Carol Vaness-Anna Bolena-"Piangete voi?....Al dolce guidami....Coppia iniqua", 1993

[@artdanks]

Brava! One of the FEW truly great Anna Bolenas. Sooo much better than what's around today!

[@sevoflurane]

Merci, Andrei!

[@detectivefiction3701]

Wow! This comes VERY close to being as great as the famous Callas recordings (and Vaness has, on the whole, a much more pleasing tone than Callas). Brava!

[@vincec8218]

Check out soprano Kasondra Kazanjian

[@tonshaad1230]

Pleasing tone? Get over yourself.

[@Shahrdad]

For me, hers is the best Bolena after Callas's inimitable portrayal. Vaness has everything from color of voice to volume, from chest notes to trills. And she skips that tacky, character-breaking interpolated high E-flat at the end. Brava.

[@vincec8218]

She doesn't really have a high piano, something that both Sills and Caballé had in abundance.

[@Shahrdad]

@@vincec8218 Caballe and Sills both had nice high pianissimos, although with Caballe, it became a gimmick, and being reluctant to sing high fortes, she often distorted the score and sang pianissimo when the score said forte. Rosa Ponselle even commented on this in her autobiography. Sills high pianissimos were not in the same league as Caballe's, and the voice itself was a second or third rate voice. It was a thin, small instrument better suited to soubrette roles, or French roles such as Manon, but it was wedded to great musicianship and wonderful coloratura skills. I think her Baby Doe is unrivaled. Another issue with Caballe was that she simply could never trill, and in Bolena, the last scene of which is riddled with trills, this shortcoming became very obvious. Scotto was another one who never could trill.

[@vincec8218]

@@Shahrdad I happen to think both Sills and Caballé sing "Al dolce guidami" better and with more nostalgia than Vaness....only my opinion....obviously, Sills' voice was much too light for Anna Bolena but she sang the hell out of the role...as for her voice being second or third rate, absolutely not true...her voice in the 1950s and 1960s was a thing of glorious silvery beauty with an extremely distinctive, instantly recognizable timbre...I never heard her live but those who have said her voice sounded fuller and more pingy live than in studio recordings...Vaness sings this really well but something is holding her back in the emotion department...Sills, with her limited vocal means, threw absolutely everything she had into this role and in particular, this scene, and the effect is breathtaking

[@Shahrdad]

@@vincec8218 Caballe couldn't really sing Al dolce guidami as it should be sung, because she lacked the all important trills that Donizetti wrote and wanted sung. Compared to the instruments that Sutherland was given, Sills' was a second rate voice. Her musicianship and her intellect were first rate, and she was able to achieve a lot with a voice not really suited to much of what she sang. Her Manon was excellent, and her Baby Doe is still unrivaled.

[@stefanocautavera]

Agreed!

[@jirizika6266]

Unfortunately, the art of one brilliant soprano is greatly damaged by that desperate conducting. The tempos that Ms. Queler chooses are unbearable. She should have listened more to the Italian masters, when she dares to conduct bel canto operas. Bud Carol Vaness it probably the second best Anna after Callas.

[@MrOperagoer]

@ Shahrdad and Vince: Caballe sang everything in pianissimo, whether was needed or not. It gets very annoying. My guess is that after so many surgeries she could not handle any high note any more. And that could be a gimmick too. PS: Try Leyla Gencer (in KZbin), you might like it.