# Round Two:D'amor sull'ali rosee. L. Price , Meade, Jones



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I had to switch to a different Jones video. 




*Leontyne Price sings "D'amor sull'ali rosee" Verdi*
Color from TV




*Angela Meade - Il trovatore - D'amor sull'ali rosee ... Tu vedrai*




GWYNETH JONES ne "Il Trovatore" G. Verdi: Il Trovatore - "Timor di me... D'amor sull'ali rosee..." Opera Depot


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Well at least you got one of my top three up there this time.
I was so distracted by that abominable Eurotrash staging for poor Angela Meade -- what possible chance did she have with all that silly bird stuff going on around her. Also, I don't know when this was recorded but her voice seems much better now. I also was not pleased with her interpolations.
Jones bored me to death. She did nothing wrong, everything right ... but ranked as a zero in my emotion book.
Of course I was hoping to hear one of my 3 top favorites of this aria and I got my wish.. She did this beautifully, breathlessly and stunning. Price it is.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Meade was eliminated first; don’t like her voice and she’s easily outclassed by her competitors singing wise. 
Jones did a pretty good job, the voice clean and well modulated throughout, the only defect a strange bit of phrasing in the beginning. This is early Jones, before the wobble.
Price was wonderful, this is early Price as well, when she was more disciplined. Gorgeous sound, she was my go-to Leonora after Callas.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Well at least you got one of my top three up there this time.
> I was so distracted by that abominable Eurotrash staging for poor Angela Meade -- what possible chance did she have with all that silly bird stuff going on around her. Also, I don't know when this was recorded but her voice seems much better now. I also was not pleased with her interpolations.
> Jones bored me to death. She did nothing wrong, everything right ... but ranked as a zero in my emotion book.
> Of course I was hoping to hear one of my 3 top favorites of this aria and I got my wish.. She did this beautifully, breathlessly and stunning. Price it is.


Meade has been working on her art and it is better. She used to not be able to trill but she mostly can now. You know what she is doing but she is not Sutherland, Callas or Ponselle yet. I am likely alone in loving her. To me she is the singer I most would like to hear in the world now. I It is amazing she can sing coloratura as well as she does plus be able to sing above the staff as she has a really big voice. She sang the big aria from Esclarmonde and while she wasn't in Sutherland's league she probably did it better than anyone could since Sutherland and Anderson. So very few could sing that well. I heard her in Sieglinde and it was the size voice you'd want for that role. I love a big lush voice with lots of overtones but I realize it is not to everyone's liking. Jones could have been the best Verdi soprano of her generation if she had taken another route. I She became one of the great opera actresses since Callas but maybe she needed the right parts to do it. I love her in Wagner but I think singing in fourth gear a lot hurt her voice. People say Leontyne sang without chest voice but in this aria I hear her using it very well. Perhaps that was a later development.
Nina, I have more great ones coming.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

It's hard to judge these precisely, since we have only three minutes of Price, and Meade is distantly miked and awash in reverb. Nevertheless it's easy to hear that Price is vocally superior to Meade, who sounds uncomfortable and clumsy in many passages and whose vibrato is wider than some people's trills. Never liked her, don't like her here.

I do like Jones, who sounds young, warm and sympathetic, though rather languorous and lacking in tension. She's clearly more interested in the role than in the sound of her own voice, which I'm afraid can't be said for Price. I'm giving her the blue ribbon in recognition of that, though it's a somewhat pale shade of blue.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Jones could have been the best Verdi soprano of her generation if she had taken another route.


Given the competition that may be true (who would that have been, anyway?), but I'm not sure there's reason to think that she wouldn't have developed the same problems singing Verdi as she did singing Wagner. I doubt that Wagner was responsible for the wobble. Her voice was large and shouldn't have found his dramatic roles a strain; Leider,Traubel, Flagstad, Grob-Prandl and Nilsson didn't. And Verdi is no walk in the park!


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Meade wasn't bad and I think she's better live. The moronic circus production and a stuffed pigeon didn't give her an advantage. 
Price and Jones were beautiful, I didn't know whom to choose according to Shaughnessy's rules. Maybe Jones, as a rare winner here. 
I'm not sure why do I do it, but here is my favorite Leonora. 




