# Round 4: Io son l'umile ancella. Pandolfini and Price



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I thought we were done with this aria but Viva.... wanted me to included Angelica Pandolfini who originated the role. I paired her with Leontyne Price from her First Prima Donna Album.




Francesco Cilea - ADRIANA LECOUVREUR “Io son l’umile ancella” Pandolfinin




Adreana Lecourveur: Act I: Io son l'umile ancella · Leontyne Price · Francesco Molinari-Pradelli ·


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Well, this is going to be interesting listening. I'm all for trying Pandolfini. I find more than a few similarities with the interpretations of Olivero and Cigna (although it's far too slow). Presumably this was Cilea sanctioned (and it was the composer himself who persuaded Olivero to come out of career to sing the role in which he considered she was the perfect Adriana). I like this, it's very fine singing despite the age of the recording. I probably prefer Olivero and Cigna, but this could win this round.

Price's drawback was that she tended to sing everything in the style of Verdi! Her voice is gorgeous here, but I'm just waiting for her to launch off into a Trovatore cabaletta. She's intense when she needs to be, but there's a lack of sincerity and the beginning and end of the aria are somewhat too _umile _for me.

Pandolfini wins!

N.


----------



## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I thought we were done with this aria but Viva.... wanted me to included Angelica Pandolfini who originated the role. I paired her with Leontyne Price from her First Prima Donna Album.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This is tough. 

I like the deeper voice of Leontyne Price. I don't like, that I notice her voice shaking, so it is a "vibrato that takes attention to itself" and takes it away from the performance a little. Then again, I like what she does in the end. Does it count a "messa di voce" ? She gradually increases volume on "di" and goes back to piano on "morra". I like this humble aria to be showy 

I first dismissed Pandolfini as squeaky and high pitched. On the second listening, it sounded like an innocent girl. A real Adriana was a young girl who started acting to get away from her alcohol addicted father. Am I overthinking this ? Also, Pandolfini is a creator. Am I biased ? Never mind. I will vote for her.


----------



## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Also, I appreciate, that neither singer sings it so quiet as to make me bored to death. The text and the directions of the librettist (?) ask for humility, but the music shows a potential for passion.


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I never noticed that judder in Price’s voice when she releases a note. Her totally impersonal traversal of the aria is off-putting, as is, for me, the _arpeggio_ that passes for a _portamento _in her singing. Does a _portamento _endanger a voice? It should be a swift carrying, or slide, of the tone from one note to a distant one (here in the word “_di”), _not, like Price does, sounding several notes in between.

Pandolfini by default, though I’m sure a comparison would favor her anyway.

To answer BBSVK, what Price does is not a _messa di voce, _because she takes a breath between the _crescendo _and the _diminuendo; _it should be done in one note (and one word).


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Pandolfini is the more technically complete singer and seems hardly inhibited, artistically, by the lack of orchestral support. On the other side, orchestral support doesn't compensate for Price's weak lower range (lack of "chest" participation). Her shimmering upper range is worth a lot, but not quite enough, and though she isn't inexpressive it's a rather impersonal sort of expressiveness. In short, a characteristic Price performance. Pandolfini for me.


----------



## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Adriana (Adrienne) was a kind of movie star of the Enlightenment, a socialite, a famous actress, a friend of Voltaire, a mother of three children (I don't know all the circumstances, if they lived with her, rather than with nurses in the country). She was 38 when she died and to the time stayed a friend of Moritz of Saxony after their liaison had ended. It's interesting that notorious Princess de Bouillon was 23 at the time. This fact isn't emphasized in libretto as well as in the most of productions. Young and perky bitch (is it allowed to write this here? ￼) poisoned an aging primadonna.


----------



## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

ColdGenius said:


> Adriana (Adrienne) was a kind of movie star of the Enlightenment, a socialite, a famous actress, a friend of Voltaire, a mother of three children (I don't know all the circumstances, if they lived with her, rather than with nurses in the country). She was 38 when she died and to the time stayed a friend of Moritz of Saxony after their liaison had ended. It's interesting that notorious Princess de Bouillon was 23 at the time. This fact isn't emphasized in libretto as well as in the most of productions. Young and perky bitch (is it allowed to write this here? ￼) poisoned an aging primadonna.


Internet says, there were rumours, that Adriana had been poisoned. So Voltaire arranged for the exhumation and inspection of the body. No evidence of poison had been found. So, maybe the perky bitch was innocent after all


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Both were lacking but puleeze (zzzzzz)wake me up as I was so bored by the offering by Pandolfini that I found myself wandering off.
This is not Price's finest hour (no good chest tones) but her last note is indicative of the character (an actress who emotes) and therefore she gets my vote.


----------



## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

BBSVK said:


> Internet says, there were rumours, that Adriana had been poisoned. So Voltaire arranged for the exhumation and inspection of the body. No evidence of poison had been found. So, maybe the perky bitch was innocent after all


Perhaps she was innocent, but still a bitch. 😃


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

ColdGenius said:


> Perhaps she was innocent, but still a bitch. 😃


I'm having this on my gravestone.

N.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I doubt I'd choose either soprano as a favourite, but I thought Pandolfini, despite the piano accompaniment at least had something personal to say about the music. Price was Price, which is to say she sounds as if she went into the studio, looked at the score and sang the aria through once. The voice is beautiful, but she doesn't really tell us much about Adrianna. I prefer Pandolfini.


----------

