# Round 1: Amneris Judgement Scene (Simionato, Zajick, Dominguez)



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

I'm sure Seattle is busy this Christmas season and could use some help. This time we're doing mezzos.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I was smitten with Simionato immediately. It didn't change with further listening. Although Oralia Dominguez, with those indistinct UFO voices in the background was also interesting. Dolora Zajick's voice is higher pitched that the other two, and disadvantaged by having a beautiful part of her scena removed, so she gets the third place from me.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

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BalalaikaBoy said:


> I'm sure Seattle is busy this Christmas season and could use some help. This time we're doing mezzos.


*So you just sprung some surprise contests? *


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Great stuff! But not a hard choice despite talent for days in the also rans. Dominguez was only a name to me....is she on the Tebaldi Gioconda? If she sounded like this all the time she must have had quite a career. She makes music out of everything, has a gorgeous, natural sound and is clearly into it! She had such a good connection to the emotional life that I found the overdone parts to be her chief ....no, just about her ONLY liability. But it mattered to me because as soon as the moments seem melodramatic or maudlin I'm out of the drama and thinking, unfavorably, about a performer. These last two scenes are the glory of the opera to me and she's so close but I wish someone had held her back. She had all the drama she needed in her voice.

After being wowed by Zajick in Don Carlo I couldn't wait for her Amneris and was surprised that it didn't have more impact...with that voice! But the camera is revealing here. After Simionato it felt unfair to watch her. Dramatically they were just in different leagues.

I learned this with Simionato. It's uncanny the degree to which this performance mirrors the London recording. The only nod to the recording is in the " io stesso's" at the beginning, which are among my all time great small moments on record for the power of the internal sadness. Everything else is only enhanced - GREATLY - by her magnificent realization of the scene in every way. It's just magnificent from beginning to end!

Mic's are tough to get a read on power but here she sounds very powerful. Was she considered to have a big voice?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

ScottK said:


> Great stuff! But not a hard choice despite talent for days in the also rans. Dominguez was only a name to me....is she on the Tebaldi Gioconda? If she sounded like this all the time she must have had quite a career. She makes music out of everything, has a gorgeous, natural sound and is clearly into it! She had such a good connection to the emotional life that I found the overdone parts to be her chief ....no, just about her ONLY liability. But it mattered to me because as soon as the moments seem melodramatic or maudlin I'm out of the drama and thinking, unfavorably, about a performer. These last two scenes are the glory of the opera to me and she's so close but I wish someone had held her back. She had all the drama she needed in her voice.


This recording was Domingeuz's debut in the role before her local crowd in Mexico. I suppose she might be forgiven for going a bit over the top.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

ScottK said:


> Great stuff! But not a hard choice despite talent for days in the also rans. Dominguez was only a name to me....is she on the Tebaldi Gioconda? If she sounded like this all the time she must have had quite a career. She makes music out of everything, has a gorgeous, natural sound and is clearly into it! She had such a good connection to the emotional life that I found the overdone parts to be her chief ....no, just about her ONLY liability. But it mattered to me because as soon as the moments seem melodramatic or maudlin I'm out of the drama and thinking, unfavorably, about a performer. These last two scenes are the glory of the opera to me and she's so close but I wish someone had held her back. She had all the drama she needed in her voice.
> 
> After being wowed by Zajick in Don Carlo I couldn't wait for her Amneris and was surprised that it didn't have more impact...with that voice! But the camera is revealing here. After Simionato it felt unfair to watch her. Dramatically they were just in different leagues.
> 
> ...


Simionato was a dramatic mezzo so yes the voice was big, certainly compared to those who sing these roles today this was a very large, well focused instrument, not with quite the power of Dominguez in the lower and middle registers or Stignani's middle, but with an exceptional high extension and superb high notes.

