"Such loveliness is in immortal souls" Her voice with many others -Isobel Baillie's for one - is forever ringing in Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music possibly the greratest music ever written.
@trschaefer Have you heard Ralph Vaughan Williams's original version of 'The Serenade to Music' . Eva Turner sings in this tribute to Sir Henry Woods's jubilee. Isobel Baillie steals the thunder though! Just like her!!!!
Seriously this is the greatest music ever. R.V.W.'s 9th symphony runs it close - 5th, Tudor portraits
Eva Turner was the definitive Turandot but Birgit Nilsson became the definitive Turandot ! With all respect for Eva Turner ! Nilsson is outstanding in this role !!
Holy Cow, She is fantastic. Can you imagine what she would sound like with our current recording devices!! Great, maybe the best Turandot I have ever heard. And there are several I love.
The Lyrico Spintos at the Metropolitan should listen to Eva Turner, a genuine Dramatic Soprano, who did not contrive to make a big tone since her voice projected naturally
@Dymension Explain please the difference between Italian dramatics and German dramatics if you can extricate your head from your rectum. BTW for us ignoramuses tessitura means the range within which voices fall (OED) German voices have a different range from Italian voices? MM Ok I accept shrieky falsetto tenor Italian might not have Germanic equals. T.G. You fail to find beauty in a voice like Eva Turner's. You are to be pitied. Lark song is quite nice!
@ronneesam First of all leave out the hate. True German dramatic voices have a different tessitura, not range, than an Italian dramatic. The comment was about Kirsten Flagstad! Turner's interpretation is superb!
Apologies to any who are offended... but those who call this In questa reggia overrated or less-than-remarkable have absolutely no understanding of what constitutes good singing.
@MsNewguy Well, some people don't get Niagara falls either. If you don't hear the greatness you don't hear it. Some say that Caruso is a joke , some listen for hours and still claim that he was a bad singer. Caruso was quite clearly the greatest opera tenor we have ever heard. That doesn't make him the best Radames or the best Cavaradossi of course. Listen to Dame Eva as she lifts the tone from lower to middle and up to the high voice, she is not the greatest soprano ever, but she is great.
@dracher Again as I wrote, Turner is an over-rated Turandot. The emission is not smooth with some glaring bumps, both in the articulation and the legato. And the voice, while big, is not strong and concentrated enough in the top register to hit home the sadistic, almost degenerate nature of the blood thirsty Chinese princess.
@mannail888 Over rated? how and by how much? for whom? What spoils her rating? what do you dislike about her singing or her voice or her characterisation?
What principles are you using to judge her rating? Why do you hit and run without explaining yourself?
The characteriztion, while abundant, is apt for those extremely tragical figures who are inflicted by misfortune, adversity, grief... you name it. In other words: fit for the two Leonoras, Elektra, Cecilia and Imogene but is not particularly suited to the haughty, sadistic Chinese princess.
I must agree: Dame Turner is stunning. I've trained counted singers for this aria over the past 22 years, and am completely aware of the spectrums not captured in this ancient recording. It is expressive and just lovely.
fat Caruso could never have hit Calaf's High C's . He told Puccini that Che Gelida Manina was too high for him and the aria had to be lowered ½ a tone.
Not half as good as she have always been trumpted to be by the Brits through the years. Though, in all honesty, she is a tad less dreadful than the Swiss glacier.
@mannail888 who/what is the swiss glacier? i suppose you are refering to a singer you deem as cold, but i cant think of any swiss singer right now, so cut to the chase and spill the name would ya. thanks
@SiEtIn1 That Swiss glacier used to sing with Corelli both on stage and in the recording studio a lot of times, despite the fact their professional relationship had ups and downs.
@mannail888 oh i see.. was that swiss glacier by any chance swedish perhaps? would you say that swiss glacier sang brunhilde always, often, seldom, or never?
remember that Turner was Puccini's first choice to sing the premier of Turandot - it was "politics" at La Scala that dictated an Italian sang it ... Turner [I think I am right] sang at the 2nd night ...
Friend: I fear you are not correct. Ettore Panniza heard her in London in 1924 and encouraged her to audition for Toscanini in Milan. Toscanini thought highly of her, and she sang Freia and Seglinde under his baton at La Scala in the 1924/5 season. Puccini had then just recently died.
Eva first sang Turandot at Brescia and Trieste to great acclaim in 1927, and then at Covent Garden in 1928. Did she ever sing it at La Scala? Perhaps: but her Times obituary makes no such claim.
@lhrlyc it's hard to say that "politics" at La Scala dictated an Italian sang Turandot at the premiere: Rosa Raisa was not Italian at all, she was a Polish Jew, born in Bialystok as Roza Bursztejn [Burchsztein].
Dissent, maybe. I think Turner's sound is more feminine than Nilsson and like it better for this role. I never heard it before. I have heard Nilsson, Sutherland,Ricciarelli, Guleghina (sp); like this lady.
I still consider the 1973 Met live version (Nilsson,, Corelli, Moffo, Giaiotti, Stokowski) to take the prize. Only Nilsson has ever had the complete facility with ever note of this area. She called it her "Vacation" role (in truth this remark was made to tease Franco Corelli, her male lead and vocal 'sparring partner"
Greg...I agree! I havent heard that Met performance but I own the 1960 something studio recording on CD with Nilsson & Corelli and it's sensational. Whenever Nilsson and Corelli sang Turandot together, it was marvelous. Nilson is by far the best. I see nothing especially brilliant about Eva Turner. She sounds underpowered.
Great performance also. I hope you get to hear the Met live version. Stokowski did his usual re-orchestration, but a great conductor. There was another performance fof Turandot with Nilsson & the incredible luxury of Leontyne Price as Liu (I believe it was Vienna, early 60s). I really am fond of Eva Turner's recordings, but I kind of think that some artists came off well in acoustical recordings and others not as well. No-has topped Nilsson in this role....someday maybe.
