Yep!
Magda Olivero had incredible breath control. Her abdomen muscles were so strong. You may not have liked her voice but she sure had great control.

 

Montserrat Caballe has many live recorded examples of her prowess, not least her final high note of Verdi’s Don Carlo at one of the Metropolitan Opera’s broadcasts, held until the orchestra finishes.

Also, at a performance of Tosca, Caballe joins two phrases, perche perche signore and the two long descending notes that follow, on the words, Ah, ah!

 

That Tosca was exactly what I was after. Thanks.

 

Gino Bechi had great breath control.

Just after 2:30. An 18 second diminuendo then crescendo

While there aren't any sustained notes of more than 11 or 12 seconds in this piece, I've always found it very impressive how he can string one long, sculpted phrase after another, never rushing the end of one phrase or hurrying the beginning of the next because he's running out of breath. It's a rather slow tempo for this aria, but it feels natural and normal as he sings it:

He retained his breath control into his 80s:

While his intonation is not as perfect as it once was, the voice is still remarkably well preserved and he can certainly still hold a note.

 

What you describe about Bechi is exactly what I was aiming for. The opposite is the fabulous Ella Fitzgerald who had a glorious pop voice and musicality but her phrasing was not up to Streisand's standards because she ran out of support. I know pop examples on this better than opera and you and others are giving me what I wanted.

 

Anything Flagstad sang; but especially the stuff with long long lines that required tremendous stamina in breath control like her Liebestod. Breath control status affects your VOCAL STAMINA in a huge way.
Kirsten Flagstad - Liebestod - 1936 Covent Garden

Anything Sutherland sang; why? Because incredible breath support affects your VOCAL TENSION status in a huge way. She was able to sing with a totally relaxed throat because her incredible appoggio breath support took the tension off of her glottis. Singers who have tense sounding voices do not have great breath support. If you have poor breath support you will sound ugly and shrieky because you push out too much air instead of supporting the air column properly.
Giuseppe Verdi - Attilla - "Santo di patria" (Joan Sutherland)

Anything Birgit Nilsson sang; why? Because incredible breath support affects VOCAL TENSION status in a huge way. She was able to project her instrument and focus it like a laser beam without straining her throat for hours because of incredible breath support throughout her career. Singers who have tense sounding voices and faulty vibratos do not have great breath support. If you have poor breath support you will sound ugly and shrieky because you push out too much air instead of supporting the air column properly.
Birgit Nilsson; Jussi Björling; "In questa reggia"; TURANDOT; Giacomo Puccini-1959

 

I second Caballe, Sutherland, Flagstad and Nilsson. To that, I would add

• Melchior
• Tetrazzini
• Hines
• MacNeil
• Thorborg
• Nicolai

Interestingly, it seems to be bel canto and Wagner singers who have the best breathe control, as these are the two styles of operatic music where any kind of strain and mess you up for the rest of the night.

 

Unfortunately, Callas lost a lot of her breath control after her massive weight loss, which likely damaged the muscles.

 

Unfortunately, Callas lost a lot of her breath control after her massive weight loss, which likely damaged the muscles.

It was still pretty incredible. How about this from 1957? Not only does she manage to affect a diminuendo on a sustained top Eb,, she then cascades down a perfect chromatic scale and phrases onwards after that.

The thing about Callas's breath control is that it doesn't draw attention to itself. There are countless examples in her Mad Scenes recital of 1958 when she hardly seems to breath at all, the legato is so perfect, the arc of the melody so beautiully traced. Just think of the way she spins out the melody in Col sorriso d'innocenza from Il Pirata.

 

In popular music, Karen Carpenter was pretty amazing too.

Janet Baker had phenomenal breath control. I'm always staggered by her singing of Schubert's Du bist die Ruh. There is a rising phrase that comes twice, which she sings in one breath. The first time she affects a diminuendo on the last note, and the second time a crescendo. This is superb breath contriol put at the service of the music, not just to show off.

 

K D Lang's breath control could rival Streisand's. This performance is when I first heard her. She's very young, a bit nervous but her singing is amazing.

 

I heard her sing it at an AIDS benefit at Wembley Arena back in 1993 in the presenece of HRH Princess Diana. David Bowie compered. She opened the show and was followed by Mick Hucknall in the first half, whilst George Michael took the second half of the show. Now that was a night to remember.

 

And if we're talking popular singers, this is pretty incredible.

 

What a fabulous group of selections. Thank you so much to all have posted and brought great pleasure.

 

This live 1953 recording from La Scala is an outstanding example of Maria Callas' unobtrusively prodigious breath control.

 

I love her in this and she sang those long lines arching with ease. Caballe spectacularly sang long long lines to call attention to her artistry, yet it could be spectacular. Callas sang with ease whatever the music called for without calling attention to it.