Simionato is great here, but Dominguez is exceptional. Utterly committed, moving, dramatic, nearly vulgar sometimes but it works. It works so well. I love her Amneris and think it's the greatest part of what is an undeniably great Aida all round, never again did anyone sing with quite such abandon. Maybe even more impressive is her Duet with Del Monaco's Radames.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Op.123 said:


> . Maybe even more impressive is her Duet with Del Monaco's Radames.


Can you post it?


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## Dogville (Dec 28, 2021)

Oralia Dominguez is the undisputed interpreter of both the role and this scene in particular for me, by quite some distance. I'd go as far as to say she, and perhaps Stignani in the 1953 Trovatore, might be the only person who has ever stolen the spotlight from Callas. I don't think anyone else pours as much into the music and words as Oralia does here. This scene stands out to me because it is the only point in this entire opera where any of the characters undergoes a transformation of any kind. Amneris, endowed with tremendous power and authority as daughter of the pharaoh, becomes lower than even a slave girl, as she realises she has been the catalyst for her lover's death as well as the even more painful revelation that Radames can never love her. No one, in my humble opinion, realizes this emotional arc as brilliantly as Dominguez does. 

Siminato is quite wonderful and would be the ideal Amneris if Oralia's did not exist. Still, I think that Simionato's Amneris has more royal bearing than anyone else's. 

Zajick does not compare to either of the other two, although I thought her performance was good.


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## Dogville (Dec 28, 2021)

ScottK said:


> Can you post it?


The most electrifying performance of this duet, imo. I actually like MDM here.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Thanks for posting that, its terrific! She is just awesome. I like her better here but I'm completely impressed with her in both cuts! She has that sexy combination that I find hard to describe...it's like there's something almost laid back about the approach but since she's got the goods vocally and emotionally, she's confident that you're going to be blown away without her pushing at all.For me, her luxurious lyricism doesn't make the best fit for Mari-ooch...calls a little too much attention to what he cant do, but when they cut loose together its glorious!


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I know all these and consider them essential. Zajick was one of the first I heard in the role (on that recording, not live) and Whilst I remember it as a good performance, I'm sure it isn't in the league of Simionato or Dominguez. Simionato has it all, this was her best Amneris and she is much more emotionally expressive than in either of her two studio recordings or any of her other live recordings (spot the fan!) Her technique is perfect and she lets the inherent drama in Verdi's music speak for itself.

Dominguez' performance comes from the legendary Mexico City 1951 Aida and her voice isn't as beautiful as Simionato's, but her off-the-wall delivery of the part is white hot. This is my favourite despite the odd incursion into vulgarity. That chest voice!

(I know there are some killer high notes, but is this really a contralto part? Dominguez sang Erda and La Cieca and her powerful low notes really served her here.)

N.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I know all these and consider them essential. Zajick was one of the first I heard in the role (on that recording, not live) and Whilst I remember it as a good performance, I'm sure it isn't in the league of Simionato or Dominguez. Simionato has it all, this was her best Amneris and she is much more emotionally expressive than in either of her two studio recordings or any of her other live recordings (spot the fan!) Her technique is perfect and she lets the inherent drama in Verdi's music speak for itself.
> 
> Dominguez' performance comes from the legendary Mexico City 1951 Aida and her voice isn't as beautiful as Simionato's, but her off-the-wall delivery of the part is white hot. This is my favourite despite the odd incursion into vulgarity. That chest voice!
> 
> ...


Zajick is on her way out now and people often forget but I think back in the day she was thrilling live because it was such an absolutely powerful powerful voice to hear in a theater. I don't think she had much competition in the big Verdi roles during her heyday 20 odd years ago or more. She also had soprano like security up to C and used it in one big Verdi role in a duet. I never got to hear her. I never thought it was a really beautiful voice like young Verrett but I would have loved to have heard her live. Nilsson considered her to be one of the very few singers of that generation to have had her sort of vocal impact in a house. She wasn't really fat but she was a stocky singing machine with no neck who was built for heavyweight singing.


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