# Round 1: Soprano/ Deh vieni, non tadar. Oropesa, Popp, Freni



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I thought we needed some Mozart


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Mozart to clean our palate? 

The Oropesa version has the most appropriate tempo to these ears. 

Lucia Popp is a famous Susanna and her attractive sound is an asset, but the tempo is deadly - I once heard her sing Susanna in San Francisco performance, conducted by Silvio Varviso, the whole of which had a similar lack of alacrity. 

Freni is also a famous Susanna and her version (lip syncing for a film, I gather) is also slow but not as leaden as that of Popp’s, and Freni gets the music moving. Her voice is as beautiful as Popp’s, but warmer and rounder, beautifully inflected, though aspirated here and there. 

I like Oropesa’s version - she might be one of the better modern singers, but I am more attracted to the Freni voice than hers.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Absolutely Correct! Most welcome!! 

When I saw the line up I had high expectations but I can't say they quite lived up. Oropesa was just a name and I thought she was fine, no more. After listening to her I expected the other two to sweep me away but on this hearing, I had reservations about both of these two wonderful singers. Freni's line was not, to my ear, even enough for Mozart. Attack and recede, line endings tailing off. I found it distracting and without compensation. Popp is one of my favorite singers and I thought this would be magical but I found her much too reserved. The line was, of course, ideal in a typically Mozartian way, clean and audible at all times. But this aria calls for a release in the ascending lines at the end and I thought she held back much too much. She is still Lucia Popp, in her ballpark, so she gets my nod, but I'm certain she has sung more satisfying Deh Vieni's. But great hearing the Mozart!


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

FYI ... The Freni version is indeed lip-synched and comes from the Pournelle film with Te Kanawa, Prey & Fischer-Dieskau with Karl Bohm conducting.

(and despite the video, the film is actually in stereo!)


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Becca said:


> FYI ... The Freni version is indeed lip-synched and comes from the Pournelle film with Te Kanawa, Prey & Fischer-Dieskau with Karl Bohm conducting.
> 
> (and despite the video, the film is actually in stereo!)


Jean-Pierre Ponnelle made several films of Mozart operas, most sumptuously mounted with opera stars of the era.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I'm glad you guys like Mozart as I have a number of his arias in contest. I think I have some good ones for you next time.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Freni is the one who conveys a subtle undercurrent of eroticism in this serene melody. Here's a translation of the text:

_Oh, come, don't be late, my beautiful joy
Come where love calls you to enjoyment
Until night's torches no longer shine in the sky
As long as the air is still dark
And the world is quiet.
Here the river murmurs and the light plays
That restores the heart with sweet ripples
Here, little flowers laugh and the grass is fresh
Here, everything entices one to love's pleasures.
Come, my dear, among these hidden plants.
Come, come!
I want to crown you with roses._

I enjoyed the perfect poise of Oropesa. She's a fine, musicianly lyric soprano, though her timbre is not distinctive. Popp has a more individual sound, and I'd have liked her even more than I did had she let her voice out a little more here and there; she seemed a bit fearful of disturbing the sleeping birds. Freni may be a less "pure" Mozartean, but hers is a Susanna who actually cares what she's saying; Mozart's exquisite melody is as strong as it is serene, and Freni's more inflected rendition doesn't endanger it in the slightest but reveals that there's more in it, and more in the character singing it, than either of the other sopranos manages to convey. It doesn't hurt to have a voice like the young Freni's, either!

_Figaro_ is an opera about love (among other things), and although I've never really loved it as a whole it unquestionably touches here and there heights of loveliness that seem to be Mozart's special secret. Freni went deeper than Oropesa and Popp and touched me, while they did not.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Freni is the one who conveys a subtle undercurrent of eroticism in this serene melody. Here's a translation of the text:
> 
> _Oh, come, don't be late, my beautiful joy
> Come where love calls you to enjoyment
> ...


Freni has never really been on my radar but your reaction as well as others has led me to reconsider her. Beautifully sung with real feeling. I know her from later when she was singing stuff a size to large for her voice.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

Oropesa was apparently mentored by Freni and gives a heartfelt account of the aria at a tempo which is appropriate. Freni sings beautifully as always but is hindered by Bohm’s leaden tempo while Popp’s conductor appears to have fallen asleep on the job. Pity as she again was a very beautiful Mozart singer lumbered with a conductor who appeared to think he was conducting Bruckner.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I notice that some seem to have a very definite idea of how fast this aria needs to go. To me the problem with Popp's tempo is not speed per se but how the music is performed at the tempo chosen. A slower tempo requires a more intensely phrased and inflected performance, something more than the prettiness Popp and Oropesa provide. Oropesa can get away with doing little with phrasing only because of her tempo, and though I was conscious of Popp's slowness, I never thought of it with Freni.

I fear we're getting too accustomed to the idea that 18th-century music isn't authentic unless it trots briskly along. At the very least, any music that has any richness or depth can reveal different qualities at different tempos.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

I hope we get some more Mozart.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Freni!!

Oropesa and Popp give perfecty fine renditions, but it is only Freni (perhaps with the help of Ponnelle) who gives me real context. Susanna, remember at this point, knows Figaro is listening, that he thinks she is waiting for her lover, and she decides to tease and punish him for doubting her constancy. But Freni not only sings it to tease him, but also _for_ him. It is a much more layered performance than the others. I aso love her dip into chest register and her exquisitely floated top A. For me she really brought the aria alive.

Popp is, as others have pointed out, a little reticent here and Oropesa has the least distinctive voice of the three. Incidentally what a gorgeous lyric soprano Freni had. Listening to this reminds me that she lost a little of that individuality when she moved to heavier rep.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

marlow said:


> It is not a matter of music trotting along but flowing. It has been said of Bohm that 'his conducting style was rarely, shall we say, mercurial' and this was a criticism I read over 50 years ago ïof his Figaro recording.


And yet his *Cosí fan tutte* with Schwarzkopf and Ludwig was long considered a classic and is still my favourite recording of the opera. If that was a criticism of his Mozart (I've never been aware of it) it's not one I'd agree with.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I don't really have a well-formed opinion on Bohm's Mozart, but it was well-regarded in his day, and I have some of his Mozart symphonies which I've known for decades and like. It's interesting to me that his Wagner conducting, rather fast and texturally tranparent, was considered influenced by his expertise as a Mozartean. But there's no doubt that performance styles have changed, and conductors like Bohm, Klemperer and Walter are now heard as old-fashioned and heavy.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Freni!
Though lip synching turns me off big time (so I stopped watching it and just listened -- which I normally do anyway), Freni really came away with the most heartfelt rendition of the 3 -- who all had lovely voices as well -- Oropesa being a particular favorite of mine of the current generation.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Woodduck said:


> Freni is the one who conveys *a subtle undercurrent of eroticism* in this serene melody. .


I love this and I had never thought or read it before. Pumps a little more blood through those Mozartian veins....(I'm being discreet.) And a second listen with this in mind was worth it! Can't remember the last time I looked at the words to this aria but they made me think of a favorite section of Robert Frost, another who's sterotypical image does not allow for the eroticism below. I believe I will listen to this aria a bit differently from now on. :tiphat:

"Up where the trees grow short, the mosses tall,
I made him gather me wet snow berries
On slippery rocks beside a waterfall.
I made him do it for me in the dark.
And he liked everything I made him do."

Now mind you, I said it made me think of this...not that they're the same !


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