Sigrid Onegin in Mozart's Exultate Jubilate (Aleluja)

I used to think 3 octave voices had to be uneven by default with chesty low, weak middle and squally high notes...until I heard Onegin. She was a rare coloratura contralto who had a seamless, beautiful voice from top to bottom.

To be born with a multi octave voice is one thing but to master it and unify all your registers into one even voice is art.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Sigrid
• Onegin
• Mozart
• contralto
• Aleluja
• Exultate
• Jubilate

[HM0880]

Wow, she really slo-o-o-w-s down for the runs in the second half, which is certainly not endorsed by modern performance standards, but this is still a wonderful performance! Your description of the not-so-great three-octave voice is funny... and accurate. :) Onegin's voice is marvelously even and full throughout her range; truly a pleasure to hear. Thank you for posting. :)

[joanabanyeres]

l don't think she should have sung this aria for light soprano.

En effect the high c is a bit strange, poor and probably difficult in her time to be recorded. But, let me listen to her voice in Wagner, she is marvelous.

[Greatheil]

heavy rubato (as well as the sliding) was a typical performance practice during this period.

[goldenageofsong]

Another (and maybe the most important) reason she breaks the last line is that the recording engineer had her turn away from the microphone so that her strong high note would not destroy the master cut. If you listen closely, you can hear the reverb of the studio walls changing as she turns back shortly before she goes down to the last note.

[joanabanyeres]

Strange the way she does the second part, with rallentandos. Sublime, voice strangely done in the high register. Also the last note with long sound. She breaks the text and she takes a very big fiato.

l may be think that she changes register..

[TheOneAndOnlyJoellyn]

Plus, pitch wasn't standardized in Mozart's time (good news for anyone wishing to be the Queen of the Night!), so ideally, the notated key would only be a guide for the people of today, who do standardize pitch. Furthermore, pitch wasn't internationally standardized until 1939. Onegin died shortly after that. All of this being said, in her time, nobody cared, and transposition at the drop of a hat was common among singers (notably Caruso).

[TheOneAndOnlyJoellyn]

Actually, it is. I have absolute pitch.

It may just be the fidelity of the recording, but it's doubtful. As a 3-octave vocalist whose voice is most comfortable in lower keys, this sounds similar to how my voice sounds singing it in Eb, not in the original key of F. There is no strain until the very end, and she sings with a fullness characteristic of a heavy voice in a flat key. That tone wouldn't translate if a recording was transposed.

[Spiceofmadrid]

*singing..... not seeing. sorry!

[Spiceofmadrid]

No it isn't. If it was a full step down, she'd be seeing in her lowest register.

[meltzerboy]

As your notes state, Onegin was a rare coloratura contralto, who had a seamless three-octave range from top to bottom.

She also had fabulous agility, including an effortless and even trill and the ability to execute a perfect messa di voce.