The "Una voce poco fa" Contest - Marilyn Horne

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 awesome Marilyn Horne.

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
• Marilyn
• Horne

[lexie33023]

ive been trying to find a song maybe someone could help me its the opera song used in the untouchables and in many other movies but i cant remember the name

[LindoroRossini]

You must mean "Vesti la Giubba" from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera "I Pagliacci" :-).

[Liwah]

Rossini wrote it for mezzos!

[eddyarias2]

Horne is the best Mezzo-Soprano my ears have heard, her notes and bel canto still linger in my head. And nobody can sing this aria better than her.

[garconfrancais01]

@Mavicaman bartoli sloppy? are you kidding???

[raf8884]

in my school they made us hear it my ears bleed its soo loud and i can imagin thet the windows broke

[Rapture1987]

@CallasAfrica Although the masculine timbre doesn't suit Rosina at all.

[Mavicaman]

Yuck! At least she's not as bad as Bartoli. Sloppy is the word that comes to mind with this perfromance. Apparently she never heard Berganza do it.

[velochanteuse]

MARILYN YOU BEAST!!!!!!!!!

[idunnowhatimdoin]

@idunnowhatimdoin I MEANT COLORATURA CONTRALTO. damn i wanna bury my head in excrement. I'm stupid, but I have the right to conceal it, right?

But just because I screw up doesn't mean what I'm saying is false. The part wasn't written for a mezzo or soprano, it was meant for a contralto.

[idunnowhatimdoin]

@Liwah NOPE. Not a mezzo role. But it's not written for a soprano either.

I can't stop myself, I love explaining this...

Rossini actually wrote the part for a coloratura soprano. 0_o

Never heard of such thing? That's because this type of voice is extremely rare, and so the aria is most commonly performed by mezzos or even sopranos.

It's transposed up because the voice type for which it was written is uncommon even amongst contraltos.

I like sopranos and mezzos but yeah. Written 4 contralto.

[lucca54]

Who knows why one timbre touches more than another. Marilyn does it for me.

[holidaysinsweden]

I have gained a new favourite performer of this aria!

[missearth2003]

This interpretation is really unique. Beautiful Contralto notes. This made me smile. Superb coloratura.