Added: 5 years ago
From: Onegin65
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  • Such a beautiful musician, her expressivity is unmatched! And to be able to sing this aria reclined like that! Such support!

  • One of the truly greats...and often undervalued for her fulll greatness. Miss her! Also a truly fine human being.....

  • God, this is absolutely exquisite singing. She really did have EVERYTHING. Thanks so much for posting it, Onegin65.

  • sin duda, una de las grandes de la centuria, por ejemplo, su Mcbeth con Abbado de deutsche grammophon es una referencia discográfica,

  • She screams SEXUAL ALLURE!!! A tiger on heat. Check out the rack on her. Apart from Isola Jones in the Rigoletto quartet- she has the best assets in opera- not a bad thing! Ahem yes...AMAZING performance! Fantastic

  • i heard in in recital, front row at carnegie hall, she had converted so to speak to soprano and it was a great performanc, but I never really understood why she made the change, If I had to pick a year, I would guess it was around 78. great post. thanks

  • God, I just love EVERYTHING she does with her voice, and her singing, acting, interpretation, artistry, etc.!!! She was truly beautiful -- how can anyone not fall in love w/ her? Her technique and voice is just awesome. I dont' want to hear anyone criticizing her. Tell me of any singer of her caliber nowadays? What a gift to the opera world! Thank you!

  • Her complete Dalila performances were recorded later in her career when her shifts in and out of chest voice were more problematic.  In this clip (in her 1970s prime), her control of the register change is fantasti!. She is not afraid of using chest voice, but manages to moves through the changes without losing any of the vocal line or legato. Many singers are afraid of using chest voice, but Verret is a master class in how to use all of her vocal registers correctly in a bel canto manner.

  • rest in peace.

    

  • every contemporary 'mon coeur' I have heard

    is so clearly pale in comparison;

    flawless beauty, flawless perfection. just to admire

  • Amazing i would love to see in person.

  • Honestly, my favorite singer to this aria was, until now, Marilyn Horne (1979 an 1983 versions, here in You tube). But listening to this, it is impossible to classify Shirley as number one. She has all the sensuality this aria demands: both in the great voice and great body shape and movements. Just a real diva!

  • Wow!

  • Everytime, I'm hearing this interpretation, the Dalila's charm is operating in all my mind and my heart. Like an irresistible whirlwind of shivers and passion which echoes with the call of tendress she's throwing out, with her beautiful voice.

  • A chaque fois, que j'entends cette interprétation, le charme de Dalila émeut tout mon être. Un tourbillon de frissons et de passions répond à cet appel à la tendresse qui est lancé...

  • Isn't this the best? I can't imagine this sung any better..

  • DEA! 

  • Extraordinary interpretation,and her voice is here at the top!

  • All'Opera di Budapest, l'ha cantata Ildikò Komlòsi, il 5 Marzo 2011. Non c'è niente di più bello!!!!

  • Quest'aria è semplicemente meravigliosa!!! 

  • elle est née pour chanter cet air,elle est superbe,merci pour ce souvenir

  • It's just "right" when she sings.

  • Elena Cernei has greater beauty of voice but is too 'pure', Obraztsova has more passion but is a bit 'raw'. Verrett i9s the perfect combination of feeling, artistry, passion and beauty ov voice. Samson didn't have a chance...

  • This clip changed my life. I just can't thank you enough, Onegin65! She really was one of the greats!

    Not to knock today's artists, but nothing can match the smoldering quality of Verrett's voice in this... I played Garanca singing this first to someone who knows very little about opera, and then played Ms Verrett, it was no contest, hands-down, Verrett just lives out the drama, it's so apparent, every core of her being was just shimmering and smoldering in this!

  • @rlee1976 it's a shame Garanca physical beauty doesn't match her vocal beauty. I can't listen to anything she sings without complaining about her lack of emotion. Verrett was one of the few who had everything, looks, technique, vocal beauty, and just the right amount of different colours... though who says physical beauty matters? ;)

  • @dangmills I think Shirley was very sexy in this role and this performance. She was very attractive!

  • Brilliant brilliant singing of a beautiful aria. Deep.

  • Here is the Queen of' Egypt, but better.

    At par with stellar Callas, a quasar she is, a major, major star.

    Talent, dynamics, passion,elegance, volumes of voice, all encompassing stage intelligence. 

    Prejudice? From where? Why?

  • Stunning, and so much at ease. 

  • This is a very sensuous delivery of this aria.

    Very gorgeous.

  • one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard, hands down.

  • She was lovely, absolutely lovely, and stunning, and everything that I would ever want to hear from a classical singer. What a beautiful voice and mark on the face of opera!

