# SOPRANO TOURNAMENT: (By Request): Scotto vs Petrella



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Renata Scotto, Italy, 1934-






Clara Petrella, Italy, 1914-1987






Who's singing did you prefer and why?


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

This one is easy for me. I usually think of Petrella as a Scotto with a great voice . 

But seriously, if you compare their excerpts from Manon Lescaut, Otello, Adriana Lecouvreuer, and Butterfly (many of which are available on Youtube), you can see they are quite similar in their "histrionic" vocal acting style. However, Petrella's voice is rock solid while it is not up for debate that Scotto has a lot of vocal problems (hollow mid-range, screechy and wobbly high notes, etc.,)


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

That is easy for me. Even at her best, which was not in 1974, Scotto was a voice I disliked. 
Petrella was my first *Madama Butterfly*, and I loved her voice (despite never seeking other recordings).
So it is Petrella for me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I don't share the dislike for Scotto so far expressed, even while I acknowledge the vocal problems (not too much in evidence here, however). Petrella is obviously the more secure vocalist, but I must say that it's Scotto who better conveys to me the despair of a woman "alone, lost and abandoned." I think this is mainly a matter of vocal color; Scotto's voice is naturally plaintive, while Petrella's brighter tone and shimmering vibrato convey no feeling of the hopelessness and bleakness written into the music. Petrella does what she can to make up for this, and in recognition of her really flawless singing I'll have to give her my vote, though a bit reluctantly.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Scotto's better portrayl vs. Petrella's better voice. I'll take Scotto. whose voice sounds fine to me.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Scotto will start to sound shrill in top register later in her career, but still I love the way she portrays her heroines. She really manages to sound both scared and desperate without resourcing to "cheap" histrionics like excessive sobs etc. Her acting on the Met DVD is top rate and she is definitely the main attraction (_Manon Lescaut, Francesca da Rimini, Luisa Miller_ just to name a few).
Petrella is in better voice, she sounds more plaintive in the first part, but unleashes some dramatic fury later on.
I enjoyed both performances and will give it another thought before casting my final vote.

P.S. Scotto it is. The way my blood chills when I listen to her rendition.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Though I'll admit that Petrella has the better instrument, I didn't find her version anywhere near as affecting as Scotto's. Scotto doesn't just sing the aria, she lives it, and she does so with solutions that are entirely musical with no need to resort to hammy sobs at the end as Petrella did. She also has some moments of magic that I don't hear in Petrella's version, such as that otherworldly change of colour at _asil di pace_. I think the voice is still in quite good shape here too.

It's Scotto for me. No question.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

It came upon me like an explosion to the ears, that so-called voice of Scotto in the first one. I said to myself either this recording of her is when she was long in the tooth or else by accident the recordings were switched, because that sounded more like a mezzo and very little like the Scotto I have come to know all these years. Actually it sounded more like Olivero with the glottal attacks.
And then I listened to the Petrella, whose voice is not familiar to me, and immediately I said, "now THERE'S Scotto!!!
So I am forced to go with the second one which was much more like Scotto would have done it to my ears (which must be fading me fast). 
In any case, even though I must be losing my mind, I much preferred the Petrella.
(Can't wait to read what others have said.)
PS. Is it possible that the first recording was faulty and played at a lower speed? And anyone who said that that particular one had a screechy top (which is what I always watch for in Scotto) I never heard it. But I DID hear it in the second one.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Tsaraslondon said:


> with no need to resort to hammy sobs at the end as Petrella did


I don't think it's quite fair to say that Petrella "needed" to resort to sobs at the end. Her rendition would have been excellent even without them, and depending on one's point of view, would have been better without them. Personally, a few sobs here and there don't bother me as long as the singer has "earned" the right to them by having a real voice and using it intelligently to create a musical interpretation first. I think Petrella checks both those boxes.

I voted for Petrella because I find her performance had me thinking less about what was happening with her technique and more about what she was doing with it. Scotto does well with the introverted moments, but whenever any pressure is put on her voice, it starts to fray, and to me that just takes me out of her interpretation.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

This is the 1980 Renata Scotto performance I was referring.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

vivalagentenuova said:


> I don't think it's quite fair to say that Petrella "needed" to resort to sobs at the end. Her rendition would have been excellent even without them, and depending on one's point of view, would have been better without them. Personally, a few sobs here and there don't bother me as long as the singer has "earned" the right to them by having a real voice and using it intelligently to create a musical interpretation first. I think Petrella checks both those boxes.
> 
> I voted for Petrella because I find her performance had me thinking less about what was happening with her technique and more about what she was doing with it. Scotto does well with the introverted moments, but whenever any pressure is put on her voice, it starts to fray, and to me that just takes me out of her interpretation.


We have different priorities, as I think we've discovered before. I agree with everything you say about Petrella's performance but I don't find it as moving as Scotto's. To me it still sounds like an opera singer _singing_ an aria, where Scotto experiences it, lives it, and _becomes_ suffering Manon. I don't know how else to describe it. If her voice was under more stress than it is, then I might not be able to suspend disbelief. As it is, I find it has its own beauty and she _speaks_ to me in a way that Pertella doesn't.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Azol said:


> This is the 1980 Renata Scotto performance I was referring.


Fascinating.
If anyone cares to compare the Scotto in the competition with this one: Do you hear an entirely different voice from the other?
She sounds nothing like Scotto in the first one. Not to these ears anyway!
Man, am I confused.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Fascinating.
> If anyone cares to compare the Scotto in the competition with this one: Do you hear an entirely different voice from the other?
> She sounds nothing like Scotto in the first one. Not to these ears anyway!
> Man, am I confused.


In the early 1970s she signed to Columbia having effectively re-started her career at the Met. Soon after Columbia Masterworks issued two recital discs, one of Verismo Arias and one of Verdi and the 1974 version is taken from the Verismo recital, so was recorded in the studio.

It sounds like the same singer to me. The voice has darkened a little by 1980, I suppose, but it's still recognisably Renata Scotto. I love this live performance, by the way. The intensity and the range of colour are fantastic. I'll take this over many a more beautifully sung version.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Azol said:


> This is the 1980 Renata Scotto performance I was referring.


This is fantastic. It must have been absolutely riveting in the theatre. She has the kind of intensity I want in the opera house but so rarely see these days.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

If the aria wasn't the ''Sola, Perduta, abbandonata'' I had voted for Clara. But, unfortunately for the VERY strong Soprano, this area is exactly what the title says. Renata goes deep into her role, the same time Clara sings superbly something has little to do with desperation, solitude, erotic isolation etc. I'm very hard critiquer when it comes to Abbé Prévost masterpiece and I want to feel the atmosphere & the pathos of his nouvelle also from the opera stage. With Clara, I have the impression that this should not be happen. *Die Dame Scotto is for me the clear and undisputed winner of this one*, not because of her voice (equally good with Clara's) but because of her devotion to the role.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

I like both but I think Petrella sounds cooler and have a bit fondness for her I enjoy how she seems to be spitting out the lyrics so I voted for her.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Difficult one. I agree with most of the comments here, but Scotto's characterisation won me over and so she has the slight edge when it comes to the things that I value most from a singer.

N.


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