Are you from This Is Opera ? I agree the Bjorling/Merrill version sets the standard for this duet, and they have a beautiful natural sound

Kauffmann's technique is appalling. I have seen him twice as Don José and Cavaradossi (in Naples of all places!) and I couldn't believe how small and constricted his voice was. I guess that, as Netrebko, being pretty was enough to make a big career, regardless of technique. And Ludovic Tézier is just hoofy and boring.

Netrebko is a lyric soprano with limited coloratura, as Freni was. She's also quite hedonistic and lazy, so she didn't work to get the principles that were lacking early on in her career.

And again : quot capita, tot sententiae

I hear core in Podles voice, but her chest, lowest notes, are much more emphatic than Cossotto's. Two different voices.

Ewa Podles had an absurd voice. Could be fascinating but strangely ”developed” or actually undeveloped.

Your thumbnail says that Caballe is the the source of the quote. I'd like to know where or when she said that please.... And you should know! Thanks.

Did Cossotto have good technique throughout her career or is there a certain time period you recommend? Odd that Jeremy never posted sbout her.

Elena Carnei

the great Elena Cernei

Bravissimo!!!!!

I want to tell you that when I hear you sing, all my hairs stand on end! So lovely to hear these free sounds with all the overtones vibrating!!! Keep up the good work!!!

Obraztsova was opaque as well

Try to sound like this, not like the wobbling crows in your video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYXGiX2vhd5rl80 Also follow other examples by singers who were active before 1914. The Great War toppled not only various Emperors but also the whole culture that created opera. Later examples like those you show in the video are usually already degenerate, out of the proper tradition. Best stick to singers born before ca. 1875 whose technique is uncompromised by verismo and modernism. Among sopranos, the obvious ones (by far not the only ones, though) are Patti, Melba, Gadski, Eames, Calvé, Nordica. None of whom has a noticeable vibrato.

Good singing has no consciously perceptible vibrato, just the quick fluttering that indeed happens naturally with the proper amount of tension on the vocal apparatus. Like a trill but less wide, well within the same note rather than alternating two notes. Any vibrato you can modify by conscious bodily action is not a vibrato but a tremolo. But whatever you call it, its beat must be twice as fast as the shortest note you plan to sing. That means, six vibrations per second is the rock-bottom lower limit. 8 to 10 sound better. And the width must not exceed a semitone, ideally stay well inside that limit, or the vibrato will sound as a "chronic trill" (like the great tenor Leo Slezak put it). As a rule of thumb, the straighter and less contaminated by vibrato your tone, the more musical the effect.

My ears are bleeding a little. Thank you. My male voice approaches the middle range with some of the same stressors, and the advice is equally apt for me.

It is unclear what collapsed head voice is. Thanks for the example with a famous American mezzo who was always nasal and inglotta.

Horne had a huge beautiful voice on stage !!! did you see her live???

Lawd, what is that horrid sound at the very beginning? Yikes.. Thought I was going to hear Birgit or Ghena but instead it was you-know-who... She should have stayed away from that repertoire..

*When I was merely an aspiring opera singer in music school, I did not have good technique at first. I had to work hard at it. Thanks to my teacher, I eventually developed a solid technique and an attractive, decently large voice. As a result, I ended up surpassing my classmates who had lovely voices, but substandard technique. And whenever the voice went astray, I was able to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it. A solid technique frees you to make music and to concentrate on one's acting, musicality, etc. and not how you're going to make that high note.*

World of difference and a wonderful showcase of growth! 😊

Ya got a new sub

This is a fascinating thread, and for what it's worth I am 53 and came back to singing only in the past few years. I can hit notes I could *never* as a tenor in his 20s and 30s, and I chalk it up to knowing my body and not treating my voice as a Faberge egg. Snging is an athletic endeavor and when I treat it as such, I give myself permission to take chances. Coming back to music in midlife was one of the best things I ever did for myself. And fun fact: my mother and Beverly Sills both studied with Estelle!

Would you do a video of Sumi Jo? As she has one of the best techniques

For me the greatest of all=Mirella Freni!

You have a picture of Caballe on the front, but considering she sang from 23 to 49 exceptionally well, and only then started to lose it, I think she did quite well for herself.

it is sad to read "Some people still have giant careers, even with their technical issues" because technical issue will shorten their career. sigh. A lot of the theaters nowadays, MET in specific, want "Super Star" with strong social media presence rather than "opera singer", we will have less and less operas to go to

Why did my brain immediately notice the clorox wipes 🤣🤣

Go Evannnnnn 🎉 I'm finally doing my homework and binging your channel 😂🙈

🙄🙄🙄🙄I wish ppl would leave Netrebko the fuck alone…she wasn’t going to stay in pretty lyric roles.

The ending of the Tebaldi aria in that recording (not heard here) is ecstatic. Actually in part thanks to the imperfect sound which makes the percussion sound more desperate! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYDOYYeLaZKjh6M&ab_channel=adolfocagorno Would have liked to hear how long the applause went on for.

