Renée Fleming - Addio del Passato "La Traviata"

[KriBlackRoson]

I love you Renee, I LOVE YOU

[jimmyl324]

sills did a great job with traviata...

[cantanteporsiempre]

guaaaaaaaa, that talking voice!!! .lol. Noone read this letter as Callas

[Rusticating]

Renée you are such a babe

[MastersoftheOpera]

I don't like Fleming as Violetta. Always interested in beauty of tone, she neglects acting and providing the role with realism, warmth and convincing tragedy. I can't cry when she dies in the end nor does she move me. Fleming is too fake. Listen instead to the very noble Violettas of Anna Moffo, Mirella Freni, Beverly Sills, Valerie Masterson and Teresa Stratas.

[LohengrinT]

@MastersoftheOpera

From which cave you crawled from? Mofo (the trilles and toneless?) Freni (the booed one in La Scala?), Sills (did she ever sing Traviata? wowo!) ahahahahahahha

I have another suggestion for you Jenny Drivala singing Traviata, she will become your favourite :)))

[jimmyl324]

@LohengrinT sills did sing traviata...

[kamikazekate]

@MastersoftheOpera same here, i find her quite bland in this role. I find this interpretation puzzling in the extreme.

[krakrabella]

All I can think about by listening this is I-can-sing-it-on-one-breath complex.

No deep feeligs but artificial hystery, it makes me nervous - catharsis impossible, so was it worth it...?

[cmhmuscle]

oh now this is LOVELY.......long phrases, totally involved, and NOT DEADLY slow......I have always thought that the tempo should just BARELY be like a waltz , just barely....so that the tragic vocal line rests on a rather eerie memory of her past party life that has faded. Whenever I have coached sopranos in this role, it's like pulling teeth to not have them go slow and fall in love with their resonance. (okay, so I wish she didn't flip the 16ths quite that fast, but there ya gol....)

[vincentpdonnelly]

I saw the opening night 2 weeks ago in the royal opera house. truly an amazing preformance by all artists and a special thanks to Rene who was JUST AMAZING in all ways..........

[andreasscholl]

Doing the Callas thing at the end...wooooow.

Amazing to break your voice in a piano line....wooooow!

[cosmopolitan8]

renee does a wonderful job with this aria, but i also adore ileana contrubas as violetta.

[PascualG65]

I strongly recommend to heard Magda Olivero in this aria.

[jocmuc]

she is a perfect attatrice

[jocmuc]

perfetto, mia nueva assoluta

[jocmuc]

es gibt so viele grandiose traviatas. meine favoritin ist leyla gencer. aber ich selbst mache mir nichts vor. renee fleming ist in keiner phrase schlechter als leyla. das ist doch alles nur geschmackssache. seid doch nicht päpstlicher als der papst. in dieser beziehung haben wir doch alle nicht die weisheit mit löffeln gefressen. in diesem sinne bitte ich um etwas objektivität lasst uns fair bleiben. gott, sind diese traviatas alle gut

[Cenayon]

Uhm...

Okay.

Right...

*closes window*

[violinist1990]

You're stupid. Sorry but that is why art is dying because of unappreciative fools.

[Lohengrin]

I agree. I would add cause of deranged Queens all over youtube ;)

[LjubljanaSI]

dear folk, check also the Youtube's clip of this aria performed by Petya Ivanova at Maribor National Opera.

[mojopum]

Such fake!

[ArtMusa]

Jesus! What a tempo... it didn't go quicker anymore?!... No music, just let's go through it as qick as possible...!!!

I can enjoy A in forte but not the aria without feelings...

[jgdmol4l]

While I really admire her efforts and love the pianissimi at the end, I must agree that the tempo here really drains this of emotion and interpretation because clearly the tempo is faster so that she can show off the fact that she can do those long phrases all in one breath, which is nice but should not be the artistic goal...is she's going to look and sound so out of breath by the end its better she just take a breath in between and really show some variation, nuance or color; just my opinion

[Sairasings]

My initial reaction to the faster tempo was similar, but when you think about it, Violetta is very ill, and it makes sense to get as many words into a phrase as possible dramatically- even speaking is difficult. I think it's great that Miss Fleming challenges performance practices with her music, and she really inspires young singers to rethink convention and make music their own.