Certainly not. It's always a matter of personal tastes and preference. My heart prefers Nilsson. I never saw either Eva or Nilsson sing this live since I'm very young but my ears & heart prefer Nilsson. They also love Dimitrova and Callas' Turandots. I like my Turandots to be monstrously huge and goddess-like.
her technique is unmatched, and the sheer sound she produced from being such a tiny little lady is amazing. although rosa raisa was the very first turandot, i think dame turner will be remembered as the original - as she should be.
A ermarkable woman. An amazing recording, especially for the period! It is no wonder why Puccini chose Dame Eva to premier the role. She is Turandot! No singers like that running around today!
This recording was actually made in Westminster Hall in London along with some other arias and is one of the best examples of Dame Eva's voice. It was recorded with a single mike suspended high in the hall. The recording of Aida referred to placing Dame Eva at the back of the stage behind the chorus was made in Italy some years prior to this Turandot.
She told me there's a pirated recording done by a man holding a mic back behind the curtain. She was a great lady. She did the first English translation of Turandot for the premier @ Covent Garden. I didn't ask if it was only Turandot's words or the entire opera. She wanted it to be just right.
In fact, there are five extant recordings of Eva's 'In questa regia': the first made in Milan and the second in London, both in 1928. There are two live versions from Covent Garden conducted by Barbirolli and recorded by Walter Legge in 1937, and a BBC broadcast made during the early part of WW2, once issued by EJ Smith.
I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and work with Dame Eva. The glide (slide)she does in this aria is a style and it is not easy to do,especially on pitch as she does. She was know for being able to do this. I believe this recording was done at the opera house and she told me they had her move behind the chorus and orchestra to the the back of the stage because she had such a powerful sound.
she was brilliant and I'm so blessed to have known her.
Да пусть они лопнут и треснут все певицы,которые пытаются петь Турандот!!!!!!НИКОГДА ИМ НЕ СПЕТЬ ЛУЧШЕ ЕВЫ ТЕРНЕР!!!!НЕВЕРОЯТНО!КАК ЧЕЛОВЕК ВООБЩЕ МОЖЕТ ПРОИЗВОДИТЬ ТАКИЕ ЗВУКИ!!!НЕТ СЛОВ,ОДНИ ЭМОЦИИ!!!!!!!
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I don't understand why everyone is getting so excited over this performance. Turner's pitch is all over the place!!! Scooping & sliding left & right - how can you say that's good interpretation and/or singing? The finest Turandot performances in my opinion are Eva Marton - MetOpera Gala 1983 - Eva Marton - Vienna State Opera 1983, and Marton again MetOpera 1988. Her performances are so incredibly intelligent, musical, and riveting. I feel she was the "definitive" Turandot.
My God, what a magnificent singer! And that voice...it seems impossible that that little English lady could produce such sound. This speaks to an absolutely impeccable technique and a truly grand sense of soaring High Romantic style. I think I have heard them all--I have never heard this recording equaled. For those who have not seen it, see her interview with Placido Domingo, at an (extremely) advanced age. Brava!!
No arguments there, my friend! They are both stunning! I suppose for me it all comes down to style and times. There is more of the ice princess in Nilsson's steely germanic voice and style, moderated ever so slightly in the Farrell version, which is a little more emotional if not quite the virtuoso rendiiton of Nilsson's. I think what I am so taken by in the Turner version is the high romanticism of the age, even with the melodrama and scooping attacks:) She dates to the era. Hard to choose!
They weren't captured right in 1964 either, Nilsson describes how despite Deccas enormous new sound equipment it was still, 'three steps back' for her when singing loud and high notes!
Given the age of the recording, though, and how much things from that period get clipped and altered... this must have been an AMAZING instrument in person.
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The definite Turandot? Well, no. Others have already remarked on her mistakes. I think she sounds lifeless - although I know that she is supposed to be an 'iceprincess'. But maybe one is so used to Nilssons, Martons and Jones Turandots,so that one needs to listen - and getting used to - Turners singing.
Since I don't like the 'too-emotional' Te Kanawa and Carreras, but prefer the 'neutral-golden-notes' singing of Flagstad, Turner ought to appeal to me. Maybe she will, in time.
EVERYTHING EVERYONE HAS SAID ABOUT HER SOLID RINGING TOP NOTES IS TRUE! THIS WOMAN WAS AMAZING...MAKES THOSE C'S SOUND SO FULL AND NATURAL...THEY DON'T SOUND FORCED AT ALL! God, I'd like to study with someone who is a descendant of her teacher!
I think Eva Turner totally embodies the character! Her voice suits arias perfectly. It's impossible to say something wrong to say something negative about her on Turandot!
I love that she sings the tenor's part in concert, and that she passed on the idea to her student Gwyneth Jones. But please sing the text... even if it's in a high range.
An amusing little anecdote concerning this great artist. An elderly friend, a scientist, had the good fortune to attend a concert given by Eva Turner. He said. "I sat in the front row and Miss Turner opened her mouth so wide and sang so loudly that I began to get worried." On hearing her fine rendition of this aria one can understand why.
All you vultures picking at this N' that!Go to your shower and grab that shampoo bottle and see how well you sing it.What a bunch of dry yentas! VIVA EVA!!!
The definitive Turandot! Hearing her vulnerability in the role, I can understand how Calaf could fall in love with Turandot. I actually met her in 1956. Hired to teach a year by the University of Oklahoma, she moved into a duplex as we moved out. For a refrigerator she had bought one of those old things with the coils on top. She brushed aside students' protests with "it's all right, dear; anything to keep the beer cold."
Eva Turner, 1892-1990, she was 36 on this recording, in a 1937 BBC recording at age 45 the voice had weakened so badly there were no high C's anymore, and she still sang heavy parts at Covent Garden untill 1948. Still I like her dark voice, one of the great singers of the first half of the 20th century.
It is apparent that if someone tells you that you are a dramatic voice.. RUN.. becuase those voices never last.. They belt it out so much that they screw up their cords.
