My mom’s favorite singer and song. She was very fortunate to see Lily Pons in person around 1940. She kept a copy of the program her entire life passing away in 2016 at the age of 96. I wish I knew of this recording so she could have seen it. What an amazing voice with such control and perfect pitch!
She had everything. A look unlike anyone else. A body rare for opera singers, particularly of the time. Extreme physical attitude and grace on stage. Brilliant facial expression, especially the eyes. And a startling voice. She was aware it wasn't perfect and aware she strayed from pitch, but she knew exactly what she was trying to achieve, and it wasn't perfection but artistry which transported her audience. In that she always brilliantly succeeded.
I'm sure she could have sang every note perfectly and on pitch if she only concentrated on that, but to put movement and feeling into the music is much different than just articulating what is on the page!
It doesn't hurt that she is also beautiful. I suppose I shouldn't mention her beauty but it is as much a part of her as is the high C she reaches with such ease.
Lissandra Freljord well, I've heard at least 50 sopranos attempt this, none did it this fast. She simply had otherworldly agility and intonation. But sometimes I wish she had gone a bit slower in some parts. The perfect version for me would be one that could combine her super-agile staccato with Sutherland's smooth, emotive legato.
They probably had to speed it up because of the movie time. Check the recording from "Opening Nights at the Met" if you can get your hands on a copy. It is a treasury of recordings from the greats of the OLD Metropolitan Opera (before 1966). Ours even had a little swatch of the old gold brocade curtain in it. Ms. Pons recording of this song on that collection is the one I grew up on; she is the ultimate Lakme, in my opinion!
I cry when I hear Pons do this because the beauty is SO overwhelming. Pons might not "own" this piece of music, but she certainly has placed a lasting signature upon it. Yes, there are many other interesting and moving performances of the "Bell Song" (Selma Kurz did a fine job but she prefers legato to Pons' staccato piercings of all the notes she wishes to dramatize.) Pons' ethereal trilled high notes here take the breath away from her listeners (Well, most of us.). One can tell she worked this piece to perfection thru dauntless and innumerable rehearsings. MERCI Madame Pons for opening an audio gateway to paradise. Like any great achievement, she makes it look much easier than it possibly could ever have been. .
David.....Lily Pons did indeed Own this piece. No one sings it with her round golden tones.....other sopranos have owned it too. Mady Mesple, and Natalie Dessay.
“Belongs”? Surely you are not implying that a great aria, or even a good song, doesn’t deserve to be sung and heard by others. You only meant that Lily Pons sings your favorite rendition, right?
Wow, I'm impressed. I first heard this on a record I reviewed from the Daily Illini in 1973 and until Natalie Dessay came along, it's never been surpassed.
La perfection vocale, avec un naturel, et une facilité, éblouissants! Lily Pons a été, sans le moindre doute, l'une des plus grandes sopranos coloratures de l'histoire! Merci pour cette belle publication!
Attila Polgàr If you listen to the words, then it becomes obvious that a slow speed would be correct, at least for quite a long time. Lakme is highly under pressure and sad from the context.
@@cantkeepitin, In fact, even her smiling throughout the aria is inappropriate. I’m sure her interpretation for actual stage performances were quite different. But here she is following the Hollywood director’s instructions, putting a nice smile on, knowing that no one really understands the words and is simply going to tap their toes to the bouncy music. Look up Anna Maria Alberghetti singing the Queen of the Night’s Rage aria from yet another Hollywood movie. The same story! A beautiful young singer singing this terrifying aria with a pretty smile on her face throughout the aria behaving as if she is singing about white ponies and fluttering butterflies in springtime. Never mind that she is actually handing a knife to her daughter and asking her to commit murder.
If you want to hear this aria done in the correct tempo, you should listen to Maria Callas’s rendition of the aria. Pons sings it too fast simply for the purposes of the movie. I’m sure her stage performance was much slower and more appropriate.
I do agree that this is most definitely the bench mark for any soprano attempting Lakme,and more especially the Bell Song of course.Not only ha she amazing agility and range ion the voice,but she manages to sing it(and hit the notes) at an amazing speed.There ARE other sopranos who come near to this (but only near) but even they do not have the pure sound,flexibilty or sheer vocal prowess to bring it of as Ms Pons does.It is a shame that she was not recorded more.
Why all he fuss! Pons was a delight. She loved the audience and they loved her. She sang well into her 70's with the same joy and sparkle and of reasonable good voice to sing such coloratura work in her advanced years. As for the other ladies of song...good luck to them. If they can touch as many listeners as Pons and bring them, as much joy..then go to it.