[jimmyl324]

one of the greatest ever!!!

[ejrouge]

My God... She's such a bad actress!! ha ha

[CONTESTAR]

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that by a quick look around she was the only Traviata singing today who does an honest pianissimo at the final A.

That must be telling us something on who's around on big stages nowadays...

[mardelle0023]

se supone que debe leer la carta.....y lo hace viendo hacia arriba :S me gusta mas con netrebko, ademàs de q la rusa es mas bonita XD

[XYZ8]

It's really beautiful, Baby... Thanks for having sent it to me...

[BytomGirl]

You are welcome, Sweety, I loe La Traviata, it's my faorite opera.

[XYZ8]

I love it too, Sweetheart...

[BytomGirl]

I knew you would :-)

[XYZ8]

No, Baby... I would not... I love it since I heard that for the first time...

[BytomGirl]

Mozesz to napisac po polsku? Cos po angielsku to nie wyszlo :-)

[XYZ8]

No tak... jeszcze i to... Mało komunikatywny jestem dzisiaj... Już to dzisiaj od kogoś słyszałem... Ech... ciężki dzień, naprawdę...

[BytomGirl]

Kochanie, po prostu nie rozumialam co chciales powiedziec :-) Mozesz mi to po polsku powiedziec co tam probowales powiediec? Dziekuje :-) Odetchnij gleboko

i wierz w siebie. To jest dla mnie wazne.

[XYZ8]

No tak, Niemcy podobno też mnie nie rozumieją... aż takie mam problemy z wysławianiem się... aż dziwne...

[BytomGirl]

Kochanie, wyslowiles sie dobrze, po prostu nie zrozumialam dlaczego powiedziales ze slyszysz po raz pierwszy bo La iate znasz, czy to tylko mialo znaczyc ze nie znales wykonania Fleming? Nie zlosc sie, prosze!

[XYZ8]

Powiedziałaś mi po angielsku: "Wiedziałam, że będziesz to lubił..." Ja Ci odpowiedziałem: "Ja nie będę... Ja to już lubię, odkąd pierwszy raz to usłyszałem..." Ot, i wszystko na ten temat...

[BytomGirl]

Aha, teraz rozumiem :-) Powiedziales to w czasie terazniejszym, mialo byc : I have loved it since I heard it the first time :-)

albo:

I loved it since the I heard it for the first time.

Urzycie nieprawidlowego czasu zmienia tou

znacenie :-) 

albo jesli chcesz czas teraniejszy to:

I love it since I have heard it the first time.

Wybacz, prosiles o poprawki, prawda :-)

Wiec nie gniewaj sie.

[XYZ8]

A od kiedy to Amerykanie używają Present Perfect??? Myślałem, że użycie Past Simple nie będzie tutaj błędem... Aż tak tępy z angielskiego to ja nie jestem, jakby się wydawało...

[BytomGirl]

Present jest w porzadku ale byl uzyty razem z past w tym samym zdaniu. Pozniej bedziemy juz o tym mowic w emailu, dobrze?

[XYZ8]

Nie musimy... Ja wiem, że jestem głupi i do niczego się nie nadaję... Znam biegle 4 języki i co z tego, skoro nikt mnie nie potrafi zrozumieć...

[BytomGirl]

Wybacz ze nie zrozumialam, po prostu bylo inaczej pisane niz ja jestem dot ego przyzwyczajona. Nie jestes glupi i nigdy nie byles, jestes najmadrzejszym czlowiekiem jakiego znalam ale w to nie wierzysz. Szkoda.

Ja tylko zapytalam niewinnie bo nie zrozumialam i to przeciez nic z taba samym nie mialo wspolnego, nie mozesz tak wszystkiego brac do serca. Czasem ja czegos nie rozumiem i po prostu pytam, To bylo bardzo niewinne takie music pozostac.

Gniewasz sie na mnie bez powodu.

[diuscorvus]

I don't understand why people are so into Fleming. Her reading of the letter was over-exaggerated and unbelievable. She acts like Natalie Dessay (i.e. they both try way too hard), and she distorts the rhythm distastefully. I don't care if she goes into fetal position at the end, or that her voice was as clear as Sutherland's -- opera is neither overacting nor pretty sounds.

