# Rosa Ponselle: from soprano to spinto tenor



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)




----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

La voce completa e meravigliosa.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Amazing! I would like to hear her sing La tramenda ultrice spada from Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I used that Russian song in a speech on her years ago.She sings down to a D below middle C in that song. She was a true vocal miracle. As a pre pubescent child she had the voice of a mature woman. She did a live side by side comparison with Flagstad in the Old Met and Flagstad, who had perhaps the biggest soprano voice of all time, was only a hair louder from top to bottom. There was also no register break in her voice. The only soprano I've heard with such a huge lower register was Jessye Norman, but I think she was always much more of a mezzo. I think Christine Goerke is supposed to shake the seats with her lower register, but I've never heard it. I had not heard the Carmen excerpt before.


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Amazing Ponselle performance and duet with the great tenor Giovanni Martinelli in which she goes into her tenor range:






After Caruso, give me Martinelli with his clear open tones and impeccable intonation. Before Callas, I'll take Ponselle with her incredible golden voice, fantastic vocal range and _her_ impeccable intonation-one of the most perfect Verdi recordings I've ever heard. Stunning!


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Larkenfield said:


> Amazing Ponselle performance and duet with the great tenor Giovanni Martinelli in which she goes into her tenor range:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


They really were made for this music, weren't they? I'd set this alongside the splendid (vocally, though not sonically) 1909 recording with Caruso and Gadski:


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Is this a treat to reward me for my Carmen reviews? I LOVE Ponselle! She once said in an interview that she could have sung mezzo-soprano as she had the notes and yet she felt nervous singing up to high C. I've always wondered if she was a natural mezzo with an extension, but she gave such wonderful performances of soprano roles we would have lost something if she had sung mezzo rep.

N.


----------



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

The Conte said:


> Is this a treat to reward me for my Carmen reviews? I LOVE Ponselle! She once said in an interview that she could have sung mezzo-soprano as she had the notes and yet she felt nervous singing up to high C. I've always wondered if she was a natural mezzo with an extension, but she gave such wonderful performances of soprano roles we would have lost something if she had sung mezzo rep.
> 
> N.


Even when she sings soprano rep, it sounds nice, but it sounds like a mezzo singing high. There are only a few bits where she sounds soprano-y to me. The rest of the time it's all chocolate-dark timbre, huge middle register and a chest voice that's like a staircase descending into a cavern. I use this metaphor not just because of the timbre, but because it's almost as if the voice tricks you. you think it's done and then "PSYCHE! I can sing like a man and drop down an entire extra octave!" For comparison, if you listen to Ewa Podles, it's clear after about 2 seconds that she is going to have a ridiculously low voice, but with Ponselle, the voice flips and suddenly she's two fachs lower than where you started.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> Is this a treat to reward me for my Carmen reviews? I LOVE Ponselle! She once said in an interview that she could have sung mezzo-soprano as she had the notes and yet she felt nervous singing up to high C. I've always wondered if she was a natural mezzo with an extension, but she gave such wonderful performances of soprano roles we would have lost something if she had sung mezzo rep.
> 
> N.


Ponselle sounded as if she could have sug anything written for the soprano voice, and maybe even stuff for the tenor voice too. Was she really a mezzo? Don't know, don't really care. It's enough she was Ponselle.

Another soprano who had a short top was Tebaldi, but I don't recall anyone ever questioning if she was a true soprano, though she pretty much had to pray for her top Cs. In Lanco Rasponi's book _The Last Prima Donnas_ she bemoans the constantly rising pitch of modern orchestras. For her it must have made quite a difference.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Ponselle's uncategorizable voice is wonderfully on display in the private recordings made at her home in the 1950s, long after she'd left the stage. Here's a beauty:






It seems pretty clear that she could have made her career as a mezzo, but people who heard her Aida, Leonora, Norma, etc. are lucky that she didn't.

The best of her recordings - whether it's "O nume tutelar," "O del mio amato ben" or "Oh Danny Boy" - are about as good as life gets.
















Now excuse me while I hunt down that box of tissues I haven't used since the last time I listened to Ponselle.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Ponselle's uncategorizable voice is wonderfully on display in the private recordings made at her home in the 1950s, long after she'd left the stage. Here's a beauty:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> The way she can shrink that huge instrument to a piano sound and not lose any of it's quality.


That may be the most awesome thing about her. The expressiveness of her piano and pianissimo are simply transfixing.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Ponselle's uncategorizable voice is wonderfully on display in the private recordings made at her home in the 1950s, long after she'd left the stage. Here's a beauty:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You are right, as usual, about Danny Boy.Thanks for the tip.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Larkenfield said:


> Amazing Ponselle performance and duet with the great tenor Giovanni Martinelli in which she goes into her tenor range:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I've been listening to this a lot lately. It is an epic recording. I like Martinelli here as well. When she dips into the chest register she sounds more like a mezzo than her Amneris. This is on my new Xmas double lp Ponselle set. Heaven on a turntable.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> You are right, as usual, about Danny Boy.Thanks for the tip.


I just listened to the Tchaikovsky today and it is ravishing!!!!! Her control in medium soft restrained singing is unparalleled. Thanks. That will be on a playlist for my friend I ride with every week.


----------

