# Soprano Contest: Glitter and Be Gay. Costa, Anderson, Sierra



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I could do an extra round with Madelyn Kahn and Barbara Cook if you like, but here I stuck with singers with opera careers.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Nadine Sierra’s words are often unintelligible, and her voice is often thick and not forward enough. The voice clears up in the coloratura and the high register. 

Mary Costa is hampered by indifferent recorded sound, obviously a live performance, which clouds both the words and, occasionally, the voice itself. Even so, the beauty of the voice shines through and she acts the part in voice and demeanor (judging by the laughter). 

I’m most familiar with June Anderson’s video, having seen it many times and, of these three, she is the most fluid, both in words and style. She sings it easily and very confidently (but you gotta see Natalie Dessay).


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Nadine Sierra's words are often unintelligible, and her voice is often not forward enough and thick. The voice clears up in the coloratura and the high register.
> 
> Mary Costa is hampered by indifferent recorded sound, obviously a live performance, which clouds both the words and, occasionally, the voice itself. Even so, the beauty of the voice shines through and she acts the part in voice and demeanor (judging by the laughter).
> 
> I'm most familiar with June Anderson's video, having seen it many times and, of these three, she is the most fluid, both in words and style. She sings it easily and very confidently (but you gotta see Natalie Dessay).


I thought about Dessay but was not sure how she would play to our crowd. Glad to hear you liked it. She also spoke ill about someone I really love so her high heel stepped in some doggy doo in my book. Two of our regulars really are fond of Costa and it is very hard to find anything she can compete with as far as a recorded aria so I was glad to have this. After putting up with the quality of many early Callas recordings as well as Tetrazinni I didn't think her recording was too bad. We all experience historic recordings differently, though.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I thought about Dessay but was not sure how she would play to our crowd. Glad to hear you liked it. She also spoke ill about someone I really love so her high heel stepped in some doggy doo in my book. Two of our regulars really are fond of Costa and it is very hard to find anything she can compete with as far as a recorded aria so I was glad to have this. After putting up with the quality of many early Callas recordings as well as Tetrazinni I didn't think her recording was too bad. We all experience historic recordings differently, though.


The only way to find out how someone would play to our crowd is to put her on! Too bad singers speak negatively about other singers (can you say Renata Scotto?), but women will be women! Costa's video is particularly bad for 1971 but, that's live recording and we're lucky to have it but it's difficult to judge whether she or the recording is to blame. Too bad it's sound only,


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> The only way to find out how someone would play to our crowd is to put her on! Too bad singers speak negatively about other singers (can you say Renata Scotto?), but women will be women! Costa's video is particularly bad for 1971 but, that's live recording and we're lucky to have it but it's difficult to judge whether she or the recording is to blame. Too bad it's sound only,


I have Dessay in two contests. Costa was movie star gorgeous.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Mary Costa's performance sounds very amusing but the live recording makes it impossible to judge fairly. She does seem willing to ignore written pitches, which June Anderson definitely does not. Anderson is musically accurate and verbally clear as well as hilarious. Sierra sounds too straightlaced; the humor doesn't come off. Her vibrato can be obtrusive, and her words are not always distinguishable (not always easy without visual help). Anderson takes this easily.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I do hope you'll do another round that includes Barbara Cook, which is still my favourite version of the aria, despite Cook not being an operatic soprano. I remember her once saying that it was a late addition to the score and she had to learn it virtually overnight. She was so young and green, she had no idea how difficult it was and just did what she was told. Her older self was amazed that she was able to sing it at all! But sing it she did, and furthermore with a musical theatre performer's attention to the words and the humour. Dawn Upshaw and Renée Fleming have also recorded excellent versions.

Sierra is out for me. It's all a bit po-faced. Her words aren't very clear and the voice isn't always perfectly focused. I wish the sound on Costa's performance were better, because it sounds as if it was a lot of fun. She is not as musically accurate as Anderson, but she is obviously very entertaining, judging from the audience reaction. 

