# Single Round: Linda di Chamounix: Sutherland, Sills, Peters



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I really LOVE this happy happy aria and all three versions are very individual and really first rate. Enjoy! I have the links below but was only able to cue up Sutherland.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I don't know why I can't cue up pieces sometimes. Sutherland's is but the other two aren't. Start Sills around 02.40 and Peters at 03:00 and you'll have the same bits as Joanie.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

All three are really wonderful. Sills could only trill on certain notes unlike Sutherland who could trill both full note and half note trills everywhere in her range. Here, though, Sills' trills are mind blowing and because of their magnicence she she wins the prize for me by just a smidgen.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

The Peters version sounds like it’s pitched higher than usual. The singing is spectacular, but compared with Sills and Sutherland, it earns the bronze. Sills’s penchant for over decorating the coloratura comes to the fore here and it becomes just an exercise of coloratura. Yes, it’s a bit of a mindless piece, but…
I actually hear words in Sutherland’s version! This was apparently from 1959 and not conducted by Bonynge, so she’s in her best behavior, despite the odd droopy portamento. The voice itself is magnificent.
Sutherland gets the gold.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Everyone who sings this seems to decorate it differently, so I have no idea what's actually in the score, but I guess it doesn't matter.

Sutherland lightens her voice to such an extent that she merely glances off some of the notes. It sounds wispy and fey. Sills sings out more directly and conveys a more down-to-earth happiness. and her coloratura is actually more precise at times than Sutherland's. This was from her debut album of Bellini and Donizetti arias, which I owned and remember well. Peters is no slouch either, though her embellishments are a tad less gobsmacking than those of Sutherland or Sills.

I guess it's between Sutherland and Sills, though I have no profound convictions about it. I like Sills' musical directness and ebulliant personality, so I'll vote for her.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Aside from the fact that I dislike this show-off coloratura stuff my vote clearly goes to the one who had some heft behind that girlish sound. Bubbles did it for me again. Brava!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I am apparently THE only person here who likes show off coloratura stuff. It IS a Callas crowd- everything must have meaning  I just like to have fun sometimes I was going to have a Proch Theme and Variations contest but am rethinking that.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I am apparently THE only person here who likes show off coloratura stuff. It IS a Callas crowd- everything must have meaning  I just like to have fun sometimes I was going to have a Proch Theme and Variations contest but am rethinking that.


My thanks goes to you for not including Pons.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I am apparently THE only person here who likes show off coloratura stuff. It IS a Callas crowd- everything must have meaning  I just like to have fun sometimes I was going to have a Proch Theme and Variations contest but am rethinking that.


It was once a favourite showpiece of Callas's and there exists a recording of her singing it in concert in 1951. From what you can hear through the execrable sound, the singing is unbelievable. Apparently Callas wanted to include it in her first "Lyric & Coloratura" recital, but Serafin refused to conduct what he considered such vacuously empty music.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> It was once a favourite showpiece of Callas's and there exists a recording of her singing it in concert in 1951. From what you can hear through the execrable sound, the singing is unbelievable. Apparently Callas wanted to include it in her first "Lyric & Coloratura" recital, but Serafin refused to conduct what he considered such vacuously empty music.


That is how I knew of it. If I did it it would be interesting to see how people would react if I included it or didn't LOL


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

All three are excellent, so it really boils donw to which voice you prefer, and, in this case, it's Sutherland's. The fact that she is singing words here (it's from her first recital, recorded in 1959) and indulging in less of those droopy portamenti also helps. If I were to put them in order, it would be Sutherland, Sills, Peters, but they're all good.

Not really my cup of tea though.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I love this aria! A while back I did a listening comparison with Galli-Curci, Gruberova and this Sutherland version. (Sutherland, of course won.) She's simply stunning here. I don't agree with those who say it depends on which voice you like best. All three embellish it in slightly different ways and so it's down to the taste and sense of style when it comes to those choices. Sutherland goes a bit over the top, but I suppose if you've got it...

I'm not a particular Sills fan, but I was blown away by her characterisation early on. As the aria goes on though, I'm not that convinced by her choices and she has that thing that I find with Gencer where I'm worried that she isn't going to make it to the end of a phrase or she will miss a note here and there. That said, this is pretty impressive and it's a close run thing between her and Sutherland. She's possibly a touch more musical than Sutherland, but not as confident.

Peters has one of those Pons voices (nice enough in its way, but it doesn't SAY anything). (The same blights Battle in her version sung at one of those Met galas.)

I will need to listen to Sills and Sutherland again before voting...

...Sills is more heartfelt than Sutherland, but Sutherland sounds like the young, innocent maiden that Linda is AND the bravura is unparalleled. I vote Sutherland!

