# Any opinions on Alessandra Marc anyone?



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Am I alone in my devotion to her beautiful voice? I am doing a speech on her for Toastmasters. Some of you will write me off your list when I tell you she is one of my favorite singers of all time. Her technique was not perfect, but she possessed the most beautiful vibrato I've ever heard, the middle of her voice with her dark, covered, smoky sound was one of the most beautiful of any singers, and her soaring top notes were jawdropping. She sang dramatic soprano roles, but wasn't really a dramatic soprano as her lower register was lovely but not strong enough for Wagner. But her middle and especially her top were gigantic. I heard her in the Verdi Requiem and in concert her immensity did not detract from her performance. She could sing with lyric beauty like a boy soprano at times and then turn around and drown out an orchestra and chorus. Many hate her scooping she uses a lot, but for me it ads feeling. Her Liebestod was one of the 2 or 3 best ever and only Nilsson did a better In Questa Reggia. I wish I could find her In Questa Reggia that used to be on Youtube from the Tucker Gala when she won. I played it for a friend who did not know her and when she sang her first high note he dropped his tall, athletic frame on the floor and kicked his feet in the air repeatedly!!! The aria I will use in my speech is a beautifully filmed aria by Lehar: 



 . I wish I had time to include the high C in O Patria Mia. Technically Caballe does it best with her ravishing pianisimo like Verdi wrote, but Marc's outsized C is one of the biggest, most thrilling notes I have ever heard. It is like she is a sports car who shifts into 7th gear or something. One last bit of trivia : she had lost around 90 pounds over the course of a long period of dieting and gained it all back over one Thanksgiving/Christmas hoiiday season!!!!! Cheers. John


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Gorgeous voice. She has the same kind of quick, narrow vibrato as Gundula Janowitz, and the precise intonation that needs to go with it. Wonderful dark glow to the timbre. A dramatic soprano without a chest voice does have a problem, though. When I first heard a recording of her I hoped she might be the Isolde of my dreams, but I'm still dreaming. Love Marc's Verdi. Haven't heard her Elektras, but am not likely to.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I wish I could change the title to read Alessandra Marc instead of just Alessandra, but titles cannot be edited. She is the only Alessandra I've ever heard of, though.


The mods could do it for you.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Gorgeous voice. She has the same kind of quick, narrow vibrato as Gundula Janowitz, and the precise intonation that needs to go with it. Wonderful dark glow to the timbre. A dramatic soprano without a chest voice does have a problem, though. When I first heard a recording of her I hoped she might be the Isolde of my dreams, but I'm still dreaming. Love Marc's Verdi. Haven't heard her Elektras, but am not likely to.


Woodduck, you can listen to the complete Marc Elektra with Voigt as a wonderful Chrysthotemis on Youtube. One prominent reviewer said of it that Marc was the most beautiful Elektra to record the role. One wishes for more umph at the bottom for sure, but I really, really love her Elektra. The Was Blute Muss scene is Elektra-fying as is the Alein weh ganz alein..



Regarding her voice, the middle of her voice has the dark resonant quality of the sound you get when blowing onto the top of a Coke bottle. I agree, Gundala J. has a very similar vibrato and I LOVE her. Great Strauss and Beethoven.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Alessandra Marc has probably one of the purest tones I've ever heard in a dramatic soprano. As mentioned above, her Elektra is rightly acclaimed; personally, I couldn't imagine a more beautiful sound in the part.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

OK, I guess I'll have to enter Elektra's house of horrors whether I like it or not. Those were good days for Voigt too. But I wonder how they squeezed them both into the recording studio - or did they record them on separate days?

Sorry. I was just picturing Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I do have two recital discs and the rarely comes off the shelf's, why..I really don't know.
Nothing wrong with the voice that's for sure!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> OK, I guess I'll have to enter Elektra's house of horrors whether I like it or not. Those were good days for Voigt too. But I wonder how they squeezed them both into the recording studio - or did they record them on separate days?
> 
> Sorry. I was just picturing Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.


Debbie had a glorious voice back then as well!!!! Voigt had better technique than Marc, but I found her much more boring. Marc's tone was one of the most beautiful I ever, ever heard. Debbie's high notes were rounder and Alessandra's were more steely. Both of them had careers that petered out as they got close to 50 for diverse reasons. Debbie had the Met manager in her pocket and I believe that was one reason why Alessandra never became a star at the Met. Marc was a more exciting singer and Debbie was enormous for much of her career at the Met, so being very overweight shouldn't have been a factor holding back Alessandra.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Woodduck, you can listen to the complete Marc Elektra with Voigt as a wonderful Chrysthotemis on Youtube. One prominent reviewer said of it that Marc was the most beautiful Elektra to record the role. One wishes for more umph at the bottom for sure, but I really, really love her Elektra. The Was Blute Muss scene is Elektra-fying as is the Alein weh ganz alein..
> 
> 
> 
> Regarding her voice, the middle of her voice has the dark resonant quality of the sound you get when blowing onto the top of a Coke bottle. I agree, Gundala J. has a very similar vibrato and I LOVE her. Great Strauss and Beethoven.


The Recognition Scene with Marc is gorgeous as well, and to me she sounds a bit like a bigger-voiced Renee Fleming or Leontyne Price.

It's possible some may not care for her glottal attacks or her less-than-clear enunciation; however, I don't think she's any worse in these respects than were Montserrat Caballe (glottal attacks) and Joan Sutherland (murky diction).


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

I'd never listened to her before, so I sampled her liebestod and her in questa reggia on youtube. A beautiful voice, just the type of tight vibrato I tend to overrate, but her bottom is pretty nonexistent.

