# Round 3:Bass -Ella Giammai m'amò: de Angelis, Reizen, Moll



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)




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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

De Angelis has a great voice, but I didn't much care for his overdone histrionics. I've always seen this aria as being an inward dialogue, and Verdi's superb orchestral scene setting certainly supports this. He is just too overtly emotional for my taste.

If Moll were singing in Italian I might like his version more, but, his voice also sounds a little on the light side here.

Which leaves me with Reizen, who has a darker sound and also makes the aria more introspective. He easily gets my vote.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

I agree with Tsaraslondon here. De Angelis was a great singer, but here he's overemphatic and his aspirates are intrusive. Moll is fine - the relative lightness of his voice doesn't concern me as much as what sounds like a lack of involvement.

Reizen was perhaps the finest bass of the 20th century, and this selection shows why.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

wkasimer said:


> I agree with Tsaraslondon here. De Angelis was a great singer, but here he's overemphatic and his aspirates are intrusive. Moll is fine - the relative lightness of his voice doesn't concern me as much as what sounds like a lack of involvement.
> 
> Reizen was perhaps the finest bass of the 20th century, and this selection shows why.


I watched a 9 min Youtube video on aspirate singing but am still totally in the dark, but I trust you. I'm just glad that I had some singers in this third round to please at least the people who have voted thus far.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I watched a 9 min Youtube video on aspirate singing but am still totally in the dark, but I trust you. I'm just glad that I had some singers in this third round to please at least the people who have voted thus far.


It's an intrusive "h" when a word is allocated more than one note, so that, for instance, _Casta diva_ becomes Ca -ha -ha-ha-sta di-hi-hi-hi va. It's something your favourite , Dame Joan, would never be guilty of. Nor would Callas. A lot of modern singers now use it as a matter of course when negotiating fast moving music, Bartoli in particular. I can't stand it.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> It's an intrusive "h" when a word is allocated more than one note, so that, for instance, _Casta diva_ becomes Ca -ha -ha-ha-sta di-hi-hi-hi va. It's something your favourite , Dame Joan, would never be guilty of. Nor would Callas. A lot of modern singers now use it as a matter of course when negotiating fast moving music, Bartoli in particular. I can't stand it.


You could have been a teacher. You know Bartoli could be a fine singer if she would cut that crap out. I hate it as well.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I concede that de Angelis is a little too extroverted with his histrionics and that Reizen's more inward expressivness sounds more like a man talking to himself. I can't criticize Reizen's vocalism objectively, but for me his tone is grainy and cloudy and his "swallowed" Russian vocal placement and vowel coloration intrusive (I do seem to have a problem with Russian singers singing in languages other than Russian). De Angelis has one of the most viscerally thrilling and responsive bass voices I've ever heard - dark and brilliant, quick and flexible - and his ability to swell a tone without strain or distortion is on powerful display here. Only the greatest voices can respond so perfectly to every expressive impulse of the singer. Reizen may not be an inferior singer, and his conception of this scene may be more tasteful, but I'm not thrilled or moved by the sounds that come out of him. I'm going to have to go with my viscera and my gooseflesh and play "Angelis's advocate" here.

Moll's German version is a bit of a curiosity. He's a fine singer who always falls gently on the ear, but even if he were singing in Italian, I'm not sure that his sweet, Sarastro/Gurnemanz timbre would quite persuade me.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Is there a law against using aspirates? It seems to me that it’s more acceptable in Italy than elsewhere, mainly by male singers, though I’ve heard it occasionally used by female singers as well (Callas included). Like Tsaras, I don’t like it, and since de Angelis’s version is peppered with them throughout, it puts him out of the running for me. But I must say, does an inner monologue necessarily be free of histrionics? Just saying.
I like Reizen’s singing much more than I like the voice itself, but he checks all the boxes for me.
As for Moll, besides the wrong language, I just don’t see him as Filippo II, though I saw him more in Wagner (Gunermanz and Marke) and a single Osmin.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I have a major problem.
The one who delivers it the best for me (Reizen) I cannot vote for because he sounds like he has bread in his mouth and it is off putting. However, the histrionics of de Angelis are over-the-top and annoy me as well. Moll is out of the question because his voice is not deep enough for me.
I keep listening to Siepi in my head, and even bass-baritone Rene Pape who I saw in-house and who was totally immersed in the role so completely that he was still sitting there reflecting when they announced The Grand Inquisitor and suddenly shook himslef together, which was a decidedly major moment.
I just cannot bring myself to vote for these. Sorry.


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