Barbara Bonney and Anne Howells sing "Ist ein Traum"

[tossedover1]

very nice! thanks for posting. I love Barbara Bonney's voice!

[ggkirke]

Simply one of the best performances ever.

[franklindavid]

Two great talents come together,nice rendition.

[Republicrat74]

Of all the video clips from Der Rosenkavelier this final trio and duets are easily my favorites....Kiri, Ann, and Barbara are so perfect for their parts, and the acting is so touchingly real!!

[krysant50]

thanks Gisa, its so good to have come here watching this fine acting, not often seen in opera houses. it usually voices we enjoy, here we can have fully artistic expression of the main characters presented by the two ladies.

kk

[suzanneetmoi]

Ms.Bonney is indeed actively performing concerts and recitals as well as teaching. She was absent from the stage for over a year due to problems with a "difficult divorce"-her words.

This performance is one of my all time favorites due to the incredible voices of the three women and we are lucky to have it at all; Ms. Howells stepped on the very day of the taping to replace a singer who's contract would not permit her to be filmed.

[lovezyah67]

way a pleasant blend =)

[wenarto]

THE BEST OF ALL BEST.......

[beeswaxer]

I fell in love with this Opera because of these two ladies they touched my heart

[beeswaxer]

these two ladies were and will alway's be my favorite in this opera wow

[Sochilinda]

WOW! Amazing!!! Besides the fact that they are great singers. You can really believe that both women are actually man and girl and very inlove. Anne Howells it's amazing as a guy and Barbara Boney looks so fragile and girly. The kisses were beautiful and tasteful, no like some other productions nowadays.

[ElisaN92]

w0w , the high notes are breathtaking

[blackmambo008]

OMG! 4:45 Barbara is like an angel just floating up to the high note! ugh! i wish there was a recording that matched this calibur. i have dessay, damrau, and a few others singing this, but none can match Barbara on this part. There is just something about her voice that oozes warmth and control. I love it when she takes out the vibrato and ever, so gently puts it back in.

YOU ROCK BARBARA!

[Sochilinda]

From what year is this production?? barbara looks really young.

[xnlover]

The recording was issued in 1986, and Bonney was born in 1956, making her 30 years old at the time of the production.

[Sochilinda]

Well, indeed she was young...a baby singer i would say. But she is one of the best.

[sirmercutio99]

Did Barbara ever sing the Marschalian?

[rlee1976]

Marschallin is not Bonney's fach, she's far too soubrette-esque and never really left that repertoire - she's now all of 53 years old and performs here and there but not really that active.

[burtsbees2]

as it's a light dramatic soprano role, bonney probably shouldn't consider it, though many sopranos that start their careers with sophie understandably feel inclined sentimentally to sing the marschallin later. bonney has already eloquently tried her voice on several of the heavier, epic strauss songs, like die vier letzte, so i wouldn't be surprised if we heard her recording some selections from rosenkavalier as the marschallin at some point

[WeinSnoken]

Do you guys believe that Barbara Bonney is related to Billy the Kid, as she claims?

[kgus123]

Well, as there is no concrete evidence that Billy the Kid was actually related to anyone named "Bonney" or that he was himself a father, I take it with a grain of salt.

[OperaBuff1935]

I have ordered and am looking forward to receiving and listening to Barbara's DVD in the series "Voices of our Time". I remember seeing her, Dawn Upshaw,( Dawn was Echo, but I don't remember the other two characters' names) and Gwyenth Bean as supporting singers in Jessye Norman's "Ariadne auf Naxos" at the Met in the early "90's. Kathleen Battle was Zerbinetta. Barbara and Dawn have since just soared in their careers and are still soaring. Isn't that marvelous!

Opera Buff 1935

[brittcro]

why aren't there any male castrati nowadays???

[natashathweatt]

uhhhhh...........

[burtsbees2]

hahahahahahaha are you serious?

[olympicfreak678]

Even if there were, mezzo-sopranos and even some sopranos have ALWAYS done this role. The original person for this role was a woman.

[ltyr2001]

Women kissing on stage! What's next?!

A woman making love to a severed head????

Oh yeah, that came before this....

[YingYingChang]

Composers did considered the voices type of roles. We could find female play boys' roles in Mozart's opera and Bellini's.

[giugiu57]

Beauty on this scale is sexless. It's almost not even human.

It is breathtaking.

[Ravenelvenlady]

I totally and completely concur.

[wenarto]

i also concur...Bonney at her prime

[SpiritedxAway]

sehr gut, mensch had die eine stimme!

[burtsbees2]

does the singer have to play a woman at some point in the opera, or does a trouser role exist if they only play a man? because I really can't think of one where she wouldn't; rosenkavalier, le nozze, fidelio...

[burtsbees2]

oh i take that back; lenore isn't really supposed to be a man to the audience, nor does she act like a woman under the assumption of being a man

[sirmercutio99]

Usually trouser roles play young men/boys between 15-18ish due to that a tenor would sound too adult.