I really loved the perspective of this video. I definitely think it’s a combination of both; but technique is crucial. I had lousy technique for a long time and the moment I really started focusing on it is the moment my voice really began to blossom. I still have a way to go ((don’t we all)) and my teacher is very strict about repertoire which isn’t always a bad thing; I’ve sung a lot of different rep from Rossini mezzos to currently a full lyric soprano role (which is where my voice lies) and I’ve been okay singing both rep; I get cast as a mezzo very often for the sake of having a strong chest voice though I’m very much a soprano. Picking the right repertoire is important but when you have good, solid technique, it allows your repertoire to expand. Really great video!

The worst wobble I've ever heard in a soprano is from Maria Callas, when singing loud at the top of her voice. BTW, a vibrato is the natural pulsating of the voice on the same note. If it wobbles from note to note, it isn't a vibrato, it's a tremolo.

So grateful to youtube algorithm that brought your channel to me. Thank you so much for your enlightenment. As an amateur, it puzzled me so much about the fancy of Nett and now I know. I only heard voice going from bad to worse. Could not believe the first part was from hers. Can't agree with you more. not the choice of repertoire but the flaw in the techniques.

wobble is not a technical term. TREMOLO is the term.

Altri motivi possono essere quelli che toccano i nostri sentimenti, i pianti, le urla, tutto fa, e incide tantissimo sulle corde vocali, quindi non solo una tecnica sbagliata o un repertorio non idoneo😢

Speculators like you are messing with the young people's minds, offering them easy results with easy "technique tricks" just to get their money. That's why it is full with fake singers on stage today. Shame on you and the all others like you. Instead of "trying to help" people to solve their vocal problems, show to the world how should real singing should sound like with your voice.

Thank you for this very informative comparision!

Entonces todas deberíamos sonar a sopranos ligeras, haciendo repertorio de dramáticas? jejej es lo que entendí...

At her peak Eva Marton was untouchable

It is not fair to compare Stemme in the late state of her career (aged 53 by the time of her Met-broadcast of Turandot) to Dimitrova and Marton at their peak. I heard both live singing Turandot relatively late in their careers. Dimitrova was by that time skipping all the C's and had a quick tremolo (which you can hear in your recording as well) due to too much pressure on her voice (that caused her to pause for almost a year in the early eighties (around age 40) due to voice issues and vocal cord surgery). Marton had a huge, slow tremolo throughout the last twenty years of her career, and sang constantly too low. You can her early signs of this in her Met -"Turandot" (1987, at age 44), and more so in her second "Turandot"- studio recording (at age 48). kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqjKp4ltZt6Vi68. In her return to the Met 97, she could no longer sustain the high notes properly. The tiring of a voice, due to the constant demands of this heavy repertoire is a completely normal process. Listen to Leider, Tebaldi, Varnay, Callas, Scotto, Lindholm, Behrens, Marc, Linda Watson, Herlitzius, Voigt, Merbeth ....to be continued. Nilsson, of course, was a unique exception of a truly dramatic voice, starting her career relatively late and blessed with an incredible technique plus very strong vocal chords. There is an interesting remark by Christa Ludwig, who had vocal issues throughout her whole, long, career, whose phoniater compared her slim, sensible vocal cords to that of Nilsoon. He pointed out, that Nilsson's vocal chords were exceptionally and uniquely strong and thick.

And yet Eva Marton started out strong - singing definitive Toscas and Turandots, but she developed a horrible warble and lost the qualities that originally made one believe she was the heir apparent to Nilsson - which , naturally no one is because Nilsson’s voice and artistry as a Dramatic Soprano was a gift and is unparalleled - never to be equalled or surpassed…… We thought perhaps Nina Stemme, but no.

German singer is Anne Roselle, my favorite Turandot 🙇

Wow, I couldn't even tell the first two clips were Netrebko until I heard Vieni t'affretta. I forgot what she used to sound like in her early career. World of difference, but yes, even early on you can clearly hear the technical issues waiting to develop into a monster.

This is quite stupid, amateur analysis.

This video is so important! It's 99% a matter of technique and not repertoire. Great singers of the past sang a Wide repertoire. Caballé was a lyric but she sang Norma or Salomé! Maybe not her best roles (that is personal taste). Steber sang also a lot of different roles and they could do it because of their well developed technique. Thank you for the video! ❤

I think the speed and wideness of my vibrato is usually just right, but I've always had the tendency to go a little bit flat sometimes. I feel like it's my vibrato dragging the pitch down. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's enough that it's bothersome. I think it's less of a problem with the vibrato action and more than I need to think "let it spin upwards" more consistently. Thoughts anyone?

Vaya!, veo que hay mucho experto en voces operisticas por ahí.....sólo hace falta darles una excusa para que suelten todas sus sandeces.Que facil y gratuito resulta criticar.

Have you heard Radvanosky much in the theater? The voice is enormous, and commands every dynamic to a shimmering pp. The sound itself is an acquired taste, and she does not have a firmly settled ‘voce di petto’, but currently she is the only singer I would travel to hear. Hearing voices in the theater is the only way to make really informed judgments.

Sills’ husband was extremely wealthy, so this idea of her wrecking her voice for money is absurd. What she said was she was willing to sacrifice a longer career for the artistic possibilities that heavier operas like Norma and Roberto Devereux gave her.