# Biggest Note Ever Recorded By a Soprano???!!!!



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I have read for years that Flagstad had the largest soprano voice of all time, but never had heard evidence for this from recordings till I ran across this example from Youtube. I have the Reiner Tristan but stumbled across this alternate recording of Isolde's Curse that is noticeably more effective and simply boggles the mind. Listen to the biggest note at the end of the Curse and see if your mind is not blown. I've been wowed by Nilsson, Jones and Grob Prandl in the past, but this torrent of sound is simply out of the ballpark :



. Of course Nilsson and Grob Prandl have the edge on High B's and C's, but this High A is utterly beyond the grasp of imagination...inhuman in fact!


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

It depends what you mean by biggest of course, but surely Callas's high Eb at the end of the Triumphal Scene in Aida (recorded on two separate occasions in Mexico) has to be the loudest note above top C every recorded by a soprano.






There are some others here, but they pale by comparison


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Well, yes, there is that. But overall, for sheer vocal heft I think Flagstad would win on this note.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Yes, Flagstad would surely win. But I've long thought that the last note of "Casta diva" ("tu fai nel _ciel_ ") in this recording by Joan Sutherland must be one of the biggest and roundest _soft_ notes ever recorded by a soprano:


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Oh, Sutherland was a marvel and I think she could give Maria some serious competition in the size of her notes above high C. The D at the end of the big trio in the second act of Norma in her first studio recording is ginormous as is a D# in a later duet with Pollione in an interpolated last note in the same recording. Like Sutherland, Flagstad sang mostly with effortless production of a big sound, but what is extraordinary about the example I posted today is she seems to have really called on her reserves of power to really hit you with a wall of sound.


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## Volve (Apr 14, 2013)

And here I am still wondering why Nilsson hasn't been mentioned yet. I won't say she had the biggest voice ever, as I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that I have a recording of her where she was some meters away from the microphones and was still louder than an orchestra and other singers who were right at the microphones. Just saying. I only wish I had the chance to see Flagstad live though, the recording quality left of her is not good enough.


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## HumphreyAppleby (Apr 11, 2013)

Though most people probably wouldn't categorize Eleanor Steber as a dramatic soprano, listen to that high note (5:19) on 'Su, su, su, come le _stelle_'. Holy crap. And there's another massive high note after 9:20.





I think this is as good an excuse as I'm going to get to post this silly little video with Caballe:





That Flagstad is pretty darn impressive though. I'm surprised the microphone didn't melt. The only male singer I've heard give that effect is Georges Thill.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Apparently, Flagstad was to some extent Sutherland's singing role model. She was quoted once as saying that she always tried to sing in the same "seamless" manner Flagstad did.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Volve said:


> And here I am still wondering why Nilsson hasn't been mentioned yet. I won't say she had the biggest voice ever, as I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that I have a recording of her where she was some meters away from the microphones and was still louder than an orchestra and other singers who were right at the microphones. Just saying. I only wish I had the chance to see Flagstad live though, the recording quality left of her is not good enough.


 I like singers from the 30's so I am used to the sound from that era and still feel you can get a sense of what made Flagstad so great. Nilsson and the lesser known Grob Prandl were more powerful on B's and C's than Kirsten and just about anybody else, there is no doubt. Both had a more laser like focused sound. But over the whole of the voice up to A Flagstad was a wonder both of size and of beauty. The most amazing note I have heard of Birgit was the high C at the end of a live Siegfried recording that was awesome! Flagstad was more like a wall of sound on the note I called attention to in the video.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Well, yes, there is that. But overall, for sheer vocal heft I think Flagstad would win on this note.


Though of course an Eb _in alt_ was not, and never would have been, in her armoury. But I take your point.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

HumphreyAppleby said:


> Though most people probably wouldn't categorize Eleanor Steber as a dramatic soprano, listen to that high note (5:19) on 'Su, su, su, come le _stelle_'. Holy crap. And there's another massive high note after 9:20.


Steber is much better than Tebaldi here. Tebaldi of course, like Ponselle, had a short top. She pretty much had to pray for her top Cs. In the book "The Last of the Prima Donnas", she goes on quite a bit about how the pitch of modern orchestras keeps rising. For a soprano of her type, that must have been a constant fear. Like Ponselle, she would make a downward transposition for _Sempre libera_. Nor did she ever sing the *Trovatore* Leonora on stage, as the role lay too high for her.



