Montserrat Caballe "Spargi d'amaro pianto" Lucia

[will1074]

io adoro la Caballe ma non era questo il suo ruolo, anche se se la cava...però lei era la regina dei filati, dei pianissimo, delle arie d'amore che abilmente rendeva raffinate e le note alte non erano il suo forte, anche se qui aveva ancora voce..i suoi ruoli erano altri...

[amiciopera]

Lucia, is a walk over to Norma, and She did not have a problem singing Norman and the great mount everest of Aria, Casta Diva plus the cabeletta, with uttermost flexability and sheer accuracy.. the best voice that ever sang Norma, "I said the best voice" Callas #1 Sutherland #2 Cabellè#3. the same voice you sing Lucia with you need to double that to sing Norma, Norma has high notes, low notes, long phrases, the coloratura, seemless legato the Drama the text. rethink again

Ciao

[GeorgiNM]

To say it isn't screamy and "lungey" would be far from true. But I can't help myself from being in awe... kill me... What I find really addictive is the absolutely insane high C, and when it is hurled over Chorus at the end (and quite a chorus it, is, this is Donizetti at his most magisterial) the effect is of unbridled, cataclysmic folly... Unorthodox perhaps, but she has a golden alibi here - it's a Mad Scene, THE Mad Scene. Loooooove it!

[OperaMystery80]

Not many operaphiles like Caballe's Lucia but this was quite beautiful. I love that high note from 3:22 - 3:28.. She was definitely the right fach/voice type for the role; but her sound was too robust and for all her great technique & experience singing Donizetti & bel canto (Bolena, Stuarda, Lucrezia, Deveraux, Puritani, Norma, Pirata,) she doesn't sound like the romantic, youthful, fragile, ill Lucia. Caballe's good health doesn't match Lucia's mad character.

[barmanjoe]

Great sublime voice, I'm just not sure I was ever that keen on the thrill which in her case was a bit of a bleet.

[yunshanwanli]

Brava！

[jmiller05]

Caballe is very sharp here, and her top notes are fighting against the vocal weight required for this role. Make no mistake, this is a heavy, heavy role. You need agility and a powerful upper register. Caballe has agility in pianissimo, but not for soaring forte notes like this requires.

[MrAndredekock]

A job well done, but really not for her voice. She becomes a bit too strident and she is so good in other roles that really suit her voice, like Medea and Norma.

[IroNSol88]

She is Goddess!

[90lysander]

I'm less concerned about the absence of certain high notes than the ugliness of those included! Caballe's voice was really in tatters during this recording (she rallied later that season, thank goodness) and it wasn't the best role for her, anyway.

[Autumnwalk2]

Very different expression from the other Lucia's

[solisef]

What can't she sing? Phenomenal!

[boysoul1]

not a role for her voice...

[sincerity112]

@boysoul1

agree

[jackarturo2904]

En realidad Caballé siempre ha sido fiel a las partiruras originales, y en la partitura original de Donizetti no existen los dos mi bemoles sobreagudos al final de la aria Ardon gli incensi y al final de la cabaletta Spargi d'amaro pianto, esas notas se agregaron despues para que las interpretes puedieran lucirse, pero la cantante decide cantar o no con esas notas, asi que la version de Caballé es de las más hermosas y potentes de todas las demás versiones!!

[eugenelohks]

Why did she sing this a whole tone higher? It may just be the reocrding..., but the high 'strained ' notes are C's I think... they only need to be Bb's! Still I love this performance.

[andrecueca]

@eugenelohks she sang it in the original key...we dont see that very often..best wishes

[eugenelohks]

@andrecueca oh i thought the original key was only a semitone up... and i thought only sutherland sang bel canto up... how ignorant of me

[opera75frfr]

Il paraît que cet enregistrement a un intérêt philologique: tonalité d'origine, retour à des ornementations originales...Je n'en doute pas . mais malgré toute l'admiration et l'affection que j'ai pour ma très chère Montserrat, ce n'est pas pour elle. Avec le Turc en Italie, c'est sa pire intégrale/ Tout cela est trop haut, elle crie, les sons sont perçants, trilles scolaires, voix lourde. Et le personnage de la fragile Lucia, n'en parlons même pas!!C'est épouvantable

[musoph21]

wish she would have used more piano notes. Her tops sounds forced.

[philipc67]

The 1976 recording, very few embellishments. She never sang Lucia on stage, wrong for the role vocally and physically. Her instrument, very lyrical and flexible in high pianissimo, is unsuited to this. The voice strains in the highest notes. I think the 2nd Sutherland recording and Gruberova are the best. Neither Callas recording (1953, 1959) is fully satisfactory, the 1959 almost coloratura-free, horrible E-flat. But the miraculous live 1955 Karajan Berlin performance is an absolute reference.

