# Round Three: Suicidio. Maxwell-Yamamoto, Boninsegna, Ponselle



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The first singer, Sharon Maxwell-Yamamoto, is famous for the spectacular way she ends the aria on a low F and the other two singers should be well known to you.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I do not know this "Maxwell-Yamamoto" (whose first name, I find by looking it up, is Sharon), but she does seem to know what she's singing about, unlike some more highly touted (and frequently praised and voted for) singers we've heard (here's looking at you, Helen obviously not of Troy, ships all safely moored). She's recorded in what sounds like an empty room, which makes her timbre harder to judge, and her rather strong vibrato turns to a wobble on top. The tempo is a bit draggy, and the "Look, Ma! Low F - and I'm a soprano!" ending is a stunt that does the music no favors. Still, good intentions count for a lot.

They have to count for something with Boninsegna too, not because of any deficiency on her part but rather because of the primitive recording. She gives very much the performance I expected, complete with lots of rock-solid chest tones to delight our chest-voice connoisseurs. I do so wish we had faithful recordings of sopranos from that era so that we could hear the full body and brilliance of their timbres, so important in music like this. Boninsegna's expressiveness would have all the more impact in higher-fidelty sound.

Ponselle's rich timbre took better to the recording horn than Boninsgna's more slender, silvery sound, and with a performance that feels absolutely "right," missing only the last measure of emotion that live performance would surely have brought out in her, I have no hesitation in giving her first prize.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I don’t know what to make of Yamamoko’s rather unschooled voice, but I wouldn’t necessarily throw her into *Gioconda*. The interpolated low note is a stunt; I suppose if you have that note, you might as well use it, but the result is unsettling. The rest is negligible, though she tries to act the role. 

Bonisegna’s rather exaggerated plunges into her chest register I also find unsettling given the disparity in the sound from which she plunges - I find it rather comical, I’m sorry to say.

There’s as little desperation in Ponselle’s traversal as found in the other two contenders - it sounds rather rote to my ears. Ponselle is not a natural *Gioconda *either, and makes hardly anything of the words. I’d say that the voice is suited to the role, but her heart ain’t in it. Ponselle by default.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MAS said:


> I don’t know what to make of Yamamoko’s rather unschooled voice, but I wouldn’t necessarily throw her into *Gioconda*. The interpolated low note is a stunt; I suppose if you have that note, you might as well use it, but the result is unsettling. The rest is negligible, though she tries to act the role.
> 
> Bonisegna’s rather exaggerated plunges into her chest register I also find unsettling given the disparity in the sound from which she plunges - I find it rather comical, I’m sorry to say.
> 
> There’s as little desperation in Ponselle’s traversal as found in the other two contenders - it sounds rather rote to my ears. Ponselle is not a natural *Gioconda *either, and makes hardly anything of the words. I’d say that the voice is suited to the role, but her heart ain’t in it. Ponselle by default.


You're a harder man than I am. As to objective qualities, I can't disagree too much with your observations. I will say that in this aria, as in some other things, It's wise to keep the ghost of Callas at bay. That done, you might be more receptive to the expressiveness of other voices. To me Ponselle sounds far from "rote." Keep in mind that the "cleaned up" recording - quite badly done, in my opinion - mutes her sound considerably. Her diction was always excellent, but you'd never know it from this recording.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> You're a harder man than I am. As to objective qualities, I can't disagree too much with your observations. I will say that in this aria, as in some other things, It's wise to keep the ghost of Callas at bay. That done, you might be more receptive to the expressiveness of other voices. To me Ponselle sounds far from "rote." Keep in mind that the "cleaned up" recording - quite badly done, in my opinion - mutes her sound considerably. Her diction was always excellent, but you'd never know it from this recording.


Good advice, but I can hardly keep that ghost away - I had the Cetra highlights *Gioconda *LP and listened to the aria incessantly.

I am hardly a Ponselle enthusiast but admire the voice mostly for its sumptuous quality and size but she has never really captured me. Call it a blind spot. I have a similar one for Caruso - 
call me a Philistine…


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MAS said:


> Good advice, but I can hardly keep that ghost away - I had the Cetra highlights *Gioconda *LP and listened to the aria incessantly.
> 
> I am hardly a Ponselle enthusiast but admire the voice mostly for its sumptuous quality and size but she has never really captured me. Call it a blind spot. I have a similar one for Caruso -
> call me a Philistine…


Philistine!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> You're a harder man than I am. As to objective qualities, I can't disagree too much with your observations. I will say that in this aria, as in some other things, It's wise to keep the ghost of Callas at bay. That done, you might be more receptive to the expressiveness of other voices. To me Ponselle sounds far from "rote." Keep in mind that the "cleaned up" recording - quite badly done, in my opinion - mutes her sound considerably. Her diction was always excellent, but you'd never know it from this recording.


