# Odd pairing: Tebaldi vs. Sutherland



## JanacekTheGreat (Feb 26, 2021)

Both are live performances in less than ideal sound. Both singers were pretty young. Which one do you prefer?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Both really terrible recordings. Both orchestras are booming loud, but that Tebaldi wouldn't let them have their way.
As far as these two renditions are concerned, they just can't even come close to Maria's outstanding delivery of this dramatic moment and it seems almost unfair to vote because they both are normally fine singers placed in a less than stellar recording -- but Tebaldi gets the gold.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tebaldi is no ideal Violetta, but in my opinion, Sutherland shouldn’t even have considered the role. Sure, she could handle the florid aspects of it, but she just doesn’t connect with Violetta at all. Her voice is too soft-grained to make much of the text, or mush of the text, though it’s early enough so I can understand some of the words. But the voice is spectacular. 

Tebaldi? Is the pitch right in the recording? It sounds a mite high at the start, the seems to settle. Tebaldi knows what she’s singing and emotes mightily. As usual, she is just slightly under the note on the aaahMAAAAmialfredo. Also in great voice. Tebaldi by default.


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## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

This is a difficult comparison, because I admire both of these singers very much, but I've never cared for either of them in this role. Nearly everything I can think of to say about both performances is negative. Of the two, Tebaldi is the less unpleasant, with marginally better sound. Bad sound I can deal with, and I get a stronger sense of the character from Tebaldi. Sutherland comes across as vocally frumpy, and frumpy is the last thing I'd want Violetta to be.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Sutherland is very good here on many levels, but Tebaldi has an edge with regard to raw emotion. I heard Tebaldi as Violetta on a Met broadcast and she was fabulous. She was ok ... better than expected... on Sempre Libera but the rest played to her strengths. Sutherland is not Maria, but she is much much better in this part than most other sopranos and has the vocal heft to play the later acts. People often forget Sutherland sang Aida at one of the great opera houses of the world early in her career.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tebaldi has this. It's mainly a matter of vocal qualities better suited to the part. Despite Sutherland's good intentions, her voice simply lacks sufficient core and bite to project much emotion - not to mention her difficulty in making words tell, which is partly a function of her basic sound. Arguments that she could have been a dramatic soprano because she was "loud" are easily disposed of by moments like this.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Neither soprano is one I'd choose to hear in this role, but Tebaldi is an easy winner for all the reasons others have stated.


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## JanacekTheGreat (Feb 26, 2021)

I was doing a binge-listen of Amami Alfredo and came across these two interesting clips thus I decided to share. The Sutherland's pretty much sums up what I always felt about her-the voice might appear large, but it couldn't focus at all. She couldn't get it right with this dramatic moment; no wonder her Norma and Bolena sound boring to me. 

And Tebaldi's voice, it is like a laser-beam here.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

I didn't vote here, because both performances (for different reasons) are on the verge of unacceptable. The most strange and odd here is that Joan's voice sounds better than Renata's (mainly because of the awful recording) but what she is singing is almost from another opera and not Verdi's. She is COMPLETE out of the role. If someone doesn't know the opera, Joan wins! If someone has the slightest idea about it switches of the amplifier. Renata IS in the role, but I can't vote with such sound quality. Thanks for this one. It was bad but very interesting.


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