Birgit's intonation was always pretty astounding. Sometimes she would go sharp but her accuracy in the high tessitura was laser-like. The complete opposite of Gruberova and Price who sometimes had to take a running jump before hitting a note.
Whoever was in that place must have ended up deaf. The amount of volume these two produced could bring down a building. Birgit’s voice sounds specially beautiful, Joan’s middle sounds so thick.
It's amazing how similar they sound in certain parts of their voices...they both had a certain thickness in the lower middle and a slashing freedom on top.
I think Birgit's Voice is Unique in terms that timbrically it is like a thick Crystal and one cannot predict this Crystalline Voice was a HUGE dramatic soprano since most Crystalline Voices were small Lyrical soprani. Now dame Joan for me belongs to the category (timbrically again) of the Marble Voices which includes Flagstad, Tebaldi and Ponselle and the miracle is that although the 3 former had huge problem with top notes (to the point of not singing them in 99% of cases) dame Joan had the EASIEST top register while maintaining all that thick Marble up to the very top notes... But I think Birgit has no sister in the pantheon of Voices
I am sad that we don't have 1952 Callas and Nilsson singing together on some video, it would be interesting to hear 2 such huge voices together... P.S. I chose 1952 Callas because I think during those years she was at her fullest vocal strength.
In Don Giovanni? Callas Donna Anna, Birgit Donna Elvira? Norma? Callas Norma, Birgit Adalgisa? Callas Aida Birgit Amneris? Corelli had said Birgit is the BIGGEST voice he ever sang with
@@LohengrinO Really they have sung together??? Where can I find those performances??? I guess Corelli forgot Norma from Trieste 1953..LoL He also stated that Mario del Monaco had the biggest voice, and Callas "covered" him several times-in Norma, Aida.. My personal opinion, I might be wrong, but I hear it this way-both have extremely large instruments, Callas had a bigger thicker stronger voice, but bad technique, and Nilsson had a perfect technique who made her large instrument really resonant, powerful and and even more penetrating. This is the influence I got after listening to Callas' Traviata from 1952, Aida from Mexico, Medea from La Scala 1953, Turandot from 1949, Norma from 1952/3. I just wish there were some recordings that registered Callas singing Wagner's Brunnhilde from 1949... Thanks for your answer and that you put these videos on RUclips. You have an amazing channel. True opera lover. I didn't mean to offend none of the singers, are all extraordinary, but I put them all on one side and Callas with all her goods and flaws on the other. She is really special, I don't think she was self aware of how special she is.
@@ereki4545 ofc there are no recordings of Maria with Birgit, I was imagining... Callas had THE greatest Technique we have ever heard from a singer of any kind unapproached even by dame Joan
@@LohengrinO how i wish Callas had sung the judgement scene in her supernova recital from 1952 instead of Nabucco, Macbeth or Lucia. Nilsson was barely a great Aida. I can't imagine her as Amneris, let alone as Adalgisa.
@@alioffe4321 WELL I didnt want to insult here that much but it is true, Nilsson was lacking the Technique (not the Voice, the Technique) to sing those roles... Imagine today someone singing in one Recital: Lakme, Abigaile, Lucia and Lady M :D
@@luanllluan Oh but it is!!!! because dame Joan's CONTROL over her voice was so HUGE that she managed to deliver 99% of scooping in that little phrase she sang... she literally could order her instrument!!! while Birgit only barely manages to produce a scoop, only barely
.... Due voci incomparabili che non risentiremo mai più!!! Grandi senza fine Birgit Nilsson e Dame Joan Sutherland ... ed io son qui piena di stupenda commozione a ringraziare te caro Lohengrin0 per questa magnificenza 👏❤️👏❤️👏❤️Elsa
I truly wish Sutherland, as an artist, had depended more on these smaller feats 2:59 rather than meaningless extended cadenzas. So simple, fragile and unique!
@@LohengrinO i meant generally! Not this particular cadenza! This is fabulous and so musical. Not an ounce of it is out of character, too. Also, a testament to her wonderful piano singing!!!, which is usually discredited by her detractors. Suck on that mezza piano trill losers 😀
@@LohengrinO we have to reconfigure our entire perceptiveness to simply understand how miraculous Callas and Sutherland were. We cannot simply apply conventional physics and biology to their singing. To have such huge voices and be able to sing the most intricate coloratura passages with nonchalance, to sing ppp etc with those instruments. 18 wheelers moving like Ferraris indeed!
