# Round Three:Chi il bel sogno di Doretta? Te Kanawa, Farrell, Tebaldi



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)




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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

As many here and elsewhere, I have a wonderful memory of this beautiful aria in the Merchant Ivory film, *A Room With A View, *sung by Kiri Te Kanawa. Both Eileen Farrell and Renata Tebaldi sound a bit shrill in the higher reaches of the piece, and their big voices are best suited to perhaps more important music. Kiri seems more at ease in this music than her coevals.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tebaldi sounds a bit heavy in this little song, reminding us that Puccini thought of _La Rondine_ as an operetta, a genre that typically calls for a sometimes elusive blend of passion and lightness. Her reading has little specific character, and her high C is rather predictably flat. Farrell surprised me by filing down, with no sense of artifice, her voluminous dramatic soprano, gently urging the music along as if she's doing exactly what the piece has Magda doing: telling a story. Te Kanawa, typically, gives a beautiful and intelligent performance in which we can simply luxuriate. Her voice is more or less ideal, as expected, but I have to say that I find Farrell just a bit more engaging. As these competitions proceed I'm finding my appreciation of her increasing, and I'm happy to give her first place here.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I like what everyone says but I love the sound of Tebaldi's voice and am pleased that she was able to sing the high lying passages so well . She normally didn't sing C6 so well as this. Te Kanawa's version was one of the most beloved moments in one of my all time favorite movies, right up there with the young men streaking around the lake  Farrell's beautiful version was from one of her best studio albums, her Puccini disc, recorded in her vocal prime.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Tebaldi manages this better than I would have expected of her, but she doesn't really sound very happy up high and she gets off that top C as soon as she can. It's not really a great piece for her.

Farrell suprised me. I'd have thought that her soprano would also be too large, but she lightens her voice convincingly and her version is really lovely.

However Te Kanawa's version has been impinted in my mind for many years now. LIke most people at that time, I associate the aria with her performance of it in the movie, _A Room With A View_. I had the recital this version is taken from as well as her later complete recording of the opera and, though I've come to prefer the Pappano recording with Gheorghiu, I find it hard to listen to this without thinking of Te Kanawa's beautiful, soaring soprano. I'm not usually a Kiri fan, but I think she's perfect here and she gets my vote.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Tebaldi is not right for this role and neither is Farrell but she sounds better of the two. Te Kanawa's voice is just too thin for my tastes, especially on the highest notes which are too constricted.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> Tebaldi is not right for this role and neither is Farrell but she sounds better of the two. Te Kanawa's voice is just too thin for my tastes, especially on the highest notes which are too constricted.


Te Kanawa has never been one of my favourite singers, but I certainly don't hear "thin and constricted". Indeed the creamy upper register is, in my opinion, one of her voice's greatest glories. I only heard her once live, as Fiordiligi, and the voice easily filled the house at Covent Garden. I don't think she was particularly suited to any other Puccini roles, but Magda suited her perfectly.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Te Kanawa has never been one of my favourite singers, but I certainly don't hear "thin and constricted". Indeed the creamy upper register is, in my opinion, one of her voice's greatest glories. I only heard her once live, as Fiordiligi, and the voice easily filled the house at Covent Garden. I don't think she was particularly suited to any other Puccini roles, but Magda suited her perfectly.


I think we have different ideas when it comes to constriction. It's not that there is no resonance in the sound but that it doesn't seem to me to be either fully supported or properly released. Neither Tebaldi or Farrell are ideal in this register either but I prefer the richer sound.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Well now, let's see how sparse my little corner will be today. 
For me, among those wonderful top soprano voices, one shimmered and shined as she gave nuance and delivered a poignant rendering while the other two were too busy trying to make more dramatic music.
And strangely, I normally find her singing boring even though she clearly has one of the most gorgeous pipes of them all (save Fleming)
The crown goes easily to Te Kanawa.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Op.123 said:


> Tebaldi is not right for this role and neither is Farrell but she sounds better of the two. Te Kanawa's voice is just too thin for my tastes, especially on the highest notes which are too constricted.


