Fedora Barbieri sings "O Don Fatale" from Verdi's Don Carlo

[@antoniomartinazzo5847]

This is extraordinary singing. I am astonished by how many people are bothered by the missing high note and at the same time do not turn a hair when even famous singers dodge low notes, are unable to pronounce the words and are completely unaware of what the text is about.

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

It’s not extraordinary at all. It’s subpar. Listen to Maria Callas, Eileen Farrell, or Shirley Verrett for a better rendition.

[@antoniomartinazzo5847]

Have a good day.

[@Orfeus80]

@@EmilyGloeggler7984 none of the ones you mentioned attacks the text in the middle and low register as effectively as Barbieri. No wonder the audience is as enthusiastic as it is. You probably can't tell the difference eh? You're just waiting for high notes.

[@Orfeus80]

@tomasburi she's Emily Green with envy as someone else pointed out hehehe

[@hodgrix]

@@Orfeus80 I agree. This role is a little bit low for Callas especially at the time she sang it

[@radames5855]

Cantante d'altri tempi,con un centro e medio basso stupendi!!!

[@enfava]

Brillant! Standing ovation for her!!!!!

[@daviddoyle1586]

Omg this is the firs time i have heard this lady got here looking for someone else what a find the voice is wonderful rich .I will go on to find more off her music from here i not been this happy to hear a voice in long time .

[@Zva26]

Walter Legge (the famed musicologist and husband of soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf) referred to this role as a graveyard for mezzos. A very famous and legendary mezzo (I forget who) is quoted in a book saying that, "Eboli is a dramatic soprano role, or for a dramatic mezzo with a very extended upper range". Many heavier sopranos, such as Callas, Nilsson, Dimitrova, and others sang this aria as well. For Nilsson, those top notes were child's play.

[@antares291]

Просто нужно привести музыкальный строй в нормальный вид - ведь сейчас певцы поют почти на пол-тона выше, чем в то время, когда писалась музыка! Вы не представляете, как удобно петь, когда строй нормальный !Причем намного лучше и удобнее звучат и низко-тесситурные, и высоко-тесситурные арии ! Проверено на себе.

[@antoniomartinazzo5847]

@@Zva26 if one just cares for high notes, yes, child's play will be quite enough. If, on the other hand, one cares for Verdi and accento, well, a child's play is a child's play.

[@bodiloto]

una voce Meravigliosa del mezzosoprano vero purtroppo severamente limitata nel registro acuto .

[@vitocannillotenor8372]

Qui, oltre che una cantante pienamente consapevole e RISPETTOSA delle possibilità dei suoi mezzi vocali, si può apprezzare l'intelligenza e l'intuito musicale del direttore d'orchestra rispetto alla voce ed il gusto raffinato del pubblico.

[@yglofmi]

Thank you. To be true, I am not so crazy about high notes, I prefer good phrasing and good interpretation. And when I hear mezzos singing this aria, I find it too tense, in the limits of the singer's possibilities. I like Barbieri, even without high notes. But thank you again.

[@pureffm]

Except Borodina, Simionato, Dimitrova

[@kaloyanbotev3152]

@@pureffm Borodina? Ahahaa

[@mary_arthistory]

One of the most impressive REAL mezzos! Though i adore Elena Obraztsova who was at the beginning of her career dramatic soprano.

[@Malawein]

I agree! Do you know for sure that Obraztsova was singing dramatic soprano in her beginnings? I mean what is your reference? Thank you

[@alleviation91]

​@@MalaweinShe was trained as a soprano. You can hear it in hear timbre, too. Great singer, whatever her voice type!

[@sergiokibizer8317]

Alla faccia di tanti "esperti in niente" che cercano l'acuto come i tifosi di calcio aspettano il goal e che sempre vanno in cerca di paragoni inutili. È un'interpretazione eccezionalmente completa ed emozionante. Punto.

[@romearomeo]

Una voce straordinaria

[@TerrancePogue]

Looking at the score and speaking to mezzos this role is a true dramatic mezzo.... its just this aria which has a few high notes but the rest of the role is regular mezzo range

[@leoploner8929]

la vendetta at the end...

