# Round Two: Soprano: Boito, L'atra notte: Angela Gheorgieu and Eva Marton



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

For my mis spelled video examples I hope you find these performances as dramatic and thrilling as I did. Thanks to Nina's introduction I tried Gheorghiu and was blown away! Wow! This is my very favorite thing by Marton. If you don't like her you might be surprised here and she doesn't have to "not hit" high C LOL. Marton could be a very powerful actress in my opinion. Both ladies blow you away with their chest singing! They are such very different artists. I apologize for multiple mis spelling Angela's name and of course I can't change it as it is in the titles!!!!!!! Foreign names are a trial to me sometimes!


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Gheorghiu in full on "thinks she's Callas, but she's not" mode, brings enough of her own ideas to her interpretation that she isn't simply imitating Maria. This is my favourite rendition of the aria so far in this contest. If I had to be picky I would say that she overuses dramatic breathing to express Marguerite's distress and that her phrasing (whilst superbly serving the drama) is often mishappen and choppy. But I don't have to be so picky since her version easily surpasses Marton's interpretation. Marton sings it well and I like her chest voice. However, her approach is too heroic for the role. More like Marguehilde.

I vote Gheorghiu!

N.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I was fascinated by the conductor in Gheorghiu's video, how well he followed her, allowing her space to breathe and emote. Marton, alas, is outclassed; her rather stolid demeanor does her no favors and she's a bit clumsy in the _vola_ variations. Gheorghiu seems to be in full "Prima Donna" mode, which she does well. She sings the aria beautifully, with just a bit of exaggeration into the chest register, but carries it off. Her vocalism is fluid and beautifully controlled with nice trills.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Interesting that both lack a really good trill. This aria is a more difficult one to fashion a good one.
But I believe that Gheorghiu's rendition was clearer and more straightforward than Marton's, whose voice chose a heavier and more dramatic delivery but somehow lacked the intonation that Angela was able to impart.

I just read The Conte's post where he mentions Gheorghiu's attempt to imitate Callas. I am not in disagreement with that. I too have noticed the same thing but in this one I conjured up visions of Magda Olivero more than of Callas.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The Conte said:


> Gheorghiu in full on "thinks she's Callas, but she's not" mode, brings enough of her own ideas to her interpretation that she isn't simply imitating Maria. This is my favourite rendition of the aria so far in this contest. If I had to be picky I would say that she overuses dramatic breathing to express Marguerite's distress and that her phrasing (whilst superbly serving the drama) is often mishappen and choppy. But I don't have to be so picky since her version easily surpasses Marton's interpretation. Marton sings it well and I like her chest voice. However, her approach is too heroic for the role. More like Marguehilde.
> 
> I vote Gheorghiu!
> 
> N.


You have a way with words. I like Marton's apparently for all the wrong reasons LOL!!! Marguehilde LOL LOL. I am in debt to so many of you who have more fully rounded viewpoints than I sometime have. I hope you enjoy the other ladies I have picked out for this contest.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

I am going to skip voting in this round, neither version pleases my ears (and my mind). Gheorghiu goes into the "overdrive" mode, there's just too much going on with her all the time (reminds me of recent Fleming video a bit we have discussed so lively) and most histrionics sound artificial. I wouldn't bring here Callas comparisons even in the context that "she's not Callas". Angela could sing and act really well, let's just say it's neither her ideal role nor her ideal evening.
Marton at least has the power of the chest register for support along the way, but she proceeds to fall into the same trap of too much smoke and not enough fire and even less agility in some more intricate passages.
All in all, this round has no winner in my opinion.

P.S. I do like both singers but not in this repertoire.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

[QUOTE
P.S. I do like both singers but not in this repertoire.[/QUOTE]

Agreed, I wouldn't pick either one for the role.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Marton is not a favourite of mine and I've never taken to her in Italilan opera, though I admire her Elektra on the Sawallisch recording. She sings well enough here, but her response to the music is all a bit too outward and generalised.

Gheorghiu is much better, more inside the music and I have no hesitation preferring her performance. That said, neither would be my first choice and, of the ones we have heard so far, I still prefer Caballé.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Gheorghiu may at times have imitated Callas, but I don't hear any similarity to Callas in this aria. Gheorghiu's overeager emotive signaling - there are so many gasps I lost count - is completely unlike the inwardness, the slow buildup of intensity, and the simple trust in the music that Callas provides. Gheorghiu's voice is perfectly suitable for the part, but she needs to get over herself.

Marton's voice is not so suitable; she sounds very mature and rather too formidable. She seems to know what she's singing about and thankfully saves her obvious emoting for the second verse, but the character of Margherita never really comes before us. 

Gheorghiu is better suited to the role, and in spite of her scenery-chewing I'll have to pick her. If I were her conductor or director, though, we would have to have a talk.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Gheorghiu may at times have imitated Callas, but I don't hear any similarity to Callas in this aria. Gheorghiu's overeager emotive signaling - there are so many gasps I lost count - is completely unlike the inwardness, the slow buildup of intensity, and the simple trust in the music that Callas provides. Gheorghiu's voice is perfectly suitable for the part, but she needs to get over herself.
> 
> Marton's voice is not so suitable; she sounds very mature and rather too formidable. She seems to know what she's singing about and thankfully saves her obvious emoting for the second verse, but the character of Margaretha never really comes before us.
> 
> Gheorghiu is better suited to the role, and in spite of her scenery-chewing I'll have to pick her. If I were her conductor or director, though, we would have to have a talk.


Gheorghiu has a very beautiful voice but over does it. Her body language is too much You are correct about Marton BUT for my particular purposes divorced from the language I find the scale and drama of her singing personally thrilling. She is still in good voice here and it is nice to hear her where she doesn't have to hit a high C. It is strange because she hits an astonishing Db as the Empress but can only rarely hit C. Later in her career she learned to lighten up the voice and she could hit C, but with her I like her to sing like an Amazon LOL


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Setting aside the Spanish soap opera theatrics (that exasperated breathing throughout the whole thing. what the truck?), Angela G actually has something going for her that is pretty rare these days: most of her singing sounds like a normal human voice. Her chest voice is a bit forced at times, but unlike 90% of people singing today, she isn't afraid of it, so that's easy for me to forgive. 


Incidentally, to my ears, both these singers sound somewhat raw/unfinished. Like they got halfway through their vocal training and dropped off (having switched my field of study after being a serious voice student for 5 years and given the state of my technique at the time, the same could easily have been said of me). A good overall command of placement and a lack of certain manufactured habits that make a lot of modern singers sound weird, almost like countertenors (Cecilia Bartoli is a prime example), but without the polish that comes from shaping phrases correctly, covering the chest voice, negotiating how much chest/head resonance to use at any given time**, etc. This is far from optimum, but it's a much better problem to deal with than singers who entire technical foundation is artificial. 

**this isn't an either/or thing. The head and chest voices are actually muscle groups that act on the larynx. In female singers in particular, both are usually active at once except for the extremes of the range. Otherwise, as they move up the scale, they slowly ease up on the chest voice and use more and more head voice resonance (male singers primarily rely on chest voice and mostly develop the head voice to train tension out of the chest voice and allow high notes to be accessed without reaching. ex: a good soprano high C is dominated by head voice, but a good tenor high C is still dominated by chest voice). It's not an exact science. You have soprani like Kirsten Flagstad whose balance was more head voice dominated, like Callas whose voice was more dominated by chest voice, and Shirley Verrett who was somewhere in the middle. However, that doesn't mean there isn't a wrong way to do it, and both show signs of strain/effort because this interplay was not managed well.


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