N.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Sutherland! Sills and Peters held on decently, but there was Sutherland. 
The opera itself is a nice kickshaw, a stream of vain but pretty words and music, with all possible cliches, including a mad scene (in a comic opera!). It doesn't diminish a pleasure of it nevertheless. 
I've seen only video with Damrau and Flórez from Liceu. The act when the protagonist lives in Paris and accepts visitors one by one, and everyone of them is worried if she is a courtesan, is especially funny.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I love this aria! A while back I did a listening comparison with Galli-Curci, Gruberova and this Sutherland version. (Sutherland, of course won.) She's simply stunning here. I don't agree with those who say it depends on which voice you like best. All three embellish it in slightly different ways and so it's down to the taste and sense of style when it comes to those choices. Sutherland goes a bit over the top, but I suppose if you've got it...
> 
> I'm not a particular Sills fan, but I was blown away by her characterisation early on. As the aria goes on though, I'm not that convinced by her choices and she has that thing that I find with Gencer where I'm worried that she isn't going to make it to the end of a phrase or she will miss a note here and there. That said, this is pretty impressive and it's a close run thing between her and Sutherland. She's possibly a touch more musical than Sutherland, but not as confident.
> 
> ...


I think Peters is like Jones: she is best when you can see her. She is so beautiful. Her Queen of the Night did real well here.... with video. She was an excellent singer up into her 60's with an ageless voice. She would make a great house soprano for lyric coloratura roles. She would be great live onstage I think with a lovely, disciplined voice.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I think Peters is like Jones: she is best when you can see her. She is so beautiful. Her Queen of the Night did real well here.... with video. She was an excellent singer up into her 60's with an ageless voice. She would make a great house soprano for lyric coloratura roles. She would be great live onstage I think with a lovely, disciplined voice.


She's the Queen of the NIght on one of my recordings of *Die Zauberflöte*, which I have mostly for Wunderlich's peerless Tamino, and she does at least sound dangerous. Here the voice sound a little glassy to me, especially on the high notes. It's not a sound I like especially and it was easy to eliminate and then choose between Sutherland and Sills.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> She's the Queen of the NIght on one of my recordings of *Die Zauberflöte*, which I have mostly for Wunderlich's peerless Tamino, and she does at least sound dangerous. Here *the voice sound a little glassy to me, especially on the high notes.* It's not a sound I like especially and it was easy to eliminate and then choose between Sutherland and Sills.


Peters was a very popular guest on American TV in the '50s, back when opera singers often appeared on so-called variety shows. My father, classic sexist and misogynist that he was, liked her because she was petite and pretty and had a pretty voice. He strongly disliked Eileen Farrell, who had none of the above characteristics. He probably couldn't like any woman who looked as if she could beat him at arm-wrestling. I, fascinated by opera and having no macho dog in the fight, liked both sopranos, but I noticed right away that Peters' voice took on a different, peculiar quality on high notes. I can't guess why that is, and I don't find it actually unpleasant, but it does diminish my pleasure in her work ever so slightly.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Roberta Peters was my first *Lucia di Lammermoor*. She was perfectly adequate until I bought Maria’s first recording. She had a great Metropolitan Opera career and kept her voice in good shape. Their Centennial Gala gave her the Sextet from that opera and she did well, but it was too small scale for the event and the house. The big guns took all of the excitement. I think that, for her service to the Metropolitan, they should’ve give her a solo, but a lot of singers were not happy (you can see it in Leontyne Price’s demeanor and you could certainly see Carol Nebblett seething).


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Roberta Peters was my first *Lucia di Lammermoor*. She was perfectly adequate until I bought Maria’s first recording. She had a great Metropolitan Opera career and kept her voice in good shape. Their Centennial Gala gave her the Sextet from that opera and she did well, but it was too small scale for the event and the house. The big guns took all of the excitement. I think that, for her service to the Metropolitan, they should’ve give her a solo, but a lot of singers were not happy (you can see it in Leontyne Price’s demeanor and you could certainly see Carol Nebblett seething).


I think your take was correct. She had her big day as Lucia before Callas and Sutherland when it was the provenance of lighter voices. No .... after Callas I think she was better known for roles like Battle would play. Oscar was a big role for her I believe. I think she was best known for her performances on Ed Sullivan where she shone because she was so beautiful and charismatic on TV.


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Sutherland, for me.

I really liked the start of Sills' version where she takes a slower pace and makes more of the words but I think Sutherland overall. Amazing tone, different from what it would be even a few years later.

In terms of the opera, Serafin eventually recorded Linda di Chamounix in the studio for Philips with Valletti, Taddei, Barbieri, Modesti, Capecchi and...Stella.

It's probably ungrateful but also unavoidable to suggest same cast and conductor either earlier with Callas at EMI or slightly later at Decca with Sutherland would have been more enjoyable.


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