# Natalie Dessay Please Don't Call It A Day!



## american music (Mar 18, 2014)

Recent News items suggest that someone who we have been admiring is considering retiring!

Natalie Dessay's vocal skills above the treble staff
makes her equivalent to a soprano and a half!
So she deserves a poetic salutation
for her superb acting and vocalization.

Some of the best wines are known to come from France
along with some beautiful music for the dance,
and also the reigning operatic soprano of the day.
For who can interpret the great works of musical art
singing with drama straight from the heart
as eloquently as does Natalie Dessay?

She is a singer who can also act
in very dramatic fashion
but her voice does not lack
brilliance, clarity and passion.

And although she may be diminutive in size
her physical stature belies
the power of her sound
and whether she is negotiating a coloratura trill
or radiating her physical appeal
the result tends to astound.

So Natalie please stay unretired 
at least for several more years.
For your voice is enthusiastically admired
even among your peers.
And if you want the challenge
of a beautiful new song to sing
maybe this just might be
the very right thing!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

She has had surgery for nodes on her vocal chords once already -- which almost anyone will say is from improper or over-use of the voice.

So, maybe you could leave the woman to cut way back or retire already and not ask for her blood, ya know?


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## american music (Mar 18, 2014)

Well, she deserves credit for her presently existing body of work...so 

if I were a poet
I would write for her a verse
and give her the chance
to read it first. 
And if it turned out to be
a really good rhyme
I would let her read it
a second time!

A.M.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

american music said:


> Well, she deserves credit for her presently existing body of work.


No argument there


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Yes, especially now that she's retired(?) Natalie Dessay should be judged on the basis of her existing body of work. We're lucky that she's so well-documented in recordings, even in complete opera recordings/DVDs like those of _Lakme_, _Hamlet_, _La Sonnambula_, and _Ariadne auf Naxos_.

My favorite thing about Dessay's singing has always been her warm tone, including her warm middle voice. So many coloratura sopranos sound brittle in general and just plain underpowered in their middle registers -- but not Dessay.

I have no idea why she developed vocal-chord nodes, but I would caution against assuming automatically that she developed them because she sang improperly, as I have heard that nodes can also be congenital. As for "singing too much," singing opera is a demanding business. I think too many people want their favorite singers to go on, voices unchanged, for decades and decades, but given the "international" (i.e. flying around the world) character of opera today and the plain fact that operatic literature is _difficult_ to perform, this just doesn't seem feasible, at least not for most artists. And I mean, how many singers have _really_ sung _magnificently_ into their late 50's and 60's? The human body changes all the time; voices age and eventually wear out. And lest anyone think this is strictly a modern phenomenon, have a look at the career timelines of such singers from the distant and not-so-distant past as Strepponi (wife of Verdi), Ruffo, Callas, and Moffo, whose primes weren't the lengthiest.

Since I'm assuming Dessay is in fact retired for good, we should now just be thankful for and enjoy what she gave us. At least by retiring in her late 40's, she's sparing us hearing her in a decades-long decline. Sorry for the rant; maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't want this to turn into one of those "Oh poor so and so, she misused her voice and now she's finished. It just goes to show that there are no good voice teachers anymore, and no truly great voices" sorts of threads that I've seen, not so much on this as on other sites.

By the way, OP, you're a clever poet! Poetry is one form of writing I have no feel for.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^ I agree. Singers are people, it's up to them to decide what's good for them. They owe us nothing beside a good show when they're on stage. We are lucky to live in an age of much recording, audio _and_ video - and good technology.


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## american music (Mar 18, 2014)

Domingo is still singing: often as a baritone. How does he rank as a baritone in your opinion? If you were his agent would you suggest that he focus more on his conducting or continue in his dual role as singer/conductor? Many singers do a credible job of accompanying themselves on the piano but do you know of a prominent musician who has conducted the orchestral accompaniment to an aria that he himself was singing?

A.M.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Bellinilover said:


> Yes, especially now that she's retired(?) Natalie Dessay should be judged on the basis of her existing body of work. We're lucky that she's so well-documented in recordings, even in complete opera recordings/DVDs like those of _Lakme_, _Hamlet_, _La Sonnambula_, and _Ariadne auf Naxos_.
> 
> My favorite thing about Dessay's singing has always been her warm tone, including her warm middle voice. So many coloratura sopranos sound brittle in general and just plain underpowered in their middle registers -- but not Dessay.
> 
> ...


I meant pretty much what you wished I meant -- let this singer retire gracefully.

I will lean toward saying many a current opera singer on the circuit today tends to be overbooked and sings too much, but if they did not, their agents, or those booking them, would go elsewhere -- a very sorry catch 22 for many singers.

But what I was asking, near begging, really, is let the lady retire with grace, "she done enough."


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

american music said:


> Domingo is still singing: often as a baritone. How does he rank as a baritone in your opinion? If you were his agent would you suggest that he focus more on his conducting or continue in his dual role as singer/conductor? Many singers do a credible job of accompanying themselves on the piano but do you know of a prominent musician who has conducted the orchestral accompaniment to an aria that he himself was singing?
> 
> A.M.


The only Domingo baritone role I've heard is Germont, a year ago on a Met broadcast. To me he sounded less like a baritone than like an aging dramatic tenor. However, I do wonder what he would sound like to people younger/less experienced with opera than I am -- to people, for instance, who don't know his previous work as a tenor. Maybe their reactions would be different. I think if I were Domingo's age I wouldn't _want_ to go on singing; I would be so tired!

As to your last question, I believe the tenor Jose Cura has conducted himself singing.


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