[@giovanniarioli2971]

Grazie a Dio, sei nata . Una voce drammatica, straordinaria, pastosa, intensa. Mia mamma mi parlava di te quando andavi dal nostro cugino a tagliare i capelli in Largo Santa Margherita

[@jasonblack4208]

....really? She "bombed" this role because she was missing like 2 notes? Have some perspective people. This is great singing.

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

No, it’s not. Her high notes are bad here. This is subpar singing and performance to anyone who can hear.

[@yglofmi]

Thank you. I looked for some information about that and was surprised to see that the first Eboli in Don Carlos Italian version was Giuseppina Pasqua, the first Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff.

[@kjelderikschub6308]

Genial sangerinde

[@unclelouie3828]

All this aside- I heard her many times at "old Met". Trovatore, Norma with Callas etc. etc. With Milanov in "great years". She was fanfukintastic. This is the first thing I've heard her do that 'just doesn't work"- for me. the end.

[@larissamontero]

Wonderful much better than Garanca Rachvelishvili etc, though avoiding the high notes.

[@sanjalukic6334]

In belcanto clasification they would be sopranos!

[@mr.e5458]

🙏🏼 Brava e Grazie 🙏🏼

[@hwh1946]

SORRY FOR YOU FOLKS CARPNG ON THE "HIGH NOTE". BARBIERIE WAS A GREAT SINGER AND ACTRESS. SCREW THE HIGH NOTES. LISTEN TO THE DRAMA.

[@pelleas9]

+Harry Haff She was unable to sing this part, that's all.

[@nafedsem]

Фантастична співачка!

[@mr.e5458]

🙏🏼 Braga e Grazie 🙏🏼

[@hectorbravo6862]

Primero habría que verificar si las notas altas estaban o no en el original o fueron agregadas a posteriori. Una interpretación excepcional en todo caso. Entiendo que en sus inicios cantaba hasta el B5 . Todas las voces evolucionan con el tiempo. El problema de las mezzos es que no pueden pedir el transporte de sus arias porque sus notas graves peligran.

[@dolorazajick920]

Ebe Stigani, Fedora Barbieri, Guilietta Simionato and Irine Minghini-Cattano were all real Verdi mezzos. Despite their different timbres and varying vocal techniques, their voices turned in the same place, a half a step lower than a soprano. Same thing with Leonard Warren and Bastianini. Warren had a bright timber, and Bastianini a dark one, but they turned where Verdi baritones do. this determines tessitura, and tessitura determines voice category, not voice timber. Barbieri was a brilliant natural talent, and even said so herself in an interview. Her video of Azucena inTrovatore is a testement to her natural genius, but she never really had a studied vocal technique. That was why she developed a wobble rather early despite the fact she outlasted the others. Simionato and Stignani retired in their late fifties, but Barbieri sang into her seventies. Stignani, Simionato and Minghini-Cattaneo had better vocal techniques. Stignani was famous for her ability to create immense walls of sound and to communicate musicallly. She was not an actress and seemed more an extension and amplification of the orchestra than one who inhabits a stage. Barbieri on the other hand was a great natural animal on stage, and perhaps the Verdi mezzo with the greatest dramatic instincts as is demonstrated by her fire ball approach to this aria. Simionato was perhaps the best all round but didn't posses the fire that Barbieri had, or the musical and visceral vocal impact that Stignani had. Other notable and impressive dramatic mezzos, Chloe Elmo, she had everything except the highest notes, Fiorenza Cossotto was also a genuine Verdi mezzo of considerable skill and was the doyenne of her fach for quite some time. Orelia Dominguez was also a real mezzo. None of these ladies were sopranos or contraltos. Just because a mezzo is unable to sing high notes doesn't make them a contralto, nor does the vocal technique to sing high notes make them sopranos.They were all great in their different ways. People will always have their favorites, but all these ladies brought their own uniqueness to their roles.

[@kgarmaker123]

well, No high notes, doesnt surprise me, she is a contralto, not a mezzo .