HumphreyAppleby said:


> I think this is as good an excuse as I'm going to get to post this silly little video with Caballe:


Caballe was certainly known for her astonishing breath control, which often led her to hold notes long after the composer requested, and, as she does in _Vissi d'arte_, completely ignore the phrasing marked in the score. There are times when it works wonderfully, though. I have a recording of her in *Maria Stuarda*, in which she holds the long, soft note throughout the choral repeat of the prayer in the last act. Where most singers have to breathe, Caballe swells this note and phrases through to the repeat. I've never heard any other singer match it. From around 1'58


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)




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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Sutherland is pretty special on the Maria Stuarda long note as well. Believe it or not, Nilsson came about as close as any other singer in a dual with Caballe on pianissimi.


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## Trillo (Jan 4, 2014)

Sutherland's colossal top D in her Norma debut - like a comet blasting through space (3:03):






Callas' interpolated and huge Eb6 in Nabucco's duet - electricity (2:23):


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Callas in the trio from *Norma* at La Scala in 1955 (post weight loss). The top D is pretty colossal here too, and the intensity of all that goes before is white hot!


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Couac Addict said:


>


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## Rackon (Apr 9, 2013)

Did any of you hear Nilsson and/or Sutherland live? I happened to have heard both ladies in the same house during the 70s, and since Birgit was singing in the Ring cycle, I was fortunate enough to hear her as Brunnhilde three years running.

For those who like to keep score, Nilsson's was by far the larger voice, quite the biggest female voice I ever heard, and at that time without grain, glare or strain, not even at the tippy top. It wasn't merely that she was loud - although she could blast it out when she wanted - it was that the voice was so secure and focused it projected effortlessly over the orchestra to the furthest reaches of the hall with power to spare (this was in the 3800 seat Civic Opera House). 

Despite what you might think from recordings, Sutherland's instrument was not nearly the size of Nilsson's. But she was a canny performer who knew how to wield it to stunning effect. I'm not saying she didn't nail the big high notes - she did and how - but as thrilling as that voice could be, Joan didn't have the sheer volume of a Nilsson or a Rysanek. (When it comes to big and loud and high, you can't leave out Leonie.) Sutherland didn't have to sing over a Wagnerian band in full cry either.

It's tricky trying to compare voices for size just from recordings, particularly with singers from different eras. Records lie.

Besides, loudness (or the lack of it) is only one facet of these ladies's singing - and not the most interesting one either.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I think for Sutherland it was the fact that her voice, like Maria's, was so big for the repertoire she sang. Maria, Joan and Rosa Ponselle, along with Lillie Lehman and Eaglen, were among the very few singers who could bring the dramatic soprano sound that the role of Norma really needs.
I think we can say with pretty good authority from seasoned opera goers of other generations who had heard both Flagstad and Nilsson in their prime, that Flagstad's was another order larger than Birgit's, except for the tippy top, where Nilsson was in her glory. Ponselle, who had the largest soprano ever for the Italian repertoire, lost out to Flagstad at the Met in a contest to see who's voice was bigger. I read this in a Ponselle bio. This is why I can confidently say Flagstad possessed the biggest soprano voice anyone could ever remember hearing live. This recording of Isolde's Curse is the first recording where I got a real sense of the size of her voice from the recording.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I wish I'd heard any of the the above in the theatre. The largest voice I ever encountered live was Gwyneth Jones, but it has to be said, it could also be a rather unwieldy instrument, with none of the clarity of a Flagstad, a Nilsson or a Sutherland. None the less, she was an exciting performer.

Another singer who, at Covent Garden at least, had a voice much bigger than I might have expected was Agnes Baltsa. I remember a performance of *Don Carlo*, at which I was sitting up in the far reaches of the amphitheatre. Until she made her entrance in Act II, I'd been thinking I was going deaf, straining to hear the other singers (Ricciarelli as Elisabetta, Dennis O'Neil as Carlo). However I had no problem hearing Baltsa. Her voice, even at _mezza voce_ had no problem filling the theatre.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I played the Narration and Curse by Flagstad in my first post of this thread tonight for my 15th opera speech before my Toastmaster club and never before have I had such enthusiastic reactions to the musical selection. They were blown away.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

You should hear my wife scream when we watch a horror movie


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## Philmwri (Apr 8, 2011)

Jessye Norman is rather substantial(in recordings I've never heard her live) but I think Nilsson and Flagstad probably had the biggest voices. Joan Sutherland's voice was large and projected well but Birgit's voice had a bit more weight to it.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I played the Narration and Curse by Flagstad in my first post of this thread tonight for my 15th opera speech before my Toastmaster club and never before have I had such enthusiastic reactions to the musical selection. They were blown away.


