DUELING DIVAS ~ Melba (1904) vs. Tetrazzini (1911) in Verdi's LA TRAVIATA

[1peterpann]

I really enjoyed this wonderful collection of opera sung by two historical diva`s how different the style of singing was back then love it!!!! They both win far as i`m concerned.

[LacrimaLunaMortua]

For me, Tetrazzini

[daphnebeloved]

For me tetrazini has ( the best legato was galli curci) more legato line and projection, so the voice conveys more nuances and color.On the other hand, Melba for me always had white tone, no projection and no legato...

[CurzonRoad]

@daphnebeloved

Interesting points... and always fun to compare. IMHO these are two totally different singers, like apples and oranges, both good, great in their own ways. Thank you!

[domi2020]

Both are great voices. Melba has a brilliant even tone and precision and interpretatively more profound. LT makes it a showpiece with her staccati fireworks but there is some choppiness in the phrasing. Sutherland later duplicated her. Love them both!

[7441338norman]

i just never heard the point to melba , being compared to luisa one is a light soprano , luisa a coloratura. not the same vocal type .

[Rapture1987]

With trills like Melba's, who needs a High Eb?

[ronfast]

I Listen too both beautiful singers and Melba sings with more of a feminine gentleness yet her voice possesses a romantic quality a flowery register at the top,but with mama L.T, Melba does not have the vocal adroitness readiness and grace that mama Luisa conveys now get into it...

[cirodaraujo]

This is like asking who is more godly - Christ or the Holy Spirit...

[mayatatyana1]

Doug, two different, beautiful performances. Thank you. Maya

[meinfb]

Whether we like it or not, history cannot be changed. It would be a waste of time to deny Galli-Curci greatness. Contemporary accounts of her debut in Chicago (and descriptions of reactions to her singing in other venues) indicate that she set off a kind of madness whenever she sang (and sang well). She was second only to Caruso in record sales. However, Galli-Curci never was and never could have been as great a singer as Melba.

[chrisz78]

@meinfb Well, if you give tuppence (or more) on people's reaction as a measure of artistic value, then Paul Potts and Bocelli must be even better singers than Galli-Curci! The problem remains that there's a certain one-dimensionality, a lack of dynamic range in GC's singing, and she manages to get away with even flatter top notes than Melba - painful listening for me, but then as a trained musician I'm very finicky in that respect, and most listeners probably wouldn't notice.

[IshyIMB017]

Both very great singers, Melba´s voice was lovely, but Luisa sang with more power and feeling, not that I think power means beautiful, or that her voice is powerful at all, but in the aria Sempre Libera, that´s something that really gives it it´s feeling.

[rawdonqueen]

Thank you for comparing two great voices, but Melba finds mysterious depths in E fors e' lui that no other singer has ever equalled.

[tomfroekjaer]

Two devine aetheric voices ! Both equally beautiful !

[Kievest]

First, may I say that the astonishingly candid and detailed photos are an entire art in themselves! Your master- ful use of the visuals compounds the enjoyment exponentially!! On to the singers....Melba's aching vulnerability, refinement, and utterly desperate abandon in the sempre libera are fragile and intoxicating. Tetrazzini is a more red meat variety Violetta with a sobriety, gravitas and a defiant sempre libera. For me, more technically dazzling than profound. Bravo!

[CurzonRoad]

Can't disagree with your well chosen words. Both are different in the manners and qualities you describe, Melba conveying vulnerability & refinement, Tetrazzini of a more "red meat variety" (I like that!).  To settle matters... I shall take both! Thank you... and BTW, I'm running out of pictures! Cheers, etc. Doug --

[AulicExclusiva]

Melba had a more perfect voice and a more perfected technique in a Germanic sense. Also this is one of her greatest early records.

Tetrazzini had a thousand times more temperament, warmth and dramatic sense, besides a fabulously brilliant, very "out there" Italian style. Just listen to her ornamentations in the word "croce".

Luckily, one doesn't have to choose. But, in Italian music, it's always Tetrazzini for me.

[meltzerboy]

As has been remarked elsewhere, we are comparing apples and oranges (definitely not lemons). And these are the best apples and oranges. As the great philospher Madonna states, there is more than one pathway to heaven.

[themfromspace]

Wonderful picture!! I prefer Melba's ah fors e' lui and Tetrazzini's sempre libera. Melba really nails the general atmosphere required in the former while I don't think Tetrazzini's voice pairs well with it, but Tetrazzini's ecstatic sempre libera is hard to beat.

[CurzonRoad]

Well said! For the record, I like both versions, for different reasons, and as Bivolari has pointed out, it's like comparing apples & oranges. THANK YOU!

[mazzone1]

Tetrazzini any day. Melba is as dull as ditch water.

Tetrazzini puts so much life into her singing, and with a much better tone of voice.

[CurzonRoad]

Agree Tetrazzini has an irresistable  joi de vivre .... but I also like Melba's. How about a toss up??? THANK YOU!

[65attila]

meltzerboy

Tetrazzini's legato here is very good. I might have been too harsh as I just listed to Melba first. Galli-Curci combines the best of both - great line and coloratura with a voice of incredible beauty. GC studied piano and her singing is musically imaginatice. Would like to hear all of them today.

Regards -John

[CurzonRoad]

Thanks John & Nate: Wonderful commentary! I like both versions, for different reasons. While Tetrazzini knows how to communicate joy, Melba is.... what can I say? other than that she is Melba! While Galli-Curci is wonderful in her own right, again have a problem seeing her as the courtesan! Cheers, etc. Doug --

[meltzerboy]

And the firmness of Melba's voice, her pure tone and legato are most gratifying. She tends to sing her phrases, as one critic noted, "in lengths rather than deliciously rounded as by Tetrazzini and Sembrich." There is virtually no crescendo or diminuendo in her singing, and the portamento is virtually non-existent. Still, her scales are more accurate than Tetrazzini's. In sum. a mixed bag for both singers. Try Galli-Curci instead!

