O wie will ich triumphieren - Kurt Moll

Aria of Osmin, from Die Entführung aus dem Serail, a Mozartian Singspiel.
The aria includes a low D, the lowest note written for the human voice in opera.

Kurt Moll, Bass
Karl Böhm

Category:

Music

Tags:

• kurt
• moll
• wie
• will
• ich
• triumphieren
• die
• entfuhrung
• aus
• dem
• serail
• wolfgang
• amadeus
• mozart
• bass
• low

[BorisGodunov]

Great as always. But the low D in Seraglio isn't the lowest note written in all of opera. It's the lowest in Mozart, certainly. Probably the lowest in the "standard reperatory," I guess.

[leoperarm]

yes, the standard operatic repertoire, maybe some X composer wrote a lower note for a bass, but no one sings it...

[cj5522]

@BorisGodunov I would like some names of songs that go lower. Not because I don't believe you, but because I want to listen to them. D or lower please.

[leoperarm]

@cj5522 I THINK that "Alcandro, lo confesso" by Mozart in the bass version goes down to a C, but I'm not sure. Listen to the version I uploaded of "Fra l'ombre e gli'orror" by Händel, it has plenty of Ds. Much lower it isn't that big a deal because it loses sonority.

[LifeJuice90]

Moll is the greatest Osmin in recording and on stage.

[ktrum492]

@salmig99 Baritone?!? Where are you getting that from? Moll is as basso as you can get!

[clytemnestre1]

Great singer and ACTOR, I remember him at the palais Garnier.... great great !!!!

[snoopyflick]

This D is not only one of the more common operas to be sung, but the D is extremely exposed and plays an important part of the aria. A weak D here ruins the song, hence the importance. There are lower notes, but they are not commonly sung, and are not as exposed.

[Gongfarmer2]

@TomosTaffers

Yes, you're right - or let me put it in another way - I've heard "Der Rosenkavalier" performed by Kurt Moll, where he sings down to a low C. There once was a clip here on youtube with that exact sequence, where he sings the low c, but was removed by Youtube because of copyright infringement or something related to that.

[Gandalf930]

@cj5522

Not necessarily opera, but close enough is the Eastern Orthodox liturgy, the works of Pavel Chesnokov and similar. Low C is standard, the lowest is probably a G contra in "Do Not Reject Me In My Old Age". Or try to type in names of soloists like Vladimir Pasjukov, Viktor Vichniakov, Vladimir Miller...

[salmig99]

@Taenyr And he was sensible enough not to tackle such roles. Hagen is the obvious example. Another way of looking at this is that despite his rather weak lower range, I just cannot picture Martti Talvela as a baritone. :-)

[salmig99]

@Taenyr Maybe some will flame, but the main issue I have with KM is his problems with pitch. There are days it does not bother me and then there are days when I just can't listen to him. I have exactly the same problem with Max Lorenz. Sometimes I find him more convincing than Melchior.. and then there are times when the only thing I hear is that he is off-key. Who knows.. KM has the low notes... so maybe he was encouraged to train as a bass because there are many baritones and very few basses.

[Taenyr]

@salmig99 I can understand that. You're right when you say that his voice doesn't completely capture certain basso roles. Mozart's Commendatore, for example, sounds better to me when sung by a thick, dramatic voice. Unfortunately, those voices often seem to have trouble with the extremes of their range - which is why Moll's low D is so clear and strong.

[Taenyr]

@leoperarm Hmm. That aria is usually performed at A = 415 Hz, on account of historic accuracy - so although it's written as D2-A4, the range in terms of modern pitch is actually closer to Db2-Ab4.

[salmig99]

@Taenyr Thanks much for your interest. Especially since you know more about the subject than I. Much appreciated. Don't take me wrong. I'm only an occasional (though quite passionate) listener of opera and all I'm saying is that even though I mostly enjoy Kurt Moll's singing since there's nothing in his singing that makes better or worse than any of his contemporaries, I find him a little overrated. Obviously, my 'barytone with an exceptional low range' was more provocation than anything else.

[Taenyr]

@sflyus There's a book out there called "Arias for Bass," if I'm not mistaken...