# I am asking for help on a Nabucco speech I want to do



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I am reverse engineering a speech. I want to do something using Dimitrova's "Salgo già del trono aurato
", which I find exciting, like going from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. I love Dimitrova, but she is not the interesting diva to talk about like Callas or Sutherland, so it needs to be about something else..The problem is I am doing a speech to a group of musical illiterates. In their favor, they tend to love my opera speeches. Does an angle pop inot your head that I could use to build an interesting speech around this exciting caballeto? . Normally I have a topic and pick a piece of music to go with it, but with Dimitrova in Nabucco, the rules are rewritten. I usually speak for 6 to 8 minutes at Toastmasters. Thanks. John


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Why don't you use the Souliotis recording for your speech, you can talk about her career as well as the best Nabucco recording.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Pugg said:


> Why don't you use the Souliotis recording for your speech, you can talk about her career as well as the best Nabucco recording.


:lol:

Or you could do a speech about La Boheme...

N.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I think the situation Abigaille finds herself in (the adopted less loved older sister) would be a really good subject matter for a speech. Perhaps you could do a speech about sibling jealousy or family rivalry and then bring it round to Nabucco and Abigaille and then play the cabaletta as an example of how extreme sibling rivalry can be?

N.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Duplicate post

N.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I think the situation Abigaille finds herself in (the adopted less loved older sister) would be a really good subject matter for a speech. Perhaps you could do a speech about sibling jealousy or family rivalry and then bring it round to Nabucco and Abigaille and then play the cabaletta as an example of how extreme sibling rivalry can be?
> 
> N.


THAT is the help I was looking for. I've seen the opera but don't know it well. That angle escaped me and is the key to a good speech. They will be impressed by Dimitrova.... but not want her as a sister!!!!!!!!LOL Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> THAT is the help I was looking for. I've seen the opera but don't know it well. That angle escaped me and is the key to a good speech. They will be impressed by Dimitrova.... but not want her as a sister!!!!!!!!LOL Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!


I'm glad I could lend some inspiration. Merry Christmas!

N.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I think the situation Abigaille finds herself in (the adopted less loved older sister) would be a really good subject matter for a speech. Perhaps you could do a speech about sibling jealousy or family rivalry and then bring it round to Nabucco and Abigaille and then play the cabaletta as an example of how extreme sibling rivalry can be?
> 
> N.


I didn't see I had posted this earlier.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

You might also want to discuss the technical side of this opera and how the role presents exceptional difficulty to the soprano.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> You might also want to discuss the technical side of this opera and how the role presents exceptional difficulty to the soprano.


Oh, yes, I was planning on that. This early Verdi is some of his most thrilling music for sopranos, but only the very, very best can sing it without vocal damage. Thanks.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I am going to begin my speech talking about the glory of ancient Babylon compared to the disaster that the country is now. This will set the stage for the glorious setting of Babyloninan power and might that the opera shows you. I've seen the Istar Gate in Berlin.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Oh, yes, I was planning on that. This early Verdi is some of his most thrilling music for sopranos, but only the very, very best can sing it without vocal damage. Thanks.


Regarding the role's difficulty, Callas only sang it once in 1949 at the age of 26. She called it a voice wrecker and never sang it again. In fact, she advised Caballe against singing it ("It would be like putting a precious Baccarat glass in a box and shaking it. It would shatter.") Caballe heeded the advice and never attempted it. Giuseppina Strepponi, the role's creator and later Verdi's wife, was sung out by the time she was 31. Souliotis made a career out of it, but she too was soon sung out and withdrew from the stage in 1974 at the age of 31. The voice already sounds in serious trouble on the studio recording of *Macbeth*, when she was only 27. She had a second career, which started in 1979, singing secondary character roles, like Fata Morgana in Prokoviev's *Love for Three Oranges* and the Zia Principessa in *Suor Angelica*.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

GregMitchell said:


> Regarding the role's difficulty, Callas only sang it once in 1949 at the age of 26. She called it a voice wrecker and never sang it again. In fact, she advised Caballe against singing it ("It would be like putting a precious Baccarat glass in a box and shaking it. It would shatter.") Caballe heeded the advice and never attempted it. Giuseppina Strepponi, the role's creator and later Verdi's wife, was sung out by the time she was 31. Souliotis made a career out of it, but she too was soon sung out and withdrew from the stage in 1974 at the age of 31. The voice already sounds in serious trouble on the studio recording of *Macbeth*, when she was only 27. She had a second career, which started in 1979, singing secondary character roles, like Fata Morgana in Prokoviev's *Love for Three Oranges* and the Zia Principessa in *Suor Angelica*.


I can use this stuff. Dimitrova was a freak that she could survive the role unaffected, but even she cut out singing the second final high C in her big cabaletta with the chorus in her later video performances of the role. Even she played it safe. That early video from Verona in I believe 81 has it left in and it is spine tingling!! Dimitrova was known for many years as THE Abigaille and her voice still was in good condition in her sixties shortly before her death at 64. She was a freak of nature, much like Nilsson was.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I can use this stuff. Dimitrova was a freak that she could survive the role unaffected, but even she cut out singing the second final high C in her big cabaletta with the chorus in her later video performances of the role. Even she played it safe. That early video from Verona in I believe 81 has it left in and it is spine tingling!! Dimitrova was known for many years as THE Abigaille and her voice still was in good condition in her sixties shortly before her death at 64. She was a freak of nature, much like Nilsson was.


She was of course also well known for her Turandot, another voice wrecker, according to Callas, so she must have had vocal chords of steel.

She wasn't the most subtle of singers though, and, to be honest, on record I prefer Souliotis's Abigaille in what was really the only totally satisfactory recording of her short career. That said Callas sang the role with a degree of technical accuracy (just listen to those trills) not available to either of them. She even compounds its difficulty by adding an Eb _in alt_ to the duet with Nabucco. She may have decided never to sing it again, but back in 1949 it held no terrors for her whatsoever.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

GregMitchell said:


> She was of course also well known for her Turandot, another voice wrecker, according to Callas, so she must have had vocal chords of steel.
> 
> She wasn't the most subtle of singers though, and, to be honest, on record I prefer Souliotis's Abigaille in what was really the only totally satisfactory recording of her short career. That said Callas sang the role with a degree of technical accuracy (just listen to those trills) not available to either of them. She even compounds its difficulty by adding an Eb _in alt_ to the duet with Nabucco. She may have decided never to sing it again, but back in 1949 it held no terrors for her whatsoever.


Thank god we have it for posterity in the live recording. Callas was amazing! I love me my fat Callas!!! Such a pity we have no good video of her in anything but Tosca, nor many studio recordings before her voice became compromised.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

GregMitchell said:


> Regarding the role's difficulty, Callas only sang it once in 1949 at the age of 26. She called it a voice wrecker and never sang it again. In fact, she advised Caballe against singing it ("It would be like putting a precious Baccarat glass in a box and shaking it. It would shatter.") Caballe heeded the advice and never attempted it. Giuseppina Strepponi, the role's creator and later Verdi's wife, was sung out by the time she was 31. Souliotis made a career out of it, but she too was soon sung out and withdrew from the stage in 1974 at the age of 31. The voice already sounds in serious trouble on the studio recording of *Macbeth*, when she was only 27. She had a second career, which started in 1979, singing secondary character roles, like Fata Morgana in Prokoviev's *Love for Three Oranges* and the Zia Principessa in *Suor Angelica*.


I listened to Souliotis and was enormously impressed. Sad career. I also was very impressed with Nilsson and I think she could have sung the role often without damage to her voice.. She did some things better than others in the aria I heard.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I listened to Souliotis and was enormously impressed. Sad career. I also was very impressed with Nilsson and I think she could have sung the role often without damage to her voice.. She did some things better than others in the aria I heard.


Short and exciting can be a gift too. I think she loved every minute of it.


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