Natalie Dessay as Zerbinetta from Ariadne auf Naxos

[sumimimi0]

?? what is she wearing?? worst production ever

[2010nanetta]

Genial!

[unclealand]

Sucky production, but I'd sit in a drafty barn in Iowa in January to see and hear Dessay play Zerbinetta.

[breakaliciouskid786]

good singing but what kind of production is this ?!?!?!

[dubonetducon]

Personally, I preferred Dessay in her earlier years with Les Arts Florissants.

[tcradical]

There is only one Natalie Dessay.

[OperaFleming]

i want to listen Polaski's ariadne.. can you upload?

[papoocanada]

scandalous stupid production

[Joeleole]

I agree

[teddydiva]

She makes what must be one of the most difficult High Soprano arias seem so easy

A very talented and accomplished singer

[jorgeandresossa]

Si yo tampoco cre que eso halla sido en el 2004....por que ella por esos tiempos estaba cuasi retirada de la opera y mas para realizar estos tipos de roles.....

[AdornoTheodor]

¡Qué vulgaridad de puesta en escena!

[cantanteporsiempre]

@AdornoTheodor Si

[abvlad]

It is not Paris, 2004. It is Salzburg, 2001.

[papoocanada]

another one of those trashy productions

[sakunaunacc]

great performance Dessay looks a little like Buffy...in a good way:)

[kinakina123123]

She has great dynamic range, enormous depth, brilliant variety of tones, fascinating, color and harmonics, very crisp clear enunciation of the lyrics and wonderful control of dynamics.

This has been true of Dessay for over a decade.

This was a very powerful astonishing performance.

[Tristiano]

yes stunning full metallic sound here. excellent...the wig is so funny and the production ridiculous.

[filaredo]

Yes, it'smy opinion!

[filaredo]

She has a dynamic range of a popera singer, no depth, no variety of tones, monotonous, shallow, very poor enunciation of the lyrics and no precise control of dynamics.

[Rosalita78]

Are we listening to the same singer??!

[yh00yoonyoo]

Please listen to other songs that she have sung... you haven't listened to her yet! ...I agree about the lyrics.. but I like her

[lamusicappassionata]

Yes, this is definitely the best, most powerful singing I've ever heard from Ms. Dessay. What abandon on all of those high Ds and the high E!

[anoperamusician]

Horrible production... but wonderful singing!!!

It's amazing that this great performance was in 2004, it's by far the best post surgery performance I've heard from her...

I really hope she can get to this level again after her secon surgery, this woman is a real treasure for the whole opera world...

[gibraltarrr]

what in the hell is she wearing?

[shammerHammer]

back to the 70's :)

[hornplayer84]

Maybe like Paris Hilton?

[shkoder14]

WOW! Talk about singing your heart out! Dessay left me speechless after watching this. Such an amazing performance. She really brings the character to life. I love the more tragic/serious Zerbinetta presented in this production. You get a real sense of the woman: she tries to put up a carefree facade, but deep down she has strong feelings and regrets too.

[aavauxhall]

This is my favorite Dessay performance....

Why does ever classical clip on here turn into a Callas rant? Don't get me wrong. She was an incandescent talent that transformed her art. They come once in a century if you're lucky.... admire it, listen to it but don't feel unable to appreciate the other remarkable talents that exist in the here and now.....

[loveopera72]

I dont like this setting of the leather mini skirt and belly shirt...

[kwr5]

i agree with i dont like to see it but i love how she sing it

[yodavidnavarro]

Great performance on a very tricky aria! Brava Dessay!