[hipouracanadogrito]

I agree, the high D-Flat are forced, but she is unique Lucia that she resembles truly crazy

[babydrane]

well she is certainly portraying madness...beyond that...

[webbersarahlover]

this is for coloratura soprano not lyric

[adballet]

I like Devia's much better. Caballe seems to be out of breath at the end.

[leprincebeaumont]

Davvero una prova da dimenticare e che è una macchia sul blasone artistico della (non sempre) grande Caballé.

[operalover1959]

@leprincebeaumont perche da dimentichare???? caballe ha una voce meravigliosa....ed e SEMPRE grande......una delle migliori soprano di tutti i tempi...e nessuno puo dubitarne...

[asdfopera]

I owned this recording once, but I had to get rid of it. I enjoy Caballe in many other roles, but not this Lucia.

[TheMrMaz]

oh Lord SAVE us!!This is DREADFUL!!I wouldn't even call this singing...it's almost 'kariyoki' sounding!!I know old Mon' was a huge fan of Callas...but her mimicking the same roles Maria sang was bordering on LUNACY...but you can't really 'blame' Mon',as everyone and their MOTHER were CONSTANTLY trying to 'shoe horn' her into Callas triumphs,hoping for the legend of Callas to be 'extended' (ie: putting Mon' in 'Anna Bolena' at La Scala) with DIRE results,as is proven here!!Crap...

[andrecueca]

haha...you´re funny

[Magicalmike1]

I dont there is something about MC singing this that i s actually totally amazing! :)

[LohengrinT]

omg this is uber-lol Why post such things of the great Caballe and even bigger question why did she ever sing these roles...

Then they wonder why Maria was so unique... because she could actually sing! what she was singing

[33blueberries]

Not past her fortieth she couldn't.

[andrecueca]

pathetic comment....

[andrecueca]

until 1963

[LohengrinT]

actually she lost lucia from her throat in 1959... but what a miracle of Lucia she was when she could sing the role :p

[andrecueca]

she was...and i looove callas...but i get so mad when people show how narrow minded they are thinking that the only good way to sing a role is the way callas did....but i love her and she is one of the tops...so is caballe

[Drelnis]

This doesn't sound like a key other sopranos have been doing the piece in, what is it?

[andrecueca]

the original key...

[dragoslavac]

This is original version written by Donizetti- Lot of high "C" s, so beautiful. By this Philips recording and put in on right volume and you shall listen to marvelles work. this is a voice to blow out a house not the coloraturas without intensity.

[thomastmwc]

oh I personally dislike the original version... less difficult, less beautiful...haha

[skitzo429]

shes singing it up in F, thats interesting, especially without the high Do at the end.

[velazquez2009]

usually soprano´s sing high E/flat at the end.

[skitzo429]

this isnt the key most sopranos sing it in, most sopranos sing this is in Eb and sing the high Eb at the end, this is in F, which was donizettis original key.  Generally if sung in the original key they will sing the high F at the end, but Caballe doesnt really have those kind of high notes

[velazquez2009]

I have looked it up in the score and you are right!

[operalover1959]

@velazquez2009 yes you are rught but when donizetti wrote this opera...the E-flat was not mentioned to be sang....caballe here sings the authentic spargi d amarro pianto!

[velazquez2009]

@operalover1959 yes, but endings are usually marked 'a piacere' which gives freedom to artist to end in their own way ornamentations in the style of the composers or insert a hiigh note.... I miss the E-flat here because it is a crown on Lucia's madness...

[operalover1959]

@velazquez2009 anna netrebko...angela gheorghiu etc etc would have inserted the E-flat....but caballe just does not have to proove nothing...she is a living myth...she is one of the best sopranos of all time......so even without an E-flat this performance is perfect..... :-)

[gonzoli]

@operalover1959 Just that this performance is sang by Ms. Caballe in the original key (F Mayor) not in the key we are used to hear where sopranos usually end in a high e flat, if she would have wanted to end high she would have to hit an F

alexXx

[lullaluna]

Much better coloratura than Netrebko for sure!!!!

[AiTaiwandeRen]

Poor Netrebko ought not to be singing bel canto. She simply doesn't have the technique.

[Drelnis]

And to imagine that Netrebko recently did Lucia alongside Dessay (2 casts).

And you know who the officials picked to have a DVD released? Netrebko.

Netrebko deserves a Lucia DVD and not Dessay?

