9 sopranos in "Coppia iniqua" - Anna Bolena

[SingerGeneLeonard]

This is NOT a light weight opera this is Heavy Dramatic singing with ALL the belcanto to it too!!

Just like Norma, Lucia and those others it really calls for a heavy and dramatic voice with trills!!

[SingerGeneLeonard]

Where the HELL are the damn TRILL's!!!! There supposed to be there as she goes up in that one spot!!

[Connie193]

to me Edita Gruberova is the best of these 9. i think Anna Netrebko's 'coppia iniqua' was great as well, although it is quite different. she sings it more dramatically, not as effortless as Edita Gruberova. but i like both versions. to me those are the best interpreters of Anna Bolena!

[wurlic300]

Thank you for posting all these "comparison" videos. I am just getting "into" opera (this late in life) and it's helpful to see what different people did with the same role(s).

[Eiswirth1]

Sutherland, even that late in her career.

[giorgio1234ization]

la sola Anna e' la Callas stop discussioni

[armando25868]

@giorgio1234ization CONDIVIDO CALLAS FOR EVER

[giorgio1234ization]

ma che cavolo canta la Sutherland??????????

[31071946]

What no Callas?!

[pappappero0o]

Mariella THE BEST

[WotansSpeer]

1) Edita Gruberova

2) Mariella Devia

3) Joan Sutherland

4) Luciana Serra

5) Olivia Stapp

6) Dimitra Theodossiou

7) Katia Ricciarelli

8) Nelly Miricioiu

9) Yasuko Hayashi

[cmorgan22]

Callas v. Sutherland. Apples and Oranges. They were both fantastic in their own right!

[cmorgan22]

An incredible aria and I can't wait to hear Nebtreko's opening night in NYC this year.

[cmorgan22]

I heard Ann N's debut in this reole in Vienna and no, it will NOT be a trainwrect at the Met this fall. I predict a stunning triumph...despite the meager trills.

[cmorgan22]

I heard Anna N's debut in the role at Vienna....it is nowhere near a trainwreck and I predict a triumph at the Met in the fall.

[Drelnis]

I'm waiting to see Netrebko's in September to see how disappointing it's going to be.

[MonsieurDarcy]

Gruberova's last note was so impressive! It must have been one of her best recorded. More than 10 years later she still has that marvellous ability to hold that impossibly high note for what seems like eternity.

[Bigman240]

Some of these singers are awful and have serious technical problems. I admire Devia's technique immensely but in this video, besides looking odd and too petite in that costume, she seems so cold and impersonal, and the pause before her last two notes seems eternal, nor does she overwhelm with her high note. Perhaps she still hadn't matured into this role. Gruberova is exciting, Sutherland's trills are amazing.

[altjj]

Ricciarelli è impresentabile

[iskenderuna]

I love your "money note"! There is no better way of expressing it :)

[pjdonagh]

I would gladly pay to see & hear any of these 9 sopranos. For those of us who are not near or find it difficult to travel to see world class singers and productions then You Tube and Colaraturafan and his ilk are a God send.

I do have a critical faculty but in this case choose not to exercise it!!!

Thank you for these (and all your ) gems.

[gohar002]

Sutherland is the best... She was 58 years old, and the voice is always brilliant, richful, in other words beautiful... Devia is a very "little voice" as regard Sutherland's vocal majesty...

[heidegger25]

The one and only: La Gruberova!

[dutchtallguy]

Ms. Devia and Gruberova are the most impressive. Dame Joan (at her age) does a formidable job too. A pitty that the Dynamic label choose ms. Theodossiou to be there leading lade in many of there video recordings. I wish they gave a (better) soprano like Mosuc or Devia that oportunity. Thanks yet again for posting these gems.

[fernandoremiro]

DEVIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

=d

[TheMariaBorgia]

La Gruberova is the best Anna. Everything is so effortless. This is the legendary version from Barcelona 1992 where the audience applauded six minutes after "Al dolce guidami". Sutherland is also wonderfull-even she transposed it down-she is still a queen. I would say that the greatest Bolena is still Callas, than Gruberova and Sutherland. Devia once was a fantastic Rossini-singer but here she sounds strainend and just ugly.