 

My favorite example of a popular singer using great breath control in the service of the music is Frank Sinatra. The secret of his style, he said, was his breath control that he perfected after observing bandleader Tommy Dorsey sneak inhalations through a "pinhole" in the corner of his mouth while playing the trombone. In a performance, Sinatra became able to sing six and sometimes eight bars without taking a visible or audible breath. "This gave the melody a flowing, unbroken quality and that – if anything – was what made me sound different," he said.

 

I will listen for that. Yet again, like Callas, art that doesn't call attention to itself. I really love him before his voice got too old. His 40's and 50's stuff was really wonderful. You know today lower voices like Josh Groban and Dimash are the exception to the rule because most male pop singers have high voices. David Bowie, Elvis and Tom Jones all had lower voices but unlike the 50's and before when baritone singers like Sinatra were common, the later you go the more male pop singers are mostly tenors.

 

It was still pretty incredible. How about this from 1957? Not only does she manage to affect a diminuendo on a sustained top Eb,, she then cascades down a perfect chromatic scale and phrases onwards after that.

The thing about Callas's breath control is that it doesn't draw attention to itself. There are countless examples in her Mad Scenes recital of 1958 when she hardly seems to breath at all, the legato is so perfect, the arc of the melody so beautiully traced. Just think of the way she spins out the melody in Col sorriso d'innocenza from Il Pirata.

That's fair. I probably should have said something more like "Callas's breath control became less consistent after weight loss". There are examples like the ones you posted where she does quite well.

 

I'd say a good deal better than "quite well".

 

Great heldentenor Lauritz Melchior has some absurdly long (borderline humorous) "Walse" cries in some live recordings of Die Walkure. I'm pretty sure in the 1941 Varnay, Melchior, Kipnis Walkure at The Met he holds both for 15+ secs.

 

One of the best indicators of breath control is singers with the ability to sound fresh and full of stamina in big arias nearing the end of an opera. That's a big reason Sutherland tops my list. If anything, some critics argue that she sounded too relaxed.

 

John McCormack:

Don Giovanni, K. 527: Il mio tesoro (Recorded 1916)

 

Roberta Flack - The first time ever I saw your face - my favorite song of hers. The long lines are masterfully sung.

 

Caballe jumped immediately to my mind, and it was her pianissimo at the end of this version of Signore ascolta that completely floored me and made me a fan of hers. Just unreal.

 

I've said it before but at school she worked on only breathing for a whole year before she began voice lessons.

 

@Seattleoperafan Won't you illustrate the subject with the best examples of La Stupenda, being as you are a true connaisseur?

 

@Seattleoperafan Won't you illustrate the subject with the best examples of La Stupenda, being as you are a true connaisseur?

Aren't you a nice boy Your mother raised you right, as they say down South Well Pavarotti said that she had the greatest diaphragm support of any singer he knew of, had been allowed to feel her muscles there and they were of iron. So many of those Bellini, Mozart, and Donizetti lines tax Callas, Caballe and Sutherland alike but what stands out to me with her the most is the phenomenal support she had to be able to carry an enormous voice that was at the top of her register probably rivaling Nilsson's top notes, but to do so 2 and 3 notes above the staff for over 30 years without damaging her voice. I posted this before some of the new folks including you came in: Sutherland had a cold but managed to sing what was to me the most spectacular high note of career and luckily it was filmed in HD so you can hear the tremendous overtones that made her voice sound like she was able to carry all the weight of the voice just above the passagio all the way up to the rafters. You can see some of the orchestra and fellow singers looking agog at her. It is MASSIVE. Only early Callas could sing notes with this much power up high. It is not a focused sound like Nilsson but a sound that could just flood a hall and sound like it was coming to you from everywhere at once. She did not project her acuti from her mask but straight up the throat up to the back of her head.

 

Aren't you a nice boy Your mother raised you right, as they say down South Well Pavarotti said that she had the greatest diaphragm support of any singer he knew of, had been allowed to feel her muscles there and they were of iron. So many of those Bellini, Mozart, and Donizetti lines tax Callas, Caballe and Sutherland alike but what stands out to me with her the most is the phenomenal support she had to be able to carry an enormous voice that was at the top of her register probably rivaling Nilsson's top notes, but to do so 2 and 3 notes above the staff for almost 40 years without damaging her voice. I posted this before some of the new folks including you came in: Sutherland had a cold but managed to sing what was to me the most spectacular high note of career and luckily it was filmed in HD so you can hear the tremendous overtones that made her voice sound like she was able to carry all the weight of the voice just above the passagio all the way up to the rafters. You can see some of the orchestra and fellow singers looking agog at her. It is MASSIVE. Only early Callas could sing notes with this much power up high. It is not a focused sound like Nilsson but a sound that could just flood a hall and sound like it was coming to you from everywhere at once. She did not project her acuti from her mask but straight up the throat up to the back of her head.

That high note is not only huge and steady, it's also beautiful, and though it's a bit childish to compare, much more so than Nilsson's, probably because she had more squillo, extreme at that actually, and that penetrating sound is less sweet than Sutherland's.