  • She is one of the few mezzos I(along with Marilyn Horne) who don't try to overpower the orchestra. She lets Saint-Saens' wonderful accompaniment be heard.

  • An amazing singer! She will be missed!

  • She gives me goosebumps

  • We will miss you! Wow, I am in shock. I did not know she passed away. RIP.

  • All her youtube Dalila excerpts are amazing, but this one, especially with Shirley a few years younger and soaring up to Samson's "Je t'aime" line... it's unbeatable.

  • And to think such beauty can come from someone who started her career rather late, her late 20's, if memory serves me correctly.

  • Oh what a sad day it was when she left us, In every role she sang she excelled. She was the best of the best to ever grace the operatic stage. Thank you, Ms. Verrett!

  • Why.......

  • crying...

  • Brava, Shirley Verrett!

    RIP!

  • beautiful in every way possible, she was a camera-ready tigress, so beautiful and seductive, I am truly saddened to know that i never got to see this woman in person

  • This performance is simply unbeatable! Here was an artist that understood what she was singing always, and studied to have the skills to deliver the message. I am blessed to have heard her Neocle at the Met, and will never forget how she transformed into a man for the entire evening....even the curtain calls (which were many),,, We have lost yet another great person and voice. How lucky we are to have these recording! Rest in Peace!

  • Tribute to one of the most beautiful Dalila from the second half of the 20th century. We miss you yet

  • My heart is truly saddened by the passing of such an iconic figure as Ms. Verrett. Heaven is truly blessed on today!

  • Brava! BEAUTIFUL performance.

  • Descanse en paz querida Maestra, la recordaré toda mi vida con mucho amor, gracias por sus enseñanzas, sus abrazos, su sonrisa y sobre todo SU ARTE!!! LA QUIERO MUCHO!!!

  • Geez I feel like I should stand up and applaude when it ended

  • Il più grande Mezzosoprano nero del secondo Novecento. Voce inquieta per definizione: interpretò quasi tutti i più grandi ruoli di Mezzosoprano, molti celebri ruoli di Soprano, e addirittura due parti di Contralto: quella, temibile, di Ulrica nel Ballo in maschera, e il ruolo minore (del quale dette un'interpretazione magnifica) di Federica nella Luisa Miller, entrambi incisi per la RCA. Rimarrà per sempre nei nostri cuori!

  • @WiseMonkey888 Indeed! I'm devastated. Verrett was an iconic and intensely hot singer, a true artist in every sense of the word. Rest in peace. Awake in glory.

  • @Onegin65 Thanks for all your great Verrett posts over the years.

  • @Onegin65 She had everything: warmth, strength, gentleness and beauty! Im speechless... Many got technique but no heart... She had everything!

  • @FeeTurbule Indeed, she had everything!

  • Good night, my queen.

    Rest in peace.

    Awake in glory.

  • simply amazing.. one of my favorite pieces.. Sing beautifully whereever you are now

  • RIP

  • She will be sorely missed. 

  • RIP Shirley Verrett. You will live on in YouTube land.

  • Shirley Verrett, requiescat in pace.

    

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  • R.I.P. Shirley. I am so sad.

  • @bcom11 I honestly don't know what to do with myself.....this is horrible.......

  • Wait doesn't Sampson make an appearance in this aria?

  • What she did with the tempo is just incredible. She managed the most seductive version I have ever heard of this aria.

  • What a voice!

    There will only be one Shirley Verrett!

    I was lucky to be able to hear here in person 3 times when she was in her prime. What a wonderful experience.

    Check out this figure on this gal! She was working it in more ways than one!

    Ms. Verrett is truly an American Treasure! I just love her for all of the joy she has brought me in my lifetime.

    Thanks for the video!

    Brent

  • ive never heard such line....i dunno what to say...

  • aahh... Daliah was such a dangerous woman... geesh! that voice...

  • Si, si... lleneme... absolutamente fenomenal...

  • Thanks for posting! So beautiful!

  • This how this aria should be sung! ABSOLUTE PERFECTION! The acting is superb; just enough sex, and just enough 'fuck you bastard and tell me what I want to know!' YOU GO SHIRLEY!!!

  • 10 years after this, her register started to go, as can be heard in the 1981 video of the same aria, from San Fransisco. But here, 1971, she is...I can't find words. No mezzo since Verrett has produced such spectacular notes! Only Stignani in the 40s can - possibly - be compared to her. Small wonder they worshipped her at Covent Garden, but it pains me that she was shrugged off in US when she really was in her prime.

  • I wonder how this grand lady escaped my attention. She's superlative in every way. A Diva.