With regard to Ponselle, as with many arias they were recorded too early. How could someone in her early 20's have the life experiences to fully embody the emotions, but mercy me she does sing it beautifully in my opinion and probably handles the low passages better than anyone but Callas. Her most successful arias, Casta Diva and La Vestale, were recorded in her thirties after she had evolved as an actress. I can enjoy gorgeous singing for it's own sake while driving at work better than some of you who demand intense emotional involvement from every performance. You are likely much more evolved musically than me.
Sharon had a unique career that could possibly get Woodduck to go to out for the evening: she sang opera karaoke style in supper clubs and night clubs. She had a devoted following. I don't know of anyone else who had her career. Not the Met, but much more immediacy and intimacy than you'd ever get in an opera performance. She could have been a gondolier in Venice if she were an athletic Italian senora. I knew she wouldn't win, but she does provide a bit of variety to the mix.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Good advice, but I can hardly keep that ghost away - I had the Cetra highlights *Gioconda *LP and listened to the aria incessantly.
> 
> I am hardly a Ponselle enthusiast but admire the voice mostly for its sumptuous quality and size but she has never really captured me. Call it a blind spot. I have a similar one for Caruso -
> call me a Philistine…


You have many other good qualities. We all have different ears.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

It is very clear that not a single one of these other offerings in any of these rounds aroused any enthusiasm from any of you. I am usually much more successful in these contests with you. I liked many of them but I am not sophisticated like many of you LOL Sorry about that. For the final round I have decided to have to give you what all of you ONLY want from Suicidio and that that is Callas: 1952 and 1959. She has ruined apparently any of you for the appreciation of anyone else as Gioconda so you can judge her against herself.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> It is very clear that not a single one of these other offerings in any of these rounds aroused any enthusiasm from any of you. I am usually much more successful in these contests with you. I liked many of them but I am not sophisticated like many of you LOL Sorry about that. For the final round I have decided to have to give you what all of you ONLY want from Suicidio and that that is Callas: 1952 and 1959. She has ruined apparently any of you for the appreciation of anyone else as Gioconda so you can judge her against herself.


Three things are inevitable: death, taxes, and Callas.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I'd never heard of Maxwell-Yamamoto, and, if I'm honest, I didn't much like her voice anyway. Descending to the low F is a bit of a stunt, nothing else. It doesn't really add anything to the aria.

Bonisegna knows what the aria is about, but she pulls the tempo around unmercifully and there is rather a big gap between her slightly tremulous upper register and her stentorian chest.

I know what MAS means about Ponselle not quite catching the _con disperazione _feel of the aria, but she is musically pretty scrupulous and obviously has the superior instrument here. I'd have liked a bit more abandon, but she easily gets my vote.

In his book _The Grand Tradition, _John Steane discusses seven different versions of the aria, among them Bonisegna, Ponselle and Callas (he is, I believe talking about the 1959 version) and I thought it mght be interesting to include it here.



> Playing Bonisegna, Destinn, Austral Ponselle, Milanov, Cerquetti and Callas one hears seven exceptionally fine voices, well-suited to the role, equipped with a ringing top B and a chesty low C sharp. Only two emerge as fully satisfying, however, and one has again to acknowledge how rare great operatic singing is. All, for a start, have not the steadiness that is as necessary as the power; Callas at the top of her voice, Destin in the middle, Milanov in both; and Bonisegna is sometimes tremulous though nowhere given to wobble. Ponselle is firm as a rock, or as Florence Austral. But this is passionate music, and Austral never suggests the _con disperazione _that the composer has directed. Ponselle does, and so indeed does Bonisegna, who, however, pulls the time around, sometimes interestingly, but surely overdoing it with an _allargando_ where the directions say _stringendo_. Ponselle, like Callas and Milanov, has the right feeling for give-and-take of tempo, while the others tend to move on too relentlessly. Especially Cerquetti, who, in addition to this inflexibility of rhythm, cannot or will not sing softly. One of the demands this aria makes is that there shall be a play of contrasted tones: the middle section in A major being sung softly, the F sharp major passage being marked _tranquillo, dolcissimo _and the ending marked _stendando_. Of this Cerquetti gives the least idea and Ponselle the best for her tone, from its loudest to its softest, spans the greatest breadth. One of the hardest requirements is an octave lift on the word ‘volevan’. It should be done very softly; and here, Zinka Milanov offers a particularly beautiful note. But it is followed by a semiquaver figure which she takes awkwardly, and again one turns to Ponselle, to hear how it should be done. There are some faults in the Ponselle, it is true. The tempo is rather fast, ‘domando al ciel di dormir queta’ is not sung as a single phrase, and she does not observe the portamenti marked in the last bars. Callas has none of these deficiencies, and hers I take to be the other great performance among these records, for, in spite of the unsteadiness (it is relatively slight) on high notes, the singing is extremely beautiful, and the interpretation creative, intense and memorable. At any rate, together, Ponselle and Callas here stand head and shoulders above the others, while for sensuous richness and range of tone-colour Ponselle emerges incomparable within our century


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Never heard of the first singer and am in no way unhappy about that. What's the point of the low F when we don't get those deep, gorgeous chest tones the aria needs?