[kleinBion]

Carta abierta a los fans de Callas:

He notado con mucha asiduidad el poco conocimiento acerca de opera que suelen tener los amantes del canto vocal de Maria Callas, a todos ellos me dirijo: Comentandoles, que el registro y color vocal de Callas, justamente no le permitió interpretar muchos roles. Canto principalmente roles de Bel Canto y verismo tardío (y Medea) pero permanecen muy pocas grabaciones consideradas de referncia de sus performances. Esto esta sujeto a la realidad histórica

[yodavidnavarro]

An open letter to Callas haters with big mouth and little brain. With agile hands on a keyboard and /Sadly) narrow knowledge. In 1949 /The year of Callas breakthrough) She started alternating Brünnhilde in Die Walküre and the role she had prepared, and Elvira in Bellinis I Puritani (Do you think any more different than these two roles). Also she attempted lightest coloraturas as Sonnambula, Lakme etc. Dramatic coloraturas as Traviatta, Many verismo roles.

[yodavidnavarro]

Plus Toscas, Aidas, Carmen, Gianni Schicchi, Madame Butterfly, Gioconda, La mamma morta, Lucia de Lammermoor, Norma, Il pirata, Turandot, Tristan und Isolde, Die Walkure, Il turco in Italia, Medea,I vespri Siciliani...What she did in Venice was really amazing.

[yodavidnavarro]

You need to know about opera to realize the greatness of her achievement. It was as if someone asked Kirsten Flagstad, who is famous for her huge, great Wagnerian soprano voice, to substitute overnight for Lucia Popp, who is one of the great coloratura sopranos ever.

[yodavidnavarro]

After the performance, critics would write, "Even the most skeptical had to acknowledge the miracle that Maria Callas accomplished... the flexibility of her limpid, beautifully poised voice, and her splendid high notes. Her interpretation also has a humanity, warmth, and expressiveness that one would search for in vain in the fragile, pellucid coldness of other Elviras."

[yodavidnavarro]

Si necesitas traducción solo me dices!

[juankmilo1980curro]

I think you know nothing about Opera. Don't pretend to know about something you obviously ignore! You're totally wrong! LOL

[GliOminiVerdi]

I like her in that role (i don't go crazy for her in traviata or other roles) and I really like the staging(and I hate modern staging). THAT'S A MIRACLE! :)

[ashleyohtori]

Singing is great. Outfit is not.

[tigerpirate71]

Does anyone know if this entire production is avialable on dvd?

[DessayBestSinger]

no it isn't, but you can download it with eMule

[magfrom17th]

one could get the whole thing on eMule?

[DessayBestSinger]

yes

[kleinBion]

Yes from Deutsche Grammophon, conducts Karl Bhöm and other one of Levine

[oleander1684]

entengle is absolutely righ; seeing her body propel her voice is amazing. this is my favorite interpretation, it's so emotional and real. i've seen a few other ariadnes who are just coquettes, but dessay really gives her more credit, and it's beautiful. this aria seems to be about humanity and frailty and thwarted love, and its spirit of universal truth just shimmers, in my opinion. and whoever is ariadne is a wonderful actress. i know i'd cry if dessay sang this near me.

[entengle]

I absolutely LOVE the fact that you can see her

abs/diaphram flex to propel her incredible voice

while it works so well with the costume. + THIS

is such a beautiful departure from the original

period piece/dress. I love the 'player' & key.

A necessary & refreshing spin for today's view.

[xgianpatrick]

What a shame...she sounds great, but that production! Euro-updates (Austrians being the worst offenders) are so desperately tragic.

[Taskat]

I am so in love with Natalie Dessay.  It could never even be at all funny.

[gypsycafe]

I've recently fallen in love with this aria and I just can't get over how amazing Dessay is here! LOVELY!

[cesare1906]

its not from paris its salzburg 2001

[DessayBestSinger]

it's not from 2004, it's from 2001

[ufahawaii]

Silly, grotesque staging detracts from the wonderful singing. But still no match for Rita Streich as I remember.

[artdanks]

BOY, do I ever agree with you on all accounts! Especially Rita Streich! She was the first Zerbinetta I ever heard, and fell in love with both her and this aria. Haven't heard anything close since!

[ufahawaii]

I had another problem with this silly staging..Visions of Caballe in a mini leather skirt cavorting on the set. Can you picture Callas being dragged by the hair?? The man would lose his arm!

