The "Una voce poco fa" Contest - Vivica Genaux

Not many arias become legendary: "Di quella pira", "Largo al factorium", "Sempre libera", "La donna e mobile", "Laschia ch'io pianga" are only a few examples. Rossini's most famous piece for the human voice surely was "Una voce poco fa". The great "divalegacy.com" website lists about 30 versions of the aria, but the list goes on forever, so famous the song has become. Recently I have checked my opera collection and found out that I have 20+ versions of the air, so I decided that it was high time I hosted a contest/survey. I give you ten renditions of the aria, and you, the viewer, vote (the system is quite simple: the marks range from 1 to 5; there are two categories: singing/characterization; so your mark (+ comment :-) ) should look like this: */*). Next - the charming Vivica Genaux.

P.S. I decided to put up only some of the renditions, I will try to download more versions in the next month.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Rossini
• Una
• voce
• poco
• fa
• Coloratura
• Contest
• Survey
• Vivica
• Genaux

[GalambBorong]

3/2. Decent, but didn't excite me at all.

[LindoroRossini]

Keep going! I love your comments!

[bbbartolo]

I am totally smitten with Genaux's Rossini. The warmth, sensuality, flexibility, dizzying agility and choices of ornamentation dazzle me beyond Bartoli or anyone else I can think of. And the characterizations I've heard are just right!

///// singing

///// characterization

[forallyouknow]

Don't we all wish we had another octave? Haha.

[MrHbc3]

Interesting that some folks think Dessay should sing this. Is this something suitable for her new richer, lower pitched voice of the last few years? I'm a big Dessay fan and it's hard for me to imagine her in this role (all her characters have affairs with tenors and then die), but she has surprised me before. That bit about having affairs with tenors and then dying is from Vivica, BTW.

[7inga7]

She's really quite wonderful!

[GoBogi]

Agree. 5/5

I don't think any coloratura exists that this woman cannot sing (provided its in her tessitura).

[heartofsorrow]

talk about fast and furious. she sure has a talent for that, though it's not my favorite version of the song, she still does a pretty good job.

[edrahl]

The best recording (that I have) is Edita Gruberova. It is amazing.

Genaux sounds good, though. If I had just another octave, I could sing this (even though it is not really a man's role).

[JuillHope17]

sorry for spamming there for a sec lindororossini, i just had to set a record straight. i love and have always loved your videos, and thank you for being such a dedicated member of the youtube community. all your hard work makes us opera fans and singers alike so grateful that we have your resources to draw from. all the best :)

[JuillHope17]

in 151 letters and 4 punctuation marks you can tell all that about a person? well i dunno if i have your skills, but from what i can tell of your comment you're an arrogant know-it-all bastard who thinks they know someone off of ONE comment. well fyi fuckface: i AM an opera singer, i'm an opera historian as well since i've been raised on it since i was 3, my first met opera was at age 5, and my aunt in ny has season tickets in the 1st and 3rd rows. see? you don't know me, so back the fuck off.