# 'No, non tremare perfido' Contest



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)




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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Callas by a mile. The rage and power of her singing is absolutely incredible. So is her execution of the coloratura. Not a single aspirate to he heard, I marginally prefer 1955 to 1952/53 (I'm not absolutely sure but I think this may be Trieste 1953). This 1955 performance of *Norma *is, I think, her greatest performance in the role, one of those nights when everything went right, and it caps what is often referred to as her _annus mirabilis _when voice and art reached their purest equilibrium.

Caballé comes next. This Orange performance is something of a legend and Caballé was in spendid voice. She lightly aspirates the coloratura, but it's still pretty good and she does get the necessary anger into her voice.

Sutherland has superb coloratura and beautiful top notes but I don't get the necessary anger from her and her diction is not great. It's all a bit too comfortable for my taste. If I heard it blind without knowing the context I wouldn't necessarily know the character was raging.

Cigna trails in last place. Her coloratura is clumsy and she seems more preoccupied with getting round the notes than anything else. She simply doesn't have the technique for _bel canto._


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I would place Sutherland last - even if she handles the _coloratura _well, she does not delineate the notes like even Cigna does in her rather clumsy way. Caballe, in her most famous *Norma *handles it better, and beautifully, but Callas sculpts the phrases with lapidary precision and enormous force. I prefer Callas’s 1952 *Norma *in this case, as her voice is in Olympian shape, though one can’t fault the 1955 voice in this passage.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Of course Callas is fabulous but Sutherland can act the pants off this scene later in her career along with exciting coloratura. She is almost on fire in this scene and if you doubt me watch it ( but of course almost all in this forum with say with her mushy diction and covered voice of her later career LOL).


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Everyone expects Callas to be supreme in this fearsome passage, and so she is. I see no reason to choose between her two performances, but one has better sound and so we can hear her better. Caballe is very good, if a little rushed; faster doesn't necessarily mean more exciting, but maybe her voice just works better at that tempo. Cigna and Sutherland present a pair of opposites, with Cigna projecting more of the rage and Sutherland more of the notes. I think natural vocal endowment plays a bigger role in these differences than some may appreciate, even though it may be difficult to say how big. Some voices naturally move more easily than others; some have an incisive edge, a sharp clarity that makes them well-suited to dramatic utterances while others are mellower in timbre and essentially lyric. A "dramatic soprano" needs more than volume, as Sutherland, whose voice was reportedly large, often demonstrates. If she doesn't get the necessary venom into her voice, it isn't a failure of intention; I suspect she comes about as near to projecting the right feeling in this music as her vocal qualities (including clear diction among those) will permit. The suggestion that she had the vocal power to have sung dramatic soprano repertoire may not be wrong, but I'd say that Norma lies at the extreme boundary (and at times slightly outside it) of the repertoire suitable for her. "No, non tremare" needs to cut like a knife, and Sutherland's voice simply doesn't do that no mattter how forcefully it's used.

By the way, I know the text of this as "No, non tremare" - which is unmistakably what Callas sings - but all these videos say it's "Oh, non tremare," and the other singers seem to agree. Anyone know what Bellini intended?


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Everyone expects Callas to be supreme in this fearsome passage, and so she is. I see no reason to choose between her two performances, but one has better sound and so we can hear her better. Caballe is very good, if a little rushed; faster doesn't necessarily mean more exciting, but maybe her voice just works better at that tempo. Cigna and Sutherland present a pair of opposites, with Cigna projecting more of the rage and Sutherland more of the notes. I think natural vocal endowment plays a bigger role in these difference than some may appreciate, even though it may be difficult to say how big. Some voices naturally move more easily than others; some have an incisive edge, a sharp clarity that makes them well-suited to dramatic utterances while others are mellower in timbre and essentially lyric. A "dramatic soprano" needs more than volume, as Sutherland, whose voice was reportedly large, often demonstrates. If she doesn't get the necessary venom into her voice, it isn't a failure of intention; I suspect she comes about as near to projecting the right feeling in this music as her vocal qualities (including clear diction among those) will permit. The suggestion that she had the vocal power to have sung dramatic soprano repertoire may not be wrong, but I'd say that Norma lies at the extreme boundary (and at times slightly outside it) of the repertoire suitable for her. "No, non tremare" needs to cut like a knife, and Sutherland's voice simply doesn't do that no mattter how forcefully it's used.
> 
> By the way, I know the text of this as "No, non tremare" - which is unmistakably what Callas sings - but all these videos say it's "Oh, non tremare," and the other singers seem to agree. Anyone know what Bellini intended?


I thought this would be interesting as it is one of those moments where post weight loss Csllas seems more wild. 

By looking at the score quickly it seems "oh non tremare" was the intention.

Sutherland is last for me. Even in the video she bores me to death. Cigna is not great here and it is not one of the strong moments of Caballes Norma. Callas is head and shoulders of the competition. Doubt we will find another Norma like that in our lifetimes.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

They are all good. Some to a better degree than others, but Callas' second one is my favorite. To me she matured and became strongly in control. I also liked Sutherland second.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I listened to all of them at night. I am generally a fan of Callas 1955, but after hearing all examples, I admired all of those with reasonable recording quality. (i.e. not Gina Cigna or the first Callas).


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