[Babs22h]

did callas ever sing zerbinetta! I dont think that was really in her repertoire.but she did everything else why not zerbinetta would be interesting to here

[ufahawaii]

sorry, I was just having fun with the image of Maria being dragged by the hair. It never happened.

[kleinBion]

Callas only sang Bel Canto, it's not a rol for her voice

[ssballs]

Good Gracious,Callas as Zerbinetta?

[kleinBion]

I imaging poor Richard Strauss, having a heart attack. Callas can't sing anything

[xafnndapp]

LOL!!!!

[Satirike]

ROFL. Callas can sing. :]

[yodavidnavarro]

Callas sand any kinf of roles from Wagnerian operas to the lightest coloratura. I think you should do a research to expand your opera knowledge!

[kleinBion]

Yes sure, Think this: Bhöm and Klemperer together saying the following: -Oh look Callas in Vienna! I cant wait to have her singing Isolda!

-Yes an I want to have her singing Zerbineta

-oh yes, yes sure...

No es muy probable. mejor mira la imv¡becil de Callas que nunca canto mas que verismo

[yodavidnavarro]

Oh you're verging on embarrasment! I'm sorry for your little knowledge!

[yodavidnavarro]

Callas sang any kind of roles from Wagnerian operas to the lightest coloratura. I think you should do a research to expand your opera knowledge!

[mrlammermoor]

i bet who say modern productions are against the libretto have no clue about the libretto at all but just read about the setting in a plot or something

[ursus1302]

unglaublich! dessay ein echter superstar!!!!!!!!!!

[hyperborean07]

Does anyone know where the other video of her is? There used to be one youtube singing in a wonderfully tropical outfit and orange hair...? Or where the video of her singing dal mio permessa is?

[jlee800]

She's great! Makes me want to see her play Lucia at the Met this fall. I bought the album she's in with Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner and was a little disappointed compared to what I see in this clip. She seemed a bit reserved and held back in the recording. But she really sings her heart out here and other clips on youtube. Great actress too!

[taillia]

Very good but in fact this is a Salzburg Festivals' production, in 2001.

[bkmustang07]

i agree with joan when she says these modern productions take away from the libretto

[Jokanaan]

Amazing singing...typical Eurotrash production.

[navigolucky]

the staging doesn't exactly have to be in the era of hoop skirts and corsets...Strauss himself reworks a classical Greek myth of Ariadne and Theseus/Bacchus to a rather raunchy setting (burlesque actors) for his "modern" 1900s audience without togas and Dorian architecture.

[Jokanaan]

Believe me, I'm no staging prude -- I've seen non-traditional staging that works beautifully. It's more than the sets, though. (I mean, come on. Zerbinetta as a whore? That's simply a director satisfying his/her own ego.)

[mrlammermoor]

She is not a "whore" or whatever. Obviously she is resembling an entertainer from our generation - a pop star. (that's what Zerbinetta would be nowadays)

[Jokanaan]

Well, let's break it down. A man first dangles a room key over her neck, then drags her offstage by the hair. Draw your own conclusions, but that doesn't look like a pop star to me. Having said that, "Zerbinetta as pop star" is actually a pretty smart idea, and it would have made a lot more sense than what I'm seeing here. I just doubt somehow that that's what the director was after.

[SwamiTom]

And still... I remember that production for I saw it on Tv then, and I loved it! The idea of opposing the composer (classical music) and Zerbinetta (Madonna) worked perfectly in the Prologue. In the Act, the idea was to put on stage a modern story of an abandoned woman (Polasky, in her great coat, with her dirty hair, serving herself a whisky and sitting in her armchair while singing "Sieh, Ariadne wartet!", great effect!)...

[SwamiTom]

...Zerbinetta was still the same popstar, but it of less importance in this scene. She is mainly another women from a different background, but the story is the same. And for the first time, Ariadne doesn't leave the stage but stay, and for a brief moment, they bond. It works perfectly, don't you think?

[CONTESTAR]

The more I here and see of this woman, the more she amazes me!