[SDCmorg]

There are many trouser roles where the female singer plays a real male character, actually. Cherubino, Sifare (Mitridate), Annio (La clemenza di Tito), Oktavian, The Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos), Tancredi and his side kick Roggiero in Rossini's opera, Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Orphee (the Berlioz version of Gluck's Orfeo), etc. I'm not counting the ex-castrato roles.

[hansimausi0815]

You do!

Sifare, Annio, Romeo and Orhee are castrato-roles...

[SDCmorg]

I think Sifare is a soprano role (but the bad-brother, Farnace, is an alto-castrato), and so is Annio (tho 'Sesto' is a soprano-castrato). Bellini's original Romeo was Giulia Grisi, a female soprano... tho Claudio Abbado modified the role for a tenor to sing once. It didn't work very well. :o)

[SDCmorg]

Oops, check that. Sifare was indeed a soprano-castrato role, but Annio was a mezzo-soprano. :o)

[hansimausi0815]

you're right about romeo, sorry!

but the premiere of "tito" was sung by Domenico Bedini (Annio) and Carolina Perini (Sesto)!!

[SDCmorg]

Hiya. Ya' got the names right, but switch them, mate. :o) Bedini sang Sesto and Perini sang Annio.

What I wonder about with that opera, tho, is if Mozart composed all of Vitellia's music for Maria Fantozzi. That Act I trio is an anomaly! ;o) But for that trio, I'd love to see Kasarova sing Vitellia one day.

[hansimausi0815]

I'm quoting the preface of the Bärenreiter Score!

I'm quite sure that Fantozzi must have been an incredible singer and the trio in act one.. i dont know how the d''' would sond, when Kasarova sings it.

[SDCmorg]

Hey, ya' have a good cause to ask for a refund from Bärenreiter (or maybe not, this could be a collector's item... like one of those misprinted old stamps, you know)! :o) Is this score from before 1959?

O, I don't think Kasarova would ever try Vitellia. The D can be omitted, but it's voice-shredding to spend most of the trio at the top of the stave shrieking out A's and B's, I think. :o( Murderous for mezzo!

[hansimausi0815]

No its the complete mozart edition, second run from 1985.. You were absolutely right. Till the fifties of the 20th Century the musicologists were sure, that Sesto was written for a woman and Annio for a castrato. They were wrong... I will check, if Bärenreiter changed it in the newest run..

[olympicfreak678]

Does anyone know of thast version of La CLemenza where Sesto and Annio were played by men? Sounds liek an iuntersting idea. What they did for sesto, they used Luigi Alva, a tenor di grazia. He probably had the ranege, but I don't know the tessitura for it. I wonder what they did.

[TruculentBones]

I love Barbara Bonney. And I have a dumb question. Is Anne Howell playing a man's character, or is this an opera about lesbians? Or is that a "pants" role?

[inwit]

It's a trouser role, yes. With a woman playing a man playing a woman (not this scene).

[kigomin1972]

@TruculentBones You should watch the version with Bonney and Von Otter, it will seem more convincing to you as Von Otter looks like a fine young man.

[WLLover01]

You can watch them all, but it doesn't get any better than this! I am thrilled that Ms. Bonney is "back"!

[globalmuse]

HEAVENLY!!!!!

[ginavoce25]

God, Barbara is so angelic. Cherubic, even. Heavenly either way. I love her!!!

[lizzybat85]

For everybody: Barbara Bonney will be teaching young singing students at the University Mozarteum Salzburg from Oct. 1st. 2007. She had some sort of singing crisis (guess due to her divorce) but is now back on track :-)

[europelove]

do you know if she's staying thru 2008 or 2009?

[europelove]

oh my lord....talk about amazing pianisimos

[lizzybat85]

For everybody: Barbara Bonney will be teaching young singing students at the University Mozarteum Salzburg from Oct.1st 2007. She had some sort of singing crisis

(guess due to her divorce) but is now back on track. :-)

[harrypersicke]

it is just wonderful!!!good singers!!!

[Villainesse1]

soooooooo raavviishingly beautiful!!!!

[Iolamusica]

Yeah where's Barbara gone? It's so sad. I don't care if it's a messy divorce. I still want her to sing and appear!

[baltsa1]

wonderful couple on the stage beyond the most beautiful interpretation of this rolle.Delicate and tender...

[mcgbjchjdcrrem]

I love this video . . . I wish my voice was a pretty as Barbara Bonney's . . . :'(

[skylark100]

Messy divorce.

[WLLover01]

Does anyone know what ever happned to Barbara Bonney? She seems to have dropped of the face of the earth in 2006, cancelling all engagements and nothing else is available? This cast of "Rosenkavalier" is my very favorite!

[ArcanaIntellego]

Wow, brave, sexy... this video'd must be censored....The voice of Barbara is only fantastic, to level of Callas, only Callas I heard this.. likes an 'usignolo' a bird

[blevarela]

The singing here is really of the highest caliber, obviously, but the orchestral playing is equally sublime. Just an excellent production.

[Dwrght007]

One of my favorite parts of the whole opera. Beautiful. They make it look so effortless.

[opera21]

Barbara Bonney has one of the prettiest voices I have ever heard.

[hannahjoysoprano]

Amazing...

[wenarto]

ist ein traum...one of the best in DVD.