Julia Varady as Donna Elvira "Mi tradi" Don Giovanni

[LAUMONT3]

magnifique madame Varady. Vous êtes une très grande artiste.

[MaxwellsDemon9]

amazing!

[magicprepy]

Ok, she has a very beautiful legato, but she really should pronounce what it's written in the libretto and not what she likes...

[moghedien13]

@magicprepy die hard julia fan, but yeah she turns the words to mush sometimes and, unfortunately, its not just in this clip.

[adinab13]

@magicprepy I totally agree....mumbling the words dons not make a real character performance

[mezzodopera]

bravissima! bellissima voce!

[MastersoftheOpera]

I've just discovered Julia Varady. I love her voice! She has a marvelous Mozartian technique, dark, strong, rich, lyric and very true to the music of Mozart, as is the orchestra wo seems to be faithful to the period style instrument/orchestration (harpsichord and all). Her Elvira is excellent. Thanks for posting.

[loredinusa]

who was the conducter? whoever was....

[1401JSC]

Awful orchestral direction. Heavy and not in sympathy with the singer (tempo, dialogue voice + woodwind). Heavy!

[796824]

LISA DELLA CASA is SUPERIOR

[1401JSC]

This remark doesn't mean a thing unless you state precisely in what the superiority is revealed.

[796824]

Perhaps it would have provided clarity, if it

were said that ELIZABETH RETHBERG was superior to all. The voice was brilliant, musicianship superb and the singing, SPONTANEOUS, sans covering the voice

[90lysander]

@796824 Who are you? Rethberg's great-great grandchild or something?  Sorry, but if you have nothing to say about the artist in this video, you are basically a spammer.

[Operataurus]

a pointless comparison

[anzolettilino]

@796824 yes, bravo and she sings a better italian too.( i am' italian)

[888HeRa888]

wow...she's just perfect...!look at this mouth!

[2loperadeparis]

Perfect ! So beautiful !!!

[JPD060486]

Varady's wide leaps in this aria are maybe the most perfect reconciliation of a legato line and register change and clear articulation you could hope for.

Many valid points about diction below, but otherwise this is singing of the most beautiful and technically perfect kind. What an underrated artist.

[vitellia]

I couldn't agree with you more. I have yet to hear another soprano, or any singer with the ability to blend different registers so perfectly. And no wonder she shines with wide-ranging roles like Vitellia or Abigaille. I can only imagine her Fiordiligi. Do you know if she ever recorded it?

[JPD060486]

She's a recent discovery of mine, so I'm still getting familiar with her recordings, although there don't seem to be many around. I haven't seen any recording of her Fiordiligi - have you heard Schwarzkopf (under Boehm, for EMI) or Margaret Marshall in the role?

[SFOtter]

A lovely singing actress with a big and beautiful voice and largely under recognized outside of germany. Her diction may not be excellent, but she compensates beautifully. I study voice and wonder if most of the detractors have the slightest idea how hard this really is. Instead of griping they should be thankful for the riches of fine singers on the stage today.

[asisecanta]

Superb singing although there's not one "E" ("Mi tradí quIl alma ingrata, infIlicI oh Dio mi fa")

[wenarto]

ha! :-)

[marinainwonderland]

bellísima en todos los aspectos. no me importa no entender el texto, todos lo sabemos de memoria, no?

[gypsycafe]

She has Joan Sutherland style diction.

[mrlammermoor]

she leaves away consonants and words all for the line. but who cares, when somebody sings elviry like her

[dynamicstuff73]

her voice is wildly beautiful but she sounds better in Richard Strauss.

[hillevifan]

I am singing this in a week and I hope I can sing it half as good as her

[fabrizietto1980]

oh my Geod, I perfectly agree with ezayitas. I'm Italian and I haven't understood anything of what she sang! no consonants at all! She killed my bautiful language!

[floxury]

Great!

Ich teile Tobis Meinung:-)

[montanabucci]

What??Where are her consonants and double consonants? Even some words are completely missing, too. Nice voice, but at the expense of words.

[aedgent]

yes but as Lungdoc said, it is much better here than in other documents, like the Karajan DVD from Salzburg. I find this video wonderful. Thanks a lot, Onegin for posting such Varady treasures !

[nordfriese81]

thank you so much for posting this. julia varady is an extra-ordinary singer and a fantastic vocal-teacher. waiting for more :-)

[floxury]

Hi Tobi!

[arnalta]

truly one of the best Elviras ever!!!

[amayzak]

where are the sopranos like this today???  ringing low notes, clear high notes, easy coloratura, and controlled vibrato... such a vibrant sound!

[SinginFool82]

I love me some Julia... many of my friends don't even know who she is. Poor unfortunate souls they are. I first heard her on a recording of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis... such a beautiful sound !!!

[lungdoc]

Excellent rendition, she pays great attention to the words which is not always the case with this aria.

[ezayitas]

Obviously you don´t speak italian... first; mi tradiuee l´alma (quell´alma), 2nd; proooaaouui pieta (provo ancor per lui pieta), 3rd; The "D" is strong whenever there´s a word that start with it and 4th, a few times there wasn´t a "C" in infeli-CE. So, this is hardly a a good example of "GREAT ATTENTION" of the words. Great example in that you could find it with Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi and Renata Scotto.

[ezayitas]

A good example here... with Carol Vanness...

[wallyjenkins]

Julia Varady is fierce!