100 Greatest Singers: CLAUDIA MUZIO

THIS PROJECT IS RESERVED ONLY FOR THE GREATEST! Please comment Claudia Muzio! Claudia Muzio, Soprano (1889-1936)

Giuseppe Verdi - La Traviata
Addio del passato
(Recorded 1934)

My personal opinion: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, always an intelligent and courageous woman, about herself: "Meine Stimme war nichts besonderes! (My voice wasn´t something special!)". Nevertheless she became a world class singer. It was the famous italian singing teacher Lamperti who said: "If you have magnetism, the world is yours!" Schwarzkopf had magnetism, as well as italian born soprano Claudia Muzio, whose voice wasn´t exceptional at all. "She sang with her very own voice", wrote Giacomo Lauri-Volpi in one of his books. It is a real treat to experience Muzio on records. She hadn´t the brilliance and agility of Sembrich or Melba, but strong verve, intensity and intimaty. She succeeded to show the psychological drama behind the figure. Her singing was acting. Therefore she was a modern singer. Many critics affronted her strange phrasing and imprecise articulation. She came to Scala in season 1913/14, but success came not until 1929, the rank of a first primadonna never came. In London she made effect alongside Caruso in "Tosca", in 1916 she entered the Met-stage - again with Caruso. Irving Kolodin wrote in his Met-chronicles, Muzio always was inspiring, sometimes even exciting - but she never coulnd´t win the audience´s love like Bori or Farrar. With the rise of Rosa Ponselle, Muzio became sick of Metropolitan. She contracted with Chicago. She knew her own limits and relinquished Norma to Rosa Raisa. But she made great impression as Violetta, most likely her best role. In Southamerica she became a superstar. Again Lauri-Volpi: "I had great luck, to sing with the most sweetest of all Leonoras (Trovatore), with Claudia Muzio". But she always returned to Violetta. Eva Turner: "Simply unforgettable! Muzio was Traviata in the true sense of the word, but - an indication for technical problems - she recorded only the last aria, not the great scene with the coloratur finale". My opinion: Claudia Muzio was a great verismo singer, probably with a second-class voice, but a first-class theatrical stage presence, pathetic timbré and moving expression. Her recitative to "Addio del passato" is a mixture of art and Kitsch, but that´s the way all great stage heroines died... I believe, today she would be in the first row!

THE COMPLETE OVERVIEW: GO TO "ALL SINGERS IN THIS LIST"

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Claudia
• Muzio
• Giuseppe
• Verdi
• La
• Traviata
• Addio
• del
• passato
• Rosa
• Ponsella
• Maria
• Callas

[mrrk]

How on earth you can say "probably with a second-class voice"?

God of only there were more "second-class" voices like this today.

She was unique.

[100Singers]

Often sentiments encouraged discussions, I don´t want to provoke. As you can read, Muzio was critically reviewed by famous contemporaries, and Lauri-Volpi and Turner were no uneducated people. The fact is, I really can hear what the mean, but nevertheless I appreciate Muzio. So I choosed her. I believe, it´s my duty to bring up not only one side of a great singer. A second-class Muzio is much better than a first-class x of today!

[petrina1022]

1930's-style histrionics aside, Muzio is a singer who used her voice to express human suffering like no other. She definitely deserves to be in the Top 100.

[flon5flon]

I am a bit puzzled about the word "kitsch" in the intro. If Muzio had any "kitsch" in her singing, than "Let's call the whole thing off" about operasinging. To me she was one of the purest performers, whether in Mefistofile or Bianca e Fernando, Traviata or her songs. How to judge the other singers than? Superkitsch? Opera is a magnifying glass of real life composed for theatres without amplifiers and lit with candlelight. I love to comment on all the singers but I don't. But this hurts!

[raigekimaru]

she sounds like Callas! =)

[Piacevole]

She freaks me out with that talking. I feel she wants to stab me with a knife.

[ian1856]

@paulostroff99 I realize that. Have heard a great deal from a close friend who knew her quite well. Ponselle and Muzio would be phenomenal at any point in history. We're so fortunate these recordings are around.

[paulostroff99]

@ian1856 -Callas had great respect for the voices of Ponselle and Muzio-period,when it came to the females.

[paulostroff99]

One of if not the best soprano of the 2oth. century.

[paulostroff99]

@mrrk -well said.

[PascualG65]

Great? She sounds truly great to me! Please, hear her at 2:20.

[ian1856]

When I read some of the comments, all I can think of is Callas's famous remark: "They don't know what they're hearing." Muzio was phenomenal...and way ahead of her time.

[happywealthyme]

I like it...