I love to hear her voice in a large hall. Hearing especially her higher notes soaring out over the entire chorus and orchestra during a performance of AIDA was riveting. I wonder what this would sound like live rather than through a microphone.
@@mugrad25 it’s a large-ish voice, which gets bigger on top and weakens as it goes lower. Kind of a funnel shaped voice. I wouldn’t call it overwhelming, the same way Farrell’s voice was. That felt like a tsunami washing over you.
A wonderful singer by any metric this is a very demanding piece. Every singer has vocal challenges which we all work to minimize and the voice is constantly changing and evolving. Her singing is never drab the range of coloration is unmitigated. The critics couldn't come near what Sondra consistently produces.
DEFINITELY AGREE! First time I heard (and SAW her, as it was a live performance I attended) was in Tosca, and she was phenomenal! But I have yet to hear any of her Bel Canto repertoire that I've been very impressed with! Her voice just really doesn't "match" what should be a Bel Canto sound. Can't pinpoint WHY , though!
@@artdanks4846 I think it’s the fact that her vocal technique doesn’t include the full mastery of the finer points of bel canto, including clean and unforced coloratura, easy and dependable trills, a full understanding of the push and pull of rubato, and a sovereign understanding of portamento. When she sings these roles, the effort is always audible. The true masters of bel canto make it sound easy and inevitable. For me she doesn’t. I think her Devereoux was good, as if highlighted her strengths and didn’t expose the shortcomings. Norma not so much.
@@artdanks4846 when you hear Callas sing Bolena or Norma or Imogene or lady Macbeth or Abigaile, there is an inevitability to the way she sings the most difficult and complicated passages, as if there were no other way of singing this role. It’s an authority based on an absolute mastery of the technique. The technique is so complete that it disappears and only the music remains. It’s only later that you have to shake your head and ask yourself, “HOW did she do that???” I think that is what Evelyn Lear called the “sovereignty” over the music.
@@Shahrdad So very true! And that's why in every role you described, as well as so many others, once you hear Callas, it's difficult to listen to others in the same roles!
Paris was expecting her in Il Pirata in 2019 but, due to strikes.......cancelled. It should have been THE opera to see absolutely...i don't see any chance it can happen again. But listening carefully, I think this role is not for her.....
The comments about her intonation issues, especially the one which also mentions Callas, amuses me....like seriously? Callas with her huge wobbles on the high notes that cause her pitch to go all over the place, and you guys are quibbling over what are microtones in fluctuation in Sondra's pitch?
Thanks for posting this. But whoever the sound engineer was for this recording ought to reconsider his/her profession. Rad already has the misfortune of having a voice that does not record particularly well, and the sound engineer managed to accentuate that to the max. All of her special overtones are completely eliminated. This is not remotely how she actually sounds. The in-house recording of her dress rehearsal from Paris in 2019 is much more accurate.
@@stevenlevasee6742 Those aren’t great either! At least from her standpoint. Any in-house audio or video recording her on RU-vid (e.g., from VIC TORIA) is much more accurate.
Penso che non ha la voce per il ruolo che necessita una tessitura più grave. Ciò che mi da fastidio è che non si capisce bene il suo italiano e nella cabaletta elude quasi tutte le parole. Di più non sembra all'agio sua nei vocalizzi. Per un artista di questo livello mi sorprende un poco. La voce è bella certo, pero drammaticamente è povera. No, non mi piace.
The intonation problems of her early career seem to be returning. But menopause is a real physical problem for female singers. (And from the start she always sang many open Italian vowels closed.)