On aimerait encore entendre et écouter avec ravissement des Traviatas et des Toscas de cette envergure... les techniques vocales actuelles sont hélas loin d’être aussi solides et quasi parfaites. 😜
I’m trying to train my ear to understand this stuff. It’s obvious why the scooping is terrible in the intentionally bad examples, but I also feel like I hear scooping in the good examples, and I don’t know what makes a good scoop versus what makes a bad scoop. I’m saying scoop a lot
ZERO scooping in the two examples that follow, so ZERO that it goes against natural singing law... especially from Birgit who even in the scooping example she barely manages to produce a scoop (Birgit was the ULTIMATE non-scooper because if you scoop in Bel Canto you just sing badly but if you scoop in Wagner: get the Hell outa here!!!!
@@LohengrinO Good one. Pop singers scoop all the time... it's a style...but some opera singers also scoop. Portamentos don't flatten the pitch as the singer goes up, it results in a scoop..when the chest register (darkened) is carried too high. I LOVED Leontyne Price's gorgeous voice....but because she darkened too much during her wonderful career.. she started to scoop on the high notes as she got a little older...very sad !! I can't think of the others right now.
@@secretofsinging I never judge a singer when he grows old, besides I never liked Leontyne even in her prime, but singing in your prime with Scoop and do that in Bel Canto? well, I dont want... I think this example dame Joan gives us here is monumental... and indeed it is TERRIBLE as Birgit says, unbelievably bad singing
@@LohengrinO Yes...I agree, but perhaps they should have been self-aware...of the scooping and loose vibrato..and stopped singing. Joan..was one of the other scooper.. Sorry to these 2 fine singers in their prime... but it is realistic.
It’s easier. It’s like inserting a micro ascending scale leading to the desired pitch. Many of the best singers do it in one way or the other. Interesting. I never really thought about it before except as a guilty little secret.
@@LohengrinO I think it’s more common among the verismo singers. And it was more popular as a stylistic choice in the early 20th century. As a singer it took personal discipline and attentive ears to assure that I balanced safety with precision at the onset of a note. Had I not been pressured by teachers and conductors it would have been very difficult to remove it. There’s a way of “hooking,” or “transitioning,” “passing”, or “resonating” into higher notes that, if not managed properly, lends itself to scooping. You can hear great singers like Robert Merrill or Morelia Freni do it. It begs the question, at what point of tonal variation is it considered a “scoop?”
@@phedrob3735 In other words singing Notes the composer never wrote in order not to damage the vocal cords (it prolongs the vocal aging miraculously)... it is the Cholera of singing and the most BAD TASTE habit a singer can do especially while singing Bel Canto
@@LohengrinO I did not realise that scooping prolonged the vocalcords from aging? Scooping is the laziest form of singing and usually means that you are not engaging your body for support and that you are singing on your chords alone. - like Mario Lanza as the best example, next to him, Jonas Kaufmann, a Tenor voice that has never found its true singing identity.
oh but it is, and the reason is because dame Joan's control over her voice is so HUGE that she manages to deliver 99% of scooping in that phrase she sang... a few secs later I post her real Ah forse lui where u can hear literally 0% of scooping... Birgit on the other hand only barely managed to produce a scoop... the "terrible" by no means is intended towards dame Joan but towards the HUGE AMOUNT of Scoop
6:08 - She always attacked the high notes with mind-boggling fearlessness, and right in the center of the pitch. A true marvel of sound.
it was Impossible for Birgit to scoop.... IMPOSSIBLE... dame Joan delivers big scoop but Birgit only barely manages
Birgit's intonation was always pretty astounding. Sometimes she would go sharp but her accuracy in the high tessitura was laser-like. The complete opposite of Gruberova and Price who sometimes had to take a running jump before hitting a note.
Whoever was in that place must have ended up deaf. The amount of volume these two produced could bring down a building. Birgit’s voice sounds specially beautiful, Joan’s middle sounds so thick.
It's amazing how similar they sound in certain parts of their voices...they both had a certain thickness in the lower middle and a slashing freedom on top.