[coloraturafan]

Yes, this video if from Gruberova's role debut, while she was still in great voice. I do not agree with your assesment of Devia, for me she cannot be matched in this opera.

[TheMariaBorgia]

As I wrote for me Maria Callas still surpasses every other singer in this part. It's still difficult for me to understand,why someone give Devia such a high rating. I heard both-Gruberova (Munich) and Devia (Dortmund) in this part and must say that Devia was very dissapointing: lots of wobble, no trills, thin high notes like a soprano leggiero.Gruberova was thrilling with all her dynamic skills and her unbelivable piano. Her acuti which cut the hole chorus had ten times more volume than Devias.

[rossinilove]

@TheMariaBorgia I saw Devia in the Verona production, my first (and probably last) time seeing her live. Her voice was a bit smaller than I expected but she was in every way worth the trip from Los Angeles. Her mad scene, I thought, was riveting. She capped her first act aria with a high Eb also, I believe or it may have been a D. Anyway, I do agree that Callas does indeed surpass everone else in this part. It's too bad a more complete version was not recorded with her.

[spqrmor]

Why you have chosen so scattered in years performances? All of them are deserved to be called greatest and wonderful.

[thomastmwc]

@TheMariaBorgia Devia sounds fine but her wig is ugly

[eastsunrise]

Thank you coloraturafan for another fantastic compilation.Because these are allVIDEOS, some of the greatest exponents of Bolena are excluded,namelyCallas,who is more thrilling live than on thecommercial recording.Gencer,Sills,Sulioti­s,Scotto all appeared too early.If onlySutherland had taken onBolena a decade or so earlier.We all know that her trills are incomparable(YAWN),but the scena is rewritten by Bonynge to raise the tessitura UP.She is singing music entirely different from all the others.

[iskenderuna]

Sutherland is singing LOWER than all the others. Bonynge transposed this so she could make the added top-not at the end. I would've preferred it if she'd sung it in the original: 1) because it sounds awfully boring in the lower key 2) because Sutherland would've sounded much better singing in the higher key. I'm positively sure she was able to. And as far as the final top note is concerned, either you sing it like Gruberova or you dont sing it. Serra and Ricciarelli do pretty well without it.

[eastsunrise]

I am sure you are right because Lucia, Elvira and all the rest in her later years were transposed so that she could hit her money note at the end of each scene.I agree that it can work extremely well without the interpolated high note.Most importantly for those of us who know Bolena, it is an insult that they would rewrite the cabaletta in this famous scena (as if we wouldn't notice!!!) to hit her money note.Sills and Suliotis had complete recordings and Callas had the final scene to compare.

[robertleicester]

I think Sutherland and Gruberova are the best! Sutherland sings a perfect trill.Gruberova is the only singer in this collection who sings the last high note on the word "p-i-e-t-a"-all others only sing a vocalise. Devis is also good, but she onmitts not only the ascending trills, but also the trill at the end before the e-flat.

[InBoccaChiusa]

I am surprised Devia eschews the ascending trills here, which she can execute brilliantly. Sutherland should have taken on this role a little earlier, but she sings it better than others half her age (she has transposed the scene one whole step). With the exception of Gruberova, the other ladies should have been decapitated in the previous act.

[christiaandhooghe]

Sutherland makes a real woman from her!!!

Vocal splendid.

My favorite!!!!!!

Miriciou, wooooow!

Grande.

[magicmonkichi]

Yet another great collection. So many wonderful voices.

[aaronsande]

Some of those were ok, some were disasters...not going to name names =D except to say, is there ANYTHING that Devia isn't far and away the best at?!?!

1. She chose the high note at the end, which only 4 of 9 did.

2. She hit it solidly, which only 3 of those 4 did.

3. She didn't take a breath in the line leading up to the high note, while the other 3 of the 4 did take a breath!

Bravo, Devia!