# Diana Damrau



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

what are you thoughts on Diana Damrau? imo...
1) She is a respectable vocalist with a strong lyric coloratura voice. She is about as dramatic as Maria Callas is soubrette.
2) The timbre of her voice never really did it for me. It's got to be the most _icy_ soprano voice around today, like if someone took Gina Cigna and turned her into a coloratura.
3) For that reason, I don't particularly care for most of her Italian rep, but that quality works quite well in the right roles. For example, she is a wonderful Queen of the Night, utilizing iciness as a substitute for dramatic weight in order to produce the nastiness necessary for a convincing interpretation.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I'm gay but her bustline does it for me;-) I saw her in Le Compte D'ory or however it is spelled and was very impressed, but a voice on DVD is not a voice in the house. I thought Ruth Ann Swenson had a much more beautiful voice and was underrated, but I never heard her live. After Sutherland, CAllas and Sills most stars today fail in comparison. I saw Egilse Guttierrez in Traviata and in Puritani in Seattle and she had a very beautiful, warm voice and was a great presence on the stage. Her voice was big enough to serve the part of Violetta well and was heartbreaking in the last act and dazzling in the first. The middle of her voice sounded more like a mezzo than Joyce Didonato's.


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## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech...

...is generally what I hear when I listen to dear Diana. I would disagree and say that she _is_ a dramatic coloratura soprano, simply due to the size of her voice, but that, to paraphrase you, BalalaikaBoy, her timbre is as dark as Callas's was bright!

I think Damrau's interpretations are, generally, more profound (or at least better thought-out) than most we see on the lyric stage today, but that sadly her voice no longer merits spending any significant amount of money to hear. That's what happens when you sing Queen of the Night in eight productions and each time insist on singing the staccato, sixth-octave notes completely 'full voice'!


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

BaronScarpia said:


> Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech...
> ...is generally what I hear when I listen to dear Diana.


LMAO! at her worst, yes



> I would disagree and say that she _is_ a dramatic coloratura soprano, simply due to the size of her voice, but that, to paraphrase you, BalalaikaBoy, her timbre is as dark as Callas's was bright!


dramatic vs lyric is not just about size, it's primarily about _weight_. Damrau can put out a respectable amount of volume, but this is because the quality voice is "piercing" rather than "big". compare to some real dramatic coloratura sopranos
Edda Moser: Queen of the Night's Aria





Joan Sutherland: Ocean! Thou Mighty Monster!





Virginia Zeani Tu Che Le Vanita





notice the way these voices fill out in the middle register, almost like a spinto soprano, but brighter.



> I think Damrau's interpretations are, generally, more profound (or at least better thought-out) than most we see on the lyric stage today, but that sadly her voice no longer merits spending any significant amount of money to hear.


agreed, I should have mentioned this in the OP



> That's what happens when you sing Queen of the Night in eight productions and each time insist on singing the staccato, sixth-octave notes completely 'full voice'!


The Queen of the Night is to coloratura sopranos what Turandot is to dramatic sopranos. still, 8 productions over what period of time? if you mean a week, then yeah, that's kinda vocal suicide lmao


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## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

I think whether or not we classify Damrau as a dramatic coloratura soprano or not really depends on whether we view 'coloratura' as a voice type or not, and I don't think that it is - technically. A coloratura soprano is simply a soprano (lyric, dramatic or spinto) with the ability to sing coloratura. So if one takes coloratura out of the equation, then I would agree with you and say that I think Damrau is a lyric soprano. But seeing as she generally sings coloratura roles, she is termed a coloratura soprano. And seeing as the majority of coloratura sopranos have relatively small voices, I would say that Damrau is one of the biggest-voiced amongst.

In short, no, Damrau is not a dramatic soprano, so I suppose one cannot truly call her a dramatic coloratura soprano! But then again, there are very few true of these. Ones that jump to my mind are the three you mentioned above, Callas and Deutekom. But let's not get too bogged down on voice types!

And I mean eight productions over a few years. But if you think about it, that means that, for quite a period of time, Diana Damrau was spending a large amount (perhaps the majority) of her time practising and performing dear Astrifiammante's two arias. And when one sings in the way she does, really straining her middle voice and pushing far too much for high notes, a long career cannot be expected!


