Added: 4 years ago
From: Gabba02
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  • Who cannot be moved to tears by this wonderful performance?

  • She is the most beautiful singer. Astonishing!

  • This is simply the most moving performance of any music I've ever heard, Baker is so beautiful in every way!

  • 14 dislikes?? Early Music snobs, or scratters?

  • sob!

    still the best, singing the best.

    and perfect control while wearing a breast plate - amazing.

    i jumped through the hoops to set up an account just to say something about this piece.

  • This adorable combination of Purcell's music, Nahum Tate's libretto and Dame Janet Baker's remarkable singing just astonishes me.

  • wow! that is not dame janet baker- that is DIDO!

  • anyone know where I can get the full video of this whole performance?

  • Janet Baker blows Britney Spears out of the water.

  • @Entropy56 You demean Dame Janet by even contemplating a comparison. It is an aged entrecote steak cut from a grass fed bullock of 24 months. compared to putrefying minced cow beef. tvonmove

  • @Entropy56 One cannot compare a broken stick in a muddy hole with a Royal Sceptre. I know you mean to compliment Dame Janet Baker, but please, make appropriate comparisons. In my poor opinion, Dame Janet Baher has no peers, no rivals; the only singer in the Pantheon of Singers that is at her exalted level is the contralto Kathleen Ferrier. This performance of "When I am laid" is sublime. Perhaps no one will ever so much as approach the beauty and sublime expertise of this performance.

  • @2me4my5 I can imagine a different version of, "When I am laid" sung by Britney Spears that Janet Baker wouldn't touch.

  • @Entropy56 Nudge, nudge, wink, wink ..... good one mate - yuk! yuk! I get it: 'laid' - Oh Yeah! Hee Hee!

    It's amazing how people can produce such crassness after listening to such sublime singing.

  • @pinchmeImnotdreaming Oops! My mistake. I thought the story was called Dildo & Aeneas. Wink...

  • @Entropy56 Oh well, you came out of that exchange better than I. I was rather personally insulting in a gratuitous fashion; whereas you were not.

    But I still don't like your Rabelaisian robustness within this mood of sublime pathos that Janet Baker creates.

    'Dildo' I ask you! Have you no shame? I shudder to think what you will do with 'Aeneas' - add a P, no doubt!

  • @2me4my5 Bullshit Jeff Buckley sang this and put soul into opera, I'd say Jeff Buckley has no rivals let's here her sing qwali! Perfection is a false concept, music is left to the listener to realize perfection.  Period you operatic snobs!

  • @nat00ben06

    Well I, for one, listen to a damn sight more Jeff and Tim Buckley than I do opera. The difference is my open mind. Sure, Jeff's voice sends shivers down my spine.What he lacks in technical perfection he makes up for in soul. But Dame Janet's performance had both. She gave the best performance of this piece I have heard yet on the net. Credit where credit is due .If her performance does not move you, you are not listening.

  • Heart wrenching..!

  • How is the WORLD is she making three minutes. 24 secs happen? Super human!

  • How is the WORLD is she making 3:24 happen?  Super human!

  • @BrickLaneBetty Superhuman,transcendental...a glimpse of Heaven through a pinhole of light is all that we on earth will unfortunately ever be capable of perceiving.. To die with this divine voice ringing in my ears..I would count as a priveledge an honour and a life well spent.

  • @BrickLaneBetty

    she's dying - AND at the top of her range? Unreal.

  • 0:39 1:24

  • Despite the awful costumes and anachronistic singing style, this is actually a fairly moving version of this piece. Not bad for the 1950s (or whenever if was recorded).

  • lisa gasteen does it better

  • still so beautiful and still reaches parts that others can't.

  • Glorious. It moves me every time I watch and listen.

  • Forget that it is not an 'authentic' performance, Janet's singing is utterly superb. This is singing of the finest quality you will ever hear. the text is delivered, the technique is faultless.

  • terrible old recording is terrible.

  • This one piece of music embodies a stunning breakthrough in Western music and foreshadows what would come to pass in the late 19th century in terms of range of expression and breaking away from simple tonality. I wish more people knew of it, and what it represents in the history of Western music. As Miles Davis said of the next generation of young musicians, "They don't know anything ABOUT music."

  • beautiful rendition

    

  • La voix et l interpretation de dame janet sont bouleversantes de perfection.

