Sempre Libera - Traviata Contest - Renata Scotto

[zurriussII]

Amazingly singing, awsome! But she's not actress at all. Such coloratura is really missed today.

[fastborzoi]

She was an AMAZING singer and a GREAT actress -- especially nice performance

[jmuslvr]

Scotto was never my favorite, but I recognize her as a great artist. She was a great singing actress, in the same way that Callas and Sills were.

[cartoonandanime]

SULLA SCENA è UN Pò RIDICOLA... GLI ACUTI SONO ....''AGGRESSIVI'' MENTRE VIOLETTA è MOLTO DELICATA... IN COMPENSO IL ''PARIGI O CARA ''DELLA STESSA EDIZIONE è ECCEZIONALE, LO CANTA TUTTO CON UN FILO DI VOCE, E REALIZZA UN'ECCEZIONALE OPERA D'ARTE MUSICALE.

[Oldtinear]

A competition! My score is 4 out of 10. As someone far older and past my best than Ms Scotto I hope I am allowed to say that she is too old for the part. She is obviously an accomplished singer, but she makes some surprising mistakes, such as singing with her back to the audience, and she does not attempt the high note at the end of the aria.

[Oldtinear]

@Momopera Thank you for the unexplained insult, & for the question, which I would answer, but it is incomprehensible.

[Momopera]

@Oldtinear Sorry for the insult and for my bad English

[carlo331]

La trovo mediocre: gli acuti sono striduli, a volte pigola, bisbiglia e non si capisce una mazza di quello che dice. Come interprete è manierata

[luwaig1]

@carlo331 ci fossero dei soprani cosi,la llirica sarebbe ancora viva.PS il fraseggio musicale della Scotta è bperfetto

[MastersoftheOpera]

Renata Scott makes an excellent Violetta. She always liked to compare herself to Callas, which is why Callas fans hated her. However, she did have a talented dramatic technique, gorgeous sound & she could act. She committed herself to living the parts she sang. Her Violetta is very convincing of Violetta's desire for freedom & her passion. Great singing! Viva Renata

[jamesdeperu]

Uyuyuy; qué miedo.Pero fue bastante razonable no arriesgarse.

[dayalhari]

A parte gli acuto un po' sempre striduli, è una delle migliori Violette di sempre!

[AmericanEvita]

Give the lady some credit! She overcame a lot. She endured humiliation from Callas freak fans and had a lot of spunk to sing tough roles and continue to do them throughout her career. She was an amazing singer and a good actress. I like her Traviata. P.S. All these harsh critics don't know anything. If they know so much about great singing why dont they get up there and sing themselves

[balletfanRGA]

I totally agree with you....

She was a great singer, I have her lucia with Bergonzi and it's amazing. She was a great Puccini singer as well. Her studio recording with bergonzi of madama butterfy is a reference recording. Please common sense

[sevoflurane]

Renata is great. Some of the roles she sang are operatic masterpieces. I would like to remember her Giulietta, Straniera, Amina, Violetta, Gilda, Elena and her Puccini. Thanks for your words.

[Andante735]

You should know when to quit.

[RobNYNY1957]

Wiry tone, intonation problems on sustained notes. Leaves out almost all of the trills, and just before the end drops several bars of material she can't quite manage. Several of the downward runs are lunged at or just faked. Most of the colorutura is sung very quietly, and when she tries to sing it full voice she struggles or has to reduce speed. As with many of her roles, she sang this one way too late in her career, and did no favor to her considerable reputation by doing so.

[TheInquisitive4Ever]

Although my top pick is La Stupenda, I love Scotto. Besides being a distinguished soprano, she's a bundle of joy.

[skitzo429]

boo, no Eb

[mstrsims2]

I love Renata Scotto, but I dislike the 2nd recording she did. But yet it has been ranked as a classic by many.

I also dislike the commercial Tebaldi recording and the commercial Callas recording.

Among my 57 + Traviatas, the live performances of Scotto, Tebaldi, and Callas only show me that sometimes commercial recordings do not capture the best of a performer.

It's all a matter of personal taste.

[mstrsims2]

funny, every recording you dislike are among the ones I don't own, Had them at one time and got rid of them. I dislike the Scott the worst of all. Yet it always turns on the "best" list. Not sure why !

I have 58 different/12 highlights/also 14 vhs-dvds

Actually in this list I think the Callas commercial recording is on cassette, so it is among the 58 recordings !

