Beverly Sills touches the Divine as Pamyra (Gorgeous interpolations of Top Notes)

[@Ronizetti]

Brilliant singing ... I don't believe anyone before or since is capable of such beautiful, heartfelt sound. But one not even need listen to Beverly here, JUST listen to the demanding and knowledgeable La Scala crowd - pandimonium!! You can't fool the Italians - They stamped their approval vociferously - Brava, Bubbles

[@arnoldamaral7406]

Ronizetti they are God's Nephilim. I so much admire Zeus and of course Mercury. It is no wonder that they ruled the world exploring and conquering the entire European continent. Raping and plummeting where were they would go. I am Greek Alexander the Great was bored at the age of 32 because there were no more worlds to conquer. But the Roman Empire especially ruled Supreme. All of those incredible Caesars Caligula Nero in particular oh yes you mustn't forget Tiberius. And his mother Livia who poisoned all of augustus's niece's and nephews so that Tiberius wood rule Supreme . He was meant to be a god amongst men and deserved to inherit the throne because Tiberius absolutely deserved it. And of course there was the incredible and beautiful Caligula. And poor poor Claudius yes it was a golden period In history. How I love to read about the executing of Christians in the arenas and the Coliseum of course giving the thumbs up or down. They were gods. I cannot continue I am so overwhelmed all your heartfelt and also wise comments. Most ADMIRERLY Arnold Bourbon Amaral TROYANOS

[@redwitch2010]

Caballe did !

[@munequitodeebano3920]

Sills was just magical. I miss her every day.

[@MrAndredekock]

There really are NOT enough superlatives when one has to comment on and compliment Mme Sills on her performances! Ronizetti, brilliant singing indeed! And Kathryn Ryder you are so right, the collaboration between Mme Sills and Mr Gagnon was something unique and together they could produce a masterpiece that suited Mme Sills' voice like a hand in a glove! There are so many famous sopranos of shortly before, at the same time and shortly after Mme Sills' career, yet in my humble opinion there was no other collaboration of singer and musician cum voice expert as these two had. I think of Dame Joan and her husband, Maestro Bonynge's collaboration, which was wonderful, yet nothing quite like this one! The legato passages that they put together at a really taxingly slow tempo were a trade mark and no other sopranos could sing like that and control their breath and produce a mesmerising performance and not sound totally out of breath! The piano, lofted, floating high notes that were just EFFORTLESS, or the forte angry or mad scenes were incomparable! I wish we could have heard MORE of the applause but I think my friend Ronizetti is again correct in saying that the Italians cannot be fooled and especially those at the Scala and the snippet we heard was enough to know that they had acknowledged GREATNESS in their midst! It is a fact that Mme Sills is one of only a handful of sopranos to have received the great accolade that the Scala orchestra gives to great performers, a standing ovation from them at the end of the first orchestral rehearsal! BRAVISSIMA Mme, we miss you greatly and rest in peace!

[@LohengrinO]

Gagnon was extremely musical indeed... the Bonynges never had the level of musicality the Gagnon-Sills duet exhibited

[@robertmanno5749]

@@LohengrinO Gagnon was a brilliant musician.

[@gerardosaucedo7357]

Thank you!!!! What a beautiful performance, I still remember his Lucia" at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, alongside Alfredo Kraus. I have never heard a version as beautiful as that night again.

[@christinesanchez1726]

Merci Lohengren ! Magnifique Beverly Sils !Belle voix. ...Et très bel air ! ☺

[@kendn01]

She had such an unearthly facility with those high notes - I always thought, especially in her earlier recordings, her voice almost sounded like a theremin! Listen to her recording of the Lucia di Lammermoor's mad scene. It sounds more like an instrument you would play than a voice.

[@LohengrinO]

her top register was spectacular indeed

[@ikeoland]

I love this performance as much today as I did back in the 80's when I first heard it. Sills had an uncanny ability to bring the music alive within the parameters of her abundant vocal talent. She was not Callas or Sutherland but great in her own right. Rossini would have been honoured, I'm sure.

[@scottw6704]

I like her tons better than Callas and slightly better than Sutherland as far as overall tone and dynamic interpretation within a note or passage...

[@waterfordwinstons]

Simply Devine. Fantastic and heavenly.

[@p.b4287]

Goosebumps. This is a perfect moment. Thank you, Lohengrin O!