    J aime aussi beaucoup la version de tatiana troyanos egalement sublime

  • Marvelous powerful performance of one of the most heart wrenching pieces of music ever written. Only Kathleen Ferrier can move me so much.

  • Between the recording Lorraine Hunt did of this aria and this version of Janet Baker's; I'd have to say I like an older sounding tone like Janet's singing this aria. i don't think she sounds like Kermit at all. (for those who wrote that)

  • Should have typed a little more touching.

  • This breaks my heart every time I see it. I have just purchased a DVD of the later TV production (in color), and as much as I enjoy it, I find this one a little touching. I wish we in America could have seen her in opera.

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  • Janet Baker ain't fucking around here folks.

  • This is the most emotionally charged piece of music I've heard in many years. Dame Janet has marvellously clear diction and expression. Purcell writes beautifully. An unforgetable combination.

  • This is the most emotionally charged piece of music I've heard in many years. Dame Janet has marvellously clear diction and expression.

  • Henry Purcell - on the top shelf of composers; Janet Baker - on the top shelf of singer/musicians. Possibly equal, but hard to beat that combination!

  • The most exquisite performance of this aria ever sung. The pianissimo on the first high G of "remember me" was indescribably, hauntingly beautiful. A difficult feat to achieve, yet it sounded free and effortless.Her artistry and beauty of tone can never be equalled.

  • Perhaps the best song ever written sung by one of the best singers ever!

  • Beautiful, I only hope Janet Baker can see by the messages that she really is the BEST. Thanks.

  • speechless. chills. in tears. so beautiful beyond words.

  • I know Janet Baker's hauntingly beautiful voice from a lot of Klemperer recordings (he liked her very much). Bought many pieces of music with her since then.

    The Purcell piece I heard first with Leontyne Price (different, but extremely beautiful and sad too). Thanks for uploading this music, it touches everyone who hears it. Wunder-wunderschön...

  • I would die where I stood if Janet Baker was singing to me.

  • Absolument sublime.

  • HELP ME!!!!

  • Vladimir, I'm sorry, I was mistaken about your comment, but it really was easy to make the mistake. Thanks for correcting, glad to know some coarse boob wasn't just venting on this beautiful piece of work. Best, gf

  • I looked up this version of the song because my music appreciation teacher said he was not going to show this one because he thought Janet Baker sounded like Kermit the frog. I HIGHLY disagree!!!!!!!!!! :)

  • gattofemme ,

     Of course I was not talking about Janet Baker, and about the singer, whose video was replaced by Janet Baker.

    Previously, there was a video where a young singer does not think more about music, but about showing their titek.

    I was outraged this is disrespectful to the music.

    :-)

    So ... there.

  • You guys check out Jessye Norman's rendition. I can't decide which one I like most. I'm kinda leaning toward Jessye Norman's though.

  • @cooldude5318 I am with you on that, Jessye Norman for me

  • I wonder how long they had to practice the slow fall to the floor. Baker holds onto Belinda's shoulder. At around 5:00 Belinda loosely grasps her hand, but loses the grip as she falls to the floor. The recitative begins with "Thy hand, Belinda", and the scene ends with a final letting go.

  • I wonder how long they had to practice the slow fall to the floor. Baker holds onto Belinda's shoulder. At around 5:00 Belinda loosely grasps her hand, but loses the grip as she falls to the floor.

  • This is surely the definitive rendition of this aria, I am completely mesmerised by the voice and the performance, what a beautiful woman!

  • Should I be embarrassed that I sometimes cry like a baby when I watch this video?

  • @blueworldly No way. It moves me to tears always.

  • @blueworldly Not really, cuz I cry during Jessye Norman's rendition.

  • Will be played at my funeral

  • I have listened to Baker's recorded version of this aria on Youtube, and although fine, this live acted version surpasses it in in-the-moment emotional impact. The voice is fragile as though hanging on a thread, beginning with the first "remember me", with vibrato. The tears roll down my cheeks.

  • Listen to Baker's performance of Ah Belinda before this one, and you'll hear that the other aria is sung stronger and with more tone, the phrases are sung with a full tone to the the end of the phrase. Here there is softer singing, more vibrato, the phrases taper off at the end, more frailty and vulnerability.

    The consonant "m" on "remember" is lengthened. Baker looks about the right age for this aria to be convincing.