[acitipo]

Me parece exagerado decir que es la mejor violeta de la historia, y ni siquiera hace el re sobreagudo ¿? que era buena si, pero una soprano lirica debe hacer algunas coloraturas.

[543johnson]

Scotto was a good Violetta, but I should have known she couldn't hit the high E-flat at the end.

[pkunzip501]

Then you are unfamiliar with her famous recording of the role on DG,considered one of thebest ever as well as dozens of live performances preserved on tape.She made her debut as Violetta in 1953. She sang well over 200 Violetta's WITH the high E flat.This performance from'73is one of her last Violetta's;she had taken on heavier roles by then & dropped the E flat.She was widely considered by critics as one of the great Violettas after Callas. Her 2nd recording with Muti for EMI is also a classic.

[lambygerry]

manca il mib, peccato ha alcuni momenti ben interpretati, diciamo 2.5/5... eh, ho sempre in mente la callas ;)

[oloferne84]

...la migliore Violetta della storia...

[xafnndapp]

non eageriamo!!!...:))))

[oloferne84]

Ridimensiono: l' unica in grado di competere con la Callas. E da qui non mi muovo!!

[albertthrelkeld]

It's interesting to hear Scotto at this point in her career...pre-weight loss. She sounds much more confident, and the shrillness and wobble that creeped in as she matured is not so obvious here. Callas's voice made a similar adjustment after her weight loss. I remember my voice teacher saying Scotto would have been alright if she had stayed where she was. She started out singing much lighter roles, then started doing Toscas and Elisabettas.

[colonia3059]

R. Scotto was a great singer, not a perfect singer, but who cares about perfection after all. Art on stage is not about being perfect, but about creating a character, and bringing it to life. She could in Traviata, if not in the "Sempre libera" most certainly in the rest of the opera. Here she sounds very uncomfortable,but, with some exceptions the great Verdi ladies were never "her" thing.

[pendil99]

Mmm, I know what you mean, but in opera the singing has to be prime followed by the acting, not the other way round. Some of the younger brigade, Netrebko, etc, push the acting more than a diva like Sutherland, but are vastly inferior in singing quality. As a dramatic coloratura, La Stupenda (called so by the Italians) has no peer and performed it brilliantly with Pavarotti who described her as the Voice of the Century - see her on youtube at 40ish in 1969. Scotto was a grand performer, though.

[kateholli]

not bad

she was too fat at that time, which she realized herself

4/4

[ffyoungster]

she never can touch callas singing sempre libera... she's sceraming... callas sings the song..

thats the diffrence between her and callas

[lisapaschke]

she may look like a grandman and maybe her voice isn't very beautyful; her singing technique is great and renata scott ois one of the singers, a young singer can learn a lot from. Unlike Netrebko, Sutherland an co. That's why I like her and also this performance.

[sschimel]

I can't stand her. Never have, never will. There are just too many other singers who sang better than she did. Shreiky, shrill, and is it me, or does she look a little like Queen Victoria?

[GliOminiVerdi]

Yes, a bit like Q.V. and a bit like my grand-grand-mother.

[mikathelittle]

It's not that bad, but since I've heard Maria Callas the divine singing this part...I just can't appreciate it by anyone but her...sorry renata!!!

[eric55chile]

Interesting mikathelittle. On the A.G. video you said you really appreciate the energy and quality of BOTH Scotto & Callas. Oh well, we can all vary in taste as well, right?

[mikathelittle]

hey hey, I said it before seeing a performance of callas I hadn't seen before and in which she was better than what I had seen before... she's definitely me favourite...But Renata Scotto is the second on my list...

[Dymension]

It's not bad...just a little spread on top...

3/3

[kmillard]

Scotto's top register has always seemed to shrieky, shrill, and wobbly for my tastes but I can certainly understand how she has her fans. My score is a 2.5/5.

[CandyHaleLinton]

Deeply unattractive. If I were her Alredo I would be making for the hills after hearing that. She marches about the stage as if in seach of a day's washing to set about, rather than a ravishing yet fragile courtesan, and her 'acting' put me in mind of dear Ethel Merman, just past her prime. Scotto's tone and cavernous vibrato had me grinding my teeth here. She could be wonderful but NOT as Violetta Valery. O GRAN DIO!