Eva turner had a long and successful career as a dramatic soprano, as did her student Rita hunter. There have been many lyric, and lighter voices that have been ruined by EGO, ie: wishing they were dramatic. Callas is a prime example of this. By her own admission her natural voice was a lyric soprano. It was her nature which was dramatic.
Yes very true, and the HALLMARK sign of this, is.. they eventually develop wobbles, that comes from pushing.. singing too big.. and Turner's student Gwenyth Jones is a perfect example of that.. She needed to sing with her natural voice, not kill us with a manufactured wall of sound.
@Ahdren Hahahaha. That is the best joke I've heard about Callas in decades. EGO ruin her? When you introduce the public to a new way of singing through revolutionizing the art of interpretation (47 roles in 12 years) not to mention sing with the soul of a Stradivarius, I don't believe there is a molecule of space left for ego. She was too busy giving, only to be accused of egotism. If you listen to her final performance of "Ah perfido" you will hear a voice completely restored to its luster.
nice high Cs, but she actually skips the words in the last high tonality sentences (just like caballe and sutherland sing them without consonants!!!) because they cannot articulate in high tessitura - when a singer is forced on any occasion to sacrifice words for tonality it means the role isnt cut for his/her voice
Everyone has an opinion, it just doesn't mean that opinion is well informed!
She is one of the world's greatest turandots ever. Period. If turner, caballe and sutherland can't sing then I want to hear more sopranos who cant sing.
Agreed that Turandot was not a great fit for Caballe or Sutherland (though the Mehta recording is damn near the best available), but disagreed on articulation in the high register. IMO, an audience member is lucky to get anything other than "ah" above the secondo passaggio :P
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
neither callas, nor nilsson, nor inge borkh swallowed consonants or blurred vowels in Turandot. Sutherland and Caballe both had enormous articulation problems especially consonants disappearance in their voices (not just the high register)I wont discuss further this Tina Turner here... just because she comes from the depths of past does not mean she is good :))
You are so full of hot air you could send yourself up in a balloon. I hope you do and never return with such ill formed opinions. Can you even sing one note? Please add an audio response of one of your great arias. I would LOVE to hear your tonality. HA!
"If Caruso hadn't passed away so tragically early, one could have premiered this opera at the MET with him as Kalaf, Turner as Turandot, Ponselle as Liu and Mardones as Timur!"
You can be sure that the premiere at the MET had a tenor much better for this role than Caruso. In 1926, Lauri-Volpi was superb. :)
What a glorious reaization of this magnificent aria !!! Puccini challenges the very limits of the human voice with In Questa Reggia, and it has proven to be beyond the reach of virtually every soprano that has attempted it. Most renditions are strained and fall short of the full scope ... not this one. Thanks for posting this treasure !!
God, have I waited to hear this voice. Brilliant, most definitely deserving of the very highest praise. Tough call, between the two Nilsson and the Sutherland..
This woman is magnificent and live probably was something tottally out of this world but yes her vibrato i some parts is mor a capetrino(goat-like)nobody is perfect !!!
but there r persons who r more close to perfections than others Eva Turner is one of those
I have a book on Prima Donnas that suggests that Gertrud Grob-Prandl had a bigger voice than either Turner or Nilsson and according to Irmgard Seefried made the walls shake when she sang Turandot. That's a voice I would love to have heard. I saw Nilsson, Suliotis, Gwyneth Jones and Callas, Sutherland and wish I'd heard Tebaldi which a friend said was deafening. The voice that hurt my eardrums was Joan Carlysle - a spinto who sang at Covent Garden in the sixties and whose top notes were amazing.
I actually have a Turandot with Grob-Prandl live from Fenice(at least I think it's from there). I can't get to it right now, because I'm not home, but I'll post her singing in the future. What I remember is a very large voice, but with a somewhat wobbly support. Not as dead-on secure on the pitches as Turner is.
The sopranos today are nonsense. They haven't the vaguest understanding about the production of the human voice.Instead of singing with the natural voice, they attempt to manufacture it louder by making it hooty and covered. This is the way to sing with brilliant tone.
All I can say " What a Voice"! The last true dramatic soprano I heard was Zinka Milanov the rest were forced lyric sopranos. It has to have a certain "tam" to the voice to be true dramatic. This is greatest and easiest produced voice I have ever heard.
She was the FIRST Turandot! One of the GREATEST voices of all time. They say that her voice was even bigger than Nilsson's.Such incredibly clean & beautiful singing.She said that she just continued to vocalize and year after year it just grew bigger and bigger.Not from FORCE~the way all dramatics(if there are any left)try to grow their voices today.I have recordings of her doing this and she definitely does the C's.She's not singing out of tune,there is a problem with this recording.
Good lord, this is an absolutely amazing recording. I have never listened to Ms Turner prior to this - how I have missed out. Interesting point you make about her vocal growth. The B natural(?) at 3.25 is effortless but such a huge sound. You certainly don't hear voices like this today. If you consider the technical equipment used at this time, what would this have sounded like with today's technology?
You are absolutely correct Dame Eva was not only the greatest Turandot, but the Greatest dramatic soprano of the 20th Century.
But she was not the first Turandot. It was Rosa Raisa. Dame Eva told me that Franco Alfano, who had completed Puccini's work, came told Eva that she was the one whom Puccini would have wanted in this part. It was only 8 months later that Eva gave her first performance.
Turner's recording is even more amazing considering that the single microphone is stationed at the top of the hall so one is hearing what it would sound like in the bacony.
You drove me crazy with your dreamed cast Turner-Ponselle-Caruso-Mardones. A luxury alternative would have been with Nazareno De Angelis too, whom I adore. But I know that Ponselle admired Mardones' voice. So... And YES, Eva Turner is the greatest Turandot ever. I've never heard so easy, flute-like, not glottally attacked high Cs... Only the unwellknown Irina Gordei made me think of Turner once.
This aria is half step lowered. My piano shows the high notes as high B natural. Is the recording slow? There is a lowering or a problem with the recording starting at principessa Lou Ling. It does a strange ptich change.