  • @mdehkram thanks, good comment, I just listened and you are right, she adjusts her singing

    and actually it looks a bit like dancing, these gracious body movements, old school but absolutely (good word) mesmerising

  • Lovely, just so lovely!

  • This performance is sheer perfection. Mdehkram put it best. Control, breath suppot, movement, every detail. Sometimes you just can't beat a classic and this performance is the standard by which all other are judged.

  • The vocal lines are long, and demand breath control. Note the sighing when taking breaths, and the tapering off of the phrases as though barely having the strength to go on. Yet the tones are riding on the full support of the breath. There are many performances of this aria on Youtube by fine singers, but I have not found that comes close to this one.

  • I have posted quite a few comments about this video before, but have not seen it lately. Notice the slow movements of the hands and arms of Baker and try to do them yourself, and realize what concentration it requires. And then coordinating with someone else. Then imagine singing a slow aria at the same time interpreting every note and giving each one nuance. And then try to fall to the ground so slowly and relaxed. Then portray fragility and vulnerability. This is great artistry.

  • and 13 people does not like this?

    13 arseholes!!!

  • @Sadiesexy LOL..... May be they have trouble with their hearing..... or just have troubles.....

  • Wow..listen to her singing Elgar's Sea Pictures,,,,,a treat x

  • Now that's acting!

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  • She has pepperoni nipples.

  • The Great Baroque composer, Henry Purcell died today on the 21st of November in 1695! We celebrate his contributions to the world of music... he wrote the first English language opera to high acclaim 'Dido and Aeneas' ♫♪

  • Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me,

    On thy bosom let me rest,

    More I would, but Death invades me;

    Death is now a welcome guest.

    When I am laid in earth, May my wrongs create

    No trouble in thy breast;

    Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.

  • So, so gorgeous. Her acting is flawless and her sound melts your heart.

  • Have you watched this video with the sound off. It is still compellingly moving, Janets acting appearing so genuine and true and the duet of movement with Belinda. It's also interesting to watch Janet's mouth shapes without the sounds, see when and how she breathes. Wonderful to have this on Youtube. Thanks.

  • I always get goosebumps when I hear this. This is by far the best version of this aria.

  • I got goosebumps listening to this.

  • Baker's interpretation makes every other interpretation sound pitiful.

  • It must be extremely difficult to act while concentrating on the authenticity of one's interpretation of such a wonderful aria.

  • this had me in tears. Bravo Janet Baker!!!!!

  • Great version !

    Thanks to Kievest for sharing.

  • Wonderful.

  • Beautiful.

    Do you know if we can find this representation on movie tape (or DVD!)?

  • 聴きながら泣いています。

    きのう、ずっと好きだった人と大ゲンカした挙句、「お願いだから­私を自由にして。いまはとてもつらいのよ」といわれました。そし­て、彼女はまるで遺言のように、「お互いに素敵な思い出だけを心­に残そうよ」と言い出しました。「うん、美しいお別れをしよう。­それが君への最後のお詫びになれば」と答えました。お互いの幸せ­を祈ってから電話を切りました。

    これまでの過ちが彼女を邪魔させないように、泣きながら祈ります­。

  • @polarfox52

    God bless you.

  • I have the CD of this work with Dame Janet Baker as Dido. Just amazing singing of a poignant and beautiful piece of music. Moves me every time I hear it.

  • Lovely to see people finding this wonderful rendition after all the years since it was performed and still appreciating it. I heard her sing several times, live. She really was that great. Ans this is Purcell at his best...

  • This piece of music is quite possibly the most sensational, touching song I've ever heard on youtube... Her power and passion in this piece is so imminent, without being pushed, and bottled up. The prime example of a masterpiece.

  • @Joetmv  Beautifully put. I 100% agree!

  • @Joetmv imminent?

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  • everyones posts are so deep so C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER. :D

  • After years of listening to Norman, Fleming, Murray sing this (wonderfully, with Harnoncourt), I discover Baker in that most touching of all operatic arias ever written... and I am floored. This is perfection, emotion, dolor, sublimated. And the signing line respects Purcell's intentions and the historical requirements of expression (this was pre Verismo, folks). Simply unique. Thanks...

