[BBSVK]

I'm not sure I understand. Are you referring to anyone in particular?

The color Stoyanova's chest voice is of that kind, which I associate with darkness and evil. It reminds me of Huguette Tourangeau, even though they are different voice cathegories (Stoyanova is a soprano, Tourangeau was a mezzo).

 

[Shaughnessy]

Two separate listening sessions - Two days apart...Thoroughly enjoyed both entries - Had them each scheduled in future contests (now cancelled) - Grateful for the opportunity given to them - Kudos to SOF for going where angels fear to tread...

Vocal control - Edge to Yoncheva

Tone color - Edge to Yoncheva - Significantly wider tonal color palette - strong grayscale - darker shades - lighter tints

Voice suitability - Two-way tie - but if given the chance to cast a production with either of the two, I would always go with Yoncheva over Stoyanova

Versatility - See above for "Voice suitability" - same caveat...

Enunciation - Edge to Yoncheva

Pronunciation - Edge to Yoncheva

Musical phrasing - Clear edge to Yoncheva - has the tools, has the toolbox, understands the proper use of dynamics - doesn't confuse "emotion" with "volume".

Performance that I personally enjoyed - Sonya Yoncheva - I was greatly tempted to split the vote out of a sense of obligation for Stoyanova's honorable acquittal of herself even though she was somewhat at a disadvantage in both technique and acting ability but Yoncheva's scorecard consisted of a solid series of "edges" that were clearly defined without a discernible lean towards "slight" as a means of off-setting Yoncheva's clear advantages - one of which was that it's considerably easier to spell "Yoncheva" than it is "Stoyanova".

 

[ScottK]

Both of these renditions bring up for me why the use of classic Eastern European soprano voices in Verdi’s soprano music has never been a great source of listening pleasure for me. I absolutely adored Stoyanova’s Desdemona but that really isn’t like any other Verdi soprano music. She had a purity in her sound in that, that I’ve never heard her have any other time I’ve come across the voice. Quite simply both of these voices have too prominent a vibrato for me. I wouldn’t call it a wobble here, but that fact helps make the point… Something much closer to a healthy vibrato, when prominent like it is so often with these sopranos, just does nothing for me. One of the reasons I enjoyed Freni so much in this role. Also, Stoyanova has a little steel in her sound here which, of course I did not hear in Desdemona. I remember a critic a long time ago speaking about the appropriateness of eastern European type sopranos for Verdi’s music and I knew I didn’t agree. Caballe…..without the full voiced wobble on top….,Freni, Tebaldi all have warmer sounds which I prefer in this music. And in the middle of the voice, I do not hear the vibrato so prominently! I wish Stoyanova would go back to the other sound. Here, I think Yoncheva had a slightly warmer sound so I vote for her.

 

[nina foresti]

I have seen both sopranos often, but every time I have seen Stoyanova I have come away pleased with her performances. She has a lovely voice and uses her chest tones well. Yoncheva has pleased me on occasion but then not so much on others (Fedora for example).
These two sopranos have similar voices to me so I needed to pick apart small things like Yoncheva lacking any chest voice and having a wink of vibrato. So although I think they both rendered this killer aria well, I am leaning toward Stoyanova. She seems more consistent.

 

[ColdGenius]

Both of these renditions bring up for me why the use of classic Eastern European soprano voices in Verdi’s soprano music has never been a great source of listening pleasure for me. I absolutely adored Stoyanova’s Desdemona but that really isn’t like any other Verdi soprano music. She had a purity in her sound in that, that I’ve never heard her have any other time I’ve come across the voice. Quite simply both of these voices have too prominent a vibrato for me. I wouldn’t call it a wobble here, but that fact helps make the point… Something much closer to a healthy vibrato, when prominent like it is so often with these sopranos, just does nothing for me. One of the reasons I enjoyed Freni so much in this role. Also, Stoyanova has a little steel in her sound here which, of course I did not hear in Desdemona. I remember a critic a long time ago speaking about the appropriateness of eastern European type sopranos for Verdi’s music and I knew I didn’t agree. Caballe…..without the full voiced wobble on top….,Freni, Tebaldi all have warmer sounds which I prefer in this music. And in the middle of the voice, I do not hear the vibrato so prominently! I wish Stoyanova would go back to the other sound. Here, I think Yoncheva had a slightly warmer sound so I vote for her.

