In this 1990 production of Ballo from the Met. Florence Quivar at her best! 'Maldito Candelabro' Un blog para hablar de la opera en el Peru y el mundo operaperu.blogs...
Absolutely !! unbelievable, how relatively little is written about her in the American entertainment media compared with other less stellar performers - barely anywhere. Just became re-acquainted with her glorious voice recently watching the full Un Ballo during the Met weekly streams during the pandemic. This copy doesn't come close to the original Met recording where her lush mezzo to contralto full range is beautifully displayed. In my humble opinion she easily matches -in fact at times exceeds - even Pavarotti's huge volume & depth with ease to my utter amazement. Will be looking up her recordings.
@@xxsaruman82xx87 Yes,I agree. Cossoto's rendition is decent, but Florence Quivar is extraordinary and has a soulful depth, conviction, richness, and intensity that could only come from the Divine realms. Its mesmerizing every time I hear it!
Florence Quivar was one of the greatest singers in the modern golden age at the Metropolitan Opera. Her Ulrica is magnificently sung---A glorious voice that lends itself to Verdi's drematic music
Yes. Wonderful and underrated!! I would love to hear her Azucena, Amneris, Dalila, Fides and other dramatic mezzo parts. Seems like Ulrica low G scratches her bottom abilities... :-)
Thats probably the best I've ever heard this aria done!!! What control and beautiful lower register, good acting too!! Mezzos dont sing like this anymore. Brava
This is by far the best rendition of this wonderfully dramatic aria: smooth phrasing not allowing the words (though they were clear) to take over Verdi's truly GREAT aria. The octave jumps were incredibly implemented with no break anywhere in the air column; the intensity remained the same on each of them. I would have loved to have heard this 'live', but alas too late. AND the Met Orchestra displayed its usual excited accompaniment matching the vibrant sounds of the voices. But with such a great conductor this is no surprise!!!!!
Yes, you are correct! Florence Quivar is one of the great operatic artists to emerge from that era that included the likes of Leona Mitchell, Kathleen Battle, Barbara Hendricks, Jessye Norman, Roberta Alexander, Isola Jones, and Harolyn Blackwell.
the audience should be ashamed, anywhere else the crowd would have gone nuts, do they even realise how hard a good contralto is hard to come by, this is quiver at her best , one of the best re dell abbisso i have ever heard
Florence Quivar is just unbelievable!! Going comfortably from folk songs and spirituals to Verdi operas..... she is truly beyond words!!! I've greatly admired her for quite a while, now. Do you have this full performance of this opera, with Quivar? I would love to see the full performance.
As a young singer in the 80s, I was introduced to the great artistry and voice of Florence Quivar! She has one of the most heartfelt, rich, exciting, and beautiful mezzo soprano operatic voices I've had the privilege of hearing in my lifetime! Just extraordinary everytime I hear it!
When a singing sorceress makes you want to have CHURCH! Florence, I am so sorry this audience disrespected you-likely because they were just waiting on the soprano and the tenor to show up onstage.They had no idea what they heard. What I would have given to hear La Quivar's mezzo-soprano/contralto Ulrica and Mama Leontyne's Amelia together onstage in UN BALLO IN MASCHERA. They'd have to carry me out of the opera house!
That audience may have not gotten it but Thank God this performance is preserved for more astute and aware Music lovers to hear and appreciate ! Ms, Quivar was sinfully underrated and ignored in the press and by the general public but she is appreciated fully by those who truly know art and artistry as one of the best Singing /Actresses and excellent musicians around.
Florence Quivar together with Jessye Norman and Shirley Verrett were freaks of nature. Florence could sing just about anything from dramatic mezzo roles like Dehlilah to contralto roles like Ulrica to coloratura mezzo and coloratura soprano roles of Amina in La Sonambula wtf. We know she shined as a Spinto as Bess and Serena. For this reason Zajick, Fleming and Audra McDonald said she was among the best. Thats some Joan Sutherland Maria Callas type of ish.
she is amazing! I had the great good fortune of singing in a production of Mahler's Das Klagende Lied in 1989 (or 1990?) with the NY Philharmonic and Florence Quivar .. she was just spine tingling.. what a gorgeous voice and brilliant talent :)
I saw her as Brangane in Tristan Und Isolde in 1986 or 1987 and she was outstanding! I will not comment about the Isolde...except she was over voiced and couldn't sing in tune after the first act!
I never understood how could people at the met react this way when such a fabulous mezzo soprano sang this way. I think she deserved MUCH MORE than this weak clapping. STUPID PEOPLE! Just wonderful... BRAVISSIMA!
Bravissima e pezzo impressionante! il personaggio ha praticamente poca scena, ma occorre una grande! Se Whoopi Goldberg (64 anni oggi, auguri!) cantasse opera, sarebbe una parte pronta per lei, l'abbiamo vista in Ghost
SOBERBIA ESCENA la música y toda ella es impresionante por lo Esoterica de la misma.ver volta a la terra.,ver di tu si fedele.ver las brujas de Macbeth.
As a singer and as an actress, Florence Quivar is really excelent, but I think that the best Ulrica is the Bulgarian Contralto Mariana Pencheva, who has a darker voice and more impressive low notes.
I heard her sing Brangane (spelling?) in Los Angeles in a Tristan in 1986 or 1987 and she was superb! I will never forget it! Unfortunately, the Isolde had too small a voice and was a disaster after the first 25 minutes of the opera! She sang the Liebestod a minor third flat!!! She was maybe a Sieglinde, Elsa, Eva, and possibly an Elisabeth but never an Isolde!
Florence Quivar! OMG! That audience should have gone crazy for what this woman did! Those thankless, disrespectful A-Holes! Yeah, I said it! So What! WTH!
I agree that it’s offensive. If you look at the RU-vid video of Florence Quivar singing Ulrica in A Masked Ball and then compare that with another RU-vid video of a white Italian singer in obvious tinted makeup singing the same role, it’s unbelievable to think that that’s perfectly OK. Opera should be inclusive and respectful of everyone who may want to watch it. A blackface Ulrica was a total shock for me. Racially insulting and spoiled a beautiful opera that has some of Verdi’s best music.
Great singer, intelligent and impressive. But her voice is too beautiful for this character. I don't think Verdi was interested in a beautiful voice for his Ulrike. Need some evil tone here.