[AulicExclusiva]

Let's not get a little girl with a sweet little wisp of a voice mixed in with the heavyweights, Nate! She might get bruised. Especially when it comes to the trill at the end of Ah! Fores' è lui....

[meltzerboy]

Let's not latch on to Galli-Curci's Achilles' heel! Her Ah, fors e lui is beautifully sung with heavenly piano phrases and without the rather superfluous ornamentation that both Melba and Tetrazzini use at the l'universo phrase. As to the Sempre libera, there is hardly a more agile performance on record and the ornaments are all clean, accurate, and brilliant, though not sung with the abandon of the heavyweights.

[AulicExclusiva]

Superfluous!! Heresy!!!

Next you'll be citing the Toscanini Traviata as a paragon!

[meltzerboy]

For some, Toscanini is a god; for others, his fast tempi are dreadful. I'm in the middle: I think he is a talented conductor, always exciting, always precise, but often too literal in his reading of the score. I prefer conductors such as Furtwangler (who called Toscanini a time beater) and Bruno Walter, both of whom brilliantly interpret the probable intention of the composer and can read into the score and expand the phrases, not just conduct the notes. However, I admire Toscanini's Verdi.

[AulicExclusiva]

Toscanini's Traviata is a travesty. A frog-march without any expressivity or sense. Poor Licia Albanese almost has a stroke just trying to keep up with him—only so he could prove who was boss. I find him sickening.

I love the freedom and rubato of Melba's or Tetrazzini's way with the music, and the beautiful traditional ornamentation one hears on early records. Galli Curci's voice was too light for the part, but her phrasing was often pretty.

[CurzonRoad]

I'll never understand Tosanini, his tempi, his... what?... stubborn resistance to interpretation? At times, with a variable speed control, one can almost manage. For me, Furtwangler is the man!

[AulicExclusiva]

In Italian opera, I prefer real Italians like Serafin or Gui.

Furtängler's Salzburg Otello, however, the one that EMI issued, is light years ahead of Toscanini's much-touted 1947 bullfight. Free of the tone-deaf screaming we often hear in this opera.

[meltzerboy]

And Fritz Reiner followed in Toscanini's footsteps although some who despise Toscanini love Reiner.

[meltzerboy]

I'd have to listen to Toscanini's Traviata again before commenting. Probably it's still better than his Wagner and his Beethoven, especially the Eroica, which really loses expressivity because of the insane tempi.

Although Galli-Curci's voice may be light, she was deemed a very successful Violetta by audiences and most critics. Of course, Melba and Tetrazzini sang the role to great acclaim as well.

[meltzerboy]

Both performances are daring and full of abandon. Tetrazzini's voice recorded better and her performance is more accessible to the modern listener. She turns in a highly dramatic and reckless Sempre libera, and her voice has more color than Melba's (no matter what Aulic says). There is some sloppiness in small details; but, overall, Tetrazzini's is the more appealing version. In the

Ah, fors e lui, the colors of Tet's voice are wonderful, but Melba is better in expressing the Misterioso phrase.

[AulicExclusiva]

So let me get this straight: Tetrazzini's voice has more colour than Melba's, but Melba is better in the misterioso aspect?? Could it be because the COLOUR of her voice is naturally subtler and more veiled, more complex?

I think Melba has a plethora of fascinating colours in her tone. I just cannot resist Tetrazzini's Latin vibrancy, dramatic sense and yes, recklessness! And the tremendous acuti, let us not forget.

[meltzerboy]

In general, Tetrazzini has more tonal colors than Melba. Melba has a superb veiled mezza voce in that particular phrase, but otherwise I maintain she does not have the kaleidoscopic variety and ability to transition suddenly from one shading to another that Tetrazzini has, with her messe di voce, morendi, and so forth. Galli-Curci is also "mysterious" in the misterioso phrase, but in general lacks the changing tonal colors of Tetrazzini.

[hobo1975]

melba has far more colours and a higher quality voice than tetrazzini.melbas voice is purer and more even,with very clear vowel production.

[meltzerboy]

I agree Melba has a higher quality voice than Tetrazzini: it is purer and more even in regard to registers and tone production. But NOT better in terms of colors, and Tetrazzini may be an overall better singer.

[65attila]

Doug - they apparently had no use for each other. I have great respect for both of them.

It took me time to get use to Melba's whiteish tone but now the ease of her producrion and the impeccable legato {CF to her recording of Ave Maria} and immaculate trills win me over.

Tetrazzini has one of the most spectacular upper registers ever and her ability to sing coloratura is phenomenal. The legato and middle voice not so great usually.

Both of these performances are treasures.

Thanks- John

[meltzerboy]

I think Tetrazzini's legato is quite good; only on rare occasion does she chop her phrases. But compared to Melba's legato, it probably falls a little short. Tetrazzini's vocal registers are not as beautifully balanced as Melba's; the glory for Tetrazzini, as you state, is her top.

[Bivolari]

Two very different phenomena! Melba has more voice and a proper Victorian fierceness about her. Tetrazzini has a higher voice and a very Italian joi de vivre about her. But are very capable swinging into each others territory. Both do amazing things with their voices. But, ultimately it's really comparing apples and oranges. Long may they both be remembered.

[transformingArt]

I wasn't aware that Melba recorded this piece as early as 1904....Very interesting. By the way, where did you get the cartoon? Very amusing. Can I ask you to send me the copy of it via email??

Anyway, thanks so much for posting!