Where that critic was from?

 

[VitellioScarpia]

Neither performance brings for me an ideal representation of the piece vocally. Surprisingly, both singers share similar wear and tear in spite that Ms. Yoncheva is some 20 years younger than Ms. Stoyanova. That underlines the wrong vocal choices that one singer has made as opposed the other.

Both sound overparted by this aria, in particular Ms. Yoncheva in the reprise of the original theme at the end when trying to push for volume on high an ugly wobble takes over. That ending spoiled the performance which until that point was more measured and more noble than Ms. Stoyanova. Ms. Stoyanova sounds as singing at the limit of her capacities throughout and for expression she serves us with unmusical poor-little-me noises in particular in the middle section of the aria (the Francia section). I vote regretfully for Ms. Stoyanova.

Some have commented that Elisabetta's role is credible sung by a lyric soprano because of the role passivity. I believe that for musical considerations it requires a larger voice because of the ensemble work and the weight of the orchestral sound in, for example, no less than Tu che le vanità. The orchestral sound is big in the prelude, the transition from the Francia section to the reprise of the theme has a large orchestral sound. The voice needs to follow on that grandeur. I find that lyrics sound underpowered and tend to force where a spinto or dramatic do not have to force to be heard over the orchestral mass. Let's remember that microphones — even in live performances — do not capture well the projection of the voices.

 

[ScottK]

Where that critic was from?

The New York Times and if I guessed correctly, it was Donal Henahan It was around the time Anna Tomowa-Sintow was busy at the Met. Even my beloved Teresa Zylis-Gara, whose performances in Strauss and Mozart and Tchaikovsky and Wagner I adored, did not have great effect on me as Tosca.

 

[ScottK]

Having read other peoples comments, I have to say that I too did not listen to that much of either rendition , and it’s clear that people are hearing sounds throughout that they describe as genuinely wobbly

 

[Seattleoperafan]

Thi has been a favourite aria of mine ever since I fist heard it in Callas's 1958 recording, "a performance of the utmost delicacy and beauty," according to Lord Harewood in Opera on Record . It doesn't take the singer very high, so it was still within her means then and indeed she kept it in her concert repertoire until the early 1960s. It doesn't often crop up on recital discs, but I have complete recordings with Caballé, Freni and Ricciarelli (in French), all of whom I would prefer to the thin, wavery efforts of these two ladies. It's a long aria and I confess I didn't listen to either of them all the way through.

Sorry. No vote.

I saw Callas recorded it but it looked rather late for her and I knew she never recorded the role. She can sound really good up till 56 or 57 in my opinion. There are of course exceptions like Arrigo... , Carmen, and the Delilah arias where she sounds really wonderful and they are I think after 60. I don't like a lot of the TV stuff vocally but I love her Una Voce Poco Fa from the TV concert with only one high note.

 

[Op.123]

I saw Callas recorded it but it looked rather late for her and I knew she never recorded the role. She can sound really good up till 56 or 57 in my opinion. There are of course exceptions like Arrigo... , Carmen, and the Delilah arias where she sounds really wonderful and they are I think after 60.

It is a bit late. It’s a good reading, and dramatically interesting, but not a favourite, there is a need for a degree of vocal purity in this aria. She could sound amazing still in 1958 though, the Dallas Medea is superb. Cerquetti’s version of the aria in the live recording is very good, I realise I’ve not heard many historical recordings of the aria, presumably because it’s long.

 

[Seattleoperafan]

It is a bit late. It’s a good reading, and dramatically interesting, but not a favourite, there is a need for a degree of vocal purity in this aria. She could sound amazing still in 1958 though, the Dallas Medea is superb. Cerquetti’s version of the aria in the live recording is very good, I realise I’ve not heard many historical recordings of the aria, presumably because it’s long.