[DIVOTENOR]

This aint cute in any way. I normally love her though. This is a disappointment

[henryv69]

la scotto realizzerà violetta al meglio con muti. qui non stupiscw 2/5

[htshoward]

4/2

[moreno2394]

2/2

very bad

[Orombello]

Post-Callas! 5/5

[sottoipini]

I would like to see more singers struggle like this nowadays! 4/5

[Iareto]

Not my favorite...though I normally enjoy watching her sing. 2/3.

[boris1281]

No F in the end, but still Renata is one of the legendary Violetas of the past century. 4,7/5 - very passionate performance and it is amzing what she does with the phrase, how plastic, how innoventtive sound the words. She sets the benchmark and is then copied by many of the singers we hear today (Netrbeko, Harteros, Takova !)

[kmillard]

The optional note is a high E-flat.

[SirGeorg]

Not bad but not great, she's clearly struggling 3/3

[Laleyla]

A singer should know when to stop singing. Here Renata Scotto is 39 years old, past her prime and with a tired and shrill voice ready for retirement. And she must have missed the actinglessons at the conservatoty. The information about Netrebko beeing Scottos pupil explains a lot to me.....1/1

[micioamilano]

it is IMPOSSIBLE that an ITALIAN allows such boring performances like Netrebko's in fact she never sings in italy..her teacher is more likely to be an american...

[meltzerboy]

I agree this is not Scotto's best singing or characterization. I particularly dislike the shrillness of her tone, but maybe the quality of the video is at fault, as with Devia. The coloratura is adequate, no more. The whole thing sounds flat in more ways than one. 3.5/3.5

[gvjps123]

I don't think this is Scotto's best characterization ( and I usually find her a very convincing artist). Also, there are number of vocal problems here that others have pointed out.

Singing : 2. 5

Characterization : 3.5

[patjan92]

1/4.

[SwamiTom]

Well I watched Scotto right after Netrebko, it was hard not to compare! But, see, Funny, indeed! ;) I'm not saying Scotto wasn't great. I'm saying she was a singer with a very particular type of voice and with a very strong personnality. And as much as I respect that, it's natural that some don't like it.

[SwamiTom]

Well It's too bad I saw this right after watching Netrebko! It's like dreaming of Angelina Jolie and waking up next to Queen Victoria. Sorry, but I didn't like it. I didn't like neither the voice nor the acting. She has presence, sure, but I don't feel the contradictions, the struggle growing, the desperate runaway into pleasure... O know that's the way singers used to act at that time. What can I say, I'm glad times have changed! But thanks for this contest! Great Idea. 3/2

[OperaBR]

I don't think singers from "that time" were so much less effective in acting than today's singers. Surely most current singers use their physical strength extensively, what helps the characterization. However, many of them lack a deeper dramatic commitment and a better sense of how to convey emotions through the voice, which is essential. Just see Scotto, Callas, Schwarzkopf, Rysanek, Varnay, De los Angeles and so many others. They were great, almost unsurpassable, actresses.

[SwamiTom]

I don't mean ancient singers were bad actors, I'm just saying that in that case (in that case only) I see all the tics of old singers, but I don't feel the meaning of the aria. And Callas or Rysanek are not that different in the way they act of the singers today (only better, of course). I'm sorry if I'm not clear, English isn't my first linguage.

[coloraturafan]

I think it is funny that you compair Scotto and Netrebko, the younger has been studying with Scotto for a while. Also Netrebko has admited that Scotto is one of her biggest role models in opera. I just thought that was a funny side note to your comments.

[OperaBR]

Albeit the singing is sometimes too restrained (or, say it, "whispered"), it's a theatrically exciting performance. She acts the role from deep inside, a completely credible and complex interpretation. Scotto's voice is quite flexible in the coloratura and her phrasing is excellent, but, alas, the higher notes are often very shrill and a few notes are really flat. In some parts she sounds as if she's using 60% of her abilities and, in others, 200%! I must however add that I love Scotto! 3/5

[Orfeus80]

I don't like that half the sempre libera is whispered and the other half is spoiled by those electrical high notes. But she is a stage animal. 3/5

[hotazzoperastud]

Scotto, need I say more! 5/5

Okay I need to say more... she is great and I love her and always have, but even in 1973 she her top is getting shrill. I wish that someone would have stopped her from ever looking at that damn Butterfly score!

[sevoflurane]

Renata was in excellent form here! Brilliant characterization! Only in the end she struggles a bit with the acciaccature and the coloratura di forza. But overall I like her very much in this role. 4/5