Purcell: King Arthur - The Cold Scene (Ze Colde Scène)

[deadaliveinparis]

great voice... but yes... sadly way too fast...

[archcorenth]

This is from The Cook the thief his Wife and Her Lover! Michael Nyman reused, and revised it. :-)

[darkmien78]

klaus nomi the best !!!!!

[Majeenful]

c'est bien chanté mais la mise en scène décidément est grossière elle ne sied pas du tout à la simplicité et à l'autorité de la musique de purcell, de plus, elle n'est pas une référence en matière humoristique, c'est le moins qu'on puisse dire. Je vous enjoint très chaleureusement à aller écouter la version de Jean Tubéry.

[LutzDerLurch]

Ah, a pitty it is so hastily sung...Way to fast...This great Song cant develop its Grace at this Tempo

[datamek]

1:03 splendid!

[SCarleTT123star]

What power art thou, who from below

Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow

From bed of everlasting snow?

See'st thou not how stiff and wondrous old

Far unfit to bear the bitter cold,

I can scarcely move or draw my breath?

Let me, let me freeze again to death.

[1y]

100% lol and quality :D

[amadeusforever1]

Par contre, c'est un peu trop rapide comme tempo!!

Comme d'hab, certains baroqueux se sentent obligés de jouer trop vite pour se démarquer de leurs confrères.....

[lejacq1]

@amadeusforever1 Tout comme certains puristes qui considèrent que seul Deller, qui, comme chacun sait, connaissait personnellement Purcell, avait le tempo et l'interprétation qui convient!

[plumplumpudding]

@lejacq1

D'autant qu'Alfred Deller n'a JAMAIS chanté l'air du froid puisque c'est écrit pour un baryton voir une basse...

[lejacq1]

@plumplumpudding C'est très gentil à vous de corriger mon ignorance en la matière. Cependant il ne me semble pas avoir parlé de Deller chantant l'air du froid. Je parlais de la version, restée longtemps "version de référence" (puisqu' unique) parue chez Harmonia Mundi et DIRIGÉE par monsieur Deller. Je vous prie de bien vouloir pardonner ce manque de précision de ma part.

[MrGanesh95]

@lejacq1

La version Deller chez Harmonia Mundi date de 1978/1979, celle de Anthony Lewis chez Decca date de 1958/1959 et malgré qu'elle ne soit pas sur instruments "ancien" elle reste une excellente version qui donne quelques leçons à certains et certaines de nos chers baroqueux actuels

[amadeusforever1]

QUI CHANTE !!??

 SUPERBE VOIX !!

[SCarleTT123star]

@amadeusforever1 João Fernandes!!! ;)

[Animegirly64]

That´s great! The idea of the people standing behind the transparency is good!

[NadirSoprano]

C'est excellent, vraiment génial. De l'humour et de la dérision, mais la qualité est au rendez-vous. Génial !

[geotrisi]

...Bravo!...

[scottandrewhutchins]

The singer does a good job with it. The tempo is pretty fast for 8/8 largo, though. This is my English audition aria, so I have a strong opinion about how to interpret it, I must admit.

[RosaPudelProductions]

@scottandrewhutchins i totally understand your point. but for showing how he is freezing the tempo is quiet good. although it might not be sooo original :D

[BethDiane]

@scottandrewhutchins

I'm not sure there is such a thing as an 8/8 largo in Purcell, but this piece is surely no one; the time signature in the original is cut time. I'd say the tempo is just about right; this is the only singer I've heard do it who actually sounds like he's really shivering.

[scottandrewhutchins]

@BethDiane I can scan a copy of the score for you. It's not manuscript, so I can't prove that it's authentic, but it's the only copy that I could find.

[peteacher52]

I agree entirely with szilvavirag below. We do not know exactly how fast Purcell would have wanted his music to be played, but it seems reasonable to think that the tempo of the song as sung here would be about right because you don't have to try and link interminably long syllables into coherent words.

[BabyEater9000]

Ze. Lol. The poster has a great sense of humor. Either that or he/she cannot read.

[bermanmaxim]

@BabyEater9000 It is an humoristic version of Purcell's King Arthur, from the french conductor Hervé Niquet, and the mistake is deliberate.

[BabyEater9000]

@bermanmaxim Oooooh. Okay that makes sense. I would love to see this in real life!

[68LVC]

Cold Wave !

