# Round Two :La fleur que tu m'avais jetée. Bjorling, Lauri- Volpe, Alagna



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Oops! Something is out of whack.
I got 2 Lauri-Volpes and no Bjorling.
I'll wait till the mistake is rectified before voting although those 2 beautiful L-V's were worth listening to twice.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Oops! Something is out of whack.
> I got 2 Lauri-Volpes and no Bjorling.
> I'll wait till the mistake is rectified before voting although those 2 beautiful L-V's were worth listening to twice.


I normally check those things. Thanks. There is some good singing today.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Interesting interview (although I'm bitterly bitterly disappointed that he apparently left Mrs. Corelli at home) with Franco who studied with Lauri-Volpi once a month for 13 years.



https://www.belcantosociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CB_bySZ_158-171.pdf



SZ: What was he like as an interpreter? 
FC: He was Romantic, far from verismo. His singing of verismo repertory wasn’t impulsive; it was too noble. He was like a priest. He wanted his voice to be dreamlike, to express pathos and suffering. Otherwise, he wasn’t preoccupied about emphasis, color or expression. 
SZ: And his voice? 
FC: It pealed forth like a thunderclap. It was steely and alive, not dark, incisive but not dramatic. 
SZ: What’s the difference?
FC: The voice was too bright to be dramatic; it didn’t have the color of a cello. Every note was silvery pure, at any rate in the octave between C in the middle and high C. His emission was so perfect that even his low notes rang. His low C was silvery, not heavy. He was able to have strong notes in the center, but he disliked muscular singing. 

SZ: What was the highest note you heard him sing in person? 
FC: E-flat. He had almost three octaves at his disposal. 
SZ: Did his singing have flaws? 
FC: His first octave was unstable, but in the period 1940–45 it gained in strength and became fuller. The high notes on his early records are narrow; later, they are covered, round but focused. So wonderfully well focused were his top notes that you were all the more aware that they sometimes went sharp. In singing mezza voce he had intonation problems stemming from holding his larynx too low


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Shaughnessy said:


> Interesting interview (although I'm bitterly bitterly disappointed that he apparently left Mrs. Corelli at home) with Franco who studied with Lauri-Volpi once a month for 13 years.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I wish we had such great descriptions of other singers!!!!!!!!!!


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## Chat Noir (4 mo ago)

Another Lauri-Volpi vote. Recordings, especially period ones, are probably not the best material to judge, but in this case both the first two are vintage recordings and I find Volpi's is superior. I regret to say I find Alagna's a damp squib, lacking in passion and power.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I am stuck. Each one has a different problem and all have fine voices. Alagna shocked me--I adore him and I didn't recognize his voice. I always know his voice -- but for some reason not this time. 
Without a doubt, in my book Bjorling has the most stunning voice of the 3 but his French is atrocious and his emotion is lacking. 
That leaves me with Lauri-Volpe who really seemed to feel the music more sincerely. I am going for Lauri-Volpe but really had convinced myself ahead of time that I would surely vote for Alagna who normally does it so beautifully and his French is exquisite. I didn't really like his final high note either which he decided not to sing out fully and I think it needs it. This wasn't his best effort. I've seen him do this live several times so I KNOW what he can do.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Alagna opens softly and ends with a beautiful, _messa di voce, _and in between does some gorgeous things and others not so gorgeous, leaning too insistently into his high notes so as to lose focus and sometimes sing them sharp; there’s a nice climb into a _chose à toi, _but crooned. I’ve always liked his passion.

I like some of the things that Lauri-Volpi does, he’s got good instincts, but the voice is too narrow and the sound hard and his _pianos_ are not soft like I want them to be, and too unyielding. His bright tones are sometimes too bright, like hearing trumpets too closely.

I agree with nina foresti that there’s something missing in Björling‘s interpretation - it’s not enough to have a beautiful voice, eh?


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## Chat Noir (4 mo ago)

I heard none of that from Alagna. It sounded flat to me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bjorling always sings beautifully and expressively but does nothing very interesting. I wanted to hear him take the penultimate high phrase softly, but no luck. Lauri-Volpi, being the oldest of the three, evinces a welcome, old-school rhythmic elasticity, as well as a fast vibrato which I find always takes some getting used to. His French vowels are not always right. Alagna has no problem there, but he lacks vocal ease and freedom on high. He attempts a soft high note and gets it, but only by isolating his head resonance completely for a few notes. The abrupt shift spoils the effect, and the head tone is wispy and insubstantial in any case. Alagna has an attractive voice, but the superior vocal technique of the two older singers is obvious and, alas, not unexpected.

All things considered, Lauri-Volpi makes the most interesting music here.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I don't have much to add to what has been said.
Alagna has the best French and is the only one to attempt the pp top Bb Bizet asks for (but has to resort to a crooning falsetto to do it).
Bjoerling has the most beautiful voice.
Lauri-Volpi makes the most interesting music.
Lauri-Volpi it is then.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I don't have much to add to what has been said.
> Alagna has the best French and is the only one to attempt the pp top Bb Bizet asks for (but has to resort to a crooning falsetto to do it).
> Bjoerling has the most beautiful voice.
> Lauri-Volpi makes the most interesting music.
> Lauri-Volpi it is then.


*THAT'S IT!!!!!!! * I could not think of the phrase to describe what should have been a stunning laid back top because it came out like *"a crooning falsetto*". Actually, done correctly, I am now starting to prefer it to the loud final note -- just like I don't like it when Rodolfo takes the last high note with Mimi in "O soave fanciulla".


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