La clemenza di Tito Salzburg - Deh, per questo istante solo

[Noiz]

Gloria !

[prosdocimo]

I like Kasarova a lot, specially in Rossini. I respect everyones opinions but I do have to say this is out of style sound too romantic. Too much rubato. Certainly not according to Mozarts intentions or the way this opera was composed. She is very musical thou and has such a great technique

[brodsky96]

1 million STARS for this AUTHENTIC GREAT ARTIST!!!!

[jmahlon]

It is possible to be extremely emotionally involved while respecting the notes on the page. She constantly stretches his melodies, and inserts vowels that don't exist on the page, marring the beauty of what Mozart wrote. He did not want a fermata every other note.

[FelixOcato]

Composers back then, and still now understand that their music wouldn't always be followed to the exact musical notation that they wrote. Especially if they were writing for Operas. In fact, many of them appreciated the way others played and interpreted their music.

The composer wants the musician to give life to his or her music.

She certainly gave life to this piece.

[jmahlon]

She's not only destroying the phrases in the beginning, she is also adding shadow vowels. Additionally Mozart should be sung cleanly, and she feels she knows better than his musical markings. When you think you know better than Mozart you never actually do. His music doesnt play correctly when you add in emtional breaks, and the other crap she does. Good singer slaughtering Mozart.

[Arashi110]

I suppose you believe you know better how to sing Mozart. I wonder what exactly makes you think this way so as to call the interpretation of one of the finest Mozart mezzo-sopranos "slaughtering".

[jmahlon]

If you want to hear this aria sung the way Mozart intended the Teresa Berganza video on YouTube is a good example. Compare the beginning of the aria and how Berganza isnt selfish and keeps the line moving the way Mozart WROTE it, no ugly INSERTED shadow vowels, no showboating. Kasarova allows her emotional commitment take over the phrases and rythms. Its a choice its just not a Mozartian one.

[jmahlon]

What I know is that Mozart knows how he wanted his music sung, and Kasarova ignores his muscial markings, she is attempting to emotionally connect to the music, I believe, however she is not singing what is on the page. When I listen to Mozart I want to hear someone singing him who respects him.

[Arashi110]

You suppose she doesn't respect the composer by making his music sound so alive that it moves practically every listener to tears? Music is LIFE. Emotion. Feeling. The singer's task is not only to sing all the notes correctly but to convey to the listener the message of the music. And Kasarova does it much better than many other technically impeccable singers. When she sings Sesto, I can hear him, his thoughts, his guilt, remorse and love, I can see Sesto as Mozart wrote him.

[jmahlon]

Perhaps if she trusted in the composer it would move everyone, not just the uneducated.

[Arashi110]

By "uneducated" you mean me? I am sure she trusts the composer. She just doesn't think it a crime for the interpreter to add his/her own art and soul to the performance.

[SDCmorg]

I will respect what Mozart thinks about his music, but I am having a hard time mistaking you for him. The Mozart whose letters survive to this day loved dramatically involved singing. The Mozart whose autographed scores survived to this day did not write every details in them because he knew better than to straight-jacket his performers.

So you don't like Kasarova's style. So don't listen to her clips. What's this ego trip in trying to talk down another music lover? Yours isn't the only way!

[lucyliesinashes]

@jmahlon I agree, to an extent, but a lot of that is Harnoncourt and his modernized/romanticized interpretations. Not that Mozart has to be totally free of flexibility, though. Her diction needs work, but it's cleaner in this recording than others. This whole production is very different musically and dramatically, so I'm not surprised to see an experiment like this. I don't think it works, though.

[ligiamonteiro0]

Well, anyways, apart from all that discussion about breaks, she's probably my favourite Sextus. =)

[tenore23]

I love this aria. The tempo is a killer. My problem with her is that she has 2 very distinctive voices. There is the glorious upper middle and a woofy middle bottom. That break drives me nuts.

I will say, this rendition is as close to perfection as it gets. For me the standard is Berganza, and this woman get dangerously close.

[ligiamonteiro0]

I completely agree with you! This is exactly what bugs me about her! I mean, who am I to say anything about any voice, but, she has this break in every song she sings... Apart from that, we can't say that she's a bad mezzosoprano.

[SDCmorg]

Would it sooth the bug to know that the convention of seamless from top-bottom voice didn't appear until the time of Verdi, in the very late 19th Century? And that practically all the famous singers who lived and performed in the bel canto period had 'prominent' register breaks?

[ligiamonteiro0]

Well, not really, cause she's singing like with the break today, not in the old days before Verdi... but, everybody's got a different taste, right?

[SDCmorg]

Everybody has own like or dislike indeed. Though it just seems weird to me how the modern convention of seamless voice being 'right' is applied retroactively to music that were tailormade for singers who didn't have to contend with that sort of requirement. Mozart, after all, didn't compose for voice types, but for specific singers (that's how we deduce what people like Aloysia Lange and others he wrote for were capable of). I don't know why we box ourselves into a conventional box.

[trousermezzo]

Glorious singing and acting!!! Thanks for posting this!

[KatherineXIX]

This is such an awesome, awesome aria. I wasn't even familiar with it until I heard a countertenor sing it at my university, and he did a beautiful job. So does Kasarova, although I'm not sure I like the slow tempo.

[Arashi110]

Oh yes, this is one of my all-time favorite operatic numbers. Though I, too, prefer a bit more brisk tempo like on Kasarova's 'Mozart Arias' CD.

[KatherineXIX]

That's Harnoncourt for ya!

[MBWoland]

Maybe we should all start calling him 'Har'... to rhyme with Kna. ;)

[olympicfreak678]

How much longer is the opera in whole than the normal tempo in whole? The problem is defining normal.

[SDCmorg]

I think this version is a good 15 min longer here than the Drotningholm Court DVD... and a little less than that for the Gardiner CD (with Von Otter). Though... his 2006 performance at Salzburg was even longer! ;o) I'm glad I'm not the solo clarinetist doing the obbligato on Sesto and Vitellia's aria. I'd just die!

[jmahlon]

Her's is not an interpretation but a mutation. I hardly recognize the aria.

[SDCmorg]

I just can't get enough of this clip. ;o) It's too bad her famous floats and pianissimo don't come out better on the DVD... There's nothing like hearing this gal live! :o)

[Arashi110]

*wails* And I may never have this chance in all my life!

[Arashi110]

I love this rendition too but I don't have the guts to re-watch it too often. It's devastatingly heart-breaking. If I were Tito, I'd pardon her in an instant, then hug her and weep. One has to have a heart of stone to not surrender to this plea.

[Kryltoppa]

Oy, ya' never know, matie. Maybe you will one day. She's still only 42. :o)

[olympicfreak678]

It's weird to think that 42 is like 27 in opera years! The one entertainment industry where it is usually better to be old!

[ivissz]

Impressionante! Grande kasarova.

[AddictedToOpera]

Thank you very much for posting this!

Would you have the duet "Come ti piace imponi"? I'd love to watch it! :-)

[SDCmorg]

Buy the DVD, bro. Buy the DVD. It is worth every penny of its retail price... I promise. A fantastic performance by the whole cast!