WAIT, She's...a man?! | OPERA SINGER REACTS Non so più

[@JillyCookeMusic]

I saw Flicka perform in September of 2023, and it's incredible how well her voice has held up. Her recital in Fairfield, IA, was a master class in storytelling. (I also saw her give an actual master class a few days earlier in my hometown of Iowa City, and it was gratifying to hear someone of her stature be so complimentary to singers I've admired for years.)

[@operaanna]

Ahh I love that! I'm so glad to hear she's a nice person. I would be stoked to hear her live one day 🙏

[@ganson560]

Always enjoy your insight, and I always learn something new!

[@chriggsiii]

At 28:10 you remark that "any aria, even an aria that's -- you know -- seems very sort of shallow and -- and -- you know -- playful on top can also be very, very moving, if you do the right things with it." This is particularly the case with many Mozart arias. One really good example, in particular, is Zerlina's "Vedrai, carino." It basically ambles along amiably through "Saper vorresti." But, starting with "Dove mi sta" down to the fermata after "Dove, dove, dove mi sta," the whole tenor and tone of the aria changes. And then, of course, there's that fermata, which, in my opinion, should be held FOREVER. After that fermata, Zerlina emerges a changed and way more serious woman. Think of it; before that point, she has acted the submissive little girl, asking Masetto to beat her and tear her eyes out and pull out her hair, etc. etc. Suddenly, after the fermata here, with the words "Sentilo battere," Zerlina has grown up. She is now a serious mature woman with desires and needs of her own and who, moreover, finally realizes how very much she loves Masetto and how she desperately does not want to lose him. I've rarely seen a Zerlina really treat this aria with the respect it deserves, or imbue it with the proper dramatic reversal that takes place in its midst, at that point in the piece. Yes, everything from the "Sentilo battere" to the end of the aria is indeed, to quote you, "very moving," and I really would like to see a study of the aria that respects its immense and unexpected depth. I have found a few, a very few, examples on KZbin of Zerlinas who respected and demonstrated the pivotal nature of the character's transformation at that point. But, if you can find such an interpretation, and give the aria your special Opera Anna treatment utilizing that performance, I believe it would be one of the more rewarding aria analyses you have done. (And, of course, there's also the interesting question of the proper vocal type for Zerlina; while it is most often performed by the soubrette soprano, the fact is that great mezzos, Bartoli, Elias and, yes, von Stade, have also done the role, and, for all I know, you may have done the role as well.)

[@russellbaston974]

Fabulous presentation and insightful explanation.❤

[@operaanna]

Thank you!!

[@ludovico6890]

Glad to see a new video of you! And on a new Mozart aria!

[@operaanna]

I would've gotten it up last week if I had known editing on a new computer was going to be such a pain... Hope you enjoy it!

[@ludovico6890]

​@@operaanna I always enjoy it.

[@idraote]

Countertenors were considered second-rate choices because their voices usually lacked power and range which, with exceptions, they still lack today. This is why I still prefer a competent mezzo to most counter tenors.

[@constandina_chrr7298]

I absolutely love your content !

[@operaanna]

Thank you!!! ❤️❤️❤️

[@leaevavoe3235]

Hey Anna! Funny coincidence - our music history lecturer was just telling us today why countertenors were not so popular in opera, especially in the baroque era. For a long time, countertenors were solely responsible for singing oratorios. Handel also shared this opinion. As we all know, women were not allowed to sing in church.... so countertenors just had their fixed place there. On the opera stage, permission for female singers became established much more quickly. I think that could be one of the reasons - historically informed, it is therefore relatively wrong to cast countertenors in opera roles. This information actually blew my mind today! 🤯

[@operaanna]

WHOOAAAAAA my mind is blown too!!! That's amazing! What's y'all's required reading? I would love to read more opera history 🤩

[@Alexmeister25]

Castratis... 😀

[@royj.mattice]

This was fun to watch you explain an aria that you have sung before. I would like to hear a recording of you singing it due to all the little points you made. Do you have this aria on your other channel? I think there is a song called "Addicted to Love."

[@operaanna]

I thought i did, but i have it unlisted 😬 it's from like four years ago which is i think why

[@ludovico6890]

I love how frantically Federica von Stade sings the aria. Truly like a horny yet sentimental teenager. My mum had bought a record of her, there was Non so piu in it, that’s how i first got introduced to the aria.

[@operaanna]

She is so great and just perfectly captures the spirit of the character.

[@Alix777.]

I love Frederica 💚

[@frb1808]

VON STADE!! Please do us a "Nacqui all'affanno" reaction, please! Are you also planning to include Verdi mezzosoprano roles (especially Eboli)?

[@operaanna]

I'm planning on doing ALL arias...eventually 😅 i do what seems most fun in the week.

