Vincenzo Bellini - I puritani & La sonnambula - "Vien diletto" & "Ah! non giunge" (Roberta Peters)

[kablue79]

ME - RA - VI - GLIO - SA!

[mariloly38]

DIVA

[Lirico96]

Che voce adorabile

[EdmundStAustell]

I adore Peters, and always have, ever since I was young--a very long time ago! She is wonderful, and her extremely high voice and complete control of coloratura made her an exquisite artist, one you could listen to in recording after recording. I remember a concert of hers that I attended back in 1959, where, after an extremely demanding program, she finished with "The Last Rose of Summer," which I thought was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.

[ohmusic25]

I happen to be a huge fan of Roberta Peters. The size of her voice and the obvious clarinet method of vocal movement makes her delivery of these arias instrumental in delivery and fun all at the same time. People have been inappropriately comparing her to vocalist such as Joan Sutherland and others. No comparison. Each diva has their own ability and strength. Love Roberta Peters For ever!

[hoibie]

amazing, brilliant. great parts at 6.03 Min and 6.38

[SandrineSoprano]

Nice one. Cheers

[VolkgartenBySquirrel]

Pure Rite of Spring - just beautiful! 

[OrganicSorcerer1]

In her younger years she didn't have that nasally sound. What happened?

[Adrillius]

This is wonderful.

[mmbriggs]

lets all get on la divina too, when she did this repetoire, she also used the old fashioned ornmentation that peters and pons, and galli-curci, et al used. its really not until the full bel canto revival with sills, sutherland, caballe and horne that ornamentation changes both in terms of dramatic and lyric effect. listen to what callas does with caro nome in here mexico city gildas, and what she does in her version of the bel song, or here versoion of an non giunge.

[geiger]

@mmbriggs Pardon my complete accidental "thumbs down" I was trying to click something else and did not mean to hit any negative response about your comment. Apologies and please ignore it.

[meltzerboy]

@mmbriggs Callas had her vocal problems but I'm not sure she used the older style of ornamentation of Peters, Pons, and Galli-Curci. For one thing, she may not have been able to reproduce those effects even if she had wished to. I agree she pointed the way toward more dramatic coloratura that Sutherland, Caballe, Sills, and Horne capitalized on, while adding their own technique and style. Yes, she ornaments, but she is relatively tame when compared to Sills, for example, and even Sutherland.

[skitzo429]

she has an inredibly agile coloratura technique, but ive always though her upper register had a rather unpleasant nasaly pinched quality to it.

[ColtHz]

Lasci nessun scontare questa magnifica cantatrice!

[ChesapeakeReview]

I drove 5 hours when I was 17 to hear Roberta Peters. She sang with an orchestra in a huge "barn" without a microphone and was heard clear as a bell above the orchestra. I have never understood the "small voice" comments. Like a focused flute tone, you don't have to be loud to be heard. She was class all the way and I will always fondly remember her as the first opera singer I heard live. I drove the 5 hours home that night, crawled into bed at 4am then got up for school at 8am.

[DonRolini]

Oh my JESUS!!!!!Those staccati at 6:47 "in qui via mo" she really did learn from a clarinet method. No one beats her coloratura not even Pons! I love Roberta Peters thank you for posting! :)

[moghedien13]

i always kinda looked down on her and underestimated her. im glad i took a second look. great great artist. i heard she had very fine projection in the houses and that the recording studio was never kind to her voice. would have loved to been able to see her live.

[ohmusic25]

I have listened to these pieces more times than I can count and it always amazes me. Roberta Peters, with a light and precise instrumental quality, charms with her ornaments and legendary F6s are fantastic. Anything does a a treasure! What a voice!

[Zva26]

Roberta Peters was a fine artist who sustained a 35 year career at the Met in roles ranging from Donizetti to Mozart via Strauss, Offenbach, Verdi and Gluck. Hers was not a large voice like Callas' or Sutherland's, but her coloratura technique was formidable. Her middle and lower voice was abundantly beautiful, and only her extreme top notes had a somewhat wiry quality. Why she insisted on singing so many unwritten top F's is beyond me. She had a fine enough voice not to have to bother.

[meltzerboy]

I'm not really sure why Peters inserted those unwritten high notes. Perhaps it was fashionable at the time, perhaps she was competing with Pons and then D'Angelo. Of course, she was a coloratura and had the notes, some of them quite good.

[skitzo429]

most very high notes you hear in bel canto music arent written.

[phanface]

Peters was not just an excellent singer, but could spin out such exciting, dazzling coloratura. Thank you for posting this.

[Arsamene87]

A great singer with a perfect technique and a funambolic coloratura! Brava!

[wendybird163]

Still the greatest soprano! She sang with such ease, technic and beauty.

[Puppyizzy]

wow!!!

[Orbazzano]

voce cristallina e tecnica perfetta, grandissima cantante!

[Arsamene87]

Superb singing!

[Esil90]

finalmente una che mi convince sul serio. In genere chi ha la voce così cristallina è anche carente di armonici , lei invece è penetrante. Ottima l'agilità, molto precisa.

[longlifeluke]

OMG 0_0

[dulcamara66]

Vero soprano leggero con grandissima padronanza di una tecnica perfetta e sempre ben calibrata. Fantastica

[gmmix]

Hearing her first l.p., "Youngest Member of a Great Tradition," hit me like a ton of bricks. She sang with such sweetness, and her high notes were of exquisite purity and beauty. I was smitten. Alas, that was a long time ago. Thank you for this video.

[FrankJared]

wonderful!

[meltzerboy]

By the way, for those of you interested in high-note singers, Peters once claimed she vocalised to the high B flat above high C, though, to my knowledge, she never sang those extreme high notes in public. I once heard her sing the cadenza to "Caro nome" ending with a whistle-note that might have been a high G or above.

[meltzerboy]

(Continued) not to mention singers such as Galli-Curci, Tetrazzini, and many others, Peters is a very competent and pleasing singer who can execute the ornaments expected of her voice type, and little more. When I was young, she was thought of as a secure artist, with a solid technique and pretty voice. Nonetheless, I enjoy hearing her in these selections and thank you for posting them.

[meltzerboy]

Let me start by saying that I've always enjoyed Peters' singing and think she has a lovely voice that she uses with skill and artistry. However, I also think it is a sign of the times that she is called a "great" singer. Yes, compared to some of the mediocre coloratura sopranos of today, she offers something unusual. But compared to some of the truly great coloraturas, including Sutherland (a different type of voice altogether, I know) and even Pons, whose technique was far from perfect....

[hyppolito123]

Very beautyful and eleganth performance! It interesting to compare it with the great Lina Pagliughi's one.

[dollartwenty]

What a lovely voice she had! And such a pity she was never terribly wellappraciated outside the US.

[cmorgan22]

A much different voice from Sutherland and even Nebtrebko(who needs to learn to trill and hold her notes at the end of arias if she ever wants to really succed at Bel Canot!

[coloraturafan]

I have always loved Peters! I remember reading an interview in which she said she had always wanted to sing Puritani. She said she had studied the role and sang the arias in concert, but was never asked to sing the role.

[paulostroff99]

A great performance!

[Dobrib]

Sensational!TY.