I love the color and the amplitude of this voice. Lower or not, it is a formidable reading of this difficult aria.
the final highest note is a high c, perfectly taken. I always felt their were other high c's in this piece. Perhaps they are B naturals. Either way, very interesting.
Color is really wodnerful and she is totally at ease in this. Brava.
There are 5 recordings of her singing this. The first was recorded in Italy months before the English recording. There are 2 live from Covent Garden in 1937, and 1 live BBC 1938, which is my favorite.
This is Turner's 2nd recording of the piece from 17 July 1928, recorded in England. It is not lowered, but rather, Dame Eva sings very out of tune at "Principessa Lo-u-ling." There are 3 B naturals and one C in this piece. She sings Calaf's line also in this recording.
Really fine. However it is disappointing how she slurs over the words before the last high c.
OperaLovingGay2 6 months ago
fantastic! And I learned about her existance only last week because the review in Opera News of a book about her.
batmanmd1 6 months ago
Me too! Fantastic voice.
JeeRant 6 months ago
Perhaps my favorite Turandot
baritonebynight 6 months ago
"Such loveliness is in immortal souls" Her voice with many others -Isobel Baillie's for one - is forever ringing in Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music possibly the greratest music ever written.
ronneesam 7 months ago in playlist Оперные арии
One of the most beautiful voices to ever sing this role!!!
trschaefer 7 months ago
@trschaefer Have you heard Ralph Vaughan Williams's original version of 'The Serenade to Music' . Eva Turner sings in this tribute to Sir Henry Woods's jubilee. Isobel Baillie steals the thunder though! Just like her!!!!
Seriously this is the greatest music ever. R.V.W.'s 9th symphony runs it close - 5th, Tudor portraits
ronneesam 7 months ago in playlist Оперные арии
if you like the QUIVERING type!!! I really don t! sorry!
miuzefreak 9 months ago
@miuzefreak What type do you like? Static? Immobile? Unmoving? Dead? Do enlighten us. There's room for the necrophiliac in all societies.
ronneesam 7 months ago in playlist Оперные арии
Great singer, but not a good teacher by a long chalk.
Buondelmonte123 9 months ago
Turner, Nilsson, Jones, Callas - where are you???!!!
raaadja99 11 months ago
Eva Turner was the definitive Turandot but Birgit Nilsson became the definitive Turandot ! With all respect for Eva Turner ! Nilsson is outstanding in this role !!
nedingen 11 months ago
SUBLIME !!!
31122051 1 year ago
Holy Cow, She is fantastic. Can you imagine what she would sound like with our current recording devices!! Great, maybe the best Turandot I have ever heard. And there are several I love.
spizzell1 1 year ago
The Lyrico Spintos at the Metropolitan should listen to Eva Turner, a genuine Dramatic Soprano, who did not contrive to make a big tone since her voice projected naturally
MrSkylark1 1 year ago
She is Puccinis Turandot. I love her Tourandot recording with Giovanni Martinelli.
uglug0815 1 year ago
another very talented turandot...
MissUndercoverful 1 year ago
Many of the sopranos who sang this role and featured on youtube wer actually coached in Turandot by Dame Eva, such was her fame in this part.
Tenortalker 1 year ago
Very good singing by Turner, but Birgit Nilsson was clearly better!
Of course Kirsten Flagstad also was better!
But to be the number 3 in a competitive world of singing is fantastic!!
Kudos to Eva Turner!
maxhansendk 1 year ago
@maxhansendk Flagstad, as far as I can tell, NEVER sang Turandot.
imyjr333 1 year ago
@imyjr333 I would imagine the tessitura wouldn't be right for her. Italian dramatics are very different than German dramatics...
Dymension 9 months ago
@Dymension Explain please the difference between Italian dramatics and German dramatics if you can extricate your head from your rectum. BTW for us ignoramuses tessitura means the range within which voices fall (OED) German voices have a different range from Italian voices? MM Ok I accept shrieky falsetto tenor Italian might not have Germanic equals. T.G. You fail to find beauty in a voice like Eva Turner's. You are to be pitied. Lark song is quite nice!
ronneesam 7 months ago in playlist Оперные арии
@ronneesam First of all leave out the hate. True German dramatic voices have a different tessitura, not range, than an Italian dramatic. The comment was about Kirsten Flagstad! Turner's interpretation is superb!
Dymension 7 months ago
absolutely the greatest! Eva Turner the very best!
dasterpol 1 year ago 3
Apologies to any who are offended... but those who call this In questa reggia overrated or less-than-remarkable have absolutely no understanding of what constitutes good singing.
VivaMariaCallas 1 year ago
@VivaMariaCallas Yor'are probably speaking of yourself, sweetie.
mannail888 1 year ago
I still think it's crap
MsNewguy 1 year ago
What happened? It keeps bouncing my comment.
mannail888 1 year ago
Remarkable!!!
TreblesBasses 1 year ago
I still don't understand why this is supposed to be so good - I agree with mannail888 - very very over-rated indeed!
MsNewguy 1 year ago
@MsNewguy Well, some people don't get Niagara falls either. If you don't hear the greatness you don't hear it. Some say that Caruso is a joke , some listen for hours and still claim that he was a bad singer. Caruso was quite clearly the greatest opera tenor we have ever heard. That doesn't make him the best Radames or the best Cavaradossi of course. Listen to Dame Eva as she lifts the tone from lower to middle and up to the high voice, she is not the greatest soprano ever, but she is great.
dracher 1 year ago
@dracher Again as I wrote, Turner is an over-rated Turandot. The emission is not smooth with some glaring bumps, both in the articulation and the legato. And the voice, while big, is not strong and concentrated enough in the top register to hit home the sadistic, almost degenerate nature of the blood thirsty Chinese princess.
mannail888 1 year ago
Over-rated.
mannail888 1 year ago
@mannail888 Over rated? how and by how much? for whom? What spoils her rating? what do you dislike about her singing or her voice or her characterisation?