Here is the speech I did on Isolde's Curse using Flagstad's '35 recording. I wish my portable sound system had been a Bose.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Svelte Silhouette said:


> You should hear my wife scream when we watch a horror movie


Is she still screaming at you?


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

largest voice overall: probably Nilsson or Flagstad. someone could probably make a case for Gwenyth Jones in her prime being a contender, and or perhaps a few dramatic sopranos from the golden age.
largest note: probably Sutherland. she doesn't have the weightiest voice, but the formidable, spinto-y weight she does have combined with that piercing brightness means her notes above high C probably carry further than any other voice I can think of.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

just for fun, for tenors: Corelli, hands down. his high notes cut like a katana slicing through a tatami mat. he could even keep up with Nilsson on sustained unison high notes.

second place might surprise people, but honestly.....I would have to say Nicolai Gedda. it wasn't the biggest voice overall (maybe a light spinto if I'm being generous), but in some ways he was like a male Joan Sutherland: a voice so heavy in overtones that it got _more_ full near the top of the range rather than less, and he manages to keep up with her as high as a high D while being heard clearly.



Philmwri said:


> Jessye Norman is rather substantial(in recordings I've never heard her live) but I think Nilsson and Flagstad probably had the biggest voices. Joan Sutherland's voice was large and projected well but Birgit's voice had a bit more weight to it.


exactly. people tend to over-emphasize weight and under emphasize the carrying power of vocal brightness. Norman has one of the heaviest voices ever recorded, but there was no "ping" to it. she had to sing by overpowering the orchestra rather than relying on the overtones necessary to spin above it (probably because, imo, she was a mezzo from the beginning).

I am a bass-baritone, and my voice is easily heavier than 90% of the sopranos out there, but even with my best thin edge singing and most spinning top notes, a trained soprano is probably going to carry better than me if she goes above an A.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Wouldn't this be totally impossible to quantify on a recording?


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

Not an answer to your question, but since we are discussing singer volume, the great Luisa Tetrazzini was reported to sing in an open avenue without amplification to an audience of up to 200,000 people (!).









https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Luisa-Tetrazzini-s-gift-ends-S-F-era-on-high-note-2452300.php

http://www.singerslegacy.com/pictures.html

_"At exactly 8:30, a spotlight went on, and Tetrazzini appeared on the arm of Mayor P.H. McCarthy. She carried an ostrich boa and wore a huge hat and a white gown covered with spangles that glittered in the light.

Tetrazzini waved, a musical note sounded, and there was absolute silence.

Tetrazzini sang "The Last Rose of Summer," and her voice,* reverberating off the walls of the office buildings, carried for blocks*. "If you closed your eyes," wrote Samuel Dickson, who was there, "you would have thought yourself alone in the world with that beautiful voice.

*"I was two blocks away," he wrote years later, "and every note was crystal clear, every word distinct."*

Tetrazzini sang for a half hour. There were no microphones in those days. "It was sweet, clear and pure in all its artless beauty," Fredrick Wood wrote in The Chronicle on Christmas Day.

At the end, she sang "Auld Lang Syne" and the huge crowd, nearly all of them survivors of the 1906 disaster, joined in.

In a way, that 1910 Christmas Eve was an epitaph for the old San Francisco. Tetrazzini had made her American debut in San Francisco a few months before the earthquake and had adopted the city, singing not only in the opera, but in church choirs. On Christmas Eve 1905, when a boys choir sang at the Palace Hotel, she joined in, her rich voice soaring over the old Garden Court."_

OK, so who else today can replicate such feat?


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## davidglasgow (Aug 19, 2017)

Some suggestions where the voices sound huge 

Dame Joan Sutherland in Attila:





Dame Eva Turner in Turandot:





Rosa Ponselle in Suor Angelica:





Gertrude Grob-Prandl in Robert le Diable:





I think that Grob-Prandl as Ortrud must be one of the most overwhelming recordings by a soprano in terms of a rich voice used unstintingly:


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