# Which singer do you want singing what aria under your christmas tree?



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I hope Santa brings me this one:


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

As a gift, this could be a very nice one. As it happens, it's also the ringtone of my smartphone:


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I'd like Callas singing the closing scene from *Les Troyens*, but unfortunately that only exists in the land of dreams.


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## anmhe (Feb 10, 2015)

Are there any opera singers short enough to sing under a Christmas Tree?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

*A true story for Ponselle lovers*



schigolch said:


> As a gift, this could be a very nice one. As it happens, it's also the ringtone of my smartphone:


************** THE BORROWED GIFT ******************
************** THE BORROWED GIFT ******************
An original, non-fiction story by Gene Prevost
(c) 2001 - J. Eugene Prevost
All world rights reserved.
Compared with the informality of current religious ceremonies, a surprise event on Christmas Eve in 1949 makes it seem like ages ago. The Catholic Church in Pikesville, Maryland was imposing with its stained glass windows and marble statues. The night was dark and snowy in its holiday vigil.
I was no longer an altar boy, just a young son accompanying his parents to Midnight Mass. Something caught my eye as I trudged through the slippery parking lot to the church door. A long black limousine was curbside with a chauffeur assisting two older women from the vehicle. Clothed in street length mink coats, they slowly entered the church behind me. Years ago, a car that big and coats that luxurious were a rarity. This sight was a HOLY MACKEREL - WHO IN THE WORLD IS THAT experience for all of us who witnessed it.
The High Mass was sung in Latin as the congregation read their English missals. The priests wore their finest ornate vestments. Smoky incense and blazing candles highlighted the choir as an occasional Christmas hymn was sung. Then a soprano's voice, never heard before in this church, began to sing the Ave Maria. It had such vocal beauty, huge and rich, and totally different from any soprano who had sung before. Who could it be? Her voice had such volume and clarity with a magnificent tone. As the hymn proceeded, I glanced back at the elevated choir loft. In the center, with hands folded as she sang, was the former Metropolitan Opera diva - Rosa Ponselle. In the 1920&apos;s her voice had been entwined with that of the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. Her career lasted until 1937, the year I was born. Early retirement for opera singers probably was customary then.
The Mass proceeded past the Consecration. Reaching the Agnus Dei, a vocal duet began. The sound of Panis Angelicus surrounded us in perfect harmony, sung by two trained voices matched by birth. Rosa's soprano was joined with the contralto of her sister, Carmella. The vocal combination was electrifying.
Having been raised in a musical family, Saturday radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera in New York were regularly heard in our home. However, that Christmas Eve night, a box radio was enclosing the sounds we heard. These voices were live and in person, reverberating off every nook of the sanctuary. When the Mass ended, we scurried home with chills, not from the winter's night, but from the surprise musical gift these sisters shared with us.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

anmhe said:


> Are there any opera singers short enough to sing under a Christmas Tree?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Nilsson Zweite Brautnacht
David Hansen: Arsace's big aria Semiramide
Sutherland: Bel Raggio
young fat Callas: Suicidio
Flagstad: Isolde's Curse
Ponselle: Casta Diva
Jessye Norman: Weche Wotan
Santa... is that too many????


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Elena Souliotis - Sono all'ara - Straniera - Bellini - 1971


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## Dawood (Oct 11, 2015)

Dear Santa






Cheers me old mucker... :cheers:


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

I have a _perfect_ album of De Los Angeles singing baroque and some religious arias.









Thus, I don't need to wish for anyone to sing anything . Just play the recording. It is an automatic mood-lifter:


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

*Joan Sutherland:* Ah Belo A Me Ritorna
*Samuel Ramey:* Mentre Gonfiarsi L'anima
*Maria Callas (early):* Salgo Gia 
*Maria Callas (late):* La Luce Langue 
*Nicolae Kondratyuk:* Cortigiani, vil razza dannata
*Shirley Verrett:* Non temer, d'un basso affetto


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

of course, if we're talking Christmas carols....


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Sarah Brightman, "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again."


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Just kidding on the above - Nilsson Leibestod!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

gellio said:


> Just kidding on the above - Nilsson Leibestod!


Now come clean up my carpet!


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## Nevilevelis (Dec 23, 2015)

Fritz Wunderlich - _Dies Bildnis_


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Nevilevelis said:


> Fritz Wunderlich - _Dies Bildnis_


If it's Fritz Wunderlich, I don't really care what he's singing


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> If it's Fritz Wunderlich, I don't really care what he's singing


Oh now wait! If we're going THAT route, give me Dmitri Hvorostovsky (who also happens to have a spectacular voice as well but who cares?)


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## Guest (Dec 26, 2015)

Isabel Leonard. That would be nice...


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Calleja singing 'Ah, la paterna mano'.

N.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

clearly I'm not the only ghey boi in this thread


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> clearly I'm not the only ghey boi in this thread


In an opera thread? Of course you are. 

Is that Hindi or French, by the way?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Though actually my reference to Fritz Wunderlich has nothing to do with his gender and everything to do with his singing. That man could sing the telephone directory and make it sound beautiful. I tend to prefer interesting voices to merely beautiful ones, but Wunderlich always completely disarms me. I think it might be the most sheerly beautiful tenor voice I've ever heard.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> clearly I'm not the only ghey boi in this thread


And what if you would be? who cares? really it's (almost)2016


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Pugg said:


> And what if you would be? who cares? really it's (almost)2016


I really don't care, I just think it's funny that my expectations were confirmed XD


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> clearly I'm not the only ghey boi in this thread


Everywhere but in Seattle. I go to the opera and see very, very few gays. Mostly married couples in their 60's and 70's. With the exception of a short Filipino queen who wears a floor length opera cape with purple silk on the inside, a huge rhinestone broach and a sequin vest She parades around so all can see and then stands by the orchestra pit facing the audience so all can take her fabulousness in.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

anmhe said:


> Are there any opera singers short enough to sing under a Christmas Tree?


Maybe a century ago, when voices and personalities were big but singers frequently weren't. (Unless Christmas trees were also correspondingly miniature?) Anyway, here's my belated (in more ways than one) Christmas choice:






Though if I ever get a smartphone like schigolch, I think my ringtone will be John McCormack singing 'I Hear You Calling Me'.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

anmhe said:


> Are there any opera singers short enough to sing under a Christmas Tree?







Miss Sills also was to tall but then again who cars if she stood beside it :tiphat:


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

anmhe said:


> Are there any opera singers short enough to sing under a Christmas Tree?


It's time to take the tree down. Tall singers may now be considered.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> It's time to take the tree down. Tall singers may now be considered.


Starting right away.
No kidding, was gone before New Years eve, we had a big party, such pity you didn't come :cheers:


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Pugg said:


> Starting right away.
> No kidding, was gone before New Years eve, we had a big party, such pity you didn't come :cheers:


Ours was too. Up for December then gone! (sniff)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Pugg said:


> Starting right away.
> No kidding, was gone before New Years eve, we had a big party, such pity you didn't come :cheers:


I'd have come if Jonas had been there.

He wasn't, was he?


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