[@gesualdodavenosa8550]

Fantastic and well conducted by Thomas Schippers who was certainly in his element here!

[@luisgarciafernandez1540]

Beverly Sills was a beautiful and intelligent woman and Rossini would have loved her.

[@jeffbekasinski2483]

I miss her everyday. She brings tears to my eyes!

[@KathrynARyder]

My 2 cents worth here: I LOVED Sills' performance here. In my entirely subjective opinion - Sills, in collaboration with Roland Gagnon, wrote ornaments and changed the vocal line to suit specifically Ms. Sills' voice and talents. When I pay a lot of $$$ to hear a performer in an opera, then I want a great night in the theatre of acting and singing. The style of singing in early 19th Century Europe was very different from our tastes today. I just accept that. An example: Rossini clearly wrote the part of Rosina in the Barber of Seville for a contralto. A couple of years later he wrote new ornaments (and a new aria) for a Soprano who was going to sing this role. Personally, I prefer a soprano Rosina, but I accept mezzos in the role (I loved Fredericka von Stade as Rosina). But I find it VERY boring if a thick voiced mezzo gets up there and does not ornament and collects her paycheck. Maybe IT IS exactly as Rossini wrote it, but HE KNEW what singers were like and he expected them to do their own thing with it.

[@arnoldamaral7406]

kathryn ryder Roberto Devereux what's something truly fantastic. When she send Queen Elizabeth the first. A true miracle and interpretation of this classic Opera. Arnold Bourbon Amaral

[@berrydivo3702]

KATHRYN DEAR, perhaps you are expecting way to much from these wonderful singers

[@robertdonkers]

The very very best Pamira ever!

[@kastrafior1487]

Rossini ou pas, qu'importe... Sills était une voix poétique et humaine, une voix généreuse et authentique, une voix profondément inspirée. MERCI .

[@mjrapa]

HI Lohengrin, Thank you for sharing this wonderful records with us all. Not linked to This majestic recording but would you have a recording of Beverly Sills in Suor Angelica. From what I have read she only sang it once and there is a live recording somewhere. Here I have only found short excerpts of it and would live to listen to it its entirety again! thank you once again for sharing with us these magnificent gems!

[@donaldmiller4643]

Beverly how I adore thee,great singer and actress love FOREVER bubbles .

[@carmeloserafin5101]

...ho avuto la fortuna di ascoltarla a Milano nella ripresa dell'opera in tempi così detti moderni ripuliti,....gli spartiti da troppi adattamenti a togliere fraseggio e carattere al canto belliniano...e particolarmente quest'aria è entrata nella varie rivisitazioni delle cantanti dell'Epoca , nel repertorio di molte interpreti che hanno lucidato Bellini nel secolo scorso....

[@ericscam2]

Freakishly beautiful.

[@MrJuanmaes]

Bellísima 💖💖💖

[@coloraturaElise]

THIS is a DIVA performance, but all people can do is complain "it's not Rossini", blah, blah, blah....like they don't get it. Don't you get it?

[@scottw6704]

It's been my experience that those...people are like arts supporters who can throw around a couple of the most famous names but don't really know enough to have an in-depth conversation about much of it at all. These same people are the ones who wear crap-lique puffy eighth-notes (pointed the wrong way) on their sweaters that they wear to the symphony...unfortunately they are also the biggest funders of the arts. So we quietly giggle about them in the dressing rooms before we go out in the inevitable fog that permeates most Verdi scenes, or whatever.

[@MrQbenDanny]

"I BOW TO HER ART."

[@BellaFirenze]

There is a God.

[@hamb4945]

Fragile indeed!

[@ohmy5650]

Yeap💎🌹💎

[@smtaz7631]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@savioalves1234]

I think people dont do "Moametto II" today is because it is SO HARD to sing that there is not singers to do so HAHAHAHAHA. This aria seeams easy, but i did sing it myself and i can say it is sooo damn hard! In this opera just "Non Temer Dun Basson affetto" is harder.

[@ramonraboso]

Dios mio

[@aetion]

Εξαίσια ερμηνεία. Σ' ευχαριστώ, Θοδωρή, που μάς προσφέρεις πάντα ό,τι εκλεκτότερο.