  • Simply magnificent!!!!!!!!!

  • yesssss!!!!!

  • She did a little mistake at the beginning with the first "Verse-moi", she says "Verte".It's easily forgiven because her French diction is impeccable! I really like her rendition of this aria, rich and exotic. She's my second best. The best for me is Maria Callas's.

  • @sweetaliena was it a young maria?

  • @couturesixfour No, the 1961 version she did with the conductor George Prêtre.

  • Simply great!!

  • Belle prestation de la cantatrice SHIRLEY VERRETT , un magnifique air de CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS , beau timbre de voix , merci youtube

  • O mon Dieu!!!!!! que dire...

  • incomparable diction, et que dire de la voix !!!

  • sublime! monumental!! incomparable!!!

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  • Bravoooooooo.....Bravissimoooo­oo!!!

  • Wonderful! No other diva like her. Viva Verrett!

  • Always 100%  She is wonderfull.

  • splendida voce!!!grande verret!!

  • What poise, beauty...a true STAR of the opera stage and one of the greatest singers ever...

  • What a sound. I am speechless... so much meaning in the voice. Speechless. Thanks again Mr. OneGin. Warm and kind regards to you and yours.

  • Great. A real mezzo. Love it. Thanks for posting.

  • Shirley sings so well in this aria...and I thought Jessye Norman had the best recording. She is so seductive and beautiful in this clip.

  • Wow!!! She and Jessie Norman, absolutely best!

  • Mmmm...Shirley, you did it again...that's a fine singing black woman. She made her mark on history, all right. Thanks for posting.

  • Perfect!

  • She can be just marvelous in both soprano and mezzo roles. Beauty, pianissimi, legato, strengh, sensitiveness, chest voice, high notes, interpretation... Thanks god there are only 500 charecters here for this post. I woul be listing 1 million good adjectives to her.

    A Diva (indeed capitalized)

  • Verrett was one of the greats, period. Gorgeous, elegant, extremely gifted in all aspects of music and theatre. This little clip speaks volumes about the color of her voice, not her face. Yes, her legacy is smaller because of prejudice, but any artist who came on the scene after her can eat her shorts, this is true opera royalty (as she is hitting the A). Simply magnificent. She and Vickers are pure golden lava together.

  • Noone beats her in this aria. She is the best Dalila of them all.

  • Impresionante Shirley, maravillosa, no tengo palabras.

  • For me, this IS Dalila. Quelle Magnifiqe!

  • she is HOT

  • Poor Samson - one look at this beautiful woman and he would have given her the hair clippers and then her voice !!!!!

  • No rendition equals Verett's rendition of "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix". What class, what elegance, what an actess and what a singer !!! She definitely is Dalila personifed. I don't think anybody can even top that performance...

  • Absolute perfection! This is a singing lesson in control. I only wish I could have seen her appear live more often!  BRAVA DIVA!

  • Oh she is divine!

  • 2:46-3:08 ahhhh

  • me encanto su interpretacion una voz epica sobre todoel final

  • You probably mean the quartet from Verdi's Rigolertto.

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  • i mean a version like this:) in my school they are going to perform with for voices and a piano that's why i'm asking

    cheers again

  • fantastic!!!! you should also hear the callas singing this it is also pretty good:)

    by the way does anyone know this song that is sang by 4 voices(bas, tenor, alto, soprano all together)?

    cheers

  • Oh my God! I have to rave again , what a fantastic, spectacular , glorious voice, so incredible rich and full of warmth and the most amazingly beautiful overtones. Onegin65 thankyou for this. Have Dalila ever been sung like this? She is a miracle.

  • She is fantastic! What a wonderful glorious 'warm' and rich voice. Horne and Obra are colder and shriller. Sadly in the next decade her two registers falls apart. But in this earlier version she is second to none.

  • Awesome! Thrilling! Yikes!

  • О,Боже!!!!Вот это красавица....!!!!Я в вострге!!!Очень красивая!Само совершенство!!!!!!

  • I love her so much she is also one of my mentors i wish one day i can work with her she is amazing LOVE YOU VERRETT

  • The most alluring Dalila of all with her seductive and beautiful voice.

  • Fa venegas quien es popi?

  • Maravilloso video, que voz, que técnica y que sensualidad...Me siento profundamente conmovida y orgullosa pues tuve la fortuna de ser su alumna en POPI 2003, donde presentó su autobiografía la cual tengo autografiada...Gracias Shirley por tu voz y por compartirnos tus increibles vivencias!

  • As cek111 commented, I cannot stop the tears. This woman just tears my heart out. Have you heard her Favorita with  Alfredo Kraus? If not, it needs to be next on your list.