 

I think Caballe had the most prodigious breath control of any singer in recorded history, but I'm too lazy to post examples. Her Ei Tornera from the famous 1974 Orange Norma comes to mind.

at 0:52, Callas begins the line with three hurricane force trills on C, E, and G, ascends to a house-rattling High C, and then sings an uncanny two-octave downward chromatic scale that sounds like it was digitally programmed on a computer. Mind you, she does this all on a single breath! It's just as mind-boggling now as it was three years ago when I first listened to it. I have yet to hear another singer sing this passage as accurately as she does.

 

Callas is my favorite Abigaille because of her dramatic delivery. I've heard Sutherland and Tetrazzini do comparable and more difficult virtuosic passages with a much more beautiful timbre. However what is stunning about Callas is how well she infuses the fioritura with whatever emotion the character is supposed to be feeling at the time. THAT was her genius. In this case it is raging vengeance which she always does really, really well. The high C is not particularly beautiful and there is excess glottal tension, but since she's raging and it sounds snarly, she makes it work and so it's excusable. I'm not blown away by breath control specifically here, more so the dramatic delivery as always. And the downward scale isn't chromatic, it is just a major descending scale, well done though.

 

Callas is my favorite Abigaille because of her dramatic delivery. I've heard Sutherland and Tetrazzini do comparable and more difficult virtuosic passages with a much more beautiful timbre. However what is stunning about Callas is how well she infuses the fioritura with whatever emotion the character is supposed to be feeling at the time. THAT was her genius. In this case it is raging vengeance which she always does really, really well. The high C is not particularly beautiful and there is excess glottal tension, but since she's raging and it sounds snarly, she makes it work and so it's excusable. I'm not blown away by breath control specifically here, more so the dramatic delivery as always. And the downward scale isn't chromatic, it is just a major descending scale, well done though.

I am confused by this response because WHERE in my post mentioning Callas and Caballe did I mention Sutherland or Tetrazzini? Why even bring them up? Tetrazzini having a more beautiful timbre than Callas is quite laughable. Tetrazzini's recordings are in such a bad state that neither you or I have anything beyond a faint impression of what she really sounded like. But then again, you are the same person who stated that Sutherland's Proch Variations were "vastly superior" to Callas'. Mind you, Sutherland never even sang that piece, let alone recorded it. Clearly, reality does not seem to be a formidable enough obstacle standing in between you and what you want to hear. I don't care what you do and do not find to be an impressive feat of breath control. The fact remains that every other singer who has sung this scene, from Dimitrova, Rysanek, Souliotis, and Nilsson to trainwrecks like Guleghina or Monastyrska has to skip the trills or take a pause in the middle in order to take a breath and get the passage out.

 

In my opinion perhaps the most spectacular of Callas' recordings , Armida, is in general far worse than Tetrazzini's recordings in sound and I have bought other recordings of hers where the sound is so bad I can't enjoy it, including the Trovatore with Stignani.This listener is able to discern the incredible clear astonishing beauty of Tetrazzini's voice even in the ancient recordings. Mind you I also love other very early singers such as Boningsegna and Escalais. I have a talk on Tetrazzini on Youtube where I elaborate on her gorgeous voice. I must here quote from an earlier thread of one of the most esteemed residents of the forum @vivalagentenuova "Tetrazzini was one of greatest of all time. Agility, purity, clarity, power, she had it all." If you don't like Tetrazzini, that is perfectly fine and I at least respect your right to your opinion and musical tastes, but at least several of us here place her in very high esteem despite her ancient recordings.

 

There is nothing to be confused about in mentioning Sutherland and Tetrazzini since we are discussing breath support in tandem with virtuosic displays. The two of them come foremost to my mind, so I mention them in passing. A good deal of timbre and agility on old recordings is quite discernable. Many who were born decades after his death came to love the very unique voice of Caruso through his early recordings worldwide. Tetrazzini's recordings and many others are from this time and are very clear in representing a good deal of vocal beauty in timbre of the 19th and early 20th century opera singers who are loved by many connoisseurs of the vocal arts. Many of Callas live recordings are in worse shape than Tetrazzini's but Callas widows wave them about as evidence of her greatness all the time so they have no business dismissing early acoustic recordings of any other opera singers. That would be so hypocritical. If I said Sutherland's Proch variations were superior well then I must have been thinking or typing in error so then I apologize for the mistake. Now, Tetrazzini's Proch variations actually ARE very superior to Callas' in to my ear. I enjoy listening to them. It is unfortunately true that most other singers who have done the Abigaille are labored, plodding and/or inaccurate through it and have not too attractive timbres in that role anyway and of course they lack Callas' dramatic infusion of rage and vengeance that fills the fiorituri so they are in fact, inferior to Callas, which is why I stated that she is my favorite Abigaille. The whole thread discussion is about breath control so that is why I mention things that do not impress me so much as well as those that do.

 

How about Siegmund in Die Walkure asking his father for the sword, "Wehwalt."