  • I've heard 1961 edition, and I prefer that one; I don't know if it's a video/sound fault but in this video, apart for the good expression and intentions, sometimes Ms Baker opens the sounds and attack of the proper Lament is veiled (1:24 ; 1:59 ; 2:06)... In 2:14 the voice is fissa, and I can't really understand it because in other parts of the same piece, Ms Baker gives an extraordinary lesson of singing . . .

    By the way, very nice scene and if you listen to 1961 recording, it's wonderful :D

  • Sorry ya'll. I love Dame Janet but I think Emma Krikby sans such wicked vibrato is more pure and original. No offense. I love them both. But...

  • The most exquisite aria in the western canon. Janet Baker's performance here is even better than her recording for Decca. It's no wonder that her performance is considered the gold standard. I never knew there was footage, though

  • magnificent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • And you know what???? You will find people who say seriously that the calamitous version by Evelyn Tubb is better than THIS...!!!! Maybe they're deaf...

  • My favourite aria of all time and this is the best version I have heard. Thanks for posting

  • Maria Ewing is good but not helped by a very slow tempo from Richard Hickox. Probably the closest to this is the wonderful Sarah Connolly but even she cannot quite match the wonderful pathos that Dame Janet brings to this aria. Her diction is superb and she colours each frase wonderfully. I am a great advocate of period performance but nothing matches this.

  • ._. this is amazing. I love Klaus Nomi version, but this lady has such power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    bless her, bless her.

  • Her low voice is remarkable, also it has a lovely contrast with here clear and crystaline top voice!!!. Wow, she sure was one of the best of the best!!!..this Divine code that is music, is greatly expressed in this aria. I consider it one of my favorites. Thanks for sharing with us!!!

  • This is the best version of Dido's lament I have found yet. Baker has captured the essence of the song like no other has. I can't listen to anyone else.

  • Awesome! TY.

  • beautiful, just beautiful, maybe you'll all think me crazy, but check out Jeff Buckleys version, it's beautiful beyond belief,

  • @hannah4440 you are definately not crazy you're right JB's version is extraordinary and I'm pretty sure he's not a trained opera singer, which makes it all the more remarkable. Though this is a beauty.

  • sPECTACULAR vid, Gabba! Thx,

    My first "classical" record purchase...due to LP fire sale close-out per CDs (1980s)...was Baker/ECO : "Handel, "Lucrezia" (Philips).

    No, it wasn't an "Authentic Instruments" recording. But, I, an "AI" performance freak now, must admit that that recording has not been topped within my hearing ever. (No? Bring it on! Link!)

    I say Janet Baker is the finest mezzo ever recorded (all due apologies to the excellent Van Otter). Gabba's vid is submitted as Exhibit!

  • she is the greatest ever. shlomi

  • Alas, to die of a broken heart. Indeed, a most painful way to die, but how much more painful to die with a heart unstirred and atrophied from non use? I would die like Dido a thousand times over, having known love for a fleeting moment, than live a life without love. Your swan song dear Dido moves us because we have all tasted the bittersweet pain that inevitably comes with true love.

  • @americankgb great comment, with the swan song were you making a reference to Il bianco e dolce cigno by Arcadelt?

  • @marshvegaslimelight "Swan song" is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is completely silent during its lifetime until the moment just before death, when it sings one beautiful song. The belief, now known to be incorrect, had become proverbial in Ancient Greece by the 3rd century BC, and was reiterated many times in later Western poetry and art.

  • @americankgb In the original version that's by virgil she was a bit crazy...

  • @americankgb This is marvellous. Very coherent with this moment. Thank you

  • Long live this great voice.

    Janet is now living quietly in England.

  • AMAZING

  • Of all the many versions one can access on the net this is, perhaps, the best.

  • Janet Baker.  the most wonderful voice,

    This aria had me in tears.

    We'll never see the like of her again, a true artist.

  • This gives me chills everytime I hear her sing it. It's no wonder she's so beloved by her countrymen. Sad she's not as revered here in the USA.

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  • i don't lie...when my boyfriend and i broke i heard this and i was crying...it was so....i don't know...something....

  • OMG!! This make me cry....

  • @callastoujours And just imagine what is to sing this aria or to hear it as a team member?? We made too staging of the opera and soon I'll upload videos!

  • just one word.......... beautiful

  • One of the most moving and heartfelt, beautifully controlled and artistic performances on Youtube. Thank you so much for posting..