  • YES MA'AM!

    What she's sellin', I'm buyin' again and again. Period.

  • So aptly put. Made me laugh. I'm the next customer!

  • I have been watching all these BBC Telecast clips of Verrett, Caballe, etc. Thank you BBC for capturing these wonderful artists in their absolute prime. Verrett's singing here is just so breathtaking.

  • what the fuck shirley verrett, do you really have to be perfect and make all of us pee our pants at the very sound of your voice? jeez, quit being so amazing.

  • Seriously! She is so good in these clips it kind of takes your breath away and almost makes you uneasey. How is it fricking POSSIBLE for someone to be this stunningly good. I swoon for this woman.

  • @JuillHope17

    Metropolitan opera theatre is proud to give you "Shirley Verrett singing Dalila"

    Gentlemen are asked to dress corporate suites and highly suggested to wear condoms before of the performance".

  • I can't stop crying.

  • If there is the magic - this is it's purest form

    I'never heard anything like this before...

  • just lovely!

  • Awesome!

  • GEIL!!!

  • Una delle arie più belle in assoluto dell'Opera cantata da una delle più belle, brave e simpatiche dive

  • A magic fusion between music and sensuality. Extraordinary voice: BRAVA!

  • Да... Это просто восхитительно! Нет слов...

    Веррет - лучшая Далила.По-настоящему обольстительный глубокий и бархатный голос плюс потрясающая внешность. Brava!!!!!!!!!

  • The best version of this. Thank you Shirley!

  • Great chest voice..............

  • WOW! WOW! WOW!

  • I wonder who got the idiot idea of such a setting and costume: either you do a real scene (with the tenor as well) or you leave all that aside and give Ms Verret a beautiful evening dress to match her superb looks and magnificent singing: she's actress enough not to need all that kitsch to give us the image of sensuos Dalida

  • But don't those extras transport you almost like a movie? And what a high note!!!

  • This is Delilah. Beautiful!

  • great singing and beatiful scenography, looks like William Godward paintings =)

  • omg

  • Creamy delight for the ears! Shirley you are a STAR!!!

  • Scenografia e costume datati:Verrett elegantissima.Versione memorabile, ma la mia preferita resta quella della Callas, che aveva una sfumatura ferina...

  • How could someone write such a beautiful melody? And of all the versions I've heard of this aria, I'd say this is the best one. The darkness and richness of her voice are absolutely natural.

  • I agree... the melody is so intoxicating, and the orchestration too. Verrett really does excellently here.

  • My GOD, such a stunning performance!

    She's beautiful, extraordinarily talented and just look at the elegance of her moves(for lack of a better word)!!!

    Perfection!!

  • I agree. Shirley Verrett at her finest, both vocally and physically.

  • Brava!

  • Dayum. She vocally popped dat coochie! Sexiest.Dalila.Evah.

    Mz. Beyonce needs watch this and take some notes. Nawty!

  • OMG, I watched this again- she KILLS me at 1:31. You betta walk, b*tch!

  • Why you gotta call her that? C'mon, man...this woman did so much to command the respect of the world at a time when a black woman wasn't considered to be much. She leaves a shining example, and the only name you got for her is the b-word? Man, you are so sick. It makes us all wonder if we're really going anywhere sometimes.

  • KaminaOne, you are absolutely correct. Ms Verrett is one of the greatest divas to ever grace the operatic stage.  And, she was well knowned and enormously HAILED and CHEERED for her Delilah! Pity on Wotanman!!

  • Brilliant!

  • Awesome! This woman is the greatest. I love the way she takes her time and sets up the last few notes. What a Diva!

  • Merci à l'internaute qui a mis cette vidéo en ligne ! Tout simplement fabuleux. Tout est là, sensualité, beauté des registres, bref un vrai bonheur. Wahouuuuuuu

  • Wow!!!

  • She has a beautiful voice!

  • If you want a baritone listen to Obrastzova, so...

  • Mezzo or soprano? Wer'are slow and deep notes? Musically charming.

  • AMAZING! Great timbre, line and gorgeous high notes. She is my favorite Black opera mezzo!

  • i'm right there with you on your feelings about Ms Verrett. Heard here live a number of times - "knocked "em dead in teh aisles every time!" CHeck out here ULRICA in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" - THE BEST!

  • Black? Why do you feel the need to categorise her?

  • The fact that a black mezzo soprano became a opera superstar is important for the following reason: Black opera singers have a harder time making it than their white peers.

  • Now, that's what I'm talking about!

  • Just great!!!

  • She has a magnificent voice for dalila, and the looks to match it.