# Best recorded trill by a soprano



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Be sure to listen to the end.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Callas does it better, with the pitches of both notes spot on from start to finish. Start at 7'00" in.






I remember the jaw-dropping experience of hearing that trill for the first time, about 50 years ago. I still love listening to it.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Callas does it better, with the pitches of both notes spot on from start to finish. Start at 7'00" in.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I love these videos that allow you to follow the printed score. You can see here just how accurate her rendering of the score is, though she sings a derivative of the cadenza, which of course is perfectly acceptable.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

One of the remarkable things about Callas' trill in that live Rigoletto is how 'thick' the voice is at that moment. (The voice is naturally more flexible when there is a greater amount of head voice in the mix.) Callas has a lot of chest voice for singing that high which means that there is a darker, bigger sound than the lighter, brighter tone from Swenson. (Both approaches are valid.) The way in which Callas manages to have so much flexibility AND warmth of tone is astonishing.

N.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Callas does it better, with the pitches of both notes spot on from start to finish. Start at 7'00" in.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Not to take away from Woodduck or Callas, but I think Sutherland and Callas were both untouchable at trills. Both were always perfect and beautiful and if need be big. Here is a compilation of Trills by Sutherland and it is hard to pick a best but I am going with the FF trill starting at 39. Both ladies had great flexibility in giving just what type of trill that was called for with perfectly distinct top and low notes. There is one instant where Sutherland sings a trill over a much wider pair of notes but I can't find it. It is like a fifth. They were very different singers but were both top of the class in trills and coloratura technique. I would not want to pick a winner here.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> One of the remarkable things about Callas' trill in that live Rigoletto is how 'thick' the voice is at that moment. (The voice is naturally more flexible when there is a greater amount of head voice in the mix.) Callas has a lot of chest voice for singing that high which means that there is a darker, bigger sound than the lighter, brighter tone from Swenson. (Both approaches are valid.) The way in which Callas manages to have so much flexibility AND warmth of tone is astonishing.
> 
> N.


But this is the studio performance. In the live one she trills then arpeggios upward to finish on an E _in alt_. She's not the only singer to do this, but I don't like it. I much prefer Verdi's long rapturous trill as heard in Woodduck's post. I feel the same about when the soprano ends up on a top Eb in the Sextet. I prefer Verdi's quiet ending with Gilda on the lower Eb.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> But this is the studio performance. In the live one she trills then arpeggios upward to finish on an E _in alt_. She's not the only singer to do this, but I don't like it. I much prefer Verdi's long rapturous trill as heard in Woodduck's post. I feel the same about when the soprano ends up on a top Eb in the Sextet. I prefer Verdi's quiet ending with Gilda on the lower Eb.


Oh! My mistake! The sound coming through my computer was so poor I didn't recognise it as the studio recording.

N.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

At about 7:11 please!


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> At about 7:11 please!


The whole thing is thrilling. What a shame there is no recording of her singing the role at La Scala in 1952.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

*Well in all sincerity I submit the best soprano that America has ever produced and without stretching things too far can I nominate Tim…*






:angel:


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Sorry to be so late to the game with this but I just discovered this gem and wanted to call your attention to it. I didn't know there was a vocal version of The Blue Danube, but Rosa Ponselle turns it into a bel canto showpiece with lots of trills throughout. Of note though is the trill at 26.35 as it is HUGE! ENORMOUS! EPIC! Perfectly executed as all of hers are but it could be heard over Nilsson singing Salome.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Sorry to be so late to the game with this but I just discovered this gem and wanted to call your attention to it. I didn't know there was a vocal version of The Blue Danube, but Rosa Ponselle turns it into a bel canto showpiece with lots of trills throughout. Of note though is the trill at 26.35 as it is HUGE! ENORMOUS! EPIC! Perfectly executed as all of hers are but it could be heard over Nilsson singing Salome.


Love it, will d/l. thanks...


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

MAS said:


> At about 7:11 please!


This was "Tutte le torture" from Il Ratto del Seragli" (Die Entführung auf dem Serail):which was withdrawn for some reason. I'm posting again


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

This shows the quintessential Abigaille in her cabaletta _Salgo già del tronò aurato_ in Verdi's *Nabucco*. Trills abound in this role, as shown by the forceful trill at about 0:29, or the urgent rising chain of then at 0:52.

The sound, as we all know is execrable, but you can still what she does, and it's astonishing.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Sutherland takes the cake for me overall. Another soprano with reasonably good trills is Dessay.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)




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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> Sutherland takes the cake for me overall. Another soprano with reasonably good trills is Dessay.


So we've gone from "best recorded trill by a soprano" to "reasonably good."

The world has gone to hell.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

vivalagentenuova said:


>


Mission accomplished.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> So we've gone from "best recorded trill by a soprano" to "reasonably good."
> 
> The world has gone to hell.


Woodduck, I might make you eat your words: At 26.34 is one I recently discovered that is by far one of the most jawdropping:



. Rosa Ponselle has not been bettered at trills in general and in perhaps her greatest show of coloratura singing on record, she has tons of trills in The Blue Danube Waltz in this live concert:but at that time marker she begins not only one of the most perfect trills, but also what appears to me the most massive trill I ever encountered, even bettering Sutherland. It could have been easily heard over a full Wagnerian orchestra in the destruction of Valhalla. I kid you not! I included this in my Youtube speech on Ponselle.


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