Unfortunately she has neither full video nor a recording of _Il Trovatore_. Though she's made a good career in Europe.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I fully expected to be voting for Price here, as I think she has an ideal Leonora voice, but, surprisingly perhaps, I found myself preferring Jones.
Meade went out first. It might have been the recording, but I found the voice hard and so vibrato-laden that it was hard to know what was vibrato and what was a trill. I ignored the silly production.
Unfortunately the beginning of the aria is missing from the Price performance. The voice is very beautiful here but I didn't get much sense of any involvement with the text or the music itself. Nor did I like the cadenza she used as it distracted from rather than added to the mood of the piece. There are at least two studio recordings with Price that are better, plus a live one under Karajan. Had one of those been used I might well have voted for her.
I ignored the video with Jones too because the picture was out of sync, which just distracted from the vocals. This is early Jones, before the voice had developed a wobble and its very compact here. She sings with a true appreciation of Verdian style, if without the light and shade that great interpreters (like Callas and Ponselle) bring to it. She also seems more involved in Leonora's plight. Hers was also the most musical cadenza. Jones gets my vote.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I fully expected to be voting for Price here, as I think she has an ideal Leonora voice, but, surprisingly perhaps, I found myself preferring Jones here.
> Meade went out first. It might have been the recording, but I found the voice hard and so vibrato-laden that it was hard to know what was vibrato and what was a trill. I ignored the silly production.
> Unofrtunately the beginning of the aria is missing from the Price performance. The voice is very beautiful here but I didn't get much sense of any involvement with the text or the music itself. Nor did I like the cadenza she used as it distracted from rather than added to the mood of the piece. There are at least two studio recordings with Price that are better, plus a live one under Karajan. Had one of those been used I might well have voted for her.
> I ignored the video with Jones too because the picture was out of sync, which just distracted from the vocals. This is early Jones, before the voice had developed a wobble and its very compact here. She sings with a true appreciation of Verdian style, if without the light and shade that great interpreters (like Callas and Ponselle) bring to it. She also seems more involved in Leonora's plight. Hers was also the most musical cadenza. Jones gets my vote.


Sorry about the videos. I don't always view them complete as that is a lot to ask timewise. i will sample and then usually liisten in the car. I like having an all video rounds and I guess I shouldn't limit myself that way. Price I sampled and she sounded younger than the studio versions ( you guys like her young) and recorded well and i thought she looked slim and attractive. She recorded the whole D'amor etc. section of the aria I thought just like Ponselle did. jones I only listened to in the car . There was an audio only version. I guess I should screw the whole video set ideal I set myself. I am glad some people liked Jones who sang very beautifully here if without her searing stage presence of later. Meade sounds wonderful live but I love a vibrato like she has and few apparently do. I will say that I did not go to her Trovatore here and my friend John did, he LOVED her and he was the one who got me to listen to her in this. Apparently Seattle LOVES Meade so I am not alone, but as is often the case our municipal taste I guess is eccentric. We worshipped Jane Eaglen and not a single person here in this forum liked her so I stopped entering her in contests. Same for Stephanie Blythe and Lawrence Brownlee. Brownlee was in our Young Artist Programs here. For my sake I hope Meade comes back as she is one of the less than handfuls of singers who can sing her repertoire today and I love her in it.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I've just noticed the Jones video has disappeared "because the uploader has closed their account". There's a recital version on youtube but I don't think it's the same one @Seattleoperafan posted.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I've just noticed the Jones video has disappeared "because the uploader has closed their account". There's a recital version on youtube but I don't think it's the same one @Seattleoperafan posted.


Thanks. Fixed it.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I could do this without the libretto, the aria is notorious, I have a pretty good idea what it is about. But I need some tragic operatic text tonight, to unwind from the holiday quarrel with my compagnion about unwashed dishes, stolen house-shoes, placement about children's car seat etc. So, here we go:

LEONORA
Vanne... lasciami,
né timor di me ti prenda.
Salvarlo io potrò, forse.
(Ruiz si ritira.)
Timor di me?... Sicura,
presta è la mia difesa.
(Fissa un anello sulla mano destra.)
In quest'oscura notte ravvolta,
presso a te son io, e tu nol sai!
Gemente aura, che intorno spiri,
deh, pietosa gli arreca i miei sospiri.

D'amor sull'ali rosee
vanne, sospir dolente;
del prigioniero misero
conforta l'egra mente.
Com'aura di speranza
aleggia in quella stanza;
lo desta alle memorie,
ai sogni, ai sogni dell'amor.
Ma, deh! non dirgli improvvido
le pene, le pene del mio cor

LEONORA
Go... leave me,
and don't fear for me.
I can save him, perhaps.
(Ruiz retires.)
Fear for me?... Sure
and ready is my protection.
(She looks at a ring on her right hand.)
Shrouded in this dark night,
I'm near you, and you don't know it!
Moaning wind, you who blow here,
ah, mercifully take my sighs to him.

On the rosy wings of love
go, oh mournful sigh;
comfort the flagging spirits
of the wretched prisoner.
Like a breath of hope
flutter in that room;
waken in him the memories,
the dreams, the dreams of love.
But, pray, don't imprudently tell him
the pangs, the pangs that rack my heart!, etc.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I had to switch to a different Jones video.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The version with Leontyne Price starts somewhere in the middle of the proper aria, so she did not have a chance to show off properly. But the other two singers were very dissatisfying. Angela Meade - I guess it was her vibrato. (So many things are called vibrato, I probably need to learn more vocabulary to put some qualification on it). For Gwyneth Jones, I was dissatisfied with the diction, and also the aria was taking too long somehow ? Or am I tired ? It's midnight. Anyway, Price wins.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

To people complaining about inability of comparatively recent singers singing Verdi - I loved the youtube video of Barbara Frittoli singing the arias of Leonora. That was the only non- Bellini thing I could tolerate at the peak of my Bellini obsession.


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