# Final Round:Chi il bel sogno di Doretta. Price, Moffo, Te Kanawa, Gheorghiu



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I have zero idea how this will turn out. What a beautiful aria!!!


















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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

It's no secret that Gheorghiu is one of my favorites but in the particular one chosen for this contest I didn't find her to be the best Magda, although they were all very fine. There was something more plaintive about Moffo's rendition that touched me and I kept going back to it after playing the others several times. Moffo (poor Moffo) it is.

Now that I have seen the othr votes I must admit that Price' was really in competition as well. She sounded younger and lighter voiced than usual. A good vote!


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## Doulton (Nov 12, 2015)

I listened to all of them and enjoyed them all. But I'll vote for Price because there's more creaminess in her tone.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

There’s a slight screamingness I hear in Price’s first few jumps into the high note. Moffo has a throatiness to her voice I find distracting (sex?) and I don’t like Gheorghiu’s sound in this aria. Go figure, I still like Te Kanawa‘s version - that film!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I like the fact that each of these sopranos, though their voices are of similar weight, has a timbre quite distinct from that of the others. The aria demands not too much more than that it be sung beautifully (though Eileen Farrell and Virginia Zeani, who didn't make the final round, bring to it an engaging narrative freshness and some real passion, respectively). However, Price's middle voice is a bit lacking in core, Te Kanawa takes a leisurely bubble bath (lavender- scented), and Gheorghiu is a tad unsubtle. That leaves Moffo, whose voice is - need it be said again? - impossibly sexy and who pays closer attention to the score than the others. A fine musician and an irresistible party girl... What could possibly go wrong?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I knew I had some strong contenders here and at this point it is a four way tie!!!!!


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Well it seems that, for the moment, mine is to be the casting vote, so what to do, as I voted for each one of these ladies in their individual rounds.

I eliminated Price first, as I thought this time round (and this could very well be the recording) she sounded a littlle shrieky on top. Funnily enough, the other three have all appeared on recommendable complete recordings of the opera, and indeed Moffo's version is taken from that recording. They are all absolutely lovely and I really can't decide which I like best, so I'm going to let nostalgia and sentiment win and give the palm to Te Kanawa, who introduced the aria to thousands of people when she sang it in the movie _A Room With A View_.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I knew I had some strong contenders here and at this point it is a four way tie!!!!!


Unless someone else votes, it appears I've made the casting vote.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I can't follow the score but there's something in Anna Moffo's voice.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

None of these singers would be my top choice for this aria but straight away I can eliminate Gheorghiu as I've never been a fan of her rather artificial voice. Te Kanawa is out next, I find her a little dull and although the voice is pretty there's no richness to makeup for anything. In the end I voted for Price, and vocally hers might be the best here, though still not perfect, but after relistening I found myself more involved with Moffo. I'll keep the vote with Price though since she deserves to be on equal footing.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> None of these singers would be my top choice for this aria but straight away I can eliminate Gheorghiu as I've never been a fan of her rather artificial voice. Te Kanawa is out next, I find her a little dull and although the voice is pretty there's no richness to makeup for anything. In the end I voted for Price, and vocally hers might be the best here, though still not perfect, but after relistening I found myself more involved with Moffo. I'll keep the vote with Price though since she deserves to be on equal footing.


Out of curiosity, are there any singers born _after_ WWII that you do like? I'll include Kiri because she was born in 1944, just before the war was over. It's just a trend I've noticed. 

For my part, I've noticed that in general I prefer the singers of an older generation, but there are some I like. Gheorghiu woud be one of those and Te Kanawa I like in certain repertoire. Here I think she's lovely and the voice up top falls more easily on the ear than Price's.

I have heard both Gheorghiu and Te Kanawa in the theatre. I don't know if that makes a difference.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Out of curiosity, are there any singers born _after_ WWII that you do like? I'll include Kiri because she was born in 1944, just before the war was over. It's just a trend I've noticed.
> 
> For my part, I've noticed that in general I prefer the singers of an older generation, but there are some I like. Gheorghiu woud be one of those and Te Kanawa I like in certain repertoire. Here I think she's lovely and the voice up top falls more easily on the ear than Price's.
> 
> I have heard both Gheorghiu and Te Kanawa in the theatre. I don't know if that makes a difference.


