# Round One: Il Pirata Mad Scene Cabaletta: Renee Fleming and Jane Eaglen



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Nevermind. We will go to another contest. This one was a mis fire out of the gate.T


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I'd have sworn that the term "mad scene" was intended to describe the mental state of the character Imogene, not that of Ms. Fleming or me. But Ms. Fleming had me wondering if it should not apply to all of us, and possibly the whole world. If Bellini's score instructed the soprano to sing not one single note in a simple or straightforward way, Fleming would no doubt be saying "Yippee! Finally a composer who understands me!" We have here a truly amazing exhibition of interpretive creativity that not one other singer of my acquaintance could - or, fortunately, would - approach. I joke not when I say that I was laughing - half-mad, no doubt - most of the way through the cabaletta, which seemed a bizarre, expressionistic freak show put on by a voice stretched to contortion beyond its natural, lyrical capacity.

Coming to Jane Eaglen after whatever it was I had just been through felt like coming down to earth, but a bit too far down. Her singing is solid enough, though I didn't find it especially beautiful in timbre or expression. Not bad, nothing wrong, certainly nothing weird, but no point of view to get me interested. I'd say the same about everything I've ever heard her sing. 

I listened to the entire scene in both cases, and I don't think it's too long for our purposes here. One gets a fuller picture of how the singer handles the repertoire and the role. I don't feel that either of these singers brings me Bellini as I know and love him, with his exquisitely drawn melodic lines that require of the singer both unbroken firmness and deep pathos. Regretfully, I can't vote in this round.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I hate Fleming's singing. What the f-- is she doing? I couldn't take it beyond the first few minutes (2:13), literally did not want to. To be a sport, I listened to a bit of the _cabaletta_. Not to be believed. Please don't ever make me listen to her s-- again.

Eaglen's version proves that just because you have the notes doesn't mean you can sing this piece. She should stick to Wagner (I think she did).

Neither soprano has developed a decent chest register.

I agree with Woodduck. How can one vote for either singer?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Sorry. Yet again alone in my enthusiasms. We will proceed to a different contest then. The Seattle audience is obviously one with poor taste to go crazy for both of these singers like we did: Jane in Norma and Fleming in concert with the symphony. We are the obviously the backwater of the opera world. I will not editorialize about my performances beforehand in other contests. Only full scenes from now on, though I sought guidance on that. Again apologies. Perhaps I should have gone with Radvanovsky in this contemporary generation artist round. Oh, well.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Fleming is absolutely hilarious, as if she were doing a comedy version of bel canto opera, only I know she's expecting us to take this seriously. Unfortunately I can't. Poor Bellini.

At least Eaglen didn't make me laugh but she didn't much excite me either. I once heard the Muti recording of *Norma* and I thought then she wasn't really a bel canto singer and this only confirms it. And where is her chest voice? I really can't vote for either as that implies a positive choice, though Eaglen would probably get it simply because she isn't as bad as Fleming.

I hate to bring up the C word, but she's unavoidable in this repertoire. *Il Pirata* wasn't so much revived as exhumed for Callas at La Scala in 1958. It is a great tragedy that the opera was not broadcast as her colleagues on that occasion were Corelli and Bastianini. Thereafter she sang the role again in concert at Carnegie Hall in 1959, a performance that was recorded, though her colleagues are distinctly second rate. She also recorded the final scene in 1958 for her Mad Scenes album and included the scene in many of her concert dates. It is a Callas speciality and, aside from the studio recording, there are quite a few recordings around of her singing it live. I know this might be considered too late in her career for you, Seattle, but if you want to hear how this scene should sound in the voice of a Bellini specialist, then Callas it has to be.

That said, that other C (Caballé) also recorded a very fine version of the scene on the first recital she ever made for RCA.

The two versions posted here don't even come close. I'd rather listen to Lucia Aliberti (on her first recital).

No vote.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

In the Caballe Paris concert, she sings _Or son sepolta _ in an almost comical imitation of Callas's plunge into her chest register.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Sorry. Yet again alone in my enthusiasms. We will proceed to a different contest then. The Seattle audience is obviously one with poor taste to go crazy for both of these singers like we did: Jane in Norma and Fleming in concert with the symphony. We are the obviously the backwater of the opera world. I will not editorialize about my performances beforehand in other contests. Only full scenes from now on, though I sought guidance on that. Again apologies. Perhaps I should have gone with Radvanovsky in this contemporary generation artist round. Oh, well.


O, dear friend, don't lose heart. It is that enthusiasm that makes you the Seattleoperafan that we know and love! :tiphat:


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

MAS said:


> O, dear friend, don't lose heart. It is that enthusiasm that makes you the Seattleoperafan that we know and love! :tiphat:


You could actually do a Streisand this: _Don't rain on my paraaaaade!_


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> O, dear friend, don't lose heart. It is that enthusiasm that makes you the Seattleoperafan that we know and love! :tiphat:


Thankful to have you as an opera buddy. I think my next contests will appeal to more I hope. Enthusiasm is part and parcel of my personality I'm afraid LOL! Like genetics on an island in the sea, oddities sometime develop LOL when you develop in isolation. I will post a new one tomorrow.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I saw both these singers at La Scala and like most of the audience I was left underwhelmed. (Fleming was Lucrezia Borgia and Eaglen the Gotterdamerung Brunhilde.)

