Renée Fleming Ombra mai fu

It's OK but all on the surface I don't hear the counter tenor imitation (i wish people would put dates of these performances)

I think the recitative should be done with it Bartoli on her new CD is nice but strangely leaves it out

Ferrier is of course great but there is Baker

I think of one who does not fail the comparison the inimitable Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

there is depth and intensity even in praise of a tree even soulfullness LHL has it and gives it that

I like it

Sorry Fleming fans - this is poor. I'm sure a soprano can do justice to the song but the little attempts to mimic a counter-tenor just sound wrong. It's perhaps unfortunate but every singer attempting this is compared to Ferrier and all fail.

This was quite awful and I generally think she is so wonderful

she could have had trouble learning this, i know i am!

i love her hair jajaja

lol!!!!

um.... i'm not sure who was on stage, but I don't think it was the real Fleming....
Granted this wasn't written for a soprano, but this was unusually bad.
I know she's sung much much better both before and after this performance. maybe she was sick. everyone has their off days.

it's not written for soprano? i have a version i'm singing written for soprano...that's odd

Well the original score was written for a castrato (for Xerxes in Handel's opera Xerxes), and most of those roles now are played by mezzo sopranos, because try as they did, most men, even without testicles, can't reach the high C range.

However this is such a popular aria (the aria its self has it's own wikipedia page) that it has been transposed into every vocal range out there. (off to the right is bass Dmitri Hvorostovsky singing it) so a soprano version is definitely available too.