What principles are you using to judge her rating? Why do you hit and run without explaining yourself?
dracher 1 year ago
The characteriztion, while abundant, is apt for those extremely tragical figures who are inflicted by misfortune, adversity, grief... you name it. In other words: fit for the two Leonoras, Elektra, Cecilia and Imogene but is not particularly suited to the haughty, sadistic Chinese princess.
mannail888 1 year ago
@dracher But I have to admit that Turner is definitely preferable to that Swiss glacier, period.
mannail888 1 year ago
I must agree: Dame Turner is stunning. I've trained counted singers for this aria over the past 22 years, and am completely aware of the spectrums not captured in this ancient recording. It is expressive and just lovely.
VocalEdgeTV 1 year ago
fat Caruso could never have hit Calaf's High C's . He told Puccini that Che Gelida Manina was too high for him and the aria had to be lowered ½ a tone.
papoocanada 1 year ago
I understand why she is so loved, but I do not share the same sentiments. I find her vibrato to be off putting, and rather irritating to be honest.
tenor220 1 year ago
You don't have ears.
mannail888 1 year ago
Not half as good as she have always been trumpted to be by the Brits through the years. Though, in all honesty, she is a tad less dreadful than the Swiss glacier.
mannail888 1 year ago
@mannail888 Swiss glacier?
tenor220 1 year ago
@mannail888 who/what is the swiss glacier? i suppose you are refering to a singer you deem as cold, but i cant think of any swiss singer right now, so cut to the chase and spill the name would ya. thanks
SiEtIn1 1 year ago
Do you really not know? Or is it that you're trying to play a little game with me?
mannail888 1 year ago
@mannail888 no game, i really really dont know
SiEtIn1 1 year ago
@SiEtIn1 That Swiss glacier used to sing with Corelli both on stage and in the recording studio a lot of times, despite the fact their professional relationship had ups and downs.
mannail888 1 year ago
@mannail888 oh i see.. was that swiss glacier by any chance swedish perhaps? would you say that swiss glacier sang brunhilde always, often, seldom, or never?
SiEtIn1 1 year ago
Yeah, Wagner was a usual diet for that Swiss glacier.
mannail888 1 year ago
Thank you for sharing! Amazing!
MiniManu11 1 year ago
Thats one bloody voice! Super!
TheWisemonkey8 2 years ago
Абсолютно лучшая Турандот!!!!!
muzetta100 2 years ago
Eva Turner's singing have something of the time's ardor and style.
In this opera, Nilsson was like the Berlin Wall, Eva, like
a mountain.
fabrizzzio48 2 years ago 6
remember that Turner was Puccini's first choice to sing the premier of Turandot - it was "politics" at La Scala that dictated an Italian sang it ... Turner [I think I am right] sang at the 2nd night ...
lhrlyc 2 years ago
@lhrlyc
Friend: I fear you are not correct. Ettore Panniza heard her in London in 1924 and encouraged her to audition for Toscanini in Milan. Toscanini thought highly of her, and she sang Freia and Seglinde under his baton at La Scala in the 1924/5 season. Puccini had then just recently died.
Eva first sang Turandot at Brescia and Trieste to great acclaim in 1927, and then at Covent Garden in 1928. Did she ever sing it at La Scala? Perhaps: but her Times obituary makes no such claim.
saltburner2 1 year ago
@saltburner2 ... apologies if I am wrong, my info came from a BBC documentary ... usually reliable
lhrlyc 1 year ago
@lhrlyc it's hard to say that "politics" at La Scala dictated an Italian sang Turandot at the premiere: Rosa Raisa was not Italian at all, she was a Polish Jew, born in Bialystok as Roza Bursztejn [Burchsztein].
octavian1960 1 year ago
Dissent, maybe. I think Turner's sound is more feminine than Nilsson and like it better for this role. I never heard it before. I have heard Nilsson, Sutherland,Ricciarelli, Guleghina (sp); like this lady.
tennispro4408 2 years ago
@tennispro4408 ! Have to agree.
Patriciad50 2 years ago
I still consider the 1973 Met live version (Nilsson,, Corelli, Moffo, Giaiotti, Stokowski) to take the prize. Only Nilsson has ever had the complete facility with ever note of this area. She called it her "Vacation" role (in truth this remark was made to tease Franco Corelli, her male lead and vocal 'sparring partner"
Greg07623 2 years ago
Greg...I agree! I havent heard that Met performance but I own the 1960 something studio recording on CD with Nilsson & Corelli and it's sensational. Whenever Nilsson and Corelli sang Turandot together, it was marvelous. Nilson is by far the best. I see nothing especially brilliant about Eva Turner. She sounds underpowered.
MastersoftheOpera 2 years ago
Great performance also. I hope you get to hear the Met live version. Stokowski did his usual re-orchestration, but a great conductor. There was another performance fof Turandot with Nilsson & the incredible luxury of Leontyne Price as Liu (I believe it was Vienna, early 60s). I really am fond of Eva Turner's recordings, but I kind of think that some artists came off well in acoustical recordings and others not as well. No-has topped Nilsson in this role....someday maybe.
Greg07623 2 years ago
@MastersoftheOpera
If your ears are not plugged, maybe it's your heart.
fabrizzzio48 2 years ago
Certainly not. It's always a matter of personal tastes and preference. My heart prefers Nilsson. I never saw either Eva or Nilsson sing this live since I'm very young but my ears & heart prefer Nilsson. They also love Dimitrova and Callas' Turandots. I like my Turandots to be monstrously huge and goddess-like.
MastersoftheOpera 2 years ago
@MastersoftheOpera
"I see nothing especially brilliant about Eva Turner." "She sounds underpowered."
This is a pretty unfair opinion. And does not enlighten one at all, neither about Eva Turner's singing or Nilsson's singing.
They're different.
But, you're not only asserting a preference, you're demeaning Turner's talent and accomplishment.
That's a whole different ballgame.
Your preferences are yours, but her career, voice and talent was hers.
Don't mix one with the other.
fabrizzzio48 2 years ago
This is wonderful and thank you very much for posting it.
