Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sings Aria from Salammbo - Citizen Kane

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sings "Aria from Salammbo" from "The Score Re-recording of the Classic Film "Citizen Kane (1941)" by Bernard Herrmann" with National Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Gerhardt / conductor, 1974.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• soprano
• opera
• aria
• classical
• diva
• soundtrack
• Citizen
• Kane
• crossover
• Bernard
• Herrmann
• Charles
• Gerhardt
• Orson
• Welles

[thecelticinme]

First time I heard her sing this aria was at her 50th birthday gala and the last high note made me feel dizzy from such power it emanates.

[damekirilover]

She sang in that concert in a lower key......if you compare.

[damekirilover]

Listen to the high note in the very end! I quite love the picture on the magazine cover.......

[mattskib]

It does sound 'patched' if you listen with headphones to the CD. Having worked for a record company I know that this is frequently done - especially with top notes. I'm not saying the top D isn't hers - merely that it doesn't sound like it was recorded all in one 'take' - it may have been in the recording process that one top D was better than another so they patched the better one on to the final version.  Note that at her 50th birthday concert she sang the aria down a semitone.

[Dogsledfan]

Benny Herrmann deliberately wrote it to be "unsingable" for the original star in the movie. Herrmann ought to be heard more in the concert hall. He was a fine conductor in addition to his composing for movies.

[tosherification]

The orchestration is MAGNIFICENT! At 3:29 French Horns....YES! Whatever key Dame Kiri sings this in it's still a thing of beauty that was a joke in the movie! As Susan Alexander says in Citizen kane, "I'm the one who gets the raspberries!"

[Saturninus2]

Clap clap clap...(silence) CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP clap clap clap...(silence)

[Cramnella]

@elchnase Eileen Farrell performed it with Herrmann on radio and leaves out the top not altogether. 

[Cramnella]

@tklogan111809 "Wuthering Heights" was staged last year in Minnesota, and was given in a concert version in France a couple of years ago. The French performance has been released on CD and the full production was filmed for release on DVD.

So. Not forgotten.

[KathrynARyder]

@tklogan111809 - I agree with you about comparing this aria to Strauss - it has clear echos of Strauss' "Salome".

[JJRaff18221882]

@elchnase Yes, I've also heard that Herrmann was hard to get along with. However, his main redeeming feature - aside from his genius for composition - was reviving the music of my namesake in 1970 by conducting Raff's Symphony #5 in E Minor (Lenore) with one of the leading London orchestras. That was the beginning of the Raff Revival. Today ALL 11 of Raff's symphonies and ALL of his concerted works have been recorded. It took awhile, but at least ol' Bernie got the ball rolling.

[elchnase]

Interesting point. Strauss? Massenet? Doesn't matter. It is a good piece never the less. One point about Hermann and his opera: yes ago I conducted a concert in Los Angeles with a youth orchestra(Excellent orchestra) where I shared a podium with Bernard Hermann (we are talking late 1060's here). Part of a festival of concert music by film composerS. I conducted Milkos Rozsa and Korngold, he conducted selections from his opera. Excellent music but what an unpleasant man! Did not like him at all!

[tklogan111809]

@elchnase In fact this is a piece of bad Strauss. I love Herrmann's film music but he wished he could write for the voice like Massenet. Massenet's operas Manon, Werther, Thais are still very relevant and very popular today while Herrmann had to pay out of his own pocket to have his only opera, Wuthering Hights, recorded. It's nowadays completely and deservedly forgotten.

[ClassicPerformances]

@ClassicPerformances mmm actually, the recitative begins if F,,,,and on this recording, as you uploaded it, she does indeed go down a half tone in the main body of the aria. Interesting!

[ClassicPerformances]

@damekirilover You might try listening to that again,....she sings it in the SAME key as here..(F major)

and quite good, indeed!