# SOPRANO TOURNAMENT: (By Request): Muzio vs Olivero



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Claudia Muzio, Italy, 1889-1936






Magda Olivero, Italy, 1910-2014






Who's singing did you prefer and why?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Much as I adore Muzio it really seems, to me, unfair to pit these two against one another in this particular aria.
It is clearly an Olivero win. The lady owns this aria IMHO. She is no longer Olivero. She becomes Adriana Lecouvreur!


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Vulnerability is important in this aria, and Olivero excels; Muzio's is more a power interpretation.


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

Claudia Muzio, by miles. She is probably my most favorite Italian soprano.

I think I will get a lot of hate for this, but I simply can't stand Olivero. I find her timbre grating, and her tremolo is like fingernails on a chalkboard. She is praised by many as a fine vocal actress, but I find her vocal acting hammy. Not that I don't like the "histrionic" verismo style, but I would pick Petrella or Scotto (whose voice is not very pleasant either) over Olivero any day when it comes to being theatrical. She is a favorite example I usually point out whenever people tell me I just blindly love any "old singer" without critically listening to them.

The Muzio's rendition has it all, the _morbidezza_, chiaroscuro, phrasing, the tasteful plunges into chest voice ("_soave e forte bacio di morte, bacio d'amor"_), and those trademark sweet little sighs (but never a disruption of the legato lines). The drama is internalized, not acted out, but it is ways more touching. Compared to this, the Olivero's sounds and feels like she is being choked at times. Adriana is poisoned, but hey, she will only feel it a bit later!

Both are painful recordings: one makes me feel painful (Muzio), one makes my ears painful (Olivero).


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I don't think I've ever been unmoved by Muzio performing anything at all, and she doesn't let me down here. But I was unprepared for what Olivero brings to this aria. It's a daring move to sing most of it pianissimo; I've never heard anyone else try it. But Olivero's pianissimo is so intense that I felt almost unable to breathe while listening; it gives the emotion a powerful concentration and a profound interiority, as of feelings almost too deep to express, making the full-voiced moments into real cries of pain. To top it off, Olivero moves between the extremes with admirable control and confidence. It's unique and brilliant. Do I like the sound of her voice? Probably not much, but it matters not at all.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

My first thought after listening to Muzio was...'damn, I need to listen to more Muzio.' 

My first thought after listening to Olivero was...'damn, I need to listen to more Muzio.'


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Difficult to choose. Very different. Olivero has it nailed on interpretation, but I am not super crazy about the sound of her voice. It might have been experienced differently live.Muzio I need to listen more to. Emotional, but with a truly gorgeous voice with a killer chest voice. I would go back to listen to the Muzio again, so on that basis I choose her version.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I listened to Muzio first and loved it. I assumed I would be voting for her and at the beginning of the Olivero I still thought I'd be voting for her. I've always had a problem with the sound of Olivero's voice. Somewhere in the middle my allegiance to Muzio started to waver, but the end of the aria clinched it for me. I hated all that over-emoting and didn't find it moving at all, so Muzio it is.

I have to admit that I don't much like the opera itself and don't know it that well, though I have the Levine recording with Scotto as a very plausible Adrianna. Up until I bought it, all I knew of it was Callas's recordings of the two main arias, so straight after Olivero I listened to Callas's version, which, memory had not deceieved me, is a miracle of fine shading and incredible breath control, and even more moving in its restrained passion.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Another torture!!

I'm going to have to listen to this one later to give it due consideration.

N.


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## Andante Cantabile (Feb 26, 2020)

In general, I prefer Olivero's early recordings, made for Cetra before she started to take a decade-long break in 1941 due to marriage. Her sweet, plangent tone and manner back then were very well suited to some Puccini heroines such as Mimi and Lauretta, and she was emotionally more controlled and restrained to the benefit of the works she sang. However, her fluttery vibrato can admittedly be bothersome to some ears.

'Si mi chiamano Mimi', _La Bohème_ (1939)






The Cherry Duet from _L'amico Fritz_ with Ferruccio Tagliavini (1940) is a gem that rivals the classic rendition by Tito Schipa and Mafalda Favero.






She also proved to be a vocally appealing and interpretively quite interesting Violetta, with stunning coloratura (the short film, probably shot in the late 1950s, saw her lip synching her own 1940 Cetra recording of "Ah forse lui...Sempre libera" from _La Traviata_):






Her early renditions of the two arias from _Adrianna Lecouvreur _(1939, Cetra), made around the time of her debut in the role:


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

silentio said:


> The Muzio's rendition has it all, the morbidezza, chiaroscuro, phrasing, the tasteful plunges into chest voice ("soave e forte bacio di morte, bacio d'amor")


I agree completely! The way that she colors those lines is outstanding, and should be used in textbooks on opera singing to demonstrate how to be expressive using registration. The text is "bacio di morte, bacio d'amore/kiss of death, kiss of love". She sings "bacio di" in head voice, but goes into chest for "morte" painting the word darkly. "Bacio d'amor" is again in head voice, but at the end of the word she crescendos, going back towards chest, and then diminuendos. Because it's all without effort and and totally appropriate to the text, it all sounds natural, as though Muzio is embodying Adriana's fluid emotional state.

Olivero does a number of good things, but she sounds very constricted and that draws my attention away from her interpretation to her technique. The vibrato is distressing. She also does not approach Muzio's use of registration in the "ultimo bacio" section. She basically sings it all in headvoice.

