# Round One: The Rousing Trovatore Duet with Conte di Luna and Leonora: Stella and Bastianini and Ponselle and Stracciari



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

This is one of my favorite duets ever with marvelous exciting coloratura in the finale that could end up being played over and over in your head. All of these four pairs are great.The next round are Callas and Panereai and Price and Milnes. I like Milanov and Warren but Milanov has never done well here.





Artist: Antonietta Stella Artist: Ettore Bastianini Conductor: Gianandrea Gavazzeni Orchestra: Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano




Il trovatore, Part 4: "Mira, di acerbe lagrime" · Giuseppe Verdi · Rosa Ponselle · Riccardo Stracciari


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Ponselle and Stracciari. Stella was a good soprano but I find her tone can be a little hollow, especially by the 60s. Bastianini is wonderful but when you compare them with Ponselle and Stracciari...


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Lol easy. I would never vote for Bastianini for anything over Stracciari, ever. And then throw Ponselle into the mix...


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BBSVK suggested that instead of the name of the piece I should sell the piece a bit to encourage people who don't know the name of pieces to play. Hope that is okay with folk. I'll do my best and do it that way if I can come up with some tempting handle for each aria.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

I have to agree that Stella and Bastianini are easily outclassed.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Firstly, Stella and Bastianini do much better than I had thought- Bastianini much more animated than usual and Stella getting into the piece with much more verve than I’d ever heard her before. Secondly, their voices are very handsome indeed and the rich sound is a boon.
But…(you knew there would be a but, right?)

Both Ponselle and Stracciari sound slimmer - how early is this? It’s taken at quite a clip but both singers cope with the _tempo _admirably but there’s a lack of heat somehow. Nevertheless, Ponselle/Stracciari.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

This is unsubtle music, and all you really need to do is sing it (and do a good job at pretending you've got all the notes in at an impossible tempo). Despite a recording that shears the brilliance off Ponselle's voice, she and Stracciari win. I will say, though, that Stella and Bastianini generate some live-performance passion that the other pair doesn't quite match.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> This is unsubtle music, and all you really need to do is sing it (and do a good job at pretending you've got all the notes in at an impossible tempo). Despite a recording that shears the brilliance off Ponselle's voice, she and Stracciari win. I will say, though, that Stella and Bastianini generate some live-performance passion that the other pair doesn't quite match.


Woodduck, it must be hard enough to get heat going in a studio setting today. How off putting it must have been a century ago!!!!!!!!! There were times Ponselle could get it going but usually it was in instances when she wasn't so rushed.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Back to my little corner. Ponselle's voice sounds somewhat thin to me but Bastianini's voice sounds superb so I am going with the Stella/Bastianini team even though Rosa is an all-time favorite of mine. (At least they'll get one vote)!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Woodduck, it must be hard enough to get heat going in a studio setting today. How off putting it must have been a century ago!!!!!!!!! There were times Ponselle could get it going but usually it was in instances when she wasn't so rushed.


When we realize what singers had to put up with then to make a recording, our appreciation of them can only increase.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Despite the ridiculously fast tempo Ponselle and Stracciari have to cope with, they win it easily for me. I just wonder what they'd have sounded like if recorded in modern conditions. Their superiority was immediately aparent to me. I thought Stella sounded blowsy and Bastianini as if he was shouting.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I'm only familiar with Stella in her studio recordings and I was surprised with how involved and exciting she is here. Then Bastianini is wonderful too. This first one is very satisfying although I'm surprised that Gavazzeni is so inflexible with the tempo. The real test here is the coloratura stretta and is it me or does Stella miss out a note in her parts? There's some good singing here, but it's not the best I've heard in this duet.

The Ponselle/Stracciari was already known to me (I know all of Ponselle's recordings). I expected Stracciari to be as commanding as Di Luna, but with more beauty of tone. This is easily the winner of the two. Whether it be the peerless vocal production, the facility with coloratura or the expressive intentions and dramatic involvement this is a superb version of this music. It will be tough to beat in any of the later rounds planned. (Callas and Panerai or Tagliabue may give it a run for its money.)

N.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Why did they establish the baritones as villains during the romantic period ? I have hard time believing any of these two are vile and maybe unattractive men, for a woman to drink poison rather than let them have her. Maybe Bastianini is a tiny little bit more villainy, but not as much as I expected. I know him from La Gioconda with Anita Cerquetti, where he really sounded like an older and bad guy. Maybe he already had the health problems with his throat ?

Anyway, since both guys are yumy here, I might as well go for the one I find more charming of the two, and that is, obviously, Stracciari !

I should probably write something about the sopranos as well. I still feel like I cannot imagine Ponselle's voice well, her voice acting is very convincing while she is desperate and less when she rejoices. Stella is something in between for both sections.

Anyway, let me cast the vote for Stracciari !


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BBSVK said:


> Why did they establish the baritones as villains during the romantic period ? I have hard time believing any of these two are vile and maybe unattractive men, for a woman to drink poison rather than let them have her. Maybe Bastianini is a tiny little bit more villainy, but not as much as I expected. I know him from La Gioconda with Anita Cerquetti, where he really sounded like an older and bad guy. Maybe he already had the health problems with his throat ?
> 
> Anyway, since both guys are yumy here, I might as well go for the one I find more charming of the two, and that is, obviously, Stracciari !
> 
> ...


All of these give a great sense of the range, beauty and power of Ponselle's voice I think. Her recordings were variable in their revelations of her glory.








and 



There was no more beautiful voice I have ever heard in a recording from any era though a few came close.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Stracciari and Bastianini both sounded fantastic to me! Ponselle sometimes records beyond volutptuous and sometimes hooty and I find this a little in the hooty direction but I'm certain its the vagaries of old recordings. Stella sounds a little thick and aging and I don't think its the recording. Ponselle and Stracciari.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Bravi tutti!
Il Trovatore is my soft point. I return to it constantly, watching it live at least once in a season, attempting to catch a perfect cast. I have a favorite Leonora alongside with di Luna and Azucena in my theater. All the parts are demanding, but Leonora requires something special. The libretto retelling may present her as a stupid romantic girl, but if a singer has something more than a beautiful voice, it changes everything.
Tatiana Serjan wasn't my first Leonora, neither in recording nor live. But last 7 years I can't imagine another singer in the role. At _D'amor sull alli... Miserere... Tu vedrai_ I sit immovable and breathless, at the duet I relax a little. I keep on listening to the recordings, but it's not the same.
You may laugh at me, but I was amazed by resemblance of Stella-Bastianini with Serjan-Sulimsky. Heard immediately and successively they wouldn't affect like this, but human memory is enigmatic. 
Poncelle and Stracciari are superb vocally and present another dramatic rendition. Here Leonora catches di Luna in her net and turns him everywhere like a herring, while he doesn't resist but keeps his "villainous" singing. Such a Leonora doesn't swallow her poison, just puts it on cheek. Everything was in her hands, but a pill dissolved too fast.


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