# Sopranos Who Have Great Lower Registers



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Top of my list would be Rosa Ponselle, Jessye Norman, and Maria Callas followed by Milanov, Shirley Verrett, Helen Traubel and Regine Crespin.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I'm guessing these singers are too far in the past to be relevant to today's opera fans.


----------



## Guest (Jun 25, 2013)

*Sopranos* who have great lower registers? I'm sorry to deflect this thread so early on, but I can't resist saying _*James Gandolfini*_. Back on topic: I think *Emma Kirkby* fits the bill. I want to marry her, she has a voice to die for.


----------



## tyroneslothrop (Sep 5, 2012)

TalkingHead said:


> Back on topic: I think *Emma Kirkby* fits the bill. I want to marry her, she has a voice to die for.


I've loved her ever since I listened to the AAM Messiah on CD about 20 times while I was still in high school. However, she's an Early Music specialist and has never performed opera, not even in a baroque one.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I'm guessing these singers are too far in the past to be relevant to today's opera fans.


An opera fan isn't an opera fan if not au fait with the singers from the past.
In any case these are recent stars--for heaven's sake I was 39 years old when Callas died.
Zinka Milanov was the greatest star on the scene in the USa for decades and my favourite Verdi soprano .
Jessye norman is only 68 years old now and was singing until recently--maybe still is.


----------



## tyroneslothrop (Sep 5, 2012)

moody said:


> An opera fan isn't an opera fan if not au fait with the singers from the past.
> In any case these are recent stars--for heaven's sake I was 39 years old when Callas died.


Sadly, I was only 12 at that time so I didn't become acquainted with _La Divina_ until she had been gone another 15 years. But today, she is one of my absolute favorite sopranos and I have many of her recordings.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

tyroneslothrop said:


> Sadly, I was only 12 at that time so I didn't become acquainted with _La Divina_ until she had been gone another 15 years. But today, she is one of my absolute favorite sopranos and I have many of her recordings.


Well,you get digging back into the past and you will hear some eye-openers ------ if you see what I mean.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I'm guessing these singers are too far in the past to be relevant to today's opera fans. ~ Seattleoperafan



moody said:


> *An opera fan isn't an opera fan if not au fait with the singers from the past.*
> In any case these are recent stars--for heaven's sake I was 39 years old when Callas died.
> Zinka Milanov was the greatest star on the scene in the USa for decades and my favourite Verdi soprano .
> Jessye norman is only 68 years old now and was singing until recently--maybe still is.


They are in no way irrelevant if you have a genuine interest in great classical singers and singing.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Thanks for all the responses. Some of my threads seem to go no where. I think there are fine singers today, but the best are in our past. Fpr a current dramatic soprano with a great lower register try Christine Goerke.


----------



## Pamina (Sep 5, 2012)

Have to add Leontyne Price to this list (and virtually any soprano that sings a really good Fiordiligi or Carmen).


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Let's listen to those beautiful renditions of Gioconda's aria "Suicidio", by Maria Callas (with those really cavernous 'fra le tenebre'), Rosa Ponselle (such a wonderful, glorious, low register) and Anita Cerquetti (less rotund, perhaps, but so beautifully ensembled with the rest of her range):


----------



## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

schigolch said:


> *Let's listen to those beautiful renditions of Gioconda's aria "Suicidio", by Maria Callas* (with those really cavernous 'fra le tenebre'), Rosa Ponselle (such a wonderful, glorious, low register) and Anita Cerquetti (less rotund, perhaps, but so beautifully ensembled with the rest of her range):


That is why I love Callas, in her Suicidio lightning cracks across the sky, snowflakes gently fall, eagles soar, and the earth opens to swallow you whole.....brava

The later EMI studio recording is even better for me


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Schigolch.
Strangely enough I ordered Ms. Cerquetti's CD from Preiser today.I had all the numbers on LP but I thought it was time.
She was a great talent but gave up suddenly.
I don't share your feelings for Callas but certainly do for Rosa Ponselle.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

This is an old thread about Rosa Ponselle we posted a couple of years ago: http://www.talkclassical.com/14611-first-thread-singer-depth.html

After Cerquetti's tour de force singing Norma at the same time at Naples and Rome, she performed in Palermo, Milan, Philadelphia, México and Barcelona. At Liceu, after a new success as Norma, she was supposed to sing Aida, but she was replaced by Simona Dall'Argine.

After a period retired the operatic stage, she returned with a Nabbuco in Holland, a few concerts at La Scala, one Ballo in Lucca ... and this was the end of Cerquetti's career, then only thirty years old.

Health problems, and the birth of her daughter, were the alleged cause of this premature retirement.

This was Cerquetti at the top of her power, when everything seemed achievable, singing Norma:


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

schigolch said:


> This is an old thread about Rosa Ponselle we posted a couple of years ago: http://www.talkclassical.com/14611-first-thread-singer-depth.html
> 
> After Cerquetti's tour de force singing Norma at the same time at Naples and Rome, she performed in Palermo, Milan, Philadelphia, México and Barcelona. At Liceu, after a new success as Norma, she was supposed to sing Aida, but she was replaced by Simona Dall'Argine.
> 
> ...


Interesting,although why anybody would want to quote John Ardoin is a mystery to me.
On top of that somebody appears not to know that it was Caruso who got her into the Met with hardly any experience and that's why she loved him so much.
Also such threads are annoying in a way to me because I have 700o recordings but can't take part because I have no idea how.
Lastly,the bad news for me is that Preiser's supplier in the UK has gone up the creek==it must have been my order that finished him off!!


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Thanks for the link to the Ponselle thread!!! I had been looking for it as I plan to do a speech on her.


----------



## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

I think Angela Gheorghiu is a great soprano with a nice lower voice.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

When I heard Christine Goerke as Chrysothemis in ELEKTRA a few years ago, I was astonished at the depth of her low register.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Bellinilover said:


> When I heard Christine Goerke as Chrysothemis in ELEKTRA a few years ago, I was astonished at the depth of her low register.


She did Norma in Seattle with the astonishing Ewa Podles as Adalgisa. She had lost weight and had some problems with support at the time, but she had an enormous high D at the end of Act II and some really amazing low notes. I remember hearing her in her Mozart prime doing Fiordaligi's big aria from Cosi with glorious low notes. She has transitioned to being a dramatic soprano and the reviews are good. She has gained weight again but her voice appears to have benefited .


----------



## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

I think Anja Harteros' low register sounds rather impressive here in "_Tu che le vanita_:"


----------