Muzio it is.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

vivalagentenuova said:


> I agree completely! The way that she colors those lines is outstanding, and should be used in textbooks on opera singing to demonstrate how to be expressive using registration. The text is "bacio di morte, bacio d'amore/kiss of death, kiss of love". She sings "bacio di" in head voice, but goes into chest for "morte" painting the word darkly. "Bacio d'amor" is again in head voice, but at the end of the word she crescendos, going back towards chest, and then diminuendos. Because it's all without effort and and totally appropriate to the text, it all sounds natural, as though Muzio is embodying Adriana's fluid emotional state.
> 
> Olivero does a number of good things, but she sounds very constricted and that draws my attention away from her interpretation to her technique. The vibrato is distressing. She also does not approach Muzio's use of registration in the "ultimo bacio" section. She basically sings it all in headvoice.
> 
> Muzio it is.


It is like listening to Richard Bonynge or Tulio Seraphin Wow!


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I don't listen much to either artist. If I were to choose based on voice alone, I would pick Muzio. This being Olivero's most famous role, I listened to her closely, but she seems to offer just a number of vocal effects, which in the theater would've worked very well. Listening as I do now, out of context, it seems to me exaggerated. Muzio sounds more direct though still making its points and the voice is well controlled and beautifully used.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

So it seems I'm in Muzio camp here. No problem with Olivero's timbre, but there are two really different interpretations on display: I highly prefer Muzio more melancholy approach which opens interesting details here and there. And the use of chest register is very clever, it actually adds to the impression. But in fact, the explosive ending delivered by Olivero is also very impressive.
So Muzio but not by a wide margin.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Ok, I'm going in...

N.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

This one is too much of a Sophie's Choice for me. I refuse to choose. Vocally Muzio is superior, but Olivero is more emotionally involved and her interpretation is on a whole other level.

I fully understand those who can't stand the sound of Olivero's voice, it cleans your ears out and you can give your dirty pans a scour at the same time!

N.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

The Conte said:


> This one is too much of a Sophie's Choice for me. I refuse to choose. Vocally Muzio is superior, but Olivero is more emotionally involved and her interpretation is on a whole other level.
> 
> I fully understand those who can't stand the sound of Olivero's voice, it cleans your ears out and you can give your dirty pans a scour at the same time!
> 
> N.


Here I am, a true lover of Magda Olivero, full well knowing that the voice itself leaves much to be desired. But what she does with her voice myriad sopranos only wish they knew how to do. And she's got muscles that are so strong it is amazing.
She's like Callas in many ways. Both have voices that are acquired tastes to many. They both have a way of expressing themselves in an incredibly creative way that gets to the bones of the listener. They both have flaws --one who has that annoying (to some) vibrato and gulping glottal attacks, and the other who has that wobble on the high notes that turns off some.
So if one happens to prefer beautiful voices first and that is the most important factor to you, stay away from these two ladies with their flaws that turn out to be positives for some like me.
It all depends on what floats your boat.
For me both Callas and Olivero have a unique way of expressing their feelings that touch me in a way others with stunning voices cannot.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Here I am, a true lover of Magda Olivero, full well knowing that the voice itself leaves much to be desired. But what she does with her voice myriad sopranos only wish they knew how to do. And she's got muscles that are so strong it is amazing.
> She's like Callas in many ways. Both have voices that are acquired tastes to many. They both have a way of expressing themselves in an incredibly creative way that gets to the bones of the listener. They both have flaws --one who has that annoying (to some) vibrato and gulping glottal attacks, and the other who has that wobble on the high notes that turns off some.
> So if one happens to prefer beautiful voices first and that is the most important factor to you, stay away from these two ladies with their flaws that turn out to be positives for some like me.
> It all depends on what floats your boat.
> For me both Callas and Olivero have a unique way of expressing their feelings that touch me in a way others with stunning voices cannot.


Well, as you know, I'm a Callas fan and I'll be honest in that I don't know that much of Olivero's work, possibly because I'm not paricularly interested in much of her core repertoire. However, on this showing, I still prefer Muzio's way with the music and I find her much more subtle. I really don't like those added histrionics at the end, which to me come across rather as the aural euquivalent of silent movie acting.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

nina foresti said:


> Here I am, a true lover of Magda Olivero, full well knowing that the voice itself leaves much to be desired. But what she does with her voice myriad sopranos only wish they knew how to do. And she's got muscles that are so strong it is amazing.
> She's like Callas in many ways. Both have voices that are acquired tastes to many. They both have a way of expressing themselves in an incredibly creative way that gets to the bones of the listener. They both have flaws --one who has that annoying (to some) vibrato and gulping glottal attacks, and the other who has that wobble on the high notes that turns off some.
> So if one happens to prefer beautiful voices first and that is the most important factor to you, stay away from these two ladies with their flaws that turn out to be positives for some like me.
> It all depends on what floats your boat.
> For me both Callas and Olivero have a unique way of expressing their feelings that touch me in a way others with stunning voices cannot.


I couldn't agree more! And some will like one of them but not the other because their unique way of using the music and their voice to express emotion won't resonate with them. It helps in the case of Callas if you like Verdi and/or bel canto and in the case of Olivero those who are turned off from Verismo need not apply.

N.


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