Bonisegna is good but Ponselle is excellent!


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I'd never heard of Maxwell-Yamamoto, and, if I'm honest, I didn't much like her voice anyway. Descending to the low F is a bit of a stunt, nothing else. It doesn't really add anything to the aria.
> 
> Bonisegna knows what the aria is about, but she pulls the tempo around unmercifully and there is rather a big gap between her slightly tremulous upper register and her stentorian chest.
> 
> ...


Steane later did a survey of 10 different recorded versions of "Suicidio" for the "Aria" feature article in the May/Jun 2005 issue of OPERA NOW magazine. You probably haven't come across it. He expressed a clear preference for Callas's 1952 Cetra version over the 1959 EMI remake. I will post extracts from the article when it comes to the round pitting Callas's two versions against one another.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I think I'm the only one here who loves Boninsegna. She has a voice of rare beauty and sings with sensation.
Poncelle is unarguable genius, but my vote is for Celestina. 
Maxwell-Ymamoto is a odd one, but not lacking attraction. Perhaps I could even like her if I heard her live, especially when there were no other Giocondas.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Viardots said:


> Steane later did a survey of 10 different recorded versions of "Suicidio" for the "Aria" feature article in the May/Jun 2005 issue of OPERA NOW magazine. You probably haven't come across it. He expressed a clear preference for Callas's 1952 Cetra version over the 1959 EMI remake. I will post extracts from the article when it comes to the round pitting Callas's two versions against one another.


Will look forward to reading that. I'm only assuming he used the 1959 version in _The Grand Tradition _because it would have been more readily available at that time.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

ColdGenius said:


> I think I'm the only one here who loves Boninsegna.


You're not the only one, but this isn't the best thing she did. There have been other arias in these competitions in which more people preferred her.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ColdGenius said:


> I think I'm the only one here who loves Boninsegna. She has a voice of rare beauty and sings with sensation.
> Poncelle is unarguable genius, but my vote is for Celestina.
> Maxwell-Ymamoto is a odd one, but not lacking attraction. Perhaps I could even like her if I heard her live, especially when there were no other Giocondas.


Some other arias are amazing with Bonigsegna!!!! She is one of the great discoveries from the early contests for me.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

This isn't even a contest for me. Far and away Rosa takes the cake. She did everything with class and her chest tones were just fine.
The chest tones of Maxwell-Yamamoto are beyond belief but she angered me when she decided to take it upon herself to lower the last unwritten note just to "Caballe-like" show off how low she could really go.
Bonasegna wasn't even in the running. I actually disliked her voice.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> It is very clear that not a single one of these other offerings in any of these rounds aroused any enthusiasm from any of you. I am usually much more successful in these contests with you. I liked many of them but I am not sophisticated like many of you LOL Sorry about that. For the final round I have decided to have to give you what all of you ONLY want from Suicidio and that that is Callas: 1952 and 1959. She has ruined apparently any of you for the appreciation of anyone else as Gioconda so you can judge her against herself.


John: I understand exactly where you're coming from. This is a very strong Callas forum. Perhaps at this juncture it is kind of silly to even include Callas in anything because frankly you know from the git-go that she will never lose -- (well maybe she'd have a chance of losing next to Muzio and Ponselle, but I wouldn't bet my house on it.)
Why not just consider her an automatic win and then go on to all second place winners and forget about it?
It will save you a lot of frustration.

An aside: Also, just because you've noted so many Sutherland dissers, don't just assume that we all feel that way about her. Just remember, she didn't get to the top of the heap for nothing.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

I know it's cheap to vote for a singer just because of an interpolated note at the end, but...jfc, that was an impressive low F (it's also not the first time I've heard it. I remember this recording from back in high school). Sorry, but...as someone who moans a lot about modern singers not having good chest voice, she gets a few bonus points. Sharon it is.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> I know it's cheap to vote for a singer just because of an interpolated note at the end, but...jfc, that was an impressive low F (it's also not the first time I've heard it. I remember this recording from back in high school). Sorry, but...as someone who moans a lot about modern singers not having good chest voice, she gets a few bonus points. Sharon it is.


I think I learned of her through you.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> I know it's cheap to vote for a singer just because of an interpolated note at the end, but... Sharon it is.


Meh. Since the note itself is cheap, it might as well get some cheap applause. It isn't as if women's bodily autonomy, the separation of church and state, or democracy itself, is imperiled.


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