[leugim1961]

No es una buena interpretacion, pero canta tal y como esta en la partitura. Las florituras y el agudos final fueron agregados posteriores.

[vocalissimo1]

Although there are many roles that Caballe was able to sing beautifully, this was never one of them. Why was she attracted to music which had been so decisively conquered by the likes of Sutherland, Sills and Callas, all of whom possessed the stratospheric notes to make the roles work? This mad scene is something of a stylistic nightmare and the top notes are painful to listen to. It's surpising that for someone with such a remarkable technique, Caballe rarely sang staccati very well.

[AmericanEvita]

Hey Vocalismo I agree although I love Caballe's voice a lot...her Lucia was no good but her Tosca and Salome were....she just wanted to join the Sutherland and Sills band wagon and do bel canto ..she probably just love the genre too much...

[houncane]

I think that Caballé isn't suitable for a characters like Lucia! she screams!

[joansutherlandista]

esta lucía es uno de los diversos fiascos discográficos de la caball. La Lucía discográfica y su Gioconda para decca de 1980son las peores en disco grabadas.

suspensa .

[Alleeexoscm]

Grandiosa la Caballé. Su voz es clarisima y su técnica es hermosisima.

Aunque es muy pareceida al resto de las Lucias, no sobresale su timbre o alguna característica suya... aún así es buena.

[richard8114]

gracias por la difucion del arte¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

[coopandre]

Did she ever perform this role on stage?

[skitzo429]

not her best, her voice has a certain shrill abrasiveness here that i havent heard in her other recordings really

[birgitnilsson]

There are some much better Lucias than Montse´s. It is not her fach.

[Richiesutherland]

She could be glorious, but this was a terrible recording, embarrassingly full of screaming and stridency. She sings in the original key of F, a full tone higher than usual. Earlier in her career, she might have made this key work, but she was also hamstrung by the simply awful conducting by Lopez-Cobos, who, in the name of "authenticity" didn't allow ornaments (as if the singers in Donizetti's day didn't ornament--vergognati!). God save us from stupid conductors! Not Montsy's fault.

[Pawobrat]

Really only this Lucia seems that she's crazy

[Frufrucucu]

This is the first time I hear Caballe sing this role and coming from hearing lyric and dramatic coloraturas singing the role, it is quite iteresting to hear Caballe's take of it. She soud buautiful! Yes, it's toned down because she could barely go above C but it still is great.

Her tone is just right, it isn't TOO powerful. Just hear Callas and Sutherland sing the role and you'll see that it is even better than canaries singing it.

[birgitnilsson]

Ljuba is really terrific!

[saverioorlando]

Perfect musician,agility and coloratura only 3 stars.

[lawally]

She doesn't do the high note because she didn't have a high E flat...

In fact she rarely went above high C, she sang a High D a couple of times i know about, in a Maria Stuarda, and Anna Bolena, plus the sleepwalking scene in Macbeth.

This was a little late for her, plus everything is sung in the original keys, which are actually higher than is generally sung.

[barmanjoe]

Not bad, I'm not so sure whether I'm too keen on the bleet, there are parts where she sounds like a sheep.

[ARReith]

Why no high note at the end?

[nicevidbro]

because its sung in the original key and maybe she wasnt able to sing that note. usually singers sing the transposed version.

[agnellodei]

The high Eb or high F is written. In fact, most of the bel canto high notes for soprano are not written, I'm not even sure if the Eb in "La sonnambula" that appears in the score was actually written by Bellini or added later.

[nicevidbro]

but i didnt say that the high note isnt written. I said that maybe Caballe was not able to hit that note. thats all i said.

[agnellodei]

She did have a high E flat, but rarely used it. She used her high D in Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda a couple of times, and her high E flat is in "I Lombardi" from her Bel Canto Arias album.

[nicevidbro]

again. i didnt say she did not have that note, i said that maybe shw wasnt able to hit it here.-

[Lflennoy]

I agree with you. I have been consistenly dissapointed with her recordings and the lack of high notes she does NOT hit. I have a Verrett Caballe Maria Stuara and Verrett, steals that show. Caballe did not hit ANY of the high notes that end any of the arias.

[Lflennoy]

Now that I think about it, the Traviata recording is the same way as is the Semiramide I have of her.

[agnellodei]

I meant "the high Eb or high F are NOT written".

[LadyArmide]

I like her as Lucia. Ok, her voice is a bit too powerful for the role and she doesn't do the usual high notes but at least she performs the role in her unique way, she knows of what she is capable and shows it. The photos are so beautiful!

[Orfeus80]

i like this version but Caballe should have recorded it pre 1972. In 76 Ricciarelli could have done an excellent job here