It's good to hear more expression than I am used to from Fleming, but as others have pointed out, she has no feeling for Bellini's style and over interprets to the point of ugliness. The main issue I have, however, is the unsuitabiity of her over the top variations in the second verse of the cabaletta. As Bellini might say were he alive and prone to misquote Rossini, "Very interesting piece of music, who composed it?"

Eaglen fares better and while there are better versions of the aria, I can easily vote for her, since her version is clearly superior to the Fleming version.

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> In the Caballe Paris concert, she sings _Or son sepolta _ in an almost comical imitation of Callas's plunge into her chest register.


I don't know that one. I was referring to her first RCA recital which was recorded shortly after her hugely successful NY debut as Lucrezia Borgia in 1965. Later on, I'd agree she was prone to exaggeration, both of her trademark floated pianissimi and her overuse of chesty glottal stops.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Fleming is absolutely hilarious, as if she were doing a comedy version of bel canto opera, only I know she's expecting us to take this seriously. Unfortunately I can't. Poor Bellini.
> 
> At least Eaglen didn't make me laugh but she didn't much excite me either. I once heard the Muti recording of *Norma* and I thought then she wasn't really a bel canto singer and this only confirms it. And where is her chest voice? I really can't vote for either as that implies a positive choice, though Eaglen would probably get it simply because she isn't as bad as Fleming.
> 
> ...


Of course I was going to use Callas''s Carnegie Hal version in the next iteration of this contest, which would likely win this contest, but in my questionable opinion Caballe gives her a good run for her money in her live audio only version. Caballe was on fire in her London 1969 version! But I am from the operatic backwaters of Puget Sound so what do I know ;-) There aren't many versions of this aria by well known artists on Youtube and for some strange reason it was a rare Bellini well known opera that Sutherland never recorded, but even if she had I would never put her before you wolves in any opera contest. I had hoped to have contestants besides Callas and Caballe, but I should have just limited myself to them in hindsight.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> There aren't many versions of this aria by well known artists on Youtube and for some strange reason it was a rare Bellini well known opera that Sutherland never recorded, but even if she had I would never put her before you wolves in any opera contest.


"Little piggy! Little piggy! Let me in! Let me in!"

"No, no, no! Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin!"

"Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down!"


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

A new recording of the opera was issued in September this year, with Marina Rebeka as Imogene. Has anyone heard it?

Aside from the studio recording with Caballé, I know of a recording with Lucia Aliberti and one on Opera Rara, but I haven't heard either of those.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Having not yet read other posters' choices, I am forced to choose (despite her usual annoying scoops and swoops), Renee!! 
I mean, just listening to her sound which floats on air like no other soprano I have ever heard just carries me away.
Her voice is so damned gorgeous, and shock of shocks, her chest tones are excellent as well, which was a pleasant discovery.

Hahaha! Move on over Seattle, and wipe that tear from your face. Here I am to save the day!
Like you, I also am astounded by the beauty of the sound of Fleming's voice (even if I cannot abide her scoops and swoops and fake deliveries).
I thought Eaglen's delivery was bo-o-o-ring. (I admit to only listening from 11 to the end as I don't require a lot of aria to form an opinion).
Yes Renee overdid Bellini and frankly I was so wrapped up in her gorgeous sound that I just didn't care.
Signed: Mighty Mouse


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Having not yet read other posters' choices, I am forced to choose (despite her usual annoying scoops and swoops), Renee!!
> I mean, just listening to her sound which floats on air like no other soprano I have ever heard just carries me away.
> Her voice is so damned gorgeous, and shock of shocks, her chest tones are excellent as well, which was a pleasant discovery.
> 
> ...


You made my day, sweet Nina! Happy Thanksgiving, dear!


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

With Ms. Fleming, I'll pass after about 1:50, just can't take no more. It was performed as if Bellini's score was "prettified" by Brian Ferneyhough, no less, at least the sheer amount of musical (and unmusical) information Ms. Fleming has discovered in the score makes me think so. This performance puts listeners at serious danger of getting mad and I think warning signs should be erected everywhere in the 20 km vicinity.
Jane Eaglen is great when it comes to the right repertoire which is not the case here.
Joining the "Can't vote" chorus.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Azol said:


> the sheer amount of musical (and unmusical) information Ms. Fleming has discovered in the score makes me think so. This performance puts listeners at serious danger of getting mad and I think warning signs should be erected everywhere in the 20 km vicinity.


From a safe distance, and after a night's sleep during which I did not dream about Bellini being drawn and quartered, I would like to say that Renee Fleming is some kind of genius (perhaps akin to the mad scientist kind). What she is capable of imagining music can sound like is simply unparalleled in recorded history, and her chutzpah in actually making it happen has to command respect, if not outright terror.

I seem to recall that at one point - it must be at least a couple of decades ago - she considered giving up opera. I also recall hearing her earlier in her career and finding nothing odd about her singing. One of my few Fleming CDs is a collection of Handel arias which I recall as quite beautiful and not at all eccentric, and her recital titled "Night Songs" contains some of the most ravishing singing, especially of Rachmaninoff songs, I can imagine. I wonder whether the determination to carry on with an operatic career felt, to her, contingent upon making opera more interesting than it actually was - which, for her, must have meant making it personal in an unmistakable way.

Just idle speculation. I beg your pardon.


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