# Single Round:Or son sola by Auber. Peters, Sutherland, Pagliughi



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I can only post cued up videos in a post not a contest post so see my post below.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

It is my contention that Italian coloratura has more show off high notes, but the French is often much trickier and more difficult to perform. This passage illustrates this point spectacularly with lightning fast ascending notes that must be sung very distinctly. Few sang this for obvious reasons and I have picked three coloraturas with great reputations to be in the competition. To me this is definitely ear worm material. John


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

After listening to this three times I just started laughing and couldn't stop as it ricocheted around in my skull. The French certainly know how to entertain. 

Sutherland comes closest here to doing the impossible. I doubt that anyone could sing those rising arpeggios perfectly in tune, but she just about manages it. I wonder how Beverly Sills would do? Peters approximates them; we know what the notes are from their context but we don't hear many of them. Pagliughi does better, but is a bit graceless. She and Peters take the high note at the end which Sutherland omits, but who cares?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> After listening to this three times I just started laughing and couldn't stop as it ricocheted around in my skull. The French certainly know how to entertain.
> 
> Sutherland comes closest here to doing the impossible. I doubt that anyone could sing those rising arpeggios perfectly in tune, but she just about manages it. I wonder how Beverly Sills would do? Peters approximates them; we know what the notes are from their context but we don't hear many of them. Pagliughi does better, but is a bit graceless. She and Peters take the high note at the end which Sutherland omits, but who cares?


I am so glad someone like you who is my musical better was also so effected by this entertaining little ditty. It is practically impossible!!! Sills could have managed it. On Youtube you can see Sutherland equal if not better this in concert at 60. I doubt if this opera has ever been revived but this whole aria amazes me everytime I hear it. Thanks for your comments!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Found a workaround finally thanks to Art Rock to post videos that are cued up. Happy now! You can only do that in a reply post.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Sutherland is an easy winner here. Not only does she make a more beautiful sound, but her coloratura is much more accurate, pretty incredible in fact. Listening to Peters and Pagliughi reminds me that some of these old style coloraturas could occasionally be a bit slapdash. Peters isn't always in tune either. Mado Robin was another who had an incredible upper extension, but a somewhat sketchy technique.

It's an empty but rather fun piece (I have absolutely no idea what they are singing about). I have a feeling it would have suited Mady Mesplé well, but I can't find a version with her on youtube.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Sutherland is an easy winner here. Not only does she make a more beautiful sound, but her coloratura is much more accurate, pretty incredible in fact. Listening to Peters and Pagliughi reminds me that some of these old style coloraturas could occasionally be a bit slapdash. Peters isn't always in tune either. Mado Robin was another who had an incredible upper extension, but a somewhat sketchy technique.
> 
> It's an empty but rather fun piece (I have absolutely no idea what they are singing about). I have a feeling it would have suited Mady Mesplé well, but I can't find a version with her on youtube.


Callas could have excelled at this aria but I think she favored more emotional, dramatic pieces. I am ignorant about the rest of the opera. I don't mind a showy piece without dramatic significance


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Woodduck! You actually listened to this 3 times? Bravo, my man, Bravo. 
I could not get through but a small portion of it near the end it insulted my ears so. Perhaps I missed a lot of throat gymnastics but from the little I could stand, that incredibly long ending high note was the winner -- and that happened to belong to Peters.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> It's an empty but rather fun piece (I have absolutely no idea what they are singing about).


It seems that _Fra Diavolo_ was once a popular opera, and Auber _ipso facto_ a popular opera composer. _The Standard Operas_ by George P. Upton, published in 1914, includes three operas of Auber, the other two being _Masaniello_ and _The Crown Diamonds. _The plots are related in some detail and the musical numbers named._ Fra Diavolo_ and _La Muette de Portici _are still included in the 1976 edition of _The New Kobbe's Complete Opera Book. _My own acquaintance with Auber's operas is confined mainly to having a few of the overtures on a CD including the better known overures of Suppe, conducted with crackle and verve by Paul Paray. All of the music strikes me as charming and shallow, and it doesn't inspire curiosity about the operas. I suppose they might be entertaining if sung and produced well.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> It seems that _Fra Diavolo_ was once a popular opera, and Auber _ipso facto_ a popular opera composer. _The Standard Operas_ by George P. Upton, published in 1914, includes three operas of Auber, the other two being _Masaniello_ and _The Crown Diamonds. _The plots are related in some detail and the musical numbers named._ Fra Diavolo_ and _La Muette de Portici _are still included in the 1976 edition of _The New Kobbe's Complete Opera Book. _My own acquaintance with Auber's operas is confined mainly to having a few of the overtures on a CD including the better known overures of Suppe, conducted with crackle and verve by Paul Paray. All of the music strikes me as charming and shallow, and it doesn't inspire curiosity about the operas. I suppose they might be entertaining if sung and produced well.


I probably know even less. I have a recording of a young Gedda singing _Du pauvre seul ami fidèle _from *La muette de Portici, *which is sometimes known as *Masaniello*, but that's about it!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The aria is French but the words in the title sound Italian to my unlearned ears. ??? I can't find the lyrics.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I probably know even less. I have a recording of a young Gedda singing _Du pauvre seul ami fidèle _from *La muette de Portici, *which is sometimes known as *Masaniello*, but that's about it!


Ah, right... I'd read somewhere, but forgotten, that _La Muette_ was later called _Masaniello. _It might have been the Italian version. Apparently Auber also composed a _Manon Lescaut_, long before Massenet and Puccini.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Woodduck said:


> Ah, right... I'd read somewhere, but forgotten, that _La Muette_ was later called _Masaniello. _It might have been the Italian version. Apparently Auber also composed a _Manon Lescaut_, long before Massenet and Puccini.


It's a pity that they didn't compose an opera based on "_Liaisons dengereaux_".


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

ColdGenius said:


> It's a pity that they didn't compose an opera based on "_Liaisons dengereaux_".


From what I know of it, the amorality of_ Les Liaisons Dangereuses_ might have made even Despina in _Cosi fan tutte_ blush. I can't think what composer before the 20th century would have wanted - or thought it practical - to set it to music. Any suggestions?


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Strauss. Richard, of course. It's XX century, but still beautiful music.
Don Giovanni, based on XVI century plot, is not much worse than Liaisons. Or Manon. Or Bible based Dalilah or Herodias. And Semiramide?
Indeed, there are some typical opera characters. An amoral but attractive seducer, a scheming and equally, if not more, amoral socialite, two innocent victims (one more spoiled than another), chaperone comprimarios and a foolish youth are there. Whom we haven't seen in XIX century opera?
In XVIII century contemporary novels were not usually staged, in XIX century the book was forbidden repeatedly.
In addition, Marquise de Merteuil is at risk to become the main villain in the plot, who she actually is, but it would be a simplification. I wouldn't indulge her much, but I think that she is not only evil but extremely lonely person.


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