I think Birgit's Voice is Unique in terms that timbrically it is like a thick Crystal and one cannot predict this Crystalline Voice was a HUGE dramatic soprano since most Crystalline Voices were small Lyrical soprani. Now dame Joan for me belongs to the category (timbrically again) of the Marble Voices which includes Flagstad, Tebaldi and Ponselle and the miracle is that although the 3 former had huge problem with top notes (to the point of not singing them in 99% of cases) dame Joan had the EASIEST top register while maintaining all that thick Marble up to the very top notes... But I think Birgit has no sister in the pantheon of Voices
I am sad that we don't have 1952 Callas and Nilsson singing together on some video, it would be interesting to hear 2 such huge voices together...
P.S. I chose 1952 Callas because I think during those years she was at her fullest vocal strength.
In Don Giovanni? Callas Donna Anna, Birgit Donna Elvira? Norma? Callas Norma, Birgit Adalgisa? Callas Aida Birgit Amneris? Corelli had said Birgit is the BIGGEST voice he ever sang with
@@LohengrinO Really they have sung together??? Where can I find those performances???
I guess Corelli forgot Norma from Trieste 1953..LoL He also stated that Mario del Monaco had the biggest voice, and Callas "covered" him several times-in Norma, Aida..
My personal opinion, I might be wrong, but I hear it this way-both have extremely large instruments, Callas had a bigger thicker stronger voice, but bad technique, and Nilsson had a perfect technique who made her large instrument really resonant, powerful and and even more penetrating. This is the influence I got after listening to Callas' Traviata from 1952, Aida from Mexico, Medea from La Scala 1953, Turandot from 1949, Norma from 1952/3. I just wish there were some recordings that registered Callas singing Wagner's Brunnhilde from 1949...
Thanks for your answer and that you put these videos on RUclips. You have an amazing channel. True opera lover.
I didn't mean to offend none of the singers, are all extraordinary, but I put them all on one side and Callas with all her goods and flaws on the other. She is really special, I don't think she was self aware of how special she is.
@@ereki4545 ofc there are no recordings of Maria with Birgit, I was imagining... Callas had THE greatest Technique we have ever heard from a singer of any kind unapproached even by dame Joan
@@LohengrinO how i wish Callas had sung the judgement scene in her supernova recital from 1952 instead of Nabucco, Macbeth or Lucia. Nilsson was barely a great Aida. I can't imagine her as Amneris, let alone as Adalgisa.
@@alioffe4321 WELL I didnt want to insult here that much but it is true, Nilsson was lacking the Technique (not the Voice, the Technique) to sing those roles... Imagine today someone singing in one Recital: Lakme, Abigaile, Lucia and Lady M :D
I've always adored this interview, these two together was pure joy
you and Edita! :D
@@LohengrinO the shaaaade xD
@@LohengrinO but my fav moment is at 0:42 Oh ThAt'S TeRRibLe hhahahha
@@luanllluan Oh but it is!!!! because dame Joan's CONTROL over her voice was so HUGE that she managed to deliver 99% of scooping in that little phrase she sang... she literally could order her instrument!!! while Birgit only barely manages to produce a scoop, only barely
@@luanllluan absolutely no shade.... I can truly not believe how Edita made a career in Bel Canto after this Interview took place
Sutherland was indeed surprisingly beautiful in her prime.
fantastic hairdo also... the earrings Divine!! Diva!
@@LohengrinO She did indeed look like an opera singer. The idea of glamour has been completely lost now.
Impresionante, las cosas que subes.. muchas gracias, la verdad... se agradece tu generosidad...
.... Due voci incomparabili che non risentiremo mai più!!! Grandi senza fine Birgit Nilsson e Dame Joan Sutherland ... ed io son qui piena di stupenda commozione a ringraziare te caro Lohengrin0 per questa magnificenza 👏❤️👏❤️👏❤️Elsa
I truly wish Sutherland, as an artist, had depended more on these smaller feats 2:59 rather than meaningless extended cadenzas. So simple, fragile and unique!
dear God the amount of control dame Joan had over her voice being able to literally deliver 99% of scooping... (btw I love the cadenza at 3:27)
@@LohengrinO i meant generally! Not this particular cadenza! This is fabulous and so musical. Not an ounce of it is out of character, too. Also, a testament to her wonderful piano singing!!!, which is usually discredited by her detractors. Suck on that mezza piano trill losers 😀
@@alioffe4321 imagine others not be able to sing Sempre libera at all and dame Joan adding Eb6 cadenzas to it lol
@@LohengrinO we have to reconfigure our entire perceptiveness to simply understand how miraculous Callas and Sutherland were. We cannot simply apply conventional physics and biology to their singing. To have such huge voices and be able to sing the most intricate coloratura passages with nonchalance, to sing ppp etc with those instruments. 18 wheelers moving like Ferraris indeed!
