EDITA GRUBEROVA - Grossmächtige Prinzessin (Live) Ariadne auf Naxos

Richard Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos.
Zerbinetta; Grossmächtige Prinzessin.
Bayerischen Rundfunks, Lamberto Gardelli, dirigent.
München, 1983.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Richard Strauss
• Ariadne auf Naxos
• Edita Gruberova
• Zerbinetta
• Grossmächtige Prinzessin

[pedrofribeiro]

@pedrofribeiro I prefer rounder staccatti rather than a thin, but that's a matter of taste.

Light staccatti is MUCH easier to do, that's why they're usually light. Singer's choice.

The concept of staccatti "a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence." Does not emply that it must be light, actually, if it's a detached note, it must be rich, and round just like a leggato note, instead of thin and lighter. The note must not loose richness and become colorless.

[pedrofribeiro]

@thomastmwc There's no crack, I've listened to it several times, send it to friends, and installed a program that shows the pitch spectrum of an audio file, so I could check it. There's no crack.

The staccatti scale she does, can be considered by some scholars(Viardot, Lehmann, Tosi) as chromatic, 'cause it spans 2 whole tones.

Regarding "light" in the weight sense, she doesn't do it in a heavy way, just makes it louder, a bigger and rounder staccatti, instead of thin and piercing.

[pedrofribeiro]

@thomastmwc She's a bit labouring in everything she does, but I love her voice... hheheh

Grubi scoops the note, which is VERY bad technique, in the classic repertoire. And she also does every high note in pianissimo, which is pretty annoying(at least to me).

Your welcome, reading scores is very interesting, it's almost like a hobbie. =P

[thomastmwc]

@pedrofribeiro I shouldn't say she's off-pitch, sorry, but there's a crack, I swear I can hear it :P

A chromatic scale? Where?? (I know what chromatic scale means)

Wow, you know a lot!!! You're an opera historian, buff!!!

"light" not as in the volume, buy like "heavy" vs "light", sorry :P

Staccati are usually light, aren't they? Some heavy ones I can think of are those in die walküre, Esclarmonde, d'oreste d'ajace, but in this aria, I feel like the staccati are meant to be light.

[thomastmwc]

@pedrofribeiro Dessay is a bit labouring, don't you think so? She just throws out the sound sound by sound, while Gruby is so fluid in doing this (in other clips, since this part isn't present in this clip)

Thanks for letting me know how the original score is like :D

[pedrofribeiro]

@thomastmwc The version Grubi did in her prime, is the 1912(with 2 F#6), and the version Battle did that night was the 1916 version(with 2 E6) but half-a-step higher(with 2 F6) to follow the conductor's will. It was the only time she did it that way(higher).

At 11:04, she followed the score, the high D is a legatto note, she attacked it in a legatto manner. Unlike Grubi, who scoops the hell out of it(as she does everywhere), but Dessay, at least in here, watch?v=rHNvypH4a7I, does it right.

[pedrofribeiro]

@thomastmwc At 08:26 she's absolutely not off-pitch. She does the perfect chromatic scale, but half-a-step higher(up to F), as she did the whole aria(the sustained note at 10:25 is also an F6). That night at the ROH, the conductor Jeffrey Tate, asked her to do Zerbinetta's monologue a little higher(but not the 1912 version), to show-off high F's, so, she did it.

In the score, the written staccatti aren't pianissimo, so they must be done in normal volume, not in the lighter way Grubi does.

[thomastmwc]

@pedrofribeiro oh ya haha, I did refer to the other link.

No way, 08:26 she's off-pitch, let's be honest... and as a side note, the staccatti aren't light

Being effortless / labouring is pretty subjective, I should have noticed this haha. But she didn't do the whole step shift (is there a pro term for this?) at 11:04 like Gruby / Dessay / etc did. Not sure if this is written in the score, but...

:D

[pedrofribeiro]

@thomastmwc I'm sorry, that link only has 7:52... If you're refering to the other one, at 08:26 she does a rapid-fire perfect staccatti(up to F6) and at 11:04 she sustains an effortless D6.

Were you stating her astonishing performance? hehehehe

You're very kind too, it's nice to argue with polite people.

[thomastmwc]

@pedrofribeiro

/watch?v=p5Vsb62ShJY (08:26 that's what I was saying :P also 11:04 - 11 a bit labouring)