# SOPRANO TOURNAMENT: (Round 1, Match #4): Nilsson vs Stemme



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Birgit Nilsson, Sweden, 1918-2005






Nina Stemme, Sweden, 1963-






Who's singing did you prefer and why?


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

I didn't like either of these performances. Nilsson has the better voice overall, but I still don't really like it. There's not much shape or drive to her phrases, and the tone is very cold. Stemme is very involved and in much better shape than she was for her more recent Met _Turandot_, which scarred me for life. Her passionate delivery is really winning, but her voice is shrill in the loud passages and has that collapsed quality that mars so much modern dramatic soprano singing. The vibrato also makes the pitch sound too variable, which is the opposite of its function. Abstain!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Both pretty good performances, I think, but neither voice pleases me entirely, at least as heard here. Nilsson's voice, not inherently warm in tone, seems even less so in recordings and sounds shallow and metallic here, while Stemme's strong vibrato becomes obtrusive at high pitch and volume. Between these particular performances I'll give the prize marginally to Stemme, though I think she shares credit with her conductor for making the aria more dramatic than the opposing team. Stemme is in better voice here than I've heard her elsewhere, while Nilsson has made a better effect in better recordings and, of course, live in the acoustics of a large hall. What her audience heard here is not exactly what we heard, and I'm pretty sure the same could be said of Stemme.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

vivalagentenuova said:


> Stemme is very involved and in much better shape than she was for her more recent Met _Turandot_, which *scarred me for life.*


I know what you mean. Let's hope she's retired the part and sung some Mozart since.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

*Picture says a thousand words...........*
Although we are discussing the sung performance the visuals tell the same story in graphic detail

Birgit sings almost motionless with blank expression on her face with machine like precision, no clue in her facial expression what emotions she is expressing, and this unfortunatley for me shows up in her singing. Technically perfect with amazing extension and power but I am not feeling the inner ecstasy and sense of wonder Isolde is experiencing, not for me

Duck one saving grace for Birgit is that the final note/phrase has the hushed etherial quality I want Flagstad to have more of 

Stemme (like Modl) has to vocally "work hard" to render this aria, but she does attempt to infuse the emotional turmoil and ecstasy taking place which makes her my choice, Like Viva said her voice under high note pressure does seem less secure with vibrato blunting the effect. Her animated facial and body expression again mimics her vocal delivery trying to add dramatic and emotional elements.

*****************************************************************

Now when can we get *Waltraude Meier*, in her videos her facial expression wonderfully tells the story of this aria as she sings it (more like experiences it)

For 1970s Isolde showndown - Dernesch > Ligendza > Gwen Jones


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

I really didn't expect that but I voted for Stemme (and the conductor) here. Nillson's Isolde died of boredom, it seems (but the ending is perfect one).
But oh that vibrato... ugh. Modern technique or back to school time?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Here I am again, the non-expert of the Wagnerian clan.
What do I know? But my ears scream out Stemme, so Stemme it is.
I find Nilsson's wonderful voice to have a slight shrillness in tone but that's just me.
Now I will vote and see who said what.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Well this came as a surprise. I fully expected Nilsson to walk away with it, but here I am preferring Stemme's version. I'm sure there must be better versions with Nilsson out there than this which seemed perfunctory and uninvolved. The conducting on Stemme's version made a big difference too. I don't much like Stemme's voice usually, though the vibrato seems to be in better control here. 
So, based on this performance alone, I vote for Stemme.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Well who would have thought it? Stemme at her best beats Nilsson on an off night, or is it the conductor that I (and by the sounds of it she) is bored to death by?

I prefer the conducting on the Stemme version, but her swallowed, occluded vowels annoy me. Nilsson's shallowness of tone that at times even has a pinched quality that some microphones exaggerated is very evident here (I wonder how this performance compares with her version from Bayreuth with Bohm). This is a draw (mainly because whilst I'm tempted to vote for the Stemme it's only due to the conducting and I'm not really a Nilsson fan, but I know better versions of her singing the Liebestod exist).

N.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Based solely on the videos, Stemme wins me over, though I haven’t liked her live or in other performances. The microphone helps her here, otherwise, I’d think her overparted. 

I think Nilsson in concert is “correct,” as a singer in concert vs. in a staged opera. In the house, she’s unbeatable (at least by Stemme), and much more involved and the voice is peerless.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I was NOT impressed with Stemme on a recent Met video broadcast:BUT, here she is really wonderful and the voice is beautiful. I LOVE how Nilsson looks here and that is her most flattering dress making her resemble Jayne Mansfield  I am normally a huge Nilsson fan but in this instance Stemme wins. Nilsson became a greater actress as she got older.


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## Handelian (Nov 18, 2020)

The problem with these comparisons is the occasion and also the acoustic. To hear the Nilsson magic at full blast (literally) you really need to hear the performance with Bohm live at Bayreuth. Totally extraordinary the way she sails over the orchestra at white heat. Every lover of singing should hear it at least once. Whenever the above was recorded is a pale reflection of what she could do.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Handelian said:


> The problem with these comparisons is the occasion and also the acoustic. To hear the Nilsson magic at full blast (literally) you really need to hear the performance with Bohm live at Bayreuth. Totally extraordinary the way she sails over the orchestra at white heat. Every lover of singing should hear it at least once. Whenever the above was recorded is a pale reflection of what she could do.


I agree. I'm not a particular fan of Nilsson, but her performance of Brunhilde in the Bohm Ring is well worth hearing. She's much more in touch with the character and the drama than she is on the Solti recording.

N.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I agree. I'm not a particular fan of Nilsson, but her performance of Brunhilde in the Bohm Ring is well worth hearing. She's much more in touch with the character and the drama than she is on the Solti recording.
> 
> N.


The older she got the better Nilsson became as an actress. The Bayreuth Ring was years after the Solti one. By the time she worked with Wieland Wagner on Isolde and Elektra towards the end of her career, she was easily on the same level as an actress as Jones, Modl, or Varnay, which is saying something . She worked very hard at her craft.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> The older she got the better Nilsson became as an actress. The Bayreuth Ring was years after the Solti one. By the time she worked with Wieland Wagner on Isolde and Elektra towards the end of her career, she was easily on the same level as an actress as Jones, Modl, or Varnay, which is saying something . She worked very hard at her craft.


Nilsson certainly worked hard and grew as an artist, but her work with Wieland Wagner began well before the end of her career - about two decades, in fact.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> The older she got the better Nilsson became as an actress. The Bayreuth Ring was years after the Solti one. By the time she worked with Wieland Wagner on Isolde and Elektra towards the end of her career, she was easily on the same level as an actress as Jones, Modl, or Varnay, which is saying something . She worked very hard at her craft.


Was the Solti Götterdämmerung not recorded in 1964 or thereabouts. She had a few Bayreuth Brünnhildes and Isoldes under her belt by then I would hazard. She sang her first Isolde at Bayreuth in 1957 and her first Brünnhilde in 1964 although she sang her first Brünnhilde anywhere in Munich in 1954.


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## Handelian (Nov 18, 2020)

Barbebleu said:


> Was the Solti Götterdämmerung not recorded in 1964 or thereabouts. She had a few Bayreuth Brünnhildes and Isoldes under her belt by then I would hazard.


Oh yes and she had recorded Isolde with Solti (not a success) and sung with Windgassen under Karajan which was described as 'miraculous'.


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