I only heard about her today and the weird thing was is that i woke up and heard lily pons in my head like her name and i looked her name up and there she was This was a terrific performance from mrs pons👏🏻💜
The year was 2002, I got a compilation vhs from one of my fellow vocal performance major students, that is where I discovered our lil' French-Texas Lily Pons. Been a fan since. 🎶
I am curious about a few of the background actors- handful Indian looking among the crowd of white, like what's their story ,1935 with Indian heritage there, their circumstance and how they ended up in a movie?
Grande Pons! era tan bella, y que extensión vocal, grande su "Lakme" como la de la legendaria Mado Robín, cuantas sopranos tienen un ombligo así de sexy! ;)
Ms. Pons defined the term coloratura until the great Mariia Callas reintroduced to the world the dramatic coloratura; a vocal category that had flourished and gone largely extinct in the 19th century..
So many commenters here are behaving as if Dessay is the be-all and end-all, or Damrau. Have you guys never heard singers from before the 1990's? Please go back and listen to Mady Mesple. She was famous for her Lakme, and for many years she sang it all over the world. Her fame was well-deserved: no one before or since has sung the role with such eclat, nor such perfect intonation. Do yourselves a favor and give her a listen. You might just learn something about an artist who was active before the Internet came into being.
So often, it seems, we have heard a great artist in our you and were certain that THAT one was the greatest ever! In my father's generation it was Caruso and Gigli. By my time, it was Bjoerling. Who is this Pavarotti, guy??? Well, just the greatest that's all. I've heard Pons, I've hear Mesple, I've heard Dessay, I've heard Sutherland. They're all marvelous, unique artists, fabulous additions to the world of sound, the world of music. i welcome them all. (The only time I ever felt stumped was after hearing Leontyne Price sing "My Man is gone now" from Porgy and Bess. I truly believed that it was impossible for ANYONE to ever be able to match her.... Then along came Audra McDonald.)
Dude with the exception of Montserrat Caballé nearly all other opera singers both old and new were actually very fit. Maria Callas, Sumi Jo, Mady Mesple, Anna Netrebko, Diana Damrau, Natalie Dessay, Sabine Devieilhe pop to mind. Also if you look at Joan Sutherland and Mado Robin in their younger years they were both skinny.
sHE'S A LYRIC COLORATURA. Coloratura's are known for their high register and flexibility. The clearness of her voice makes her a lyric; if the voice has a silver shimmer to it, then a spinto coloratura. Marina Koshetz was a spinto soprano. Leontyne Price a dramatic soprano. Different roles require different voice types and the role of Lakme requires a true coloratura.
Assim como a Academia de Letras dos Funcionários do Banco do Brasil, sob a presidência do escritor Fernando Pinheiro, presta homenagem aos patronos e membros acadêmicos falecidos, a soprano russa Aida Garifullina, promovendo a imortalidade, homenageou a soprano Lily Pons cantando "The bell song", da ópera "Lakmé", de Léo Delibes, no filme "Florence: Quem é essa mulher?" (2016), estrelado por Meryl Streep e Hugh Grant, sob a direção do cineasta Stephen Frears.
+Christine Miglioretti she is the closest to perfect, but she has troubles with highest note ( I believe it is E?), and sometimes her breath are not perfect. but technically - yes, Voinea is great.
Ps… I never wrote the word DIE, my telephone did that during dictation and the word that was meant to be written was “I”. Just cannot rely on telephones… They are really not all that smart.
I agree with Steinwaygrande. You cannot compare some soprano from 1900 to someone today. Forget it. I still declare that Dessay "owns" this aria for the indefinite future. I heard Natalie in Guilio Cesare at the Met and I was utterly thrilled at the quality of her voice. She had better return to opera.
Why can't you compare singers a hundred years apart? So much has changed, so much has been lost. Dessay always had problems with fioriture and for a coloratura soprano that ought to be a problem.
a substitute teacher played her to us when i was about 8 ....she probably sounded even better than we think ...old recording vrs new recording ....i dreamed of singing this aria...
Not only does Pons handle the numerous ultra-high notes well; she also delivers the goods down the scale. She does not disappear downrange like so many other very high sopranos do.
+Robert Howes Watch TCM Turner Classic movies to see Lily Pons in about at least 2 movies where the movie was more of a vehicle for her singing. One was with Henry Fonda who is trying to be recognized as a composer.Think its called "I Dream Too Much" and another is where Pons hides in an American jazz band to escape an arranged marriag by her father to a man she does not like.
Lily Pons had a colouratura voice and was better than KathrynGrayson, Deanna Durbin or Joan Sutherland. She had the voice of an angel! No one came close ever!
@@WrestleNiceGuy121 ...Lily Pons was a rare TRUE coloratura soprano with a golden Silvery sheen and pure vocal quality totally even in all three octaves.
The total package! Pons had the most agile and crisp coloratura I've ever heard, a beautiful, if light, voice, and a range that blows many other sopranos away. And she was gorgeous to boot!
