The "Son vergin vezzosa" Contest - Montserrat Caballe

Bellini wrote so many absolutely irresistible arias that it is very difficult to choose the best one. Many will remember the genius "Casta Diva", the gentle Amina arias "Come per me sereno" and "Ah! non credea mirati", the glorious "A te, o cara"... The list goes on and on. But one aria stands out in the list of Bellini's arias: the quite delightful polonaise aria for Elvira from "I Puritani" "Son vergin vezzosa", a gentle piece, almost Rossinian in its peaceful happiness. One of my all time favorite arias, "Son vergin vezzosa" can be a boring showpiece in the hands of an average singer, but an imaginative artist can work magic with it. This "contest" includes renditions from the following singers: the sublime Amelita Galli-Curci, the virtuosic Beverly Sills, the silver-voiced Joan Sutherland, the wonderful Lucia Aliberti, the intelligent Mariella Devia, the powerful Montserrat Caballe, the high-flying Mado Robin, the artistic Maria Callas and the exquisite Sumi Jo. I do hope you enjoy this contest (the system is the same: the marks range from 1 to 5; there are two categories: singing/characterization; so your mark (+ comment :-) ) should look like this: (*/*))! Also, if you have the time, listen to all the versions, I think it's interesting to compare them all to see what makes each rendition so special. Thank you all in advance for your comments and opinions :-) !

P.S. I'm using this opportunity to say that I have come across some new versions of "Una voce poco fa" for the Youtubers to savour, I hope that I will be able to put them up as soon as possible.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Amelita
• Galli-Curci
• Beverly
• Sills
• Joan
• Sutherland
• I
• Puritani
• Mariella
• Devia
• Montserrat
• Caballe
• Maria
• Callas
• Bellini

[andrecueca]

she never did that...show me the record and i´m sure i can show you that some crazy callas maniac twisted around a nice complement caballe said about callas...they were friends and callas said that only caballe could continue what she had started and it shows they respected each other...stop haunting every soprano in the world with callas ghost

[cetusra]

How easy to write criticisms....how diificult to be able to actually perform these works.

[7441338norman]

the phone rang i should not have posted { this a contest] i should have wrote .

{this is a contest !} sorry for the error .

[7441338norman]

{4/5} with great warmth charm as a spinto , should do. only the trills . i marked the voice a{ 4 }this a contest .

[Dianaemanuel]

Yes, I find it a bit flat without the high note. I do appreciate that many of them were never included in the score. However, that's part of the fun of opera isn't it? Sutherland and Callas understood how to give the audience 'value for money' so they usually interpolated them. How thrilling to hear they are too! I adore Caballe's voice but I do wish in this case she'd 'go for broke'! And ficfan there's no need to be silly. Life's too short for nastiness about such things! :-)

[flicfan416]

@Dianaemanuel Boring without the high note? The high note isn't even in the score. And if you think that one detail makes this entire performance boring, I suggest you stop listening to bel canto

[Dianaemanuel]

Caballe is such a wonderful singer - but why doesn't she include the thrilling high note at the end? It's so boring without it.

[minkoss]

@cetusra I absolutely agree!

[RoOodOoOloOmeg]

I think this is the first time I listen to Caballe to produce a real trill on 1:30 or something like that.

That's something new

[liguten]

Merci pour cet air magistralement interprété. Montserrat est vraiment unique et ses capacités vocales sont exceptionnelles. BRAVISSIMA

[leprincebeaumont]

Orrenda!



[kgarmaker123]

I have conflicted opinioins about this version . Some is pretty, but definitely not Bellini, while the high stuff, is pushed at times.. and is not pretty/ sort of screamy.

I am always puzzled why she never had an upper extension, as.. those High B's when not pushed sound easy and it would seem there would be notes above them.. I do not think she had great training.