# Single Round: Stella Del Marinar from Gioconda- Elmo, Cernai and Dominguez



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Stella del marinar (La Gioconda) · Cloe Elmo Four Famous Italian Mezzo - Sopranos 




*Elena Cernei - Ponchielli LA GIOCONDA - Stella del marinar




Oralia Dominguez ⭐ Stella del marinar ⭐ Gioconda - Ponchielli - 1970*


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Ho il cor gonfio di lagrime.
Quel lume!Ah! una Madonna!

Stella del marinar! Vergine Santa,
tu mi difendi in quest'ora suprema,
tu vedi quanta passione e quanta
fede mi trasse a tale audacia estrema!
Sotto il tuo velo che i prostrati ammanta
ricovera costei che prega, e trema.
Scenda per questa fervida orazione
sul capo mio, Madonna del perdono,
una benedizion...
O Vergin, su me scenda
la tua benedizion.


_My heart is full of rears.

What is that light! Ah, a Madonna!


Star of the mariner! Blessed Virgin!

Protect me in this supreme hour.

You see what passion and what

Faith drew me to such a daring step!

Under your veil that covers the wretched,

Shelter me as I pray and tremble.

With this fervid prayer, Mother of Pardon,

May a blessing

Descend on my head._


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I don't care for any of these. Maybe I just don't care for the music; _Gioconda_ is an uneven score, and I doubt that the Blessed Virgin is very fond of this prayer. 

Elmo seems the strongest vocally. Cernei has a more sensuous tone but horrible diction; her vowels sound more or less alike and you listen in vain for the letter "e." Dominguez is pretty solid, but it seems to me I've heard her do better things. All three have trouble at the top. Surely a mezzo-soprano ought to have a comfortable high A! Cernei tries for a quiet finish - nice idea, I suppose - but the sound that comes out is absurdly emaciated. The others finish loud, strained and flat in that Italian verismo manner that ladies like Caniglia and Tebaldi have taught us to know and dread.

Elmo had a major voice and I'll go for her, though without enthusiasm.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I agree with Woodduck above that *La Gioconda *is uneven and, I think, not well written for the voice(s). The parts that I like are “_Suicidio!,” _and the Dance of the Hours and, depending on the tenor, “_Cielo e mar.” _The duet, or cat-fight between Gioconda and Laura is probably a favorite but depends on the singers to make its effect. 

To start, “_Stella Del marinar“ _it hardly seems like a prayer, it’s too angular and spiky; then, the melodies are short and scattered; there are no long-breathed phrases or even memorable passages. 

Again, Woodduck and I agree on the singers and though the names should guarantee good singers, in this aria, they struggle to even get through it unscathed. Elmo is the most successful.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Bruna Castagna, one of my favorite old-Met-broadcasts singers, doesn't sing it at all in either of her two broadcasts (1939 and 1945) -- you just jump straight to Gioconda's "È un anathema!"

A friend who used to do comprimario roles at the Met in the 1940's told me decades ago that Castagna had a superstition about the aria and refused to sing it. I don't know--those Saturday matinee performances had all kinds of strange cuts from time to time.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ewilkros said:


> Bruna Castagna, one of my favorite old-Met-broadcasts singers, doesn't sing it at all in either of her two broadcasts (1939 and 1945) -- you just jump straight to Gioconda's "È un anathema!"
> 
> A friend who used to do comprimario roles at the Met in the 1940's told me decades ago that Castagna had a superstition about the aria and refused to sing it. I don't know--those Saturday matinee performances had all kinds of strange cuts from time to time.


A lot of real contraltos probably don't have an A5 in their range. I was surprised Cernai sang it as she sounds like a real contralto to me.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I can't blame loving La Gioconda on Seattle's peculiar taste in opera as we never had the money to put it on even though Speight Jenkins said he would have loved to. It is the only opera I ever saw at The Met, it was a peak experience, and I just got the vinyl set with Tebaldi and I just love the beautiful music. I've taken out other arias from Gioconda from the future contests based on this feedback. Suicidio is my favorite aria if it is sung well and I am not by nature a person who likes depressing subjects. The music is just so overwhelmingly beautiful and stirring.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

All three sound as if they could have sung La Cieca to me, which surely isn't right, particularly as Ponchielli seems to have gone to the trouble of ensuring each role would be sung by a different voice category. I prefer a highish mezzzo in the role, like Simionato, Cossotto or Baltsa. 

