Helen Traubel Sings "Divinités Du Styx," From Gluck's Alceste. 1940

[@marcocito]

Magnifique ! Helen Traubel possède le timbre approprié pour cette pièce. La voix est ample et noble. Son français est impeccable; ce qui n'est toujours pas ainsi chez bon nombre d'interprètes reconnues.

[@dgbx6]

Gorgeous voice, gorgeous singing. Thanks

[@bodiloto]

una voce divina. sublime.

[@vanmusician]

Traubel was the first opera singer I ever met. I was 15 and was introduced to her backstage at one of her nightclub shows here in Vancouver. I had never seen anyone with that colour of orange hair (pre Trump!). I remember her making her entrance with a few wobbly bars of 'Ritorna vincitor', then switching to 'St. Louis Woman' - her theme song.

[@Richiesutherland]

@Bivolari In at least her first season of singing the Walkure Brunnhilde she did sing the Cs. The broadcast of her first Brunnhilde has the Battle Cry in key. I am not denying that high C just wasn't her note at that point. And the beauty, grandeur, majesty and warmth of Traubel are simply, for me, unrivalled...no, not even by Flagstad.

[@Richard.Lion57]

😘😘😘😘😘😘

[@stephpwall]

For years I lumped Traubel and Flagstad together and to be sure they are both marvelous. Generally I find Traubel more adept at non Wagner repertoire. There is a wonderful renditon of Or sai che lonore fro Don Giovanni with her......

[@eduardobraivein8496]

Stephen Wall I agree with you: Traubel was more versatile than Flagstad, which enabled her to successfully venture outside the Wagnerian realm (the same can be said about Frida Leider, who excelled in boh Gluck and Mozart).

[@ER1CwC]

@@eduardobraivein8496 Flagstad actualy sang a lot of non-Wagnerian works, especially earlier in her career. It’s just Wagner is what the Met wanted her to present, when she was already in her 40s. It could perhaps be argued that Traubel had to sing more composers other than Wagner because she was, rightly or wrongly, number two in that repertory at the Met.

[@bobzeschin3154]

@@ER1CwC Traubel may have sung and recorded arias by other composers, but except for a handful of Marschallins at the Met in 1951, I 'm unaware of her performing any non-Wagner operas anywhere. In St. Louis Woman, the first diva memoir I ever read and still a personal favorite, she wrote that she "learned at" Santuzza and Aida, but found the latter meek and unappealing. The Flagstad biographies all trace her path from operetta to the heavier repertoire and finally Wagner, with photos of her as Aida, Tosca, and other roles. Her accompanist Edwin McArthur's had a cute story about her attending a Martinelli Otello at the Met with her frenemy Frances Alda. During which Alda boasted "I sang Desdemona with the great Slezak." Flagstad replied "with emphasis, 'So did I.'"

[@mckavitt13]

I know what you mean by razor "sharpness", but Nilsson never gave me a headache. On the contrary, when i first heard her Isolde w Böhm at the helm, I thought I would faint.

[@Pathetikos]

In those times it was completely acceptable for a dramatic soprano to be rather "short" (both in the German and in the Italian repertoire). Today Traubel would have ended up singing the mezzo rep a) because she would have been considered a mezzo merely because of the shortness and b) nobody would have been able to make her built up a sufficiently solid breathing technique and placement as not to permit throatiness and other artificial alterations of the natural colour and weight of the voice.

[@jeffreymiller4814]

@Bivolari, no high Cs in immolation scene, and her recording of it under Toscanini is among the best on records still, 80+ years after it was recorded. There’s one C in prologue duet only. She omitted it and stayed on the unison note with the tenor. The 4 Cs in Walküre Hojotoho were usually “yipped” short in those days before Nilsson and Varnay. She transposed it to avoid the big sustained B naturals not the yipped Cs. Even Flagstad in her prime yipped the swooped Hojotoho top notes. Siegfried has one written C in Ewig war ich and an optional one at the end. She left them both out. Her only high C on record is an attempt at one in the Götterdämmerung Prologue duet “live” in concert with Melchior under Toscanini in 1941. It is not a success. This Alceste aria, however, is among her best recordings. Great high B-flats, especially at the end of the middle section.

[@OPEROMANO]

NOTABLE

[@purisermonisamator]

Обожаю эту арию. Как жаль, что Фелия Литвин, при всей любви к этой партии, ничего из нее не записала! Зато у нас есть и Понсель, и Траубель, и Каллас. Траубель восхищает яркостью и мощью. Однако Каллас намного интереснее "оркеструет" эту арию, и микеладжеловская фреска Траубель становится у Марии микеланджеловской же скульптурой.

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

Average. I prefer Rosa’s.

[@XlikeZero]

Ponselle admired of Traubel. She said it to her after concert.

[@jimbuxton2187]

If this was average, then anyone could sing it. That is not the case.

[@Bivolari]

Great singing.

[@Bivolari]

No high C. Luckily there are very few C's in Wagner. I think she managed the Immolation Scene. The Battle Cry was transposed down.