# Name your favorite Caballe Piannisimo



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I'm thinking of doing a speech on her. Do you possibly have a favorite video of Caballe singing her most ravishing pianissimo you could recommend?? Thanks. I'm leaning towards the finale to Signor Ascolta from Turandot.


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

*


Seattleoperafan said:



I'm thinking of doing a speech on her. Do you possibly have a favorite video of Caballe singing her most ravishing pianissimo you could recommend?? Thanks. I'm leaning towards the finale to Signor Ascolta from Turandot.

Click to expand...

*









I really love Caballe's_ pianissimi_ too on the Mehta _Turandot_.

It was the very first _pianissimi _I ever fell in love with. <_Sigh._>

I just kept playing it over-and-over again.

Pure delight.

I'd commend it expressly to anyone. _;D_


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Caballe's pianissimi are certainly legendary, though, personally, I think she tended to overdo them later in her career, especially when the voice started to lose quality at volume.

One of my favourites is the top C at the end of _O patria mia_. No other soprano does it like this, truly _dolce_, as Verdi requests. and the closing bars are exquisite too.






Another is the end of Liu's _Signore ascolta_, either in the complete recording or the EMI Puccini recital with Mackerras.






Puccini actually asks for a _messa di voce_ here (Schwarzkopf does it on the Callas recording), but Caballe, as was often her wont, prefers to do what her voice does best (a gradually fading pianissimo) and it has to be admitted the effect is ravishing.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Of the ones I've heard, probably the _pianissimi_ in her recording of "Oh! Nel fulgente nuvolo" from Verdi's ATTILA. I feel that her _pianissimi_, in combination with her legendary breath control (it almost sounds as though she sings the entire aria on a single breath!), "make" the rendition.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I'm thinking of doing a speech on her. Do you possibly have a favorite video of Caballe singing her most ravishing pianissimo you could recommend?? Thanks. I'm leaning towards the finale to Signor Ascolta from Turandot.


Great idea about the speech! You'll have to tell us how it went, if you decide to do it.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Actually my favorite is the one during O Patria Mia, but I want video and not just a singing track for my speech. Nilsson is one of the few sopranos besides Caballe who had a solid pp High C, believe it or not. Caballe does my favorite O Patria Mia ever.


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Montserrat Caballé passed away at the age of 85 in Barcelona.
R.I.P


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Rogerx said:


> Montserrat Caballé passed away at the age of 85 in Barcelona.
> R.I.P


Sad news. One of the last of the greats.


----------



## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Have no words to say.
I heard they took her to court countless times, something about taxes etc. I only can imagine what a nightmare for her it was. Dammit, couldn't they just pardon her and forget about the money she (probably) owed because we owe her much more


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Not necessarily my favorite pianissimo of hers, but there are two beautiful passages in LUISA MILLER (I'm referring to the live, 1968 recording from the Met)--one in the Act II ensemble finale, and one in the Act III duet "Piangi, piangi, il tuo dolor").


----------

