# Mezzo Grand Finale of Arsace's Aria: Larmore, Fagioli or Sinclair



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)




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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Franco for me too.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

For this aria, if it’s between these three singers, and the videos presented, I vote for Monica Sinclair.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Larmore for me (for all the reasons stated in the first round).

N.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

I can't choose between Larmore and Sinclaire. Larmore conveys the role better, but Sinclaire is the overall better singer.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

I missed the first round so I hopped straight into the finale, hopefully you won't mind me doing so.
Not a fair comparison: I tend to avoid countertenors at all costs and so this boils down to Larmore vs Sinclair. As I already have cast my vote for Stignani in the previous round, I'd have to say it's an easy win for Larmore. Her singing is spot on and accurate - just a perfect rendition.
Semiramide is one of my favorite operas by Rossini but it takes a cast of singers that doesn't exist anymore and a star aligment in the sky that happens once or twice in a century.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Azol said:


> I missed the first round so I hopped straight into the finale, hopefully you won't mind me doing so.
> Not a fair comparison: I tend to avoid countertenors at all costs and so this boils down to Larmore vs Sinclair. As I already have cast my vote for Stignani in the previous round, I'd have to say it's an easy win for Larmore. Her singing is spot on and accurate - just a perfect rendition.
> Semiramide is one of my favorite operas by Rossini but it takes a cast of singers that doesn't exist anymore and a star aligment in the sky that happens once or twice in a century.


With you is it the idea of a man singing in a typical woman's register? I don't think Fagioli in any way sounds like your average counter tenor, but that is just my hearing. He sounds to me more like a less virile Ewa Podles. David Daniels was another one you could not spot as a counter tenor just listening in your car.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> With you is it the idea of a man singing in a typical woman's register? I don't think Fagioli in any way sounds like your average counter tenor, but that is just my hearing. He sounds to me more like a less virile Ewa Podles. David Daniels was another one you could not spot as a counter tenor just listening in your car.


Interesting that you consider a man sounding _less virile_ than a woman.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Interesting that you consider a man sounding _less virile_ than a woman.


Have you heard Ewa Podles? Good god!!! She has testosterone in her powerful lower voice. To me he sounds like a person with a big voice but someone here heard him at Covent Garden and said his voice was not as big as it sounds on disc. I love David Hansen but he wisely, I think, confines himself to small European and Australian houses instead of a big house like Covent Garden. David Daniels voice was big enough for the Met but he had other personal faults.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

MAS said:


> Interesting that you consider a man sounding _less virile_ than a woman.


If the man is singing in falsetto...yes. The target market for countertenors tends to be those who find androgyny appealing and, for one reason or another, are in the mood for something that lacks a distinctly masculine or feminine energy.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> *Have you heard Ewa Podles? Good god!!! She has testosterone in her powerful lower voice*. To me he sounds like a person with a big voice but someone here heard him at Covent Garden and said his voice was not as big as it sounds on disc. I love David Hansen but he wisely, I think, confines himself to small European and Australian houses instead of a big house like Covent Garden. David Daniels voice was big enough for the Met but he had other personal faults.


I really have a love/hate relationship with Ewa Podles. Half of her technique is atrocious, while the other half lends itself to death-defying stunts that let her sing from soprano to baritone (less believably at the extremes, mind you, but she can get there).

In a way though, the bad technique does her a few favors. It makes her sound old, sickly, less "healthy" sounding than a lot of mezzos and contraltos who don't quite convince me singing the kind of rep where you don't want to sound like you're in the prime of life.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> I really have a love/hate relationship with Ewa Podles. Half of her technique is atrocious, while the other half lends itself to death-defying stunts that let her sing from soprano to baritone (less believably at the extremes, mind you, but she can get there).
> 
> In a way though, the bad technique does her a few favors. It makes her sound old, sickly, less "healthy" sounding than a lot of mezzos and contraltos who don't quite convince me singing the kind of rep where you don't want to sound like you're in the prime of life.


Her voice is HUGE. I saw her twice. Late in her career she could still sing all of the coloratura, but had to move her body with jerks at every note in a chain of cascading notes. I LOVE her high notes and would love to hear her sing In Questa Reggia, just for the hell of it.I also love the darkness of her tone but I can understand how her voice could put someone off. In her first solo Rossini disc from 30 years ago her voice was much less dark than it became as she entered her middle years. I would have liked to have put her in this contest but I feel I am unique in my love for her in our forum.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> If the man is singing in falsetto...yes. The target market for countertenors tends to be those who find androgyny appealing and, for one reason or another, are in the mood for something that lacks a distinctly masculine or feminine energy.


My sister the opera singer would agree. I love androgeny. Dimash, who is very masculine, has in my opinion the greatest voice in the world today, but he sings half the time in a falsetto that sounds like like a big lyric soprano up to G8, perhaps higher than any singer today. I like a lot of pop singers who sing in falsetto. I also looked perfectly fantabulous in drag 30 years and 40 pounds ago LOL. When I lip synced in a show of course I did it to Eileen Farrell. I haven't done crazy things like that though in decades!!!!!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I'm fine with no clear winner. It means many were popular with you fans.


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