[OperaAtelier]

João is singing in our production of Acis and Galatea starting Oct 30 in Toronto. He’s not playing a king, but rather the monstrous Polyphemus out for Galatea’s love... and Acis’ head. Come watch him live!

[papagallus]

Une remarquable performance de l'excellent Andrew Foster Williams qui arrive à chanter allongé !

Je ne connaissais pas cette adaptation que j'ai découverte grâce à ces extraits sur youtube et j'ai acheté la vidéo sur le site du concert spirituel.

Excellent. Je pense que Purcell lui-même aurait apprécié

[NeferMet]

@papagallus, I own the DVD and I'm afraid you're mistaken:

- though Andrew Foster-Williams is indeed an excellent bass,

- THIS is the also excellent Joao Fernandes, an African-born Portuguese bass.

Do look up his discography if you enjoyed his artistry, he's recorded a very exciting Callirhoe by Destouches with Le Concert Spirituel, for instance.

[papagallus]

@NeferMet : Thanks for the infos. I finally received the DVD I ordered and I'll check the discography of this Mr Fernandes

Thanks again for your reply

[christidelamer]

unbeleivable performance.

[marelicainavokado]

Wonderful, how they manage to combine old music and humor! The voice was wonderful and the nurse was like Grim sitting on a nearby sofa and waiting for him to kick the bucket ("...die already, dammit!") XD

[schokoknuspi]

wow what a beautiful voice. =)

[szilvavirag]

Beautiful!!! I love this song and I was searching and searching for a good interpretation, but I wasn't really content with any of them --- Either it was overkill, or just sang in a very 'correct' way without any emotions. But this!! Ah, perfection!

[starwars1marc]

extra superbe!!!!!

[tomatejoyeuse]

interprétation magistrale... C'est la partie que je prefere dans king Arthur.

[aria67000]

Je trouve cette interprétation remarquable, merci.

[lucacallegaro]

Excellent performance, it's extremely hard to sing such staccato having such body positions and movements

[bckm54]

@lucacallegaro VERY true! that's one of the things that makes this aria so special...

[soldiort]

me gusta mas a voz de un contra tenor

[rukaegos]

@soldiort supongo que se ha hecho muy popular la versión del aria de Klaus Nomi, con su terrible dramatismo, y de ahí ha pasado a muchos contratenores. Pero en realidad Purcell la concibió como aria cómica y para voz grave.

[soldiort]

@rukaegos aun asi me sige gustando mas a voz de contratenor, pese a que originalmente no se alla echo para ser interpretado por uno. ^^

[Heartlessiceboy]

@rukaegos De hecho como la mayoría del trabajo de Purcell (Cosa que puedes ver en sus libros de canciones y arias sueltas en original) se escribió en un registro medio ya que variaba dependiendo de los cantantes que tuvieran disponibles que usualmente cortesanos. Al transportar estas arias a los registros actuales o quedan demasiado bajas o demasiado altas y se han tenido que modificar. The cold song es un aria para voz media baja que podría ser interpretada tanto por un bajo como un contratenor

[Heartlessiceboy]

@Heartlessiceboy Hay otras arias como la famosa "Music for a while" de Oedipus o "One charming night" de The fairy queen que originalmente estaban en un registro intermedio entre tenor y el alto digamos para haute contre. Y después fue que se hicieron la versiones una octava arriba para que le quedara a un alto,contralto o bajo.También hay una versión de soprano y con Dido y Eneas la historia es similar por ejemplo "When i'm laid" originalmente es de alto,la de (mezzo)soprano vino mucho después.

[12NiBer12]

oh, just die

[12NiBer12]

sucks big time, singer is gay ! Moronic idiot gipsy

[bckm54]

@12NiBer12 do u have any idea how difficult this aria is to sing? I'll bet the answer is no. i'll bet the only thing you know how to do is to come on to youtube videos and ooze hate.

[12NiBer12]

i was kidding, dude. Chill. I know it's hard. I was just tryin' to annoy my mom who likes this type of music...

[12NiBer12]

blah

[12NiBer12]

@bckm54 buah

[yurkellis]

performance is good!

[merlinreborn]

staging is miserable!

[AlainNaigeon]

I think staging and expression shouldn't become more important than the music itself, specially such a beautiful one.

[AddictedToOpera19]

Joao Fernandes

[foropera]

Please! We need first of all the name of the bass, not of the stage manager....