Greg07623 2 years ago
her technique is unmatched, and the sheer sound she produced from being such a tiny little lady is amazing. although rosa raisa was the very first turandot, i think dame turner will be remembered as the original - as she should be.
spdrunner 2 years ago
With one word! Amazing!
darksuccubus 2 years ago
A ermarkable woman. An amazing recording, especially for the period! It is no wonder why Puccini chose Dame Eva to premier the role. She is Turandot! No singers like that running around today!
Lauritz1 2 years ago
This recording was actually made in Westminster Hall in London along with some other arias and is one of the best examples of Dame Eva's voice. It was recorded with a single mike suspended high in the hall. The recording of Aida referred to placing Dame Eva at the back of the stage behind the chorus was made in Italy some years prior to this Turandot.
arthurbartow 2 years ago
She told me there's a pirated recording done by a man holding a mic back behind the curtain. She was a great lady. She did the first English translation of Turandot for the premier @ Covent Garden. I didn't ask if it was only Turandot's words or the entire opera. She wanted it to be just right.
psmith2026 2 years ago
@psmith2026
In fact, there are five extant recordings of Eva's 'In questa regia': the first made in Milan and the second in London, both in 1928. There are two live versions from Covent Garden conducted by Barbirolli and recorded by Walter Legge in 1937, and a BBC broadcast made during the early part of WW2, once issued by EJ Smith.
saltburner2 1 year ago
I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and work with Dame Eva. The glide (slide)she does in this aria is a style and it is not easy to do,especially on pitch as she does. She was know for being able to do this. I believe this recording was done at the opera house and she told me they had her move behind the chorus and orchestra to the the back of the stage because she had such a powerful sound.
she was brilliant and I'm so blessed to have known her.
psmith2026 2 years ago
I agree somewhat with MsNewguy... there is something slippery about her voice, and it does seem to slide around a bit.
But I do wonder about the technology: a 78 RPM (even the LPs) must be absolutely dead center or we get some drifting on the sustained notes.
Either way, the result is very powerful... I can live with a bit of vocal "sliding around" in this case.
This was my father's favourite version... I do think it is very compelling (but her diction is a bit dodgy at 5:11).
RickM5199 2 years ago
I think the sliding around bit is correctly termed portamenti, and it's a legitimate expressive device if used correctly.
diuscorvus 2 years ago
Да пусть они лопнут и треснут все певицы,которые пытаются петь Турандот!!!!!!НИКОГДА ИМ НЕ СПЕТЬ ЛУЧШЕ ЕВЫ ТЕРНЕР!!!!НЕВЕРОЯТНО!КАК ЧЕЛОВЕК ВООБЩЕ МОЖЕТ ПРОИЗВОДИТЬ ТАКИЕ ЗВУКИ!!!НЕТ СЛОВ,ОДНИ ЭМОЦИИ!!!!!!!
muzetta100 2 years ago
Не,это лучшая Турандот.Никто не сможет меня переубедить.
muzetta100 2 years ago
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muzetta100 2 years ago
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I don't understand why everyone is getting so excited over this performance. Turner's pitch is all over the place!!! Scooping & sliding left & right - how can you say that's good interpretation and/or singing? The finest Turandot performances in my opinion are Eva Marton - MetOpera Gala 1983 - Eva Marton - Vienna State Opera 1983, and Marton again MetOpera 1988. Her performances are so incredibly intelligent, musical, and riveting. I feel she was the "definitive" Turandot.
MsNewguy 2 years ago
Marton was recorded in an age when technology could capture the voice far better, the sound here is somewhat distorted not the voice.
Plowrightclips 2 years ago 4
Жаль нет машины времени......
muzetta100 2 years ago
My God, what a magnificent singer! And that voice...it seems impossible that that little English lady could produce such sound. This speaks to an absolutely impeccable technique and a truly grand sense of soaring High Romantic style. I think I have heard them all--I have never heard this recording equaled. For those who have not seen it, see her interview with Placido Domingo, at an (extremely) advanced age. Brava!!
EdmundStAustell 2 years ago
Turner's rendition of this grueling aria is no doubt magnificent. But try also Nilsson and Farrell, both superb.
meltzerboy 2 years ago
No arguments there, my friend! They are both stunning! I suppose for me it all comes down to style and times. There is more of the ice princess in Nilsson's steely germanic voice and style, moderated ever so slightly in the Farrell version, which is a little more emotional if not quite the virtuoso rendiiton of Nilsson's. I think what I am so taken by in the Turner version is the high romanticism of the age, even with the melodrama and scooping attacks:) She dates to the era. Hard to choose!
EdmundStAustell 2 years ago
My favorite Turandot of all time! Thanks for posting!
baritonebynight 2 years ago
They weren't captured right in 1964 either, Nilsson describes how despite Deccas enormous new sound equipment it was still, 'three steps back' for her when singing loud and high notes!
mozzrt 2 years ago
mozzrt, I think that state continues to this day. I've never been remotely satisfied by Decca's recording quality of operatic voices.
hiyadroogs 2 years ago
precious! we are all grateful to have at least a glimpse of what had existed prior to our generation...if i could travel through time...
symyu 2 years ago 3
WOW, and to think that what i just heard was 'not captured authentically'...could have sounded much more explosive? :]
symyu 2 years ago
Bad breathing wasn't heard, so it couldbe advantages too. Gedda states that the voices sounded better than they were, contrary to general belief.
mozzrt 2 years ago
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callas can do better in this aria
tripleaxell 2 years ago
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No she can't.
mariagalvany 2 years ago
Given the age of the recording, though, and how much things from that period get clipped and altered... this must have been an AMAZING instrument in person.
The recorded sound loses so much.
Caredhel 2 years ago
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The definite Turandot? Well, no. Others have already remarked on her mistakes. I think she sounds lifeless - although I know that she is supposed to be an 'iceprincess'. But maybe one is so used to Nilssons, Martons and Jones Turandots,so that one needs to listen - and getting used to - Turners singing.
