E" which was meant clarify that they *did* sing the first high note that others in this video had cut, but they did not sing the second. Apparently that wording just confused people!
Love most of these women but tbh I wish some of them had just avoided these arias. Sounds like something's missing.
Especially the studio recordings. Live I can understand. Even if you have the notes, anything can happen. But why'd you expose yourself in the studio like that?
OTOH, I'd love to hear a bell song without all the Es.
I agree about the context of studio recordings, as I say in my intro. That is inexcusable to drop the notes in the score in the studio. As for Bell Song, I can't imagine a contemporary soprano not singing any High E's. It is ingrained performance practice now for sure. There are a few sopranos from the early part of the 1900s that did not sing the High Es -- Elena Stepanova was one, and Elena Katulskaya who is on TH-cam here: th-cam.com/video/Ba84MtUjjE8/w-d-xo.html
@@songbirdwatcher Thanks for the link!
Subject: Blonde's main aria in abduction from the seraglio. Cheaters: Kathleen battle in the solti recording and reri grist in the bohm recording.
Thanks. I added those to the list.
Battle sings the high Es in the Solti recording, weirdly loud, in all fairness. Grist does omit the notes in the Bohm performance.
Battle: th-cam.com/video/vmm_d4QSOGw/w-d-xo.html from 2:53 to 2:55.
S'en prendre ainsi à de merveilleuses cantatrices est quand même un procédé très mesquin !