The aria begins "Non temer," do not fear. She was fearless. She will be 90 years old on January 16, 2024. I saw her at The Metropolitan Opera several times, but not in this role. For me, she is the best mezzo-soprano of the XX century.
Sadly, she elected not to take on this role when the Met did the opera in 1975 - very likely feeling like she didn't want to be part of The Beverly Sills Show, which is what it sort of felt like for her when she did the opera with Beverly at La Scala. So she never did the role at the Met. (Shirley Verrett managed the role MUCH better than I think most people expected.)
Marilyn Horne is singular when she performs difficult music and makes it seem easy without exagerating the difficulty just for show. This is the mark of a great vocal artist. This is why I hold her in the highest esteem among mezzo sopranos. Brava bravissima.
Marilyn Horn had the greatest chest tone in Opera and her high notes were astonishing. I grew up on the recodings and she never disappointed. BRAVA BRAVA BRAVA
No wonder Horne was awarded the Rossini Prize from the Italian Government. I have never heard her sing Neocle in performance (L' Assidio di Corinto). In Carmen, L' Italiana in Algeri and she was particularly sensational with June Anderson in 'Semiramide', Thank you Miss Horne for your great artistry and unparalleled musicianship.
I remember that concert live on PBS. Leontyne Price and Horne in recital. They nailed the duet 'Mira O Norma', and Price sailed "Doretta's Dream" from 'La Rondine' into the stratosphere.
Marilyn was a vocal phenom in terms of her range, breath control, and diction. Their won't be many if ANY mezzo's that are able too match her. Although i will say that Cecilia Bartoli is probably the only other one. But she's in a different class altogether in terms of what she can do with her voice.
Cecilia was great - but Not like Marilyn! There will never be another like Her. The Mezzo range, her voice, her velvet delicate approach and touch, her diction, execution, breath, and musical intuition, technical sense, and stage - totally cosmic, compelling, completely spot-on - and something I dearly miss. Marilyn had a gift, a voice, a talent, and a technique that is indeed rare and only arrives upon a planet but once. We have been so blessed with this very fine, loving, and lively person who loved a good laugh! A real and gutsy Mezzo Laugh! Even when she spoke - she sang .....
VERSIÓN ÍCONO , Pasarán mezzo-sopranos, contratenores muchos, pero no se van a poder igualar a MARILYN HORNE ¡ ÚNICA !! Armando Nazareno Cerutti - barítono
Can we also say something about how amazing that Met orchestra (especially the strings) are? Notice the lightness, short bow articulations (not sawing away and sustaining like many American orchestras!), sudden dynamic shifts, quiet energy in the accompaniment figures, and overall stylish Rossini playing. This is much more difficult to do than people realize. Look at the faces of the players...they are watching/listening intently, playing it like chamber music. You can tell they respect Ms. Horne tremendously.
She is amazing , really. Rossini, as many of us Italians, loves fireworks so much! Coloratura and virtuoso arias are fireworks: they make us smile and we find them exciting, not boring at all, though, of course, in a way they can definitely be boring .However, arias and singing that really moves me are not " fireworks" like this, but the ones where thecnical skills , while they are highly mastered, disappear and pure beauty spreads out.This aria is not the case, but in Rossini there are many of them
She hits all the notes, but the vocal production is so affected and bizarre I simply cannot enjoy it. It's like she's trying to expel something stuck in her throat, especially around the passaggio.
She had a bad technique, but I like her interpretation somehow, modern mezzosopranos are boring in front of her, she became a superstar even having a wrong technique, I think with correct technique she would had been... I do not even have a word for that, but beyond a superstar.
You do realize that if u ever told her face to face she was a bad technician she would probably faint or eat you alive :D She thought herself equal to dame Joan Sutherland (absolutely 0 relation to dame Joan's level of singing)
Yes, and personally I have never encountered a single professional singer who thought her technique was bad. It had a certain masky twang not unlike Ponselle or even Milanov that not everyone loves, but the fact that audiences adored her for decades, and also the fact that she sang very challenging rep so successfully for such a long time is proof that she had a great technique.
The only reservation I have about this channel is that it promotes singers with incorrect technique (and in case with Horne, honestly, an ugly sound as well). Otherwise great content.
@@LohengrinO I was mainly referring to Horne, but you also happen to characterize some modern opera singers as 'great'. They MAY produce satisfactory or even enjoyable artistic results, but one should not lead the viewer to think that modern singers are on the same footing with Callas and Corelli.
NO-ONE was on the same footing with Callas (period) and no one ever will be probably... not Corelli (he never sang the Tenor Assoluto roles) not dame Joan, not Nilsson, not... so if I wanted to stay in this channel in Callas' level I should be posting none but Callas... All artists I post are remarkable and phenomenal one way or another...
@@theoperatripleaxel5417 i had some fanatic a few days ago calling me a pig because I said how nasal and stuck in the throat Horne is all the time. I guess even pigs have better ears than some fanatics. When I listen to Horne I feel I’m hearing those synchronized swimmers at the Olympics when they give interviews while wearing nose clips 🤷🏼♂️
