# Round 2:Chi il bel sogno di Doretta". Moffo and Zeani



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)




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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

Arrgghh! Two of my favourite sopranos. Why can’t I choose both of them?

Ok, I can’t choose both. Sorry Anna, but Zeani is one of my two favourite voices for this role. I wonder if my other favourite, also from Romania, will be in one of the next rounds??


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Following along in the score, which is possible with the Moffo version, is instructive. Puccini marks the first hgh lying phrases to be sung _dolcissimo_, the second phrase up to a top C con _crescente calore_ (with growing warmth) and the follwing up to the top Bb, _pianissmo_. Moffo fulfils these instructions perfectly, where Zeani doesn't quite, though the close recording doesn't exacly help.

Zeani sings with a degree more passion, which might be appropriate when the aria is sung out of context, but Moffo's is part of a complete performance and I think we hear more of the context in her performance, which is that Magda is singing this at a party to a group of friends. The words have no real significance for her at this stage of the story.

Zeani's performance is lovely, but I'm going for Moffo.

It's a short aria so it doesn't take long to listen to a few performances. I hope we are going to hear from Gheorghiu, Te Kanawa, Scotto and maybe Freni and Cotrubas, all of whom have recorded it.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

This medium is simply full of surprises. Zeani is one of my top 5 favorite sopranos and Moffo (poor Moffo!) is not but in this particular aria I find Zeani's performance too "white" or silvery whereas Moffo's is sympathetic and warm sounding to me and much more stunning and appealing.
I am only grateful that you didn't pit Zeani against Gheorghiu because their voices are so similar and both in my top 5 that I would have had one helluva time with that one.

Hahaha!! I just went up and did a check and once again there is little me sitting in my own cosy corner. I'm kinda getting used to it. )


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> This medium is simply full of surprises. Zeani is one of my top 5 favorite sopranos and Moffo (poor Moffo!) is not but in this particular aria I find Zeani's performance too "white" or silvery whereas Moffo's is sympathetic and warm sounding to me and much more stunning and appealing.
> I am only grateful that you didn't pit Zeani against Gheorghiu because their voices are so similar and both in my top 5 that I would have had one helluva time with that one.
> 
> Hahaha!! I just went up and did a check and once again there is little me sitting in my own cosy corner. I'm kinda getting used to it. )


Not this time. I just realised I'd forgotten to vote.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I took a liking to Moffo’s version much more than Zeani’s and that had to do with the sheer sound. There’s a girlishness to Moffo’s I found more appropriate than Zeani’s knowingness.
It’s a matter of degree and almost negligible, but it helped me choose.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Following along in the score, which is possible with the Moffo version, is instructive. Puccini marks the first hgh lying phrases to be sung _dolcissimo_, the second phrase up to a top C con _crescente calore_ (with growing warmth) and the follwing up to the top Bb, _pianissmo_. Moffo fulfils these instructions perfectly, where Zeani doesn't quite, though the close recording doesn't exacly help.
> 
> Zeani sings with a degree more passion, which might be appropriate when the aria is sung out of context, but Moffo's is part of a complete performance and I think we hear more of the context in her performance, which is that Magda is singing this at a party to a group of friends. The words have no real significance for her at this stage of the story.
> 
> ...


Many more with two sets of 3 contestants. Some you mentioned. Some you would never think of mentioning that I love  ( typical). So glad you guys are enjoying this after my soprano high notes disaster I was very surprised with how well Moffo did after all the of the Zeani lovefest the last round.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

I have never loved Moffo, and while I like her voice I find it a little squeezed in the upper regions which are so important in this aria. Zeani opens up on top, and while it’s maybe not the softly spun, supported pianissimo that Puccini might have intended, I prefer it to Moffo’s attempt. For the rest of the aria she sounds more engaged and passionate, too, and while she might only be singing for friends, this is opera, sing!

Interesting the comment about Zeani sounding similar to Gheorghiu. Gheorghiu loves Zeani and while some might hear stylistic similarities, Zeani’s brighter, centred, more naturally resonant voice seems very different to the less projected, softer, darkened voice which Gheorghiu has made for herself.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

These are both beauties. Moffo's sexy voice is hard to resist, and if hearing her in this sexy little aria can't make me doubt my proclivities nothing can. Seeing that it seems not to have had that effect (never mind how I determine this), I'm free to apply a different sort of test to this match. I choose to apply the gooseflesh test, and the singer who has made the little hairs on my arms spring to attention is Zeani. Maybe Zeani makes more of this song than it requires, but if I were singing at a party I'd do no less. I'd say, too, that Zeani's voice sounds slightly more open and free at the top than Moffo's.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

An excellent match up. I'm going with Anna Moffo for the reasons mentioned, but I also agree that sometimes he top was a kinda pinched (or, at worst, straight up screechy, but that isn't the case here). With contemporary rivals like Sutherland, Sills and Callas, she probably felt competitive pressure to throw in more high notes than was probably ideal, but I think she would have done better to stop around Db6 and only occasionally venture up to Eb6. 

The more she stuck to that, the more her unique timbre with it's combination of rich velvet, casual flirtation and, for lack of a better word "peak Venus energy" came through in her singing (almost like if Delilah were a soprano), even beating out singers (which, imo, includes Zeani) who otherwise had better technique or a wider range of vocal party tricks.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> The more she stuck to that, the more her unique timbre with it's combination of rich velvet, casual flirtation and, for lack of a better word "peak Venus energy" came through in her singing (almost like if Delilah were a soprano), even beating out singers (which, imo, includes Zeani) who otherwise had better technique or a wider range of vocal party tricks.


In other words, her voice makes you horny (can I say that here?). I get it, albeit from "the other side."

I'm reminded of my high school choir director, a young jazz pianist who, one day when I was in his office showing him a Moffo recording (I think it was her Butterfly with Valletti), looked up from her photo with a grin and a twinkle in his eye that was the visual equivalent of a wolf whistle. I don't remember what he said, but he needn't have said a word. He and Moffo were both from the Philadelphia area, and he would have been only a little younger than she. I wonder if they ever met. No doubt he'd have liked that. As it turned out, he married one of his students (after getting fired from the school for dating her), a soprano and a talented jazz singer with a beautiful, sexy voice. I remember them doing "My Funny Valentine" at one of our spring concerts.

Thanks for the memory.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> In other words, her voice makes you horny (can I say that here?). I get it, albeit from "the other side."


Excuse me sir, but I am a wielder of swords, not sword sheathes (can I say that here?)

Also, while I'm here, I went that whole post without using fach. You're supposed to congratulate me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> Excuse me sir, but I am a wielder of swords, not sword sheathes (can I say that here?)
> 
> Also, while I'm here, I went that whole post without using fach. You're supposed to congratulate me.


Indeed, you have abstained from faching recently to a degree that should be acknowledged. Miss Moffo, of course, never had anything to worry about.


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