# REQUESTED Round Two: Adieu Forets. Borodina, Norman, Arkhipova



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)




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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I thought this would suit Borodina and vocally it does, but I'm afraid I found her version rather staid and placid. Norman is much more involved, but it still doesn't sound like the right voice for the role, though I liked her better than the three in the first round.
But then I listened to Arkhipova and suddenly it all fell into place. I just liked everything about it, the voice itself and the urgency and passion she injects into it. This is the best of the lot, as far as I'm concerned.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

PS. Thank you, John. What a beautiful piece this is. I can't get the tune out of my head. Tchaikovsky was a melodic genius.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> PS. Thank you, John. What a beautiful piece this is. I can't get the tune out of my head. Tchaikovsky was a melodic genius.


I am not always a fan of his opera music, but here he matches The Nutcracker and Swan Lake for melodic brilliance. So glad you liked it. I agree, the music lends itself to ear worms!!!!!!! His Nutcracker Suite is my favorite Xmas music! I never tired of it.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I am not always a fan of his opera music, but here he matches The Nutcracker and Swan Lake for melodic brilliance. So glad you liked it. I agree, the music lends itself to ear worms!!!!!!! His Nutcracker Suite is my favorite Xmas music! I never tired of it.


I've just finished a concentrated spell of Tchaikovsky listening, taking in conerti, symphonies, ballet music, chamber music and opera. I just love his music. His twin operatic peaks, *Eugene Onegin *and *Queen of Spades *are so different, the music perfectly suited to the two completey different subject matters.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I've liked Borodina's creamy voice since I first heard her in the alto solos in Rachmaninoff's Vespers, but I've generally found her bland. She finds nothing much in this music and does nothing for me. Norman puts much more into it and is always interesting, but if I didn't know this was about young Joan of Arc I'd think I was listening to a deposed queen lamenting her betrayal and imminent beheading. Norman can't help the voice she has, of course, and she deserves her ovation.

Arkhipova has never disappointed me singing anything; I'd say she's the finest artist among Russian mezzos I've heard. She wins.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> PS. Thank you, John. What a beautiful piece this is. I can't get the tune out of my head. Tchaikovsky was a melodic genius.


These competitions always give me earworms. The first phrases of this are particularly infectious. Maybe a bit of _Moses and Aron_ would effect a cure.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

The Arkhipova rendition earns her place as my benchmark version.

I don’t think this music suits Norman well, she is too grand, as Woodduck suggests.

I find Borodina’s voice a bit too fruity and womanly, not the sound of a teenage farm girl.

Come to think of it, none of the contestants sounds like a teenager, but I have Arkhipova in my mind’s ear for this aria.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> PS. Thank you, John. What a beautiful piece this is. I can't get the tune out of my head. Tchaikovsky was a melodic genius.


Thanks for including “my” version, John.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Arkhipova's the one. No sense even discussing it. When something grabs you, go with it!


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

The level of Arkhipova's performance is cosmic, as is Norman's, but from another planet. Borodina sounds great and in this clumsy astronomic metaphor presents our planet. For certain reasons she's the only one I've heard live. So my vote for her is honorary, Arkhipova would be chosen without me. 
There is nothing to add to Woodduck's post. 
But I think that in the sense of acting, of performance qualities except the voice and singing themselves, in case Borodina the parts of powerful, self-conscious women turned out better. I don't know unfortunately her Rossini roles. But Jeanne is just not a woman who knows who is she and why. Not Eboli or Dalilah or Martha (another great part of Arkhipova indeed). 
About the opera itself they wrote and keep on saying that it's an uncharacteristic genre for Tchaikovsky. As if Antonioni would shoot a peplum or sci-fi. Maybe that's a subject?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Thanks for including “my” version, John.


Ellen and I listened in the car today with the volume turned up and she is wonderful. Thanks for the mentioning of this singer!!!!!


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