Anderson was Bernstein's choice for these concert performances at the Barbican (the rest of the cast included Jerry Hadley, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda and Adolphe Green as Pangloss) and she acquits herself admirably, though her words are not as clear as Cooke's or Upshaw's. Still, we hear enough of them and she is musically stunningly accurate. 

I'm voting for Anderson, but, had the Costa recording been clearer, I may well have gone for her.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Certainly the liveliest performance - Kristin Chenoweth (with an assist from Patti LuPone).






Edit - I don't remember (and can't find a video of) Maureen Brennan's performance in the 1974 immersive production of the show.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

What? No Chenoweth or Cook? (tsk!)


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

nina foresti said:


> What? No *Chenoweth *or Cook? (tsk!)


Right above you.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> What? No Chenoweth or Cook? (tsk!)


I'll have another round then. I left it open and wanted to see how well this aria was received.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I'll have another round then. I left it open and wanted to see how well this aria was received.


It's a great choice and an aria that opera singers often don't get quite right, hence my continued preference for Barbara Cook, and now Christine Chenoweth, despite them not being operatic sopranos. Opera singers are often either too serious or go too far in the opposite direction and ham it up in the wrong way. Dawn Upshaw gets it just about right on her album of Broadway songs, _I Wish It So_, but I also, surprisingly perhaps, like Renée Fleming's version, which was on her album _I Want Magic_.

I haven't heard the Madeleine Kahn version, but I imagine it is also excellent.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

nina foresti said:


> What? No Chenoweth or Cook? (tsk!)


Im it fond of Chenoweth's squeaky voice, but she's funny.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> It's a great choice and an aria that opera singers often don't get quite right, hence my continued preference for Barbara Cook, and now Christine Chenoweth, despite them not being operatic sopranos. Opera singers are often either too serious or go too far in the opposite direction and ham it up in the wrong way. Dawn Upshaw gets it just about right on her album of Broadway songs, _I Wish It So_, but I also, surprisingly perhaps, like Renée Fleming's version, which was on her album _I Want Magic_.
> 
> I haven't heard the Madeleine Kahn version, but I imagine it is also excellent.


I have an album of Dawn Upshaw singing Rodgers and Hart, which I like. But better than that is an album of Sylvia McNair singing Kern with Andre Previn on the piano.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> Im it fond of Chenoweth's squeaky voice, but she's funny.


I agree. She's fun to watch, not so much just to listen to. As it happens, I've just listened to Barbara Cook, who was also a musical theatre performer rather than an opera singer, and I was impressed by just how much warmer her voice was. She must have had a superb technique. She continued singing into her eighties and, though she lost those stratospheric notes, her voice remained admirably focused, firm and secure throughout her career.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I agree. She's fun to watch, not so much just to listen to. As it happens, I've just listened to *Barbara Cook*, who was also a musical theatre performer rather than an opera singer, and I was impressed by just how much warmer her voice was. She must have had a superb technique. She continued singing into her eighties and, though she lost those stratospheric notes, her voice remained admirably focused, firm and secure throughout her career.


You should hear her perform _Vanilla Ice Cream_ from _She Loves Me_.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

jegreenwood said:


> You should hear her perform _Vanilla Ice Cream_ from _She Loves Me_.


I have. I've heard her sing it live.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I agree. She's fun to watch, not so much just to listen to. As it happens, I've just listened to Barbara Cook, who was also a musical theatre performer rather than an opera singer, and I was impressed by just how much warmer her voice was. She must have had a superb technique. She continued singing into her eighties and, though she lost those stratospheric notes, her voice remained admirably focused, firm and secure throughout her career.


My favorite is Dancing in the Dark and Cook goes up to F5 and has a big open sound like an opera singer on those high notes that are so gorgeous!!!!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I cannot vote -- Barbara Cook was the epitome of Cunegonda.Chenoweth too was a blast.


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