I found the sound very beautiful but the singing not entirely musical. Her phrasing is odd--a better singing technician might be able to detect whether this is a breath control issue or a musical interpretation issue but I thought there were many breaks to the musical flow where I wouldn't expect one. The scooping is also a bummer. There are lots of five or ten second parts of her liebestod that are extremely beautiful but the performance as a whole is kind of a dud--but it is a concert performance and I often find concert showcases emotionally and dramatically weightless. But I felt sort of the same about her turandot that I sampled from what looks like a full staged performance.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

howlingfantods said:


> I'd never listened to her before, so I sampled her liebestod and her in questa reggia on youtube. A beautiful voice, just the type of tight vibrato I tend to overrate, but her bottom is pretty nonexistent.
> 
> I found the sound very beautiful but the singing not entirely musical. Her phrasing is odd--a better singing technician might be able to detect whether this is a breath control issue or a musical interpretation issue but I thought there were many breaks to the musical flow where I wouldn't expect one. The scooping is also a bummer. There are lots of five or ten second parts of her liebestod that are extremely beautiful but the performance as a whole is kind of a dud--but it is a concert performance and I often find concert showcases emotionally and dramatically weightless. But I felt sort of the same about her turandot that I sampled from what looks like a full staged performance.


I suspect that a plump opera singer might benefit from the added support of the fat pushing up the diaphram, but somone who is 200 pounds overweight might be battling against too much of a good thing. Eaglen, also gigantic, had marvelous breath control in her 30's but after 40 started having difficulty supporting the voice as she aged. Thanks for your candid opinions. She has a glorious, glorious voice with a handicapped lower register but ishe has not always been the perfect artist. I heard her live after she had aged a bit and she actually had acquired a good chest voice with maturity. Martina Arroyo also only acquired power down low as she matured, according to an interview she gave.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I suspect that a plump opera singer might benefit from the added support of the fat pushing up the diaphram, but somone who is 200 pounds overweight might be battling against too much of a good thing. Eaglen, also gigantic, had marvelous breath control in her 30's but after 40 started having difficulty supporting the voice as she aged. Thanks for your candid opinions. She has a glorious, glorious voice with a handicapped lower register but ishe has not always been the perfect artist. I heard her live after she had aged a bit and she actually had acquired a good chest voice with maturity. Martina Arroyo also only acquired power down low as she matured, according to an interview she gave.


Not unusual for a singer's low voice to fill out a bit with age. Flagstad at 60 sounded virtually like a contralto, though of course she always had a nice firm bottom (the voice, I mean).


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I read a very interesting opinion about her voice. In a age where so many opera stars have generic sounding voices she stood out in her prime and it was likely because she studied primarily with a private teacher and didn't come up through the music institutes that often try tro homogenize voices today. Her teacher was a coloratura and she credits this focus of her teachers's skills with her prodigious abilities in her upper register.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> OK, I guess I'll have to enter Elektra's house of horrors whether I like it or not. Those were good days for Voigt too. But I wonder how they squeezed them both into the recording studio - or did they record them on separate days?
> 
> Sorry. I was just picturing Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.


Oooh, you are awful, but I like you!

Obscure British cultural reference there - google Dick Emery.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Woodduck, you can listen to the complete Marc Elektra with Voigt as a wonderful Chrysthotemis on Youtube. One prominent reviewer said of it that Marc was the most beautiful Elektra to record the role. One wishes for more umph at the bottom for sure, but I really, really love her Elektra. The Was Blute Muss scene is Elektra-fying as is the Alein weh ganz alein..
> 
> 
> 
> Regarding her voice, the middle of her voice has the dark resonant quality of the sound you get when blowing onto the top of a Coke bottle. I agree, Gundala J. has a very similar vibrato and I LOVE her. Great Strauss and Beethoven.


I have this very instant ordered this from Amazon. ETA Friday. Thanks Seattle!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Barbebleu said:


> I have this very instant ordered this from Amazon. ETA Friday. Thanks Seattle!


Let me know what you think. Varnay and Nilsson still rule, but this is really very beautiful and passionate.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Barbebleu said:


> Oooh, you are awful, but I like you!
> 
> Obscure British cultural reference there - google Dick Emery.


Well then, just call me Mandy.

No. Don't.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Let me know what you think. Varnay and Nilsson still rule, but this is really very beautiful and passionate.


I really enjoyed this Seattle. Sinopoli really has a handle on this and the singing is uniformly excellent. Schwarz is cracking as Klytemnestra and Marc and Voight are wonderful too. Marc is a little lighter in tone than I am used to hearing but beautiful tone all the same and a pleasure to listen to. All in all a great addition to my Strauss collection.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Barbebleu said:


> I really enjoyed this Seattle. Sinopoli really has a handle on this and the singing is uniformly excellent. Schwarz is cracking as Klytemnestra and Marc and Voight are wonderful too. Marc is a little lighter in tone than I am used to hearing but beautiful tone all the same and a pleasure to listen to. All in all a great addition to my Strauss collection.


I think the recording engineers favored the orchestra over the singers in volume. Glad you enjoyed it. Very different from Nilsson but but I listened to this recording a lot.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/offer-listing/B01KARYA58?SubscriptionId=AKIAIWBZRQIIPF7IKQPA&tag=bookbutlerfr-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=12742&creativeASIN=B01KARYA58&condition=new

I could be making a smal fortune on one CD, that's if I would sell them.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I think the recording engineers favored the orchestra over the singers in volume. Glad you enjoyed it. Very different from Nilsson but but I listened to this recording a lot.


I agree about the singer/orchestra balance but I wasn't too unhappy. It was a joy to hear the many beautiful details in the score, particularly on headphones. One of Strauss's most intricate scores wonderfully rendered by Sinopoli and the VPO.


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