Since I don't like the 'too-emotional' Te Kanawa and Carreras, but prefer the 'neutral-golden-notes' singing of Flagstad, Turner ought to appeal to me. Maybe she will, in time.
mozzrt 2 years ago
EVERYTHING EVERYONE HAS SAID ABOUT HER SOLID RINGING TOP NOTES IS TRUE! THIS WOMAN WAS AMAZING...MAKES THOSE C'S SOUND SO FULL AND NATURAL...THEY DON'T SOUND FORCED AT ALL! God, I'd like to study with someone who is a descendant of her teacher!
rlee1976 3 years ago 8
Outstanding! Thanks for posting.
SPTN58 3 years ago 2
Wonderful, can somebody post the 'live' 1937 version from Covent garden with Giovanni Martinelli - believe it or not it is even better than this one!
MCHEATH 3 years ago
I think Eva Turner totally embodies the character! Her voice suits arias perfectly. It's impossible to say something wrong to say something negative about her on Turandot!
yodavidnavarro 3 years ago 2
Straordinaria! Voce d'acciaio con una nota di struggente e femminile fragilità!
tamburmaggiore 3 years ago
The placement of that voice ist fantastic.
saiserieht 3 years ago 5
I love that she sings the tenor's part in concert, and that she passed on the idea to her student Gwyneth Jones. But please sing the text... even if it's in a high range.
Chrysothemis 3 years ago
An amusing little anecdote concerning this great artist. An elderly friend, a scientist, had the good fortune to attend a concert given by Eva Turner. He said. "I sat in the front row and Miss Turner opened her mouth so wide and sang so loudly that I began to get worried." On hearing her fine rendition of this aria one can understand why.
Ivanhoe2 3 years ago
I like het voice
atomkraftteddy 3 years ago
One of the most stunning displays of sheer vocalism ever!
stefakamelpash 3 years ago 3
All you vultures picking at this N' that!Go to your shower and grab that shampoo bottle and see how well you sing it.What a bunch of dry yentas! VIVA EVA!!!
qbendanny1 3 years ago 3
The definitive Turandot! Hearing her vulnerability in the role, I can understand how Calaf could fall in love with Turandot. I actually met her in 1956. Hired to teach a year by the University of Oklahoma, she moved into a duplex as we moved out. For a refrigerator she had bought one of those old things with the coils on top. She brushed aside students' protests with "it's all right, dear; anything to keep the beer cold."
kaldunia32 3 years ago 2
Eva Turner, 1892-1990, she was 36 on this recording, in a 1937 BBC recording at age 45 the voice had weakened so badly there were no high C's anymore, and she still sang heavy parts at Covent Garden untill 1948. Still I like her dark voice, one of the great singers of the first half of the 20th century.
jozefsterkens 3 years ago
It is apparent that if someone tells you that you are a dramatic voice.. RUN.. becuase those voices never last.. They belt it out so much that they screw up their cords.
kgarmaker123 2 years ago
Eva turner had a long and successful career as a dramatic soprano, as did her student Rita hunter. There have been many lyric, and lighter voices that have been ruined by EGO, ie: wishing they were dramatic. Callas is a prime example of this. By her own admission her natural voice was a lyric soprano. It was her nature which was dramatic.
Ahdren 2 years ago
Yes very true, and the HALLMARK sign of this, is.. they eventually develop wobbles, that comes from pushing.. singing too big.. and Turner's student Gwenyth Jones is a perfect example of that.. She needed to sing with her natural voice, not kill us with a manufactured wall of sound.
kgarmaker123 2 years ago
@Ahdren Hahahaha. That is the best joke I've heard about Callas in decades. EGO ruin her? When you introduce the public to a new way of singing through revolutionizing the art of interpretation (47 roles in 12 years) not to mention sing with the soul of a Stradivarius, I don't believe there is a molecule of space left for ego. She was too busy giving, only to be accused of egotism. If you listen to her final performance of "Ah perfido" you will hear a voice completely restored to its luster.
sillyboydeux 2 years ago
Eccezionale interprete della classe di una volta canta col cuore, qualità che oggi è difficile trovare.Grazie del video.
macciboma 3 years ago
Those that can do - those that can't bitch about this note and that. Listen and enjoy if you don't like, go elsewhere!
dongbat777 3 years ago 3
nice high Cs, but she actually skips the words in the last high tonality sentences (just like caballe and sutherland sing them without consonants!!!) because they cannot articulate in high tessitura - when a singer is forced on any occasion to sacrifice words for tonality it means the role isnt cut for his/her voice
Lohengrin 3 years ago
Hahaha!
Everyone has an opinion, it just doesn't mean that opinion is well informed!
She is one of the world's greatest turandots ever. Period. If turner, caballe and sutherland can't sing then I want to hear more sopranos who cant sing.
operafan60 3 years ago 2
Agreed that Turandot was not a great fit for Caballe or Sutherland (though the Mehta recording is damn near the best available), but disagreed on articulation in the high register. IMO, an audience member is lucky to get anything other than "ah" above the secondo passaggio :P
33blueberries 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
neither callas, nor nilsson, nor inge borkh swallowed consonants or blurred vowels in Turandot. Sutherland and Caballe both had enormous articulation problems especially consonants disappearance in their voices (not just the high register)I wont discuss further this Tina Turner here... just because she comes from the depths of past does not mean she is good :))
Lohengrin 3 years ago
Ignoremus
MCHEATH 3 years ago 2
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hiyadroogs 2 years ago
You are so full of hot air you could send yourself up in a balloon. I hope you do and never return with such ill formed opinions. Can you even sing one note? Please add an audio response of one of your great arias. I would LOVE to hear your tonality. HA!
HappyHounde 3 years ago
"If Caruso hadn't passed away so tragically early, one could have premiered this opera at the MET with him as Kalaf, Turner as Turandot, Ponselle as Liu and Mardones as Timur!"
You can be sure that the premiere at the MET had a tenor much better for this role than Caruso. In 1926, Lauri-Volpi was superb. :)
TrovadorManrique 3 years ago
Out of this world...
