# MEZZO/CONTRALTO TOURNAMENT (Finale): Mantelli vs Stignani



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Eugenia Mantelli, Italy, 1860-1926 (defeated Horne 9-6, Podles 9-3, Bumbry 10-5)

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

https://www.talkclassical.com/71336-mezzo-contralto-tournament-quarterfinal.html

https://www.talkclassical.com/71450-mezzo-contralto-tournament-semifinal.html






Ebe Stignani, Italy, 1903-1964 (defeated Verrett 12-7, Parsi-Pettinella 8-7, Anday 7-5)

https://www.talkclassical.com/71037-mezzo-contralto-tournament-round.html

https://www.talkclassical.com/71288-mezzo-contralto-tournament-quarterfinal.html

https://www.talkclassical.com/71367-mezzo-contralto-tournament-semifinal.html






'Una voce poco fa' from Rossini's _Il barbiere di Siviglia_.

Who's singing did you prefer and why?


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Can anyone beat Mantelli? As fabulous as she is here, Stignani gets the garland. You have to consider how ginormous Stignani's voice is when you compare the two and how much more difficult it is for her to move her voice around with such precision.It was oe of the biggest voices of the 20th century. I also like that she didn't cheat on the low notes and took the optional high note at the end. Both have beautiful voices, but Stignani's is supernaturally so.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

This is a complete riot.
One sings every single note like she is sight-reading with perfection and of course doesn't have the detriment of that lousy piano behind her but man, she is boring, boring, boring.
On the other hand, the other one is over-the-top and giving a light show of such incredible proportions with a natural talent for musicality and a decent chest voice to boot, that I must end up voting for her but I still miss some of the ones that I think bettered her in the previous rounds.
Mantelli it is.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tonally refulgent though Stignani's voice is, I find her approach to this music disturbingly severe, with too little variety in the phrasing. Evidently comedy wasn't her thing. Mantelli is more flexible and varied in her rhythm and phrasing and freer with embellishment (perhaps too much so); I get the feeling that she didn't sing things exactly the same way twice. It's puzzling, though, that she transposes the aria down a half-step, then transposes the lowest-lying phrase up an octave. Whatever that's about, I accept her eccentricities simply as a manifestation of the more freewheeling approach to music-making typical of her generation, and award her the prize.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Mantelli has that ghastly piano accompaniment and her performance could be considered to be somewhat eccentric, but her singing is wondrously accomplished. Stignani, on the other hand, though she sings all the notes, makes rather heavy weather of it. She doesn't sound like a natural for the role for me, where Mantelli does. Stignani makes a stab at lightening her tone for the _Io sono docile_ section, true, but she doesn't really convince me.

I wouldn't choose either of them over the likes of Supervia, Callas or De Los Angeles, but Mantelli gets my vote here. I'd also suggest that, had the aria chosen been _Stride la vampa_ then Stignani would have been the winner.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I'm studying up on Stignani for a big speech/ Youtube video on her. She never sang Rosina because of her figure but did sing other coloratura mezzo roles. She said both her vocal size and coloratura facility were there from the beginning . She studied Norma and could sing it well with piano, but chose not to do it. One thing that puzzles me is that Rasponi, the author of The Last Prima Donnas, said she and Flagstad had the two most seamless voices from top to bottom. Someone else said she had distinct registers like Callas. I don't hear that. It seems like a voice without gears to me.


----------



## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Mantelli sounds eccentric but not fun. In this instance I'd choose much more freewheeling Stignani account over note-perfect but somewhat sterile Mantelli. Guess I'd be in the minority, but neither lady does full justice to this cavatina.


----------

