# Autumn Leaves: Helen Traubel- Fantastic



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

When we think of crossover artists we often think of Eileen Farrell and Renee Fleming as being among the best opera singers to handle pop songs. We often forget one of the best and most successful of the lot: Helen Traubel. Bing fired her for her frequent forays into singing this "trash". I put before you a wonderful rendition of Autumn Leaves I just discovered: 



 . You can see why she so excelled in Wagner with the incredibly rich lower register you hear in this song. The style is perfect. It is so nice to hear a mature woman sing these great songs and not just young women. I also put before you The Leg of Mutton Rag, where she gets down and even dances:



. She was one of the most perfectly built Wagnerian sopranos ever. She was 6 feet tall, a huge woman, but not fat and had no neck and a huge head and face, perfect for projecting a gigantic voice... which she certainly had. She was in a number of Hollywood musicals and, sadly, there are a whole lot more videos of her singing in musicals than there are of her singing opera. I can only find two short excerpts of her on video singing opera. She went on to do a number of Broadway musicals after Bing fired her as well as one woman shows singing old American standard songs.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> When we think of crossover artists we often think of Eileen Farrell and Renee Fleming as being among the best opera singers to handle pop songs. We often forget one of the best and most successful of the lot: Helen Traubel. Bing fired her for her frequent forays into singing this "trash". I put before you a wonderful rendition of Autumn Leaves I just discovered:
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YES! listened to this one many times! <3 <3 <3


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