[@giovanniarioli2971]

Il vero mezzo

[@Tenortalker]

Barbieri must have been truly special and committed in her singing for those who heard her live to remember her with such adulation. Simionato is admired, refered to with affection, but Barbieri is adored even without the top notes! Would Verdi have forgiven her the omited notes given her conviction and honest approach - we will never know. Ferrier managed to take her voice to the High A with gentle coaching - was Barbieri's problem nerves as well as technical limitation? I wonder!

[@Malawein]

Yes, i agree Where did you find out that Ferrier managed to reach A?

[@giampierone010]

Buona esecuzione del brano a livello interpretativo ma incompleto per quanto riguarda gli acuti...grazie

[@andreacrisci7769]

Purtroppo credo che sia un adattamento ai tempi ,anche oggi troppi contralti o mezzicontraltti si trovano a cantare ruoli molto più acuti e aih me la resa è questa; come viceversa sempre più mezzi soprani anche leggeri cantano tutto il repertorio scritto per contralto è fanno veramente pena molte volte .

[@fabriziomariagarzi5534]

Buona esecuzione?....

[@markdarenvillanueva7740]

3:45 with Callas?

[@leonardoumbriano4515]

Cosa c'èntra la Callas?? questa è un aria per mezzo non per soprano, che poi la Callas abbia cantato di tutto non fa testo!!!

[@giampivi9265]

Voleva dire nella foto...!

[@Wolfcrag85]

In the recording of Don Carlo from Florence with Cerquetti, Lo Forese, Bastianini, Siepi and Neri (1956), she could still reach the top notes. From there onwards, forget it.

[@manolis.799]

She does NOT sing the high notes on that recording.

[@Zva26]

Fedora Barbieri didn't sound very comfortable with those top notes even in 1950, when she made her Met debut. Nature played a cruel trick on her. She was more a contralto than a mezzo, and her highest comfort note was about a G above the stave. She could, however, go down into the basement notes with no problems whatsoever. I admired her a lot, but this performance of "O Don Fatale" is pretty bad.

[@samuelkock7693]

Barbieri had the mosr lovely sound when she was young, in her eartly twenties. Somehow she lost it on the way. Samuel Kock

[@alexanderzaphir721]

Fedora at the beginning had everything.The best voice after Nicolai.Unfortunately she didnt have a strong technique & the top register...disappeared. her volume was huge. I saw her in a concert in Sorbonne .She was singing .....reverenza.... There were only.....3notes left.!!!!!! These notes had such power ,you thaught that she could bring down....the house .It's sad because in the 50's she could perhaps find a better teacher to avoid having problems.Voice has always been ,also a matter of mind.She was so natural, & she took everything for granted.

[@yglofmi]

Now I found a poster announcing 7 performances of Aida at La Fenice, with Pasqua as Amneris, in September 1881. The cast: Emma Turolla (Aida); Giovanni Sani (Rhadames) and Gottardo Aldighieri as Amonasro. Maestro Franco Faccio. If she was in good voice to sing Amneris we don't know.

[@andrealupini6769]

pezzo addomesticato troppo! comunque espressività eccelsa!

[@vitocannillotenor8372]

Poi ascolti i "mezzi" che ti fanno tutti gli acuti al posto e giusto e....non provi niente. Qui invece -al netto dei mancati acuti- compare il personaggio già dai primi suoni, dalle prime parole, ed è un brivido che percorre il corpo dell' inizio alla fine. E capisci cosa nel canto sia davvero importante.

[@machovoce6826]

This is a beautifully executed performance. Barberi omits the famous high notes but, being a contralto, she offers a rich timbre and line that other singers can't do. She was approaching 40 here. Callas was dodging high notes long before that age yet I doubt the haters below would caterwall about that. It's called rank hypocrisy.

[@giovanniarioli3021]

Macho Voce that's is not circus, this is opera, music..meravigliosa

[@pziolk]

When Callas ommited high notes? To omit a note is not to sing a WRITTEN high note. Callas did not always sing high OPTIONAL notes, which is a right, but I don't have on my mind ANY example of piece in which she avoided note that was obligatory in score. Give examples if I'm wrong.