  • she's dying like a dream

  • AMAZING!!!

  • The absolute best performance of this aria I have ever heard and seen. Her breath support is phenominal. Also, from her lower voice you can tell she was a true mezzo soprano. This is artistry at its best.

  • One of the most beautiful arias by Janet Baker. Oh.. this life is certainly worth living.. I really hope I will live forever...

  • Hahahah i love when she dies at the end...

  • always makes me weep - up there with final trio in rosenkavalier

  • I think she does a fantastic job. Very interesting to see old perfromances like this. Thanks for posting

  • Absolutely stunning. Has me weeping every time.

  • I cried. Poor Dido.

  • We'll never forget you Janet Baker... Wonderful...

  • What a pure translation of ink to music. This is beautiful.

  • This has to be one of the most gorgeous and emotionally affecting songs ever recorded. It makes my hair stand on end...Janet Baker owns this....

  • Vladimir, are you completely insane or just pretending to be? This woman isn't young and she is in no way "showing tits," her costume is modest. What she is showing is an extraordinary voice and eloquent, intensely sensitive body language, particularly with her hands. Maybe you split the screen and were watching porn on the other side and got confused?

  • @gattofemme You've got really humour with that split screen. :-) This aria and Janet Baker are very moving. I'm working on a piano version of this piece - so beautiful it is, so hard is it to play. It is very difficult to keep the piece together and not letting it fall apart in parts with no connection. But it's worthwile the effort. The rehearsing of this piece teaches one of the ground rules in life: To conquer something beautiful you have to fight for it.

  • @gattofemme I found the figure she made with her neck, her head almost about to fall from its support, very emotional.

  • @gattofemme ha ha ha ha ... I like that ...

  • @gattofemme  ha ha ha ha ... I like that ...

  • @gattofemme That's a reference to a different rendition of this aria. I think Vladimir mistakenly commented on this video, meaning to comment on the other.

  • @gattofemme

    Apparently the Russian dude was referring to the other Janet, the sister of Whacko Jacko. God rest his soul.

  • Comment removed

  • What the fuck are you talking about???

  • I have seen this video for some time now, but sure enough, by the end of the aria, the tears are rolling down my cheeks.

  • I agree with you. I have exactly the same feeling.

    She is absolutely wonderful.

  • truly, her voice reveals the innermost feelings of the heart, such a sorrowful and compelling lament

  • Amazing. Is there any more from where this came from. Thank you so much

  • She is Dido. Outstanding !

  • no words.

  • AAAA.  231139Z JAN 2010 Very beautiful indeed thank you for posting.......AR.

  • it´s so nice to hear her warm, dark and expressive voice and the art of her singing.

    But it´s horrible to hear the romantic orchestra that had obviously no knowledge of baroque music.

  • Staggering, I just keep returning to listen to it again.

  • Absolutely incredible, a vocal and visual artistic splendour. Not to mention the superb acting. No other rendition of this aria have ever moved me that much either. The only singer who could have produced such splendour was the unequalled Kathleen Ferrier, but unfortunately she never recorded it... at least to my knowledge. Although the score wasn't written for a contralto, I think she would've been at least as magnificent as Janet Baker.

  • Man, that's beautiful. To think my mum played the piano with her when they were kids in Grimsby. Always staggers me, that.

  • Moves me to tears every time...

  • Every time I watch another version of this aria, I come back to this one. Janet is just the example for everyone else to follow. I can't think of anyone who can approach the quality she brings to this performance.

  • Quizás la mejor versión de esta impresionante aria. Gracias por permitirnos disfrutar de esta joya.

  • @lala that's great that you feel that way about her, she is truly wonderful her singing ability is truly rare to behold, but I feel that way about Jeff Buckley and his interpretation and ability. Anyway both to me just incredible, just incredible!

  • I was lucky enough to hear and see Janet Baker singing opera, liede,r and orchestral songs over a twenty year span and now, more than 40 years after this recording was made I still feel the same certainty that she was simply the greatest musician of the 20th century.

  • It's the best version of this aria I've ever heard.

  • best interpretation for this aria......

    brava...!!!

  • What voice control Dame Janet has. She doesn't over exaggerate physical movements. Truly awe inspiring performance!

  • I've played this video a hundred times this week. The way she uses her voice and her acting are both sensational.

  • Magnífica!!!

  • Emozionante!!!