But, given that thee three are our competitors, I'm giving it to Elmo who did the best job and had the best final note.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I can't blame loving La Gioconda on Seattle's peculiar taste in opera as we never had the money to put it on even though Speight Jenkins said he would have loved to. It is the only opera I ever saw at The Met, it was a peak experience, and I just got the vinyl set with Tebaldi and I just love the beautiful music. I've taken out other arias from Gioconda from the future contests based on this feedback. Suicidio is my favorite aria if it is sung well and I am not by nature a person who likes depressing subjects. The music is just so overwhelmingly beautiful and stirring.


Oddly enough, though the opera received its Covent Garden premiere in 1883, it was rarely performed there after that and in fact since the end of WWII not at all apart from a couple of concert performances in 2004.

I know it requires six great singers in all the main roles, but, for me, it stands or falls on its Gioconda and Callas's two recordings are the only ones I have, though I've heard some of the others. Even in 1959 she makes an uncommon effect in the role. I presume you know the story of Tebaldi recording the role. Her recording producer advised her to listen to Milanov, but when he popped round to see her, he found her listening to the Callas recording. "But why didn't you tell me Maria's was best?" she said to him.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Oddly enough, though the opera received its Covent Garden premiere in 1883, it was rarely performed there after that and in fact since the end of WWII not at all apart from a couple of concert performances in 2004.
> 
> I know it requires six great singers in all the main roles, but, for me, it stands or falls on its Gioconda and Callas's two recordings are the only ones I have, though I've heard some of the others. Even in 1959 she makes an uncommon effect in the role. I presume you know the story of Tebaldi recording the role. He recording producer advised her to listen to Milanov, but when he popped round to see her, he found her listening to the Callas recording. "But why didn't you tell me Maria's was best?" she said to him.


I was reading on it and it is about the only opera of that type from that period Grande Opera that is still regularly done today. It has been much more popular at The Met from what I read and has never gone on hiatus from their repertoire. My standards are lower and Tebaldi is quite wonderful in the role for me. I didn't like Callas' co stars.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I was reading on it and it is about the only opera of that type from that period that is still regularly done today. It has been much more popular at The Met from what I read and has never gone on hiatus from their repertoire. My standards are lower and Tebaldi is quite wonderful in the role for me. I didn't like Callas' co stars.


Did Tebaldi sing it on stage or only in the studio?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I was reading on it and it is about the only opera of that type from that period that is still regularly done today. It has been much more popular at The Met from what I read and has never gone on hiatus from their repertoire. My standards are lower and Tebaldi is quite wonderful in the role for me. I didn't like Callas' co stars.


As for Callas's co-stars, it's swings and roundabouts on the two recordings. Poggi is awful on the first recording, but Miranda isn't as bad as is sometimes made out. He's much better in *La Gioconda *than the live *Il Pirata *from Carnegie Hall, that's for sure. Barbieri, on the first, is better than Cossotto, who sings beautifully, but without much character. Same problem with Cappuccilli on the second, who doesn't really project much character compared to Silveri on the first. I don't think there's much to choose from between the respective basses and contraltos.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Did Tebaldi sing it on stage or only in the studio?


It was one of the biggest successes of her late career. This is a review from The Nashville Tenneseean from her Met Tour performance there:''

*But of course a performance in the final analysis, stands or falls on the showing of its principals. Renata Tebaldi, as Gioconda, the Venetian ballad singer, gave a performance of such power and vividness as would hardly have been imagined from her a decade ago.

She is as beautiful and appealing as ever; her singing has gained enormously in dramatic thrust, and she has developed a chest register of such power that she is able to sing the wide-ranging and heavily dramatic role with great effect.* "
Grammophone Magazine says this: In 1963 she retired for a year, re-structured her technique and came back, using a darker range of vocal colours which gave her one of the outstanding successes of her career in the title-role of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Being completely out of my element with this aria or the singers I can only go by the voice quality and for that I have chosen Dominguez whose superior chest tones and voice had the most appeal to me. (but what do I know?)


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