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

Well, I think I might enlighten You a bit. Here is an old video of "Voi che sapete...." kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2qwoZp3m7CpaLc with Cecilia. Notice how she breaks down in deep register - especially on "... avampar..." Bartoli has a forcefull deep register (quite dark) and it illudes well a teenagers changing voice. There is another trick to this: In "Nozze...." the woodwind instrument indicates whom the character is THINKING of. Rosina is the flute, Figaro the basoon, Almaviva the oboe and Susanna is complicated, as it was originally written for Nancy Storace so it is a higher pitched instrument. Storace smashed her voice in a totally diffent opera and didn't perform for half a year. Now Mozart rewrote the part for Storace and a clarinet (basset clarinet to be precise - which is essential by Mozart - to often a to highly pitched clarinet is used). The point is that the high register of the clarinet is the sqeeky part and the low register is the darker and warmer. It is essential that the voices should be matched to the singer in Mozart. Bartoli has sung the arias in concert, but to my knowledge never in a production. Cecilia cannot illude a teenage boy - her tits are simply to big. There is no way to camouflage that. She now sings "Voi che sapete..." occationally when she takes applause - without notifying the orechester, but they know her, and 1 violin joins in as the accompagning guitar - that specifically is not employed despite Rosina's request to Susanna. Normally the woodwind picks up. Now taking an applause is difficult, but Cecilia has it down and has made a da capo: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYWTnoeBiLJ4fpo As to the bust measure - the shoulder strops are not engaged - but trust me: That low neckline STAYS up - she could support a bridge.

[@JeffSearust]

Now I want to see YOU do it!!

[@operaanna]

I'll let you know when I get cast in it again! All my recordings are quite old, so maybe I can update those soon for you...

[@leadingblind1629]

I know this one! Not the opera or role. But the concept of trouser roles. Thank you Phantom of the Opera for introducing me to Faust and Seibel. Not that I know a single Seibel song. 80% of the music in Faust bores the ever-living shit out of me.

[@noexit4458]

Do you find it a shame that nowadays only contraltos let their register shifts show (yodel) to express grief or other deep feelings? Everyone else just masks this, masks that. Bring back the raw feelings!

[@operaanna]

Interesting! I think the lower register is misunderstood in singers and teachers simply because we can hear that all voice types used to have full access and presence in that range but today it just gets airy as people bring down too much head voice, or in most cases aren't connected to their body in general so it makes it impossible to have that luscious body in the lower register. ALSO we've gotten scared of the word chest in pedagogy. That's a really roundabout way of saying YES i think it's a shame, but i think it's based on a larger problem.

[@jphubert]

@@operaanna Maria Callas was not afraid to use her chest register and did so very well. I think all opera singers should use it when indicated, whether male or female.

[@operaanna]

@@jphubert absolutely!!

[@leadingblind1629]

Why edit my first comment when I can just serve the algorithm? Anyway... Although very much aware that the role is dubbed, would you consider consider covering a song from Farinelli?

[@operaanna]

Absolutely! I can talk about the difference between countertenors and castrati more!

[@leadingblind1629]

@@operaanna at least the dub is still done by a male 😉 you'd never know a guy could get quite that high

[@operaanna]

@@leadingblind1629 omg for sure! What countertenors can do is also just unbelievable

[@johnfields8308]

Flicka AKA Frederica Von Stade. followed very closely, maybe tied by Isabel Leonard. I have a crush on Isabel Leonard so my judgement can't be trusted

[@roberthouston3809]

Best version of this is pamela Helen Stephen /Alison hagley

[@operaanna]

Is that the Paris production with Gardiner? I'm obsessed with that version but I prefer von Stade's voice to Stephen's... I find Flicka more convincing in her sexuality but that's me of course!

[@roberthouston3809]

Yes I think so....it has Bryn terfel

[@roberthouston3809]

Do you know about Sandra piques eddy? Tell me what you think about her?

[@atizaries5512]

Аnna, iam totaly disappointrd about your knowledge how to differlyric repertoire of a tenor from spinto, particulary, dramatic spinto .You have proven this when ĺyou prefered Pavarotti to much greater Fra co Clorelli°

[@operaanna]

This is not a tenor reaction video

[@xwiirastusx]

How could a freakishly tall by stature and diva by attitude castrato (the likes of Farinelli or Caffarelli) fit into a rostra of any opera that wasn't built on and around him? The only viable option left was using young women who didn't have ideas above their station and were therefore easily "malleable". So being humaine doesn't really come into play at all.

[@ludovico6890]

I think one of the appeal of the Cherubino character is his sexual ambiguity: he's a teenage boy played by a woman, loves women of all age, perpetually horny, he even cross dresses at some point. Maybe I have a modern bias, but he's not quite straight, is he?

[@operaanna]

If only we could ask Mozart...

[@ludovico6890]

@OperaAnna Well, we'll never know and I'm speculating, but I suspect Mozart (and Da Ponte) had a rather progressive view of sexuality for his time. All their three operas are very open minded about it. Is there one sexual taboo that is frown upon?

[@operaanna]

@@ludovico6890 100%!!! This discussion has come up in basically every Mozart production I've done

[@operaanna]

@@ludovico6890 adultery maybe they didn't love but they definitely glorified sexual promiscuity

[@ludovico6890]

@OperaAnna I'm not sure they condemned adultery to be honest. In Cosi it's depicted as an inevitable fact of life, in Figaro what is reprehensible is the coercion of the Count, but his wife's interest in Cherubino is at least excused. Only in DG do they seem to condemn it and even then, it's very much a "don't do that cool thing" message.