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

She is awesome but my friends hated her new Lucia recording.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I'm gay but her bustline does it for me;-) I saw her in Le Compte D'ory or however it is spelled and was very impressed, but a voice on DVD is not a voice in the house. I thought Ruth Ann Swenson had a much more beautiful voice and was underrated, but I never heard her live. After Sutherland, CAllas and Sills most stars today fail in comparison. I saw Egilse Guttierrez in Traviata and in Puritani in Seattle and she had a very beautiful, warm voice and was a great presence on the stage. Her voice was big enough to serve the part of Violetta well and was heartbreaking in the last act and dazzling in the first. The middle of her voice sounded more like a mezzo than Joyce Didonato's.


interesting. she is some bizarre combination of lyric coloratura soprano and lyric mezzo. a light, agile voice with easy top notes, but a super dark, creamy middle register.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> interesting. she is some bizarre combination of lyric coloratura soprano and lyric mezzo. a light, agile voice with easy top notes, but a super dark, creamy middle register.


Exactly. It is an unusual combination that works. Great comment.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I love her Mozart and Rossini quite a bit... not sure whether she feels right for Donizetti.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Exactly. It is an unusual combination that works. Great comment.


that said, while both are there, I feel like her voice is most resonant somewhere between the two (like, full lyric soprano territory)


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## AndyS (Dec 2, 2011)

she's a bit too 'grunty' for my liking


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

AndyS said:


> she's a bit too 'grunty' for my liking


for me, she is too _cutting_. when I listen to her, it feels as if someone is pressing the dull side of a cold knife against my cheek
Edit: this is somewhat ironic, because, from her interviews at least, she seems like precisely the opposite: a very warm, bubbly, friendly personality far more similar to Rosina than Queen of the Night.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

BaronScarpia said:


> I think whether or not we classify Damrau as a dramatic coloratura soprano or not really depends on whether we view 'coloratura' as a voice type or not, and I don't think that it is - technically. A coloratura soprano is simply a soprano (lyric, dramatic or spinto) with the ability to sing coloratura. So if one takes coloratura out of the equation, then I would agree with you and say that I think Damrau is a lyric soprano. But seeing as she generally sings coloratura roles, she is termed a coloratura soprano. And seeing as the majority of coloratura sopranos have relatively small voices, I would say that Damrau is one of the biggest-voiced amongst.


this is where we differ, I think coloratura soprano _is_ a voice type rather than simply a technique. any singer can learn some degree of coloratura, but not all have the capacity for the kind of coloratura necessary in, say, Rossini. that said, I think it would be more useful to divide coloratura soprano along the lines of other sopranos, ie, light-lyric coloratura soprano (Beverely Sills, Ingaborg Hallstein), full-lyric coloratura soprano (June Anderson, Diana Damrau, ), spinto coloratura soprano (Joan Sutherland), dramatic coloratura soprano (Edda Moser, Marisa Galvany)



> In short, no, Damrau is not a dramatic soprano, so I suppose one cannot truly call her a dramatic coloratura soprano! But then again, there are very few true of these. Ones that jump to my mind are the three you mentioned above, Callas and Deutekom. But let's not get too bogged down on voice types!


don't forget Marisa Galvany!


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## Camillorf (Jul 18, 2014)

I like her but I can definitely understand why some people would describe her voice as icy, screechy, cutting etc. Like you said, I think it works better in some roles. Also, unlike many coloraturas, I appreciate that she at least attempts to infuse some meaning into her singing. I liked her Lucia though.


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

I love Diana in Die Zauberflöte, the one with Simon Keenlyside as Papageno...But I 've watched a rather "stupid" production on youtube, Traviata, with Diana in Violetta's shoes. Oh, I hated almost everything, even her singing. Physically she was overweight (I almost did not recognize her in the beginning). She was not looking like a beautiful prostitute fighting TB, in an era without antibiotics. The voice was OK-ish, but the Italian language has to be spoken not like English or German, with an almost closed mouth. All these thing coupled with the modern twisting of the story, were so sad for me...


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