Also, it's important for an opera singer to be physically fit and healthy. When an opera singer's body is healthy then, their voice is healthy. Weight affect breath control, energy levels, etc.
When my Mother bought our first record player, this was the record she bought for me. My first recording, what a choice. I loved opera at once. Indeed what a wonderful choice. zLily Pons was my ideal or many years.
I always were wondering while watching lily Pons - what is she so happy about singing this song??? OK, OK, I know, it's Hollywood, but come on! Her father forced her to sing so he could spot her lover and kill him - so why she is so happy??? :)
Unrelated to Lakme, but a while back people were posting videos of a very young girl singing "O Mio Bambino Caro" on some famous talent show. She sang beautifully but I responded mostly with "this is not an appropriate song for a child. The ending line is about committing suicide. Have her sing 'Castle in the Clouds' or something for Pete's sake.
Being of Italian heritage, grew up hearing "O Mio Bambino Caro" and many other gory arias. Mother reassured us that it's only a make-believe song, and that was that. We also grew up with the Road Runner dropping anvils on the coyote's head. Lighten up, already!
She still need to please the public. Remember what Vesti la Giuba message says: Laugh, Clawn! Laugh even if your heart is being torn apart. Laugh and the public will clap.
Funny how in 1935 they were okay with showing a woman's navel but not when Barbara Eden was in I Dream of Jeannie! LOL But gorgeous voice by Lily Pons. No one could hold a candle to her.
Barbara Eden was playing a Genie and their navel's were always showing. It was just the censorship that was still ultra conservative at the time. I just found it amusing how when movies were still in their infancy, a little thing like a navel was no big deal and it wasn't until later that it suddenly became one.
Also, because this is in the 30s which was much more free spirited as an overlap response to the horrors of World War I. Think about the Flappers in the twenties that’s where the strong assertive women came from. They had to take up the reigns where the men were absent or dead. The Depression was what strained liberal sentiment. By the time the depression ended in 1939 no one was in the free spirited party mode anymore. World War II then occurred and that did away with it for good. Everything was super serious and a “buckle down and do your bit” attitude took over. People then returned to a sort of strait-laced victorianesque attitude towards practically everything for about 20 years. In some respects we are still feeling the left over effects of that. Can you imagine if that proto-feminism had continued undeterred into the 40’s and 50’s etc.? The world may have been an even cooler place today. Just some food for thought... ~Eric
love the fact that her belly is exposed because you can appreciate greatly her breathing technique, is really useful for those singers who struggle with the concept of apoggio
There is no WAY that visual was recorded of her singing this. It was recorded on playback etc ..she must have mimed...trust me...you can't see her breathing technique here.
I cannot imagine how the Code allowed this to get pass the censors. At the time, impossible. I presume because Ms. Lily told them this is how we do it on stage!
I really enjoyed her rendition and the old fashioned set - she was not so old fashioned in her dress - very risque for the times but she was such a good hanger!!!
her voice was unmatched by any singer... except when she sang noel coward or cole porter or Gershwin... it was awful, why she attempted to sing main stream music is a mystery to me????
Albert Strickland Reminds me of groups like Renaissance or Genesis, beautiful, artistic music, but not commercial successes. So they became more commercial. I don't know, just a thought.
I read that Lily was constantly actively marketing herself beyond the world of Opera- lazy research (Wiki): Lockheed airplanes, Knox gelatin, tomato juice, women’s and fashion magazines. “Opera News wrote in 2011, "Pons promoted herself with a kind of marketing savvy that no singer ever had shown before, and very few have since; only Luciano Pavarotti was quite so successful at exploiting the mass media."” As they say- failure is not the end of success but on the path to success. She took a lot of opportunities, made a couple mistakes, and probably made more money than most men when women had fewer opportunities.
Wow wow wow wow! I have a rule that I'd never date an opera singer but I'd make an exception if I could go back in time for Lily. For Carla, I teach breathing to musicians. The diaphragm thing is confusing and overrated. Think of it this way; if you fill a plastic bag with air and close the top almost completely you can simulate your lungs and throat. If you push the air out from around or above your celiac plexus (halfway between your navel and sternum) then your throat will ted to close. As you push the air out in the middle of the bag your notes lose quality. This is how many non-professional singers and musicians (I'm a brass player) play. Pros hold the air in the bag around the sides and start the motion to inhale and exhale from below the celiac plexus. I use the 2 lowest ab muscles, right below my belly button. This tends to keep the throat open and relaxed. Now imagine you use the muscles around your ribs just to hold the air steady and use the lower abs to push the air out. That is what Pons is doing. She's NOT pushing from her diaphragm, which would close her throat off and give her a thin sound. She's using muscles far below her diaphragm, which gives her power, control and a round sound. If we could be face to face I can demonstrate this in 10 seconds and convince you. I have done it hundreds of times.
