# MEZZO/CONTRALTO TOURNAMENT (Tiebreaker): Mantelli vs Podles



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Eugenia Mantelli, Italy, 1860-1926 (defeated Horne 9-6)

https://www.talkclassical.com/71225-mezzo-contralto-tournament-round.html






Ewa Podles, Poland, 1952- (defeated Simionato 10-7)

https://www.talkclassical.com/71105-mezzo-contralto-tournament-round.html






'Stride la vampa' from Verdi's _Il Trovatore_.

Who's singing did you prefer and why?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Are you serious? Mantelli needs to go back to the kiddie pool.
(I bet I'm the only one to choose Podles)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> Are you serious? Mantelli needs to go back to the kiddie pool.
> (I bet I'm the only one to choose Podles)


Best not to make rash bets (see above).

Azucena may be a witch, but you don't have to make ugly sounds to portray an ugly character. I find Podles's boomy, bottled-up, darkened tone off-putting. Mantelli, of course, had a richer timbre than the primitive recording can reveal, but she is also Podles's superior technically and stylistically, with crisp, precise rhythms, effective portamenti (which it doesn't occur to Podles to employ), and a good trill. I suspect Podles is past her prime here, but in any event Mantelli outsings her.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I didn't like Podles at all. Occluded tone, poor diction and no real sense of the words. Nor were her trills particularly well articulated. So it's a no from me.

Mantelli, on the other hand, sings cleanly with well defined trills. She's not as exciting as such famous Azucenas as Stignani, Simionato (I suspect that if this aria had been chosen for the Podles/Simionato sing off, then Simionato would have won hands down) or Barbieri, but her execution of the notes is much more accurate. Mantelli gets my vote.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I think Podles is past her prime here and could have been much more impressive a decade earlier. I am normally a huge fan of hers, but I surprised myself by thinking Mantelli did a better job. Earlier the coloratura would have been better for Podles, but here Mantelli did it much more precisely and her voice was more beautiful. I will say in Podles defense that she did sound spooky, which fits the part.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Podles sounds quite past her prime (is that a trill? please!) but Mantelli is just plain boring (sorry about that) while much better technically equipped. Simionato or Cossotto is what I'm looking for.
No vote.

P.S. In the light of previous voting round I'd share this -


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I didn't like Podles at all. Occluded tone, poor diction and no real sense of the words. Nor were her trills particularly well articulated. So it's a no from me.


Podles has always fallen into this category of "has terrible technique, but somehow I enjoy her anyway". sometimes, people do things wrong and still manage to be endearing for some reason.



> Mantelli, on the other hand, sings cleanly with well defined trills.


yeah, she got my vote for this reason



> She's not as exciting as such famous Azucenas as Stignani, Simionato (I suspect that if this aria had been chosen for the Podles/Simionato sing off, then Simionato would have won hands down) or Barbieri, but her execution of the notes is much more accurate. Mantelli gets my vote.


For sure. I thought that choice was weird, given it's a very light piece sung by sopranos 60% of the time. Not big, dark mezzos that sing Verdi. I voted for Podles just based on that aria, but she got lucky with the selection.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> I thought that choice was weird, given it's a very light piece sung by sopranos 60% of the time. Not big, dark mezzos that sing Verdi.


What sopranos? .........


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> What sopranos? .........


Oh, you know. Berganza, Von Stade, Horne, DiDonato, Supervia, Baltsa, Bartoli, Valentin-Terrani. Those sopranos!


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Oh, you know. Berganza, *Von Stade*, *Horne*,* DiDonato*, Supervia, *Baltsa*, Bartoli, Valentin-Terrani. Those sopranos!


yes (to her credit, Baltsa admitted as much. she claimed she studied as a dramatic soprano at conservatoire but sang mezzo roles because she thought she was last longer in that rep). either way, Baltsa is my favorite rendition of this piece, so I'm not complaining (many pieces can be sung beautiful by a range of different voices).

anyway, we can debate that on the other thread if you want. I don't want to derail this one.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> yes (to her credit, Baltsa admitted as much. she claimed she studied as a dramatic soprano at conservatoire but sang mezzo roles because she thought she was last longer in that rep). either way, Baltsa is my favorite rendition of this piece, so I'm not complaining (many pieces can be sung beautiful by a range of different voices).
> 
> anyway, we can debate that on the other thread if you want. I don't want to derail this one.


This is old ground we are going over. As far as I'm concerned the singers mentioned above have sung mezzo for the najority of their careers, consider themselves mezzos and therefore are mezzos.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> ...it's a very light piece sung by sopranos 60% of the time. Not big, dark mezzos that sing Verdi.


Sopranos, it seems, have not agreed. To my ear, as well, the aria lies lower than a soprano's most effective range. I suppose Ponselle could have handled it nicely in her second career, had she decided to have one, but in her actual career she was too busy being Leonora to be tempted by swarthy pancake and burlap petticoats. As I peruse recordings of _Trovatore_ my judgment seems supported by the casting of Minghini-Cataneo, Stignani, Barbieri, Nicolai, Elias, Horne, Obraztsova, Dominguez, Bumbry, Verrett, Simionato, Cossotto, and Zajick. Lately we have Rachvelishvili, and in olden times contraltos Louise Homer and Ernestine Schumann-Heink sang the role and recorded excerpts opposite Caruso.

When Caruso said that _Trovatore_ required the four greatest singers in the world, I'm sure he wasn't thinking of the two greatest sopranos.


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