58 Sopranos in the Lucia di Lammermoor Mad Scene part 5/8

[arturo8402]

My picks would have to be Gencer, Sills, Wilson. I usually love Moffo, especially in Lucia, but she sounded like she was not having her best night

[Fegen]

I liked Leyla Gencer and Dolores Wilson. Beverly Sills always hit the notes right

on the mark but her voice never excited me. As for Elizabeth Futral that is enough

to give anyone a headache and Anna Moffo is horrible to say the least.

[TheRealAngelHeart]

Gencer - Le Regina definitely the best in my opinion. Muscality, expression , and beauty of the voice.

Sills is totally in her element here; no complaints. She's a close second.

Futral is HORRIBLE, i can't believe she even dares perform this scene. Rost should stay away from it too, even if she does not squeal as much. Rowland, just about OK. Moffo, mmmhhh way past her prime, her high notes sound like squeals too, and all of it is very much out of tune.

[reachforthenote]

Dolores Wilson's career at the MET was cut short because of unacceptable behavior by Rudolph Bing which ended her blossoming career. Dolores was the original Baby Doe

In the B....... Of. B.... Doe, and went on to a long career in musical theatre.

[marioegorga]

Elizabeth Futral ;The most horrible Lucia's cadenza ever..

[skippyd89]

R.P.I. Dolores Wilson

[NEBESHIKU]

Futral is just a nasty bitch. I don't blame her for singing, after all she gets paid to do so by the idiots that go and see her "sing".

[ILoveJoanSutherland]

Mrs.Futral is singing a part in moll, but it is in dur...

[gayo72]

oohh my god. elizabeth get back to your books and practice.

[TheDakiniKathryn]

The story behind the Moffo cadenza heard here is that it is from a February 1, 1969 broadcast in which she was having such a difficult time performing the first half of the opera that Rudolph Bing threatened to bring down the curtain.

[MastersoftheOpera]

Anna Moffo is for me the best Lucia. Her technique is solid, her voice is beautiful, haunting and expressive. She got into character perfectly as the fragile, romantic and eventually mad Lucia. She was the whole package, a lot like Callas but with a more appropriately delicate voice for the role.

[sutherland9]

Elizabeth Futral - what in the world was that ?

[jg300gman]

The diffirence between Elizebeth Futral (here)and Anna Moffo on a scale of 1 to 10 is I think that far: Elizabeth is a 1 and Anna is 10 !! Elizabeth go back to practice and please get another Flutist that you can keep in pitch and time with (oh my aching ears)

[SiEtIn1]

for me gencer takes the cake here with beatiful tone as usual and clean coloratura, and a big sonorous high note, but sills gets to eat one slice cause she's always great. poor elizabeth futral sounds like she's having an actual, real, mad scene, as in going coo coo bananas on stage and about to start stabbing cast and audience members for real

[meseorszag]

Elizabeth Futral è inascoltabile! Tutte le altre sono fantastiche!

[idemeneo]

No Wonder Gencer...All notes are very pure and not irritating.... So everyone called her La Regina...

[goldenthroat86]

Oh Elizabeth! What was that AWFUL CADENZA?!? I mean...I liked her the couple of times I saw her live, but what gives here? NOTHING wrong with doing a non-traditional cadenza, but it still needs to sound like Donizetti!

I don't know what IDIOT convinced her to do that, but they should be SHOT!

[metopco]

No one can can even come close to Sills. She was so head and shoulders above the rest. What a phenomenal singer she was.

[ivankakrasnaja]

this is Andrea Rost!

[beefnotfish]

Isn't Beverly sublime???And this is live? she's the only one who sings the wild stuff live - like her recordings!!!!!

[flicfan416]

I saw Elizabeth Futral at the met in 2006. she was incredible

[mauscherika]

Can you tell me, exactly which performance was the first one with Andrea Rost?

[Jabe88]

What happened to Moffo here??

[KathrynBoussemart]

Is the Moffo excerpt from the infamous February 1, 1969 MET broadcast?

[coloraturafan]

Yes it is.

[FeDuS27]

Elizabeth Futral.. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaats ?

[opera1dan2]

What was Futral doing there? It sounded so strange, I assume it as intentional - was it an attempt at a particularly abstract, off the wall version?

Thanks for all of the posts though coloraturafan.

[Sesto73]

1., Sills

2., Rowland

[AiTaiwandeRen]

My lord, that's horrible. Is this Donizetti? Is it even singing?

[coloraturafan]

What kind of comment is that? To whom are you commenting on? The whole collection? In any case, to answer your very rude question: yes it is singing, and yes it is Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, if not his own flute cadenza.

[AiTaiwandeRen]

Mea culpa! I heard the first rather horrific rendition and started typing. You've added many wonderful videos to youtube. So sorry for the rash comment. BTW, the only singer from this collection that I enjoyed was Sills.

[zacharybr]

Lots of sopranos have sang this role of the years, and in most cases it hasn't been sung very well. Here we get to listen to some of the best and worst.