# High note in Sempre Libera?



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I noticed while searching youtube that the modern performances always, or almost always, do not take the high note.

What's up with that?
Can't sing it or choose not too.
I like it


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

If you mean the top Eb, probably a bit of both. It's not written and plenty singers of the past didn't sing it either and some (Ponselle and Tebaldi for instance) transpose the whole thing down.

Personally, I like it, and if the soprano has the note easily, why not?


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Gheorghiu and Fleming and Netrebko don't.
Who does?


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

GregMitchell said:


> If you mean the top Eb, probably a bit of both. It's not written and plenty singers of the past didn't sing it either and some (Ponselle and Tebaldi for instance) transpose the whole thing down.
> 
> Personally, I like it, and if the soprano has the note easily, why not?


Well, as Greg notes, the Eb is not in the score (though there are plenty of high Cs), and I think modern singers are as a general rule less likely to take liberties of that kind than ones of days gone by.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

gardibolt said:


> Well, as Greg notes, the Eb is not in the score (though there are plenty of high Cs), and I think modern singers are as a general rule less likely to take liberties of that kind than ones of days gone by.


One extreme to the other. ugh


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I don't know, to be honest. It wasn't a given in the past. Callas, Cotrubas and Sutherland did. De Los Angeles, Freni and Caballe didn't. I don't know who, if anyone, sings it now.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Sills did...................


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Sills did...................


And a good one to :tiphat:


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Itullian said:


> Sills did...................


Yes, and Sills too. I'm pretty sure Scotto sings it on her first recording. Moffo too.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

There are many good, or even very good, Traviatas that simply don't have the high E flat. So they sing what Verdi wrote, and in my view this is always the right thing to do.

Having said that, this interpolation is one that is at the same time spectacular singing, and also made for good drama, it's just another step in Violetta's cavalcade to her utter surrender to romantic love.

So, I'm also 100% fine with singing this note, if the performer can really sing it well.

In fact, for the birdy Violettas of the early 20th century, singers like Tetrazzini, Galli-Curci, Pons,.. it was almost a must. You couldn't sing Violetta, without this note. 

In the theater, I remember one huge, incredible one from Edita Gruberova that filled the full house, and menaced to break the walls.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Actually I think you'll find only Scotto sings what Verdi actually wrote in the Muti recording (when he was going through his straight jacketing phase). She resolves to the Ab in the middle of the stave where most sopranos (even the ones who don't sing the Eb in alt) resolve to the Ab above the stave.


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

I love it. Especially when sung by Callas


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

I'd rather have a longer solid lower A flat to end the aria then a squeezed high E flat. Too often I have heard the latter...


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## andipacurar (Jun 29, 2017)

Lovely thing this Eb.

Here's a Youtube video with a compilation of singers who did do it.






Enjoy


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

andipacurar said:


> Lovely thing this Eb.
> 
> Here's a Youtube video with a compilation of singers who did do it.
> 
> ...


Nice first post, welcome to Talk Classical by the way.


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