# Round Three: Julia Varady and Eleanor Steber



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Back to the Empress with two contestants who sing this dramatic material with lyric beauty.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

How could I not vote for the divine Steber with the natural musicality born into her being!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> How could I not vote for the divine Steber with the natural musicality born into her being!


Glad you enjoyed it. The next contest is for you.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Glad you enjoyed it. The next contest is for you.


yayyyyyyyyyyyyy


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I prefer the conducting on the Steber recording. However, it is greatly compromised by the poor sound quality. I like Steber's emotional involvement to the music, but the desperation in Varady's voice wins here for me.

Difficult choice with many pros and cons. Varady wins, but I wonder what I would think if the Steber had been in decent sound.

N.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

While I was impressed with Varady’s performance and almost voted for her based on one hearing, once I heard Steber, I had to vote for her - I found her irresistible and was carried away.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Following along in the text of this, I have to say that Strauss hasn't gone to great lengths to set it so that we can hear what the Empress is saying. No soprano can make the word "hilfe" audible at the top of her range, especially when pitted against a screaming orchestra. Oh well. All the singers are doing a perfectly fine job at belting this out, so I just have to pick the voice that excites me most. In this case it's Steber's, despite the poor sound of her recording.


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