[@acacia-bloom]

I agree! There is no way an audience in Vienna, at the Met, not to mention La Scala, would accept a version like this today, with all Verdi's top notes decapited. Cant really understand how Giulini or Covent Carden sanctioned this. Nevertheless, it is interesting to hear that such "recomposing" seems to have been perfectly acceptable then. Barbieri live, in her prime and in the right repertory must have been quite a knock-over!

[@yglofmi]

Did Verdi really write those high notes? I've always found that C flat too high for a mezzo, but I have not the score to verify that.

[@Lorenzo-be1nm]

Yes, yes, all those notes are written, not as option, but as the only way to sing the score.

[@septimusaurelius7881]

*tips fedora*

[@lantis323f]

Il Do bemolle che fine ha fatto??? -.-

[@SuperPaoloa]

Acuti zero😂😂😂

[@ciociosan]

She may be Fedora Barbieri but she's not god. This is a perfect example.

[@johnboeren2083]

If you can't sing the aria of Eboli like its wroten by Verdi and that you have to cancel all the high notes, please don't sing it. Barbieri was a famous mezzo but this is a desaster.

[@giovanniarioli3021]

john boeren vai ad ascoltare paperino, senti la voce, l'espressione , il colore, la passione, la cultura. Evita di scrivere cazzate se non sai ascoltare

[@giovanniarioli3021]

john boeren ascolti gli applausi alla fine, giluini, wachter...un di mi resta...questa è opera purissima, solo le grandissime cantano così

[@antoniomartinazzo5847]

There is more to opera than just high notes. Have you ever considered how many low notes famous singers actually dodge? Have you ever considered how many singers are actually unable to pronounce what is in the libretto? How many singers make a sound carnival and do not have a clue about what the text is about?

[@cm5071]

You got it wrong this aria is about the low notes and they come wonderful and her legato is great. I've heard this from many singers where the low notes just consist of breathed air.

[@antben8992]

Fedora Barbieri fa diventare la Principessa Eboli sorella di Azucena e Ulrica.Grande voce ma un poco sguaiata e molto carente negli acuti.

[@jmiller05]

Barbieri really bombed in this role, purely because she had zero top notes. Unfortunate, because the phrasing and control of the line in the cavatina section is gorgeous. But if you can't sing sections as written, then don't sing it.

[@Bariton121]

go and do it better you moron

[@sutherland9]

Aha ha. I love sarcasm. It only would have been better if you had written "go and do it better you friggin' moron"

[@Meneghinionassis]

jmiller05 o

[@evan-dunn]

Verdi allowed singers to leave out high notes and even rewrote sections for them. I preferred excellent singing without high notes over mediocre singing with high notes.

[@LABARITONESSA]

e uno skifo questo o don fatale...senza gli acuti!!!!! la voce della barbieri x carita e stupenda ma gli acuti???? e meno male ke qui era giovane..mah..!

[@carlo331]

Già nel '58 non aveva gli acuti...

[@walteranibal8425]

gia nell '55

[@Zashorigin]

I just couldn't finish it. Sorry... but isf she couldn't sing it the way it was written, then why singing it?.... it loses all the dramatic purpose of the aria. No... sorry. This is worse than Marilyn Horne interpretation with one and a half tone down and that one was bad enough.

[@натальяпопова-э9н2я]

Не можешь петь верхние ноты.не берись

[@wz7250]

пение-это не только брать верхние ноты

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

Terrible high notes as opposed to Shirley Verrett.

[@esterbruno8604]

Just stop judging high notes!!! Shirley Verrett is a Falcon soprano, and Fedora Barbieri is a dramatic mezzo! That's _obvious_ that Verrett has got better high notes!

[@ransomcoates546]

Ridiculous. And the last note is flat.

[@charlesrhodes1358]

No thanks. She let me down at the end.

[@ezayi]

To me, If someone, after having so many years of glory changes notes to accommodates herself in a role, then is better to stay home and enjoy whatever fame and respect she or he deserves for all those years of wonderful singing. This was just unacceptable. This is just simply playing egocentric, just because they think they can. Sorry, I liked her a lot but this is just awful!

[@mariaflaminiacodronchitore3288]

No

[@antequem]

Avec Barbieri la Princesse Eboli devient marchande de poisson !