If the question was 'do you like any singers of the 'modern' operatic school as opposed to the 'old' school?' then maybe the answer would be no. But there are singers born post WWII who have been proponents of the 'old' school as well as singers of the 'modern' school born before WWII. I like Jerry Hadley, Ernesto Petti, Agnes Baltsa, Saioa Hernandez, Martin Muehle, Vasile Moldoveanu etc. to varying degrees.

One reason I don't much mention more modern singers is that old school proponents are far less common and rarely part of a recording or performance that I like as a whole, not because they don't exist. Another reason is that they are rarely among my absolute favourites and less likely to have a totally satisfactory technique than those of older generations.

There are plenty of modern singers I can tolerate when it comes to modern opera however. The technique fits better with the music, but with romantic opera especially I need the old technique, otherwise it sounds underpowered and rather tame.

I've heard Gheorghiu, albeit singing Tosca which is a few sizes too big for her, but while she is an admirable singer, certainly no wobbling catastrophe like Anna Netrebko is now, she is not, imo, a great soprano, and less a great Tosca.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Gheorghiou is the only one I've heard live. I can consider myself a rose-cheeked baby, I suppose. 
She sang Charlotte in Werther with Pyotr Beczala, and it was a fiery performance.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> If the question was 'do you like any singers of the 'modern' operatic school as opposed to the 'old' school?' then maybe the answer would be no. But there are singers born post WWII who have been proponents of the 'old' school as well as singers of the 'modern' school born before WWII. I like Jerry Hadley, Ernesto Petti, Agnes Baltsa, Saioa Hernandez, Martin Muehle, Vasile Moldoveanu etc. to varying degrees.
> 
> One reason I don't much mention more modern singers is that old school proponents are far less common and rarely part of a recording or performance that I like as a whole, not because they don't exist. Another reason is that they are rarely among my absolute favourites and less likely to have a totally satisfactory technique than those of older generations.
> 
> ...


I haven't seen Gheorghiu as Tosca, but I would agree that the role is a notch too big for her. The first time I saw her was in the secondary role of Nina in Massenet's *Chérubin *and she made quite an impression on me. I thought the voice very beautiful and she was a natural performer. The next time was as Violetta, the role that propelled her to stardom. I really enjoyed her performance, but remember thinking it wasn't yet the full article. Whether it became so in later performances I don't know, but of course the critics went berserk and she never looked back. As a total performance, it wasn't that great. Solti's coducting lacked lyricism, Frank Lopardo was underpowered and Leo Nucci as usual dry and wooden. Even the Richard Eyre production made some awful mistakes, I thought, but in this company, Gheorghiu certainly shone.

The final time was Adina in *L'Elisir d'Amore *by which time the mannerisms, both vocal and physical, had begun to creep in and I found her performance altogether too sophisticated and arch, though the voice still sounded lovely. After all, Adina doesn't really require any big guns.

I only heard Te Kanawa once in the theatre, as Fiordiligi, funnily enough with Baltsa as Dorabella, a singer I too really liked. Her performance was a lot more spirited than I had expected of her, maybe goaded by Baltsa's hilarious Dorabella. I also saw Baltsa at Covent Garden as Adalgisa, Isabella, Carmen and Eboli and she was always thrilling, probably because she took risks. Her Eboli absolutely brought the house down, as did her Carmen.

Your mention of Moldoveanu reminds me that I once saw him as Don Carlo, though I can't now remember a thing about him or his performance. I do remember it was on the occasion of Christoff's farewell to the role of Philip (he'd have been 65). Sylvia Sass was Elisabeth, Elizabeth Connell Eboli and Renato Bruson was Posa.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I thought this would be all over the map and I was right. I feel a sense of accomplishment


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