Raina Kabaivanska "Final Scene" Suor Angelica

[ueblondon]

Kaibivanska is fantastic. best suor angelica . I've seen her on stage in a bl production of Adriana Lecouvrer in 1980..the day I started to love opera.

[operachad]

L-O-V-E Raina!

[kleinkeske]

Waaauw, great!

[polyphemous]

i've always loved this opera and as a catholic have always taken her forgiveness as a given. She kills herself whilst unhinged so she can't possibly have committed a sin cos you can only commit sin when in your right mind. Also God is far more loving than we are, I rely upon it; We hear the angelic chorus whilst she is still crying out for mercy soi have alswys asumed that is the hint for us. Whatever its a magnificent performance

[qyzuf]

Hi - thanks for the information. I didn't think of religious people.

Brining=bringing with a typo, sorry :)

I guess then that NOT bringing a child is a better way to let the audience decide, no?

[1923pars]

It's written in the score...

" the blessed virgin appears... and a fair child."

Sr Angelica is given a miracle of forgiveness "...in a glory of light"

Curtain falls

[qyzuf]

thanks!

I know that some productions have a child some don't.  I prefer the second option because it's less sentimental.

[1923pars]

I'm with you on that.. Renata Scotto in on YT doing the scene without the child physically there.

Really moving, breaks your heart.

[qyzuf]

I agree with you 100% - Whan a performance!!! You know who else is great in that role on YT? Victoria de los Angeles, but unfortunately there are no visulas

[amlirco]

@qyzuf It could become too sentimental or melodramatic if there's no just measure that is not the case here; this passage between the life and death cannot be characterised otherwise than cathartic. Without child, it may seem more intellectual but I'm afraid almost impossible to interpret in a convinient way. That's why Puccini put the child, he was a great dramaturgist above all.

[qyzuf]

i see what you mean, but:

I think it CAN be interpeted - as a illusion of a dying woman, thus making it just as dramatic and moving (not intellectual) without going too far.

[amlirco]

@qyzuf I suppose there's no a simple answer. We cannot say if this is illusion or "reality" and where this final moment exactly happens.

Both variants are not easy for interpretation.

[bjmiceli]

I have been an opera lover since I was a teenager (25 years ago!) and I find this scene to be the most moving in all of opera. I cannot see or hear it without disolving into tears. I find Raina marvelous. What a lovely, moving performance. The other YouTube clip with Scotto is also fine (both are great artists, but fallible vocalists), but I so much prefer to believe that Angelica has been forgiven and that a miracle occurs, than she suffer a delusion at death.

[qyzuf]

Hello. Let me offer a differentperspective. This scene already streches the amount of sentiment to the limit...Brining a child makes it tacky. We don't know if there's a god or afterlife..If in her final moments she imagines she's with her child, and believes it what wrong with that? it's comfort in her belief, not necessarily "suffering a delusion"

[bjmiceli]

The notes in the libretto make it clear that it is up to the audience to decide for themselves if she is imagining this or if she is experiencing a miracle, knowing that there were and are religious people in the audience.

BTW, What does "brining a child" mean?

[Greatfan]

I am still crying ! She is absolutely marvellous, a great singing actress, great among the greatest. It doesnt matter she did not sing at the Met, she is an idol in Europe. What a " slancio ". Great, great ! And that when she was touching 60...

[matteokrogher]

la peggior suor angelica. non si capiscono le note con quella quinta di vibrato... non si capisce nemmeno quello che dice.

[solisef]

This is way too slow...

[malniit]

Agree!

[leontyne2]

Why didn't the Metropolitan opera engage her more? They tend to have the most boring singers.

[amlirco]

At the time she would accept a contract with the Met they proposed her to play a substitute for Scotto. Evidently this was not the right approach having in mind her enormous popularity in Europe, Italy in particular.

[Amphipolis]

SUPERB

[Orestes1958]

Bravissima Raina. Splendida.

[motardbear15]

She really made me crying !!! What an actress !! Wich is the best : Kabaiwanska or Scotto ( there is also a video with her !!)???

[ariodante76]

Hey, what about Barbara Frittoli?

[amlirco]

All my respects to Scotto. She's been very famous singer with huge amount of recordings but to my mind she cannot be compared to Kabaivanska who is the best of her generation in her repertoir. She has performed also parts that go beyond the melodramatic repertoir (belcanto, XX c. music, comic parts etc.) that are exemplary for the strength of suggestion and exquisit vocal interpretation. Her voice is much much more powerful and capable of "drawing" a character than this of Scotto.

[amlirco]

Isn't it amasing how with a few gestures and endless tenderness (the moan comes so naturally) Raina interprets the passage between life and death (without a single convulsion...)? And what amplitude of emotions!

[mradkova]

One of the greatest actress ever - dramatic singing "on the edge". Brava, Raina!