# Candidates for best Susanna



## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

As the board's been rather slow the last few days, and on the heels of the Loveliest Sopranos / Mezzos thread, thought maybe we could do voting on the best portrayals of various roles. So this thread will be for nominating various singers who in your opinion are the best Susannas, ideally with, say, 2-3 video links as support for your claim, and when we have a likely field of candidates we can make a new thread (or perhaps I can edit this one) to include voting.

My nomination is for the perhaps lesser known Alison Hagley, who possesses a lovely, soubrette-like voice that is perfect for the young, innocent Susanna.




Her acting during the "fainting" sequence in Cosa Sento never fails to make me laugh.




Most Susannas play Via Resti Servita either too openly hostile or miss the humor by playing it too straight. Perfect interpretation here.




You can just tell she's having a great time and I completely buy into her Susanna.

Any other nominations?


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

_Figaro_ is one of my favorite operas! And Susanna is one of my favorite roles... so I'll be happy to chip in.

*Ileana Cotrubas*

Cotrubas may be the best Susanna on film. Watch how she dances after Marcellina in the "cat fight" duet. Though at the same time never over-doing it - she's just that subtle and elegant. Perhaps best of all, her facial expressions are always natural - never a hint of being forced.











*Miah Persson*

Besides being a genuine beauty, Miah can really act convincingly. The Act 1 Trio is just hilarious. She's a very intelligent Susanna too, and seems to know what to do in the right places instead of overreacting everywhere. And her chemistry with Schrott and Finley is just fantastic.
















*Cecilia Bartoli*

Ceci sometimes has the tendency to overreact, but in this case, she provides for a lively Susanna, perhaps the liveliest of them all. I deliberately didn't post the end of the production - it's fantastic as always, but the costume for Susanna is absolutely horrid.











Special mention to *Mirella Freni*, who's not generally known for her Mozart roles:

Disregarding plodding "Bohm" tempos and Fischer-Dieskau's horrifying acting it's truly a great production - with Mirella, Hermann, and Kiri all at their best. Also, hilarious Marcellina and Bartolo.











If we had been comparing Countesses, by the way, Kiri would have absolutely no competition. She _is_ the countess to me. Not even Renee can stand up to her in this role (...and Roschmann's rough voice has never appealed to me.). But since we're discussing Susannas, I'd feel evil to leave out anybody, as they're all so good!

(Forgive me for not including *Battle*. I seem to not be able to make up my mind today. Ugghh. :devil: )


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

I'd like to try and limit it to one candidate per person to keep the final list a manageable size (and because, in theory, "best" is singular). Is there any one of your candidates you feel most strongly about in this role?


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

rgz said:


> I'd like to try and limit it to one candidate per person to keep the final list a manageable size (and because, in theory, "best" is singular). Is there any one of your candidates you feel most strongly about in this role?


Oh, rats, it comes down to it, doesn't it? 

Can we do candidates for Countesses? (Kiri for the win?) 

I think I'll go with *Cotrubas*, though the rest are all the more tempting now I have made my decision.


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

For the rest of you, I have kind of provided you for a platform from which to pick your candidates. I just realized that.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I also love Alison Hagley in this role, not to forget her nice boobs. She is an ideal mixture of sexy, malicious, smart, with some dose of innocence and simplicity as well.


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## Gualtier Malde (Nov 14, 2010)

Yes, the Glyndebourne 1994 performance with Alison Hagley is pure delight, but a very big _caveat emptor_ must be issued (or: Kultur does it again): There are no Italian subtitles (perhaps they were sacrificed to make room for the Japanese subtitles)!


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Hm well no other nominations? I see even Almaviva wasn't audacious enough to suggest Anna (though, the one Nozze I've seen her in had such atrocious staging that I doubt anyone could have come off well). 

I'll leave this thread open for another day for any more nominations then will open it up for voting among the nominees.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

rgz said:


> Hm well no other nominations? I see even Almaviva wasn't audacious enough to suggest Anna (though, the one Nozze I've seen her in had such atrocious staging that I doubt anyone could have come off well).
> 
> I'll leave this thread open for another day for any more nominations then will open it up for voting among the nominees.


I have the Anna Nozze from M22 but it's on my unwatched pile.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Gualtier Malde said:


> Yes, the Glyndebourne 1994 performance with Alison Hagley is pure delight, but a very big _caveat emptor_ must be issued (or: Kultur does it again): There are no Italian subtitles (perhaps they were sacrificed to make room for the Japanese subtitles)!


Here is the solution:

http://www.librettidopera.it/nozzefig/nozzefig.html


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## Gualtier Malde (Nov 14, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> Here is the solution:
> 
> http://www.librettidopera.it/nozzefig/nozzefig.html


This is only a partial solution at best. For reasons you have analyzed yourself most lucidly in post #6 above, one would really like to keep one's eyes glued to the screen.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Gualtier Malde said:


> This is only a partial solution at best. For reasons you have analyzed yourself most lucidly in post #6 above, one would really like to keep one's eyes glued to the screen.


I agree. Those boobs need to be closely watched. 

But from my stint of subscription to Naxos library - they carry several complete opera videos but rarely with subtitles in any language - I have developed an ability to get my wife's small netbook, get the libretto on it, and place it right below my line of sight to the screen. Then I just need to get the rhythm of the _page down_ button synchronized with the progression of the opera, and the effect is similar to the one of subtitles. With a little practice, I followed several subtitle-less operas on Naxos with little loss of attention paid to the images.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

When I saw the title to this thread, the first person that entered my mind was Alison Hagley. Interesting that she was the first name mentioned in the original post. Count my vote for Hagley. She was the perfect blend of sweet, sexy, and smart, and she played off of Terfel's Figaro wonderfully. To me she IS Susanna.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Entries are now closed, voting thread here


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