Duet of l'Africaine "O longue souffrance", by Verrett, Bumbry, Norman

Though l'Africaine by Meyerbeer seems to be a tenor opera because of his famous "O paradis", it requires a very gifted dramatic Falcon, a robust dark voiced dramatic soprano, able to sustain hours of dramatic music and able both to trill and have moving expressiveness.
Here are three valuable Selikas: Shirley Verrett, Grace Bumbry (who sings with Margherita Rinaldi here, sorry for the wrong title), Jessye Norman.
I am looking for the entire opera with Ponselle too.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• L'africaine;
• meyerbeer;
• Selika;
• Verrett;
• Bumbry;
• Norman;
• Ponselle

[StarRaft]

i had never seen that pic of bumbry with domingo before. there's also a pic around that time of her backstage, being greeted by prince charles. the voice was very pliant, flexible and high at the time. do you also have the caballe?

[foropera]

I saw this pic first in a book, maybe on the ROH.

But I founded it on the net very quickly. Caballé is known, and already present here at least.

[StarRaft]

nice montage, foropera. the verrett is interesting because i've always thought she sounded older than she was in 1971, the voice is not as light as sometimes it was for the soprano roles. i love the pictures in the slide show. the javanese man and wife is very apropos considering the confusion in the plot about where selika is really from.

the tempo in the norman selection sounds a bit too fast, no?

btw, do you know that martina arroyo also recorded this role in a studio perf.?

[foropera]

Thank you for your observations StarRaft. Well about the pictures, it 's a melting pot with some clichés too, as people hesitate in the stage costumes and sets: either Bali, or Java, Madagascar, India, etc. About Verrett's voice here, I have answered to you in Private Message.

[TerrancePogue]

And the winner is Bumbry minus her singing sharp on the high notes

[papoocanada]

un opera grandiose........mais on ne le chante plus........et ne comptons pas sur les francais!

[courtneybaritone01]

This is just excellent. All three are great. Shirley Verrett- there's just something about her that's just awesome! Bumbry is of course primo, and this was her first outing with Selika. Norman, has an intensity similar to Verrett. Their commitment to the text is something very unique. Thanks for this!

[StarRaft]

@foropera

bonjour, foropera.

i didn't mean to put verrett down, she is one of my favorite singers of all time. i just meant that from the date 1971, i expected her to sound a bit different. there are many recordings even later, when she sings sopranos roles, in which she sounds much lighter and higher.

is the norman from a studio recording or live performance? as i said, it sounds like the speed is a bit too fast.

thank you for posting this.

[77Opera]

C'est grandiose!!!

[StarRaft]

just wondering, can people tell if it's her, or is the miking/recording?

[diarci]

Thanks for the posting. Good luck with finding Ponselle, tho. She never rcorded an complete operas commercially and only a few air-checks of her Met performances exist. Traviata, Carmen, and excerpts of others. I'm not aware of any L'Africaine recordings at all.

Don

[Chasson0318]

Bumbry's sharpness is annoying