That Cerqueti is coming and a surprise who I think you will like. I forgot about that Medea... she rallied. Medea doesn't really go high very often. It is just a lot in the E5 to G5 range where she is still wonderful.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

I saw Callas recorded it but it looked rather late for her and I knew she never recorded the role. She can sound really good up till 56 or 57 in my opinion. There are of course exceptions like Arrigo... , Carmen, and the Delilah arias where she sounds really wonderful and they are I think after 60. I don't like a lot of the TV stuff vocally but I love her Una Voce Poco Fa from the TV concert with only one high note.

Tu che le vanita doesn't have many high notes. The 1958 recording is from one of her most successful recitals, with all three Macbeth arias on one side. The Mad Scenes disc was recorded at the same time.

Despite the cover, there are no arias from La Traviata. French EMI used a photo of her in Macbeth at La Scala.

 

[ColdGenius]

The New York Times and if I guessed correctly, it was Donal Henahan It was around the time Anna Tomowa-Sintow was busy at the Met. Even my beloved Teresa Zylis-Gara, whose performances in Strauss and Mozart and Tchaikovsky and Wagner I adored, did not have great effect on me as Tosca.

It looks like narrow opinions disguised as wide and progressive.

 

[ScottK]

It looks like narrow opinions disguised as wide and progressive.

Can't really follow your point. As I recall it, Henahan or whoever felt there was a "slavic sound", which had a bite which served Verdi's music well. Don't really see anything narrow or wide or progressive about that but obviously I see where someone might disagree because I do !!! I certainly agree that there is most often a robust-ness to the Verdian sound and I could see where someone could feel that the voices here at least provide that.

 

[ColdGenius]

I mean that Slavic sound or even Slavic wobble sounds not very polite. Polite is not the most right word, but it's first that comes to mind. If he put there something instead of Slavic, where would he work for the rest of his life?

 

[BBSVK]

I mean that Slavic sound or even Slavic wobble sounds not very polite. Polite is not the most right word, but it's first that comes to mind. If he put there something instead of Slavic, where would he work for the rest of his life?

Now the world is so globalised, singers study away from their country... Even Peter Dvorský, who was active earlier than this globalised generation, was called Italianate in style. Even my British teacher said so.

 

[ColdGenius]

Now the world is so globalised, singers study away from their country... Even Peter Dvorský, who was active earlier than this globalised generation, was called Italianate in style. Even my British teacher said so.

Tatiana Serjan, who has made a successful European career as Verdian soprano, told in an interview, that her speaking Italian was often taken for Milanese accent by Italians. Her teachers in Torino, where she learned after a conservatory, also noted her Italian manner.

 

[Seattleoperafan]

Hot topic it seems.

 

[Seattleoperafan]

I mean that Slavic sound or even Slavic wobble sounds not very polite. Polite is not the most right word, but it's first that comes to mind. If he put there something instead of Slavic, where would he work for the rest of his life?

It would say that both Milanov and Dimitrova, both who sang lots of Verdi, had what I would call a Slavic PLACEMENT to their sound, but in other ways, their voices were very different. There was tons of squillo in both voices with a little bit of an edge. This is I think often found in E. European voices and I think some of it is from the language itself. It is an advantage in an opera house to have this squillo. I've heard lots of Czech people talk and the way they place their speaking voice is quite different from what I grew up with in The South. You can hear this placement in English interviews with Milanov as she speaks. There are American singers who I think have a very American sound, for instance, Robert Merrill and Eleanor Steber. I can't explain it. I like a lot of Slavic singers and to me to speak about a Slavic singer is not a put-down. Of course, Cold Genius, I am not from there. I hope this is not an insult as I don't mean it that way. Hell, the opera world today would be up the creek without all the Russian and Eastern European singers who have been so prominent in this century in the opera world.

 

[ScottK]

I mean that Slavic sound or even Slavic wobble sounds not very polite. Polite is not the most right word, but it's first that comes to mind. If he put there something instead of Slavic, where would he work for the rest of his life?

Slavic wobble I see as unflattering but slavic sound? Is there a Russian bass sound? Is there a French tenor sound? It does not mean that if you are a Russian bass, you have to have that sound, but isn’t there a sound we associate with that voice type from that region?