[OperaGIRL777]

I find that it is the easiest thing for spectators to critisize opera singers even when they shouldn't be critisizing. What gives you the right to say whether Fleming is a good opera singer? Unless you are a highly acclaimed opera singer yourself I would say that it is not your place to critisize!

[diuscorvus]

The only qualification anyone needs for judging music is having a pair of ears. Plus, people can be highly acclaimed for all the wrong reasons.

[baritono81]

Well ok, the rhythm thing bugs me too. But I dont find her acting at all over-exaggerated. If Opera is not good acting and good sounds then I dont know waht it is. And this is up there with the best Violetta for my money.

[novasafo]

I was lucky enough to be in the audience for two of the performances of this L.A. Opera production with Fleming. It is something I will never forget. She crawled into that fetal position hitting that last high note on fini, and the entire auditorium rang like a bell as her voice floated and reverberated. It was completely breath-taking. Her whole performance in the L.A. Opera production was absolute perfection in the marriage of acting and music - at least when you saw it live in the theater.

[dalgacik80]

I didn't like this version of addio del passato. It should be slower. The words are not accentuated enough.

[g420730a]

Her singing used to be much better. Nowadays she has developed into some bad habbits. This is not Jazz.

[zafireh]

that's true...

[RachieLizOpera]

Beautifully heartbreaking... Would have loved to have seen this live.

[lenglan4]

Veremente! Grazie!

[zwergenvereinigung]

cmq nn mi piace xD

[latraviata1853]

One of the greatest artists of our day and certainly one of the greatest Violetta's of recent years (especially in Acts 2 and 3)...although I agree that the "e tardi" was a bit much. I don't mind though; when you're deep into a character stuff happens.

[zwergenvereinigung]

lei nn sa parlare italiano.

nn mi piace come violetta

[gattocanoro]

Parla benissimo italiano. Le ho parlato assieme dopo un concerto.

[zwergenvereinigung]

ah ok.

sembrava =)

cmq mir piace.

[ejrouge]

Renee Fleming has one of the most beautiful voices I've heard... but I don't know why I don't really like her as Violetta.

[543johnson]

So far so good. I am glad to see the aria's second stanza added to more performances these days, where Violetta sings her bones will be interred in a solitary, unmarked grave; it always brings near to tears.

[Johnny1206]

Violetta is not suited to her voice but she does it quite well...She really doesn't need to widen her repertoire so much being such a great singer.

[AlexiouValenti]

Stop talking and start singing renee! You can sing much better then you can talk ! But violetta is meant to be dying!

[KatherineXIX]

I love that Verdi chooses to have Violetta speak the letter. It's really a test for the soprano as an actress. This is what weeds out the pretty-faced songbirds who are clueless about showing emotion. No lie - in my eyes, a poorly-acted "Teneste la promesa..." can ruin a vocally immaculate interpretation of Violetta.

[janejones11]

Could that " e tardi" be anymore over the top? Restraint and sincerity make for great artistry.

[trekkie2006]

this breaks my heart.. aww.. she sounds amazinnggg!! I loovvee her!!!

[brividokaldo]

The letter reading is awful...terrible.....indecent. The rest is routine. Go retire, please!

[trekkie2006]

it's not her decision to speak the letter. it's the general director and the stage director's choice.

[jha5cs]

actually, it was Verdi's choice that the letter is spoken, he also uses this same technique in Macbeth, when Lady Macbeth reads the letter sent her by Macbeth. This technique is an extremely unusual way for Verdi to truly emphasize the importance of what is being said, another example of his genius to test the limits of opera in the 18th century.

[brividokaldo]

I said: AWFUL.

I'm italian and that reading is the worst thing I've ever heard!.

It'a not about Verdi. I'm talking about Renée's performance.

[CHerbek]

Please, you know nothing...

[claraprellitensky]

horrible.artificial, mannered, sang all with head voice, falseto, shameful

[iAMturandot]

oh my gosh she really looks like shes dying. she doesnt sound like it tho! my god can this woman sing! so gorgeous...