Constricted highs?? Good gracious! We certainly do listen to our own drummers don't we?
I never heard anything so smooth and unrushed and stunning as those high notes of hers. In fact the entire aria implied a certain delicacy which only she delivered IMO.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Te Kanawa is not a singer I care for, and I agree with Op. 123 that her top is constricted (which doesn't necessarily mean a small sound, just a less bloomed one), although I also agree with nina foresti that her delivery was very good. That being said, both Tebaldi and Farrell delivered harsh and unpleasant high Cs that I would also call constricted. Out of these singers, only Te Kanawa is the right kind of voice for the part and I wouldn't have expected especially good performances from the other two. It's kind of like pitting Te Kanawa against Tebaldi in _Tosca_, in terms of voice types, not technique. This is actually a very difficult aria, and it tends to sound flat and shapeless with anything but a fully committed actor involved.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

vivalagentenuova said:


> It's kind of like pitting Te Kanawa against Tebaldi in _Tosca_, in terms of voice types, not technique.


 which I more or less did a while back when comparing five Decca recordings of *Tosca* for my blog. After listening first to Te Kanawa/Solti, Nilsson/Maazel and Freni/Rescigno, I came to Tebaldi/Molinari-Pradelli and my first observation was, "At last a real Tosca voice."


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

It's worth noting that this work, despite becoming the domain of light voices like Te Kanawa and Moffo was premiered by Gilda dalla Rizza who was Puccini's favourite Minnie, sang in Lohengrin, Tosca, Andrea Chenier, Mefistofele, Cavalleria Rusticana etc. and her voice was deemed too heavy for the role of Liu.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> It's worth noting that this work, despite becoming the domain of light voices like Te Kanawa and Moffo was premiered by Gilda dalla Rizza who was Puccini's favourite Minnie, sang in Lohengrin, Tosca, Andrea Chenier, Mefistofele, Cavalleria Rusticana etc. and her voice was deemed too heavy for the role of Liu.


Interesting. It certainly doesn't seem like a role for a Tebaldi or a Nillson, to mention two other successful Minnies.


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

nina foresti said:


> Constricted highs?? Good gracious! We certainly do listen to our own drummers don't we?


Rude, intemperate response.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

ALT said:


> Rude, intemperate response.


How so? I read it as simple amazement at how differently people perceive voices. Now if Ms. foresti had said something like "no more proof of your ignorance is required"... But she is too polite to say anything like that.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Te Kanawa has never been one of my favourite singers, but I certainly don't hear "thin and constricted". Indeed the creamy upper register is, in my opinion, one of her voice's greatest glories. I only heard her once live, as Fiordiligi, and the voice easily filled the house at Covent Garden. I don't think she was particularly suited to any other Puccini roles, but Magda suited her perfectly.


The Kiri recording sounds strange. It’s perhaps in the transfer to YouTube, where it got too compressed. It’s certainly not the glorious sound I remember from the film. Of course, judging anything by listening to it on YouTube is perhaps asking for trouble. That said, thank God for YouTube!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> The Kiri recording sounds strange. It’s perhaps in the transfer to YouTube, where it got too compressed. It’s certainly not the glorious sound I remember from the film. Of course, judging anything by listening to it on YouTube is perhaps asking for trouble. That said, thank God for YouTube!


I hear you!


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## Shaafee Shameem (Aug 4, 2021)

Op.123 said:


> It's worth noting that this work, despite becoming the domain of light voices like Te Kanawa and Moffo was premiered by Gilda dalla Rizza who was Puccini's favourite Minnie, sang in Lohengrin, Tosca, Andrea Chenier, Mefistofele, Cavalleria Rusticana etc. and her voice was deemed too heavy for the role of Liu.


She was also successful in many lyric roles such as Charpentier’s Louise, Suzel in L’amico Fritz, Massenet’s Manon and Violetta, and sang ’Sempre Libera’ in the original key. Her most performed role was Madama Butterfly. She also sang the European premiers of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. She didn’t consider herself a dramatic soprano, but mentions in The Last Prima Donnas that she could sing dramatic repertoire without forcing using “l’accento without resorting to chest tones“. She seems to have been one of Puccini’s favourite sopranos, and he apparently felt that her voice was suitable for all of his operas.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Shaafee Shameem said:


> She was also successful in many lyric roles such as Charpentier’s Louise, Suzel in L’amico Fritz, Massenet’s Manon and Violetta, and sang ’Sempre Libera’ in the original key. Her most performed role was Madama Butterfly. She also sang the European premiers of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. She didn’t consider herself a dramatic soprano, but mentions in The Last Prima Donnas that she could sing dramatic repertoire without forcing using “l’accento without resorting to chest tones“. She seems to have been one of Puccini’s favourite sopranos, and he apparently felt that her voice was suitable for all of his operas.


Yes, she wasn't a dramatic soprano for sure but more of a lirico-spinto than a light lyric.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

I have always thought Kiri was prettier in her upper range than the other two. I'm always a bit embarrassed by how much I like Kiri, given that she violates most of my principles and precepts for what makes a good singer. However, I basically never listen to the other two, so Kiri easily wins my vote.


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