@@alioffe4321 ruclips.net/video/YruWxzUwitk/видео.html
On aimerait encore entendre et écouter avec ravissement des Traviatas et des Toscas de cette envergure... les techniques vocales actuelles sont hélas loin d’être aussi solides et quasi parfaites. 😜
I’m trying to train my ear to understand this stuff. It’s obvious why the scooping is terrible in the intentionally bad examples, but I also feel like I hear scooping in the good examples, and I don’t know what makes a good scoop versus what makes a bad scoop. I’m saying scoop a lot
ZERO scooping in the two examples that follow, so ZERO that it goes against natural singing law... especially from Birgit who even in the scooping example she barely manages to produce a scoop (Birgit was the ULTIMATE non-scooper because if you scoop in Bel Canto you just sing badly but if you scoop in Wagner: get the Hell outa here!!!!
@@LohengrinO Good one. Pop singers scoop all the time... it's a style...but some opera singers also scoop. Portamentos don't flatten the pitch as the singer goes up, it results in a scoop..when the chest register (darkened) is carried too high. I LOVED Leontyne Price's gorgeous voice....but because she darkened too much during her wonderful career.. she started to scoop on the high notes as she got a little older...very sad !! I can't think of the others right now.
@@secretofsinging I never judge a singer when he grows old, besides I never liked Leontyne even in her prime, but singing in your prime with Scoop and do that in Bel Canto? well, I dont want... I think this example dame Joan gives us here is monumental... and indeed it is TERRIBLE as Birgit says, unbelievably bad singing
@@LohengrinO Yes...I agree, but perhaps they should have been self-aware...of the scooping and loose vibrato..and stopped singing. Joan..was one of the other scooper.. Sorry to these 2 fine singers in their prime... but it is realistic.
It’s easier. It’s like inserting a micro ascending scale leading to the desired pitch. Many of the best singers do it in one way or the other. Interesting. I never really thought about it before except as a guilty little secret.
absolutely no secret, the Cholera of Bel Canto since forever ;) No real bel canto singer ever did scoop
@@LohengrinO I think it’s more common among the verismo singers.
And it was more popular as a stylistic choice in the early 20th century.
As a singer it took personal discipline and attentive ears to assure that I balanced safety with precision at the onset of a note. Had I not been pressured by teachers and conductors it would have been very difficult to remove it. There’s a way of “hooking,” or “transitioning,” “passing”, or “resonating” into higher notes that, if not managed properly, lends itself to scooping. You can hear great singers like Robert Merrill or Morelia Freni do it. It begs the question, at what point of tonal variation is it considered a “scoop?”
Scoop? Is that bending a note upward? I'm not familiar with this term.
Sliding between pitches
@@manolis.799 Thank you. I'm trying to add to my knowledge of Opera and every little helps.
@@phedrob3735 In other words singing Notes the composer never wrote in order not to damage the vocal cords (it prolongs the vocal aging miraculously)... it is the Cholera of singing and the most BAD TASTE habit a singer can do especially while singing Bel Canto
@@LohengrinO Thank you. So would that be the same as transitioning, albeit not included in the original score?
@@LohengrinO I did not realise that scooping prolonged the vocalcords from aging? Scooping is the laziest form of singing and usually means that you are not engaging your body for support and that you are singing on your chords alone. - like Mario Lanza as the best example, next to him, Jonas Kaufmann, a Tenor voice that has never found its true singing identity.
I feel like I’m listening to Gruberova and Fleming 🤪
indeed
Amazing
Why? I could just see her face🤣
Legendary
0:40
oh but it is, and the reason is because dame Joan's control over her voice is so HUGE that she manages to deliver 99% of scooping in that phrase she sang... a few secs later I post her real Ah forse lui where u can hear literally 0% of scooping... Birgit on the other hand only barely managed to produce a scoop... the "terrible" by no means is intended towards dame Joan but towards the HUGE AMOUNT of Scoop
Hahahaha