TrovadorManrique 3 years ago 3
What a glorious reaization of this magnificent aria !!! Puccini challenges the very limits of the human voice with In Questa Reggia, and it has proven to be beyond the reach of virtually every soprano that has attempted it. Most renditions are strained and fall short of the full scope ... not this one. Thanks for posting this treasure !!
damnthatissocool 3 years ago 3
She's hot.
TrishMissBitch 3 years ago
God, have I waited to hear this voice. Brilliant, most definitely deserving of the very highest praise. Tough call, between the two Nilsson and the Sutherland..
33blueberries 3 years ago 2
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i cant see how u think this is the best turandot. birgit nilsson was far better..
eva is off key several times throughout the recording! her vibrato is a bit goat-like in places...
la nilsson > eva turner
manwithemeraldeyes 3 years ago
This woman is magnificent and live probably was something tottally out of this world but yes her vibrato i some parts is mor a capetrino(goat-like)nobody is perfect !!!
but there r persons who r more close to perfections than others Eva Turner is one of those
Heartlessiceboy 3 years ago
I agree with you about it
franbardi 3 years ago
P.S. I love Turner.
milizakorjus 4 years ago 3
I love Miliza Korjus! (And Eva Turner) See my comments below. I wish people knew their scores better before they talk about high notes.
melbapatti 4 years ago
I have a book on Prima Donnas that suggests that Gertrud Grob-Prandl had a bigger voice than either Turner or Nilsson and according to Irmgard Seefried made the walls shake when she sang Turandot. That's a voice I would love to have heard. I saw Nilsson, Suliotis, Gwyneth Jones and Callas, Sutherland and wish I'd heard Tebaldi which a friend said was deafening. The voice that hurt my eardrums was Joan Carlysle - a spinto who sang at Covent Garden in the sixties and whose top notes were amazing.
milizakorjus 4 years ago
I actually have a Turandot with Grob-Prandl live from Fenice(at least I think it's from there). I can't get to it right now, because I'm not home, but I'll post her singing in the future. What I remember is a very large voice, but with a somewhat wobbly support. Not as dead-on secure on the pitches as Turner is.
primobaritono 4 years ago
You can distinguish every word up to the top of the register. This is marvellous singing!
chanteur73 4 years ago 2
whe was this performance happened?... ^_^
oPeRa1923 4 years ago
She had such a powerful voice ! The ideal Turandot for sure !
Johnny1206 4 years ago
The sopranos today are nonsense. They haven't the vaguest understanding about the production of the human voice.Instead of singing with the natural voice, they attempt to manufacture it louder by making it hooty and covered. This is the way to sing with brilliant tone.
796824 4 years ago 9
AMEN TO THAT
nohpiano 4 years ago
I love her those high notes just wonderul not force that high C was so clear just wonderful.
MAPIAKALLAS 4 years ago
All I can say " What a Voice"! The last true dramatic soprano I heard was Zinka Milanov the rest were forced lyric sopranos. It has to have a certain "tam" to the voice to be true dramatic. This is greatest and easiest produced voice I have ever heard.
1919ann 4 years ago
She was the FIRST Turandot! One of the GREATEST voices of all time. They say that her voice was even bigger than Nilsson's.Such incredibly clean & beautiful singing.She said that she just continued to vocalize and year after year it just grew bigger and bigger.Not from FORCE~the way all dramatics(if there are any left)try to grow their voices today.I have recordings of her doing this and she definitely does the C's.She's not singing out of tune,there is a problem with this recording.
geddafan1 4 years ago
Good lord, this is an absolutely amazing recording. I have never listened to Ms Turner prior to this - how I have missed out. Interesting point you make about her vocal growth. The B natural(?) at 3.25 is effortless but such a huge sound. You certainly don't hear voices like this today. If you consider the technical equipment used at this time, what would this have sounded like with today's technology?
Otellogv 4 years ago
You are absolutely correct Dame Eva was not only the greatest Turandot, but the Greatest dramatic soprano of the 20th Century.
But she was not the first Turandot. It was Rosa Raisa. Dame Eva told me that Franco Alfano, who had completed Puccini's work, came told Eva that she was the one whom Puccini would have wanted in this part. It was only 8 months later that Eva gave her first performance.
vcsorgan 4 years ago
She was NOT the first Turandot... I'm confused by your statement that she was.
urgrad03 4 years ago 2
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The definitive Turandot? I'm not impressed.
Laeliapurpurata 4 years ago
Turner's recording is even more amazing considering that the single microphone is stationed at the top of the hall so one is hearing what it would sound like in the bacony.
bartowjr 4 years ago 2
You drove me crazy with your dreamed cast Turner-Ponselle-Caruso-Mardones. A luxury alternative would have been with Nazareno De Angelis too, whom I adore. But I know that Ponselle admired Mardones' voice. So... And YES, Eva Turner is the greatest Turandot ever. I've never heard so easy, flute-like, not glottally attacked high Cs... Only the unwellknown Irina Gordei made me think of Turner once.
PonselleLover 4 years ago
This aria is half step lowered. My piano shows the high notes as high B natural. Is the recording slow? There is a lowering or a problem with the recording starting at principessa Lou Ling. It does a strange ptich change.
I love the color and the amplitude of this voice. Lower or not, it is a formidable reading of this difficult aria.
EnriqueCross 4 years ago 3
the final highest note is a high c, perfectly taken. I always felt their were other high c's in this piece. Perhaps they are B naturals. Either way, very interesting.
Color is really wodnerful and she is totally at ease in this. Brava.
EnriqueCross 4 years ago
There are 5 recordings of her singing this. The first was recorded in Italy months before the English recording. There are 2 live from Covent Garden in 1937, and 1 live BBC 1938, which is my favorite.
melbapatti 4 years ago
This is Turner's 2nd recording of the piece from 17 July 1928, recorded in England. It is not lowered, but rather, Dame Eva sings very out of tune at "Principessa Lo-u-ling." There are 3 B naturals and one C in this piece. She sings Calaf's line also in this recording.
melbapatti 4 years ago 2