# Single Round: Blue Danube Waltz. Rosa Ponselle and Lilly Pons



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

See notes below


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

One of the nice things about pieces like this is the singer has tremendous lattitude to customize the aria to their preferences. I can't decide which version I like better. They are so different. Ponselle's is in the mezzo register and she has perhaps the best and loudest trill in history! This is by far the best coloratura I've heard Ponselle do and she does a lot of it with her almost Flagstad sized voice.. She has an earlier version of this but this is way better. Pons had such a glorious voice and style and she has unlimited coloratura adornments to this beautiful piece. I predict you will enjoy this.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I'm not sure I like this as a vocal piece. It certainly has "camp" value, particularly in Lily Pons' version (I've always thought her mere name spelled camp :lol 
These two singers are SO different that making a choice is bound to come down to persoanl preference. My preference is firmly with Ponselle, whose voice, even when it's trilling and darting around intricate passagework, is absolutely gorgeous. Her trills are superb and the fact that such a large voice can move so well is in itself outstanding.
I've never been one for pip squeek voices like Pons' and when she hits some of those high notes, she sounds rather like a whistling kettle. Her staccati are nimble and wonderfully precise, but I hear a trace of aspiration when she's singng scale passages legato, which you never do with Ponselle.
Ponselle is an easy win for me, mainly because she makes this confection bearable. Now point me towards the Vienna PO under Boskovsky!


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Sorry, this is not Ponselle's type of music - she gets through it, but it's not comfortable, but a bit clunky _in my opinion_, while Lily Pons is in her element. If it's a matter of voice, of course Ponselle is extremely gifted in beauty and volume. But for this piece, it's Pons's _raison d'être_ and it's a showpiece, a bit silly but there it is. Her voice is, at this point, thin and peaky and squeaky, precisely what I don't like in this type of voice.

Anyway, I prefer the _Frühlingsstimmen_ conversion rather than this.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I'm not sure I like this as a vocal piece. It certainly has "camp" value, particularly in Lily Pons' version (I've always thought her mere name spelled camp :lol


Evidently this water garden company in the state of Maryland finds it amusing too:

https://www.lilypons.com/


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Back in olden tymes it was quite common to perform Strauss waltzes vocally. The Blue Danube" itself was premiered with male chorus, horrible as that sounds - and evidently sounded, since it flopped and didn't become popular until Strauss ditched the _mannerchor._ _Fruhlingstimmen_ ("Voices of Spring") seems to have been issued by Strauss with a soprano solo option.

Ponselle and Pons-sans-elle present quite different derangements here. Pons has the more natural voice for this sort of thing, given that there isn't a hint of depth or pathos in her timbre and she loves to flit from note to note like a cabbage butterfly. I would give her the win if there were not so many of those notes out of tune. And then there's that incredible lurch into a higher key for the ending, a bit of compositional malpractice that would certainly inspire a lawsuit from Strauss's estate if he had one. The lily lets me down, so I guess I'm going to have to vote for the rose.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> Back in olden tymes it was quite common to perform Strauss waltzes vocally. The Blue Danube" itself was premiered with male chorus, horrible as that sounds - and evidently sounded, since it flopped and didn't become popular until Strauss ditched the _mannerchor._ _Fruhlingstimmen_ ("Voices of Spring") seems to have been issued by Strauss with a soprano solo option.
> 
> Ponselle and Pons-sans-elle present quite different derangements here. Pons has the more natural voice for this sort of thing, given that there isn't a hint of depth or pathos in her timbre and she loves to flit from note to note like a cabbage butterfly. I would give her the win if there were not so many of those notes out of tune. And then there's that incredible lurch into a higher key for the ending, a bit of compositional malpractice that would certainly inspire a lawsuit from Strauss's estate if he had one. The lily lets me down, so I guess I'm going to have to vote for the rose.


I didn't think of the similarity in their names Pons _sans elle_! Mlle. was infamous for her slightly-off notes, even in her youth, I think. She got away with it with charm, but on stage. Most of the charm doesn't come across in recordings, alas! Her thin high notes are also a trial.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MAS said:


> *I didn't think of the similarity in their names Pons sans elle!* Mlle. was infamous for her slightly-off notes, even in her youth, I think. She got away with it with charm, but on stage. Most of the charm doesn't come across in recordings, alas! Her thin high notes are also a trial.


And both named for flowers too. Odd coincidences, given that their voices could hardly be more different.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Maybe it is unfair of me to vote at all because first off I hate that song and secondly I absolutely dislike Pons' voice and finally I adore Ponselle's voice ... BUT ... Not for this!
She seems so out of place to me and Pons seems so right for it with all her interpretations that I am forced to place my vote for Pons.
Whoudda ever thunk it?


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