[@LohengrinO]

τόσα χρόνια από τη Sills μόνο αυτό μου αρέσει... όταν λέμε τίποτα άλλο :D

[@aetion]

Για να είμαι ειληκρινής, δεν την έχω ακούσει τόσο πολύ, για να κρίνω. Αλλά έχω εμπιστοσύνη στις γνώσεις και την κρίση σου. Πώς λέγεται η άρια αυτή; Υπάρχει με την Κάλλας, για να κάνω κάποια σύγκριση; ΥΓ: Από μία γρήγορη έρευνα που έκανα στο ΥΤ, δεν το βρήκα με την Κάλλας. Είναι το Si, ferite από την Πολιορκία τής Κορίνθου τού Ροσίνι, ή κάνω λάθος;

[@LohengrinO]

Bασικά επειδή δεν είχε μεσαία και χαμηλή περιοχή, έβαζε τον δάσκαλό της τον Roland Gagnon να της ξαναγράφει την παρτιτούρα μετατοπισμένη προς τα επάνω..!!! απλά ο Gagnon ήταν πολύ ταλαντούχος και το έκανε με πολύ μουσικό τρόπο και σε ορισμένες περιπτώσεις το αποτέλεσμα είναι πολύ όμορφο όπως εδώ... όλες αυτές οι ψηλές νότες που πετιούνται εδώ κι εκεί δεν είναι απλώς εμβόλιμες, έχουν ξαναγραφτεί από την αρχή ολόκληρες φράσεις... με τον τρόπο αυτό δίνει την εντύπωση στον άπειρο ακροατή ότι κάνει την άρια πιο δύσκολη επειδή την γεμίζει με ψηλές νότες αλλά στην ουσία η ίδια δεν μπορούσε να την τραγουδήσει όπως ήταν γραμμένη... μετά από αυτό το ρόλο, έφαγε μια φρίκη και πίστεψε οτι είναι η Κάλλας και δολοφόνησε τη Νόρμα και την Άννα Μπολένα (τις τραγούδησε τρισάθλια), και επειδή υπήρχε ένας Assoluta ρόλος που η Κάλλας δεν τραγούδησε ποτέ γιατί τον θεωρούσε βλακώδη, την Elisabetta από τον Roberto Devereux πήγε και τον τραγούδησε τρισάθλια και αυτόν για να δείξει οτι τραγούδησε το ρόλο που δεν τραγούδησε η Κάλλας... εκτός από το τραγικό αποτέλεσμα κατέστρεψε και τη φωνή της γιατί είναι ρόλος assoluta δηλαδή απαιτεί έκταση 3 οκτάβων με ικανότητα τραγουδιού σε όλη την έκταση (πήγε με άλλα λόγια με τρεις καλές νότες εκεί ψηλά να τραγουδήσει ρόλο τριών οκτάβων)... αυτός είναι ο λόγος που όλες οι κολορατουρίτσες της κακιάς ώρας έχουν λατρεία να τραγουδούν το Roberto Devereux όπως να ναι... γιατί φαντάζονται οτι έκαναν αυτό που δεν μπορούσε η Κάλλας... δεν έχει υπάρξει μεγάλη Εlisabetta μέχρι στιγμής στην ιστορία της όπερας...

[@aetion]

Σ' ευχαριστώ για τις τόσο ενδιαφέρουσες πληροφορίες.

[@christophecesar4761]

Scala 1969 ?

[@kenking7320]

Picture is from her Met debut production. She had lost a great deal of weight due to illness.

[@lamiremilamila]

No 1961

[@raphaelpisano5462]

@@lamiremilamila April 1969

[@raphaelpisano5462]

Sills was always on the side of « over ornementation » (such as in her Bellini / Donizetti album) but it is done with such mastery that you get swept away ! But I reckon that here, the melody is altered a lot more than necessary

[@LohengrinO]

I always love her over-ornamentation... even in her Margeurite where she truly overdid it

[@jefgong]

Comme quand il écoutait la Patti, le pauvre Rossini n'aurait pas reconnu sa musique !

[@jefgong]

So he was the Devil in Miss Bubbles !

[@LohengrinO]

@110266861726680823280 quite talented man Roland Gagnon if you ask my opinion :D

[@jefgong]

Thanks for giving it before asking ;-) I trust you of course. Let us say that Rossini was not his domain, at least THIS Rossini.

[@buc737]

I totally disagree! She is absolutely magnificent. A pity she didn't sing more Rossini serio.

[@jefgong]

Nobody said that she wasn't magnificent - she adds so many adornments that finally you don't hear Rossini. A question of style ; but it's not forbidden to like whipped cream.