They are all great singers. Probably the best of their time. Tebaldi has one the most beautiful voices ever. Olivero is a nature wonder in terms of diction, technique and dramatic power. And Callas is to me a unique artist because of the mix of a gorgeous voice combined with a perfect technique in the early years and exceptional musicality, expressiveness and dramatic instinct.
If you listen carefully, it's "gli plantai nel cor" that's the actual technical challenge. That's where the registers break (the passaggio) and putting any volume on those words exposes a poorly developed scale with a "hole" in the sound. Renata Tebaldi is by far the most spectacular tackling this tricky technical problem. The young Callas already makes a hollow sound on tai and Olivero's sound drops back in her troat. Olivero is much better in the second clip where she just goes bold on the chest and doesn't attempt to mix the registers at all. In the later performance Callas barely marks the notes. Renata Tebaldi's vowels in Buenos Aires but also in 1970 remain clear, vibrating and she even does a crescendo on the devilish passaggio in 1953. The evenness of her scale is incredible. An inaccuracy in your description by the way, Renata Tebaldi debuted the role of Tosca at the age of 24 in Catania, not in 1953 in Buenos Aires. Also, I'm afraid your sample from 1970 has been manipulated and if you pay attention to the clip, you can hear the tuning being manually lowered with some sort of software (I'm guessing a Callas fan sent you this? He also fucked up the orchestra's tuning). In the original MET radio broadcast the high C is not as bad as it sounds here. Generally, it's best to judge singers in their prime even though Olivero's longevity is an accomplishment. The high C is just a note, a high soprano will have no problem singing it. You could get Nilsson or Sutherland to sing us ten high Cs in a row.
Sorry for Tebaldi's debut in Tosca as I could find nowhere any info earlier than 1953, from what you write I guess you must be a real diehard fan and know your Tebaldi's chronology, so I corrected the age and place. The topic in this discussion is the high C on "LA"ma, not how Tebaldi manages with "spectacular tackling this tricky technical problem" to salvage a flat high C with "gli plantai nel cor" that follows. In 1953, young Tebaldi makes a point of holding a long high C on "LA", but unfortunately it's flat throughout the entire note. As for the 1970 Tebaldi Tosca, no Callas fan had to manipulate the sound, Tebaldi did it herself, this time the attempted high C very short and very flat. You say that the Met broadcast high C was not has bad, I dare you to put it on RU-vid, so we can all hear the supposed manipulation done by a Callas fan and prove your point. As for now, what we have here is what we judge with.
@@themagdaoliveroarchives9199 I really don't care to prove anything to you. You couldn't bother to find a debut date that's available on the official Tebaldi foundation website, why would you care to understand the point I'm making about the registers? By the way, the 1953 high C is full, ringing and on pitch. Check your ears.
@@Orfeus80 To set the record straight, in my original comment, I remained totally impartial on my appreciation of the 3 sopranos, you're the one that accused Callas of sounding hollow and "barely marks the notes" and criticized Olivero of "sound drops back in her throat" while praising Tebaldi "spectacular tackling this tricky technical problem" So, in my answer I took a similar tone to yours, which obviously displeased you. By the way I double checked Tebaldi's 1953 high C with a professional Korg pitch analyzer, it's definitely off. Of course, if your ears have been trained to think that a high C is supposed be what Tebaldi produces when she has to sing the note !!! then that's a different story and maybe it's you ears that should be checked.
@@themagdaoliveroarchives9199 you did ask for comments in your video so I gave my honest opinion. The fact that the other two struggle with the passaggio doesn't mean they're not great.. but it has to be noted in this tricky phrase. A singer will tell you that those middle notes can be a pain in such cases. And they clearly are here.. Tebaldi´s high C on cleartune is as on pitch as the other two, I checked it as well ;).
@@themagdaoliveroarchives9199 lol. These snips are fabulous! What else can be said about these ladies that hasn’t been said. But I’m not going to lie, Callas’ tiara-less hair drew me in.
@@tobiasandrews3778 Some argue that Tosca at the beginning the second act sings a cantata in front of the Queen and that no one is allowed to ware a tiara in the presence of a Queen. That is why sometime stage directors or the set designers choose not to have Tosca ware a tiara for the second act.
@@themagdaoliveroarchives9199 😮 . You are absolutely correct. I completely forgot. I think Robert Merrill mentions that in that amazing Tosca documentary.
Illustrating anything about Tebaldi - except that she never wobbled, ever - with a clip from 1970 doesn’t prove much. We all know the problems of her late career. We also know that she was one of the greatest singers of the 20th century.
@@denisrobert36 I heard her in 1964 when she returned to the stage after a year off re-studying her technique, and again in 1965. Both times she sounded very close to her best 50’s form. The real problems started, I believe, in 1966, when she decided to sing ‘Gioconda’. The tone became more steely, and her problem with flatting above the staff returned. It was an off and on affair. She also started bringing up a huge chest voice higher than is safe for any soprano, which did not help things. Her innate instinct made her ‘Gioconda’s very exciting, especially when she sang with Corelli. But her final part, ‘Fanciulla’, did her no credit. Then I heard her twice on her farewell tour, and when she could control the repertoire and avoid the top voice low and behold, the middle octave was quite intact, still the most sheerly beautiful sound I have ever heard from any soprano voice. There are trolls who claim her ‘acuti’ were always flat from day one, which is nonsense easily shown to be such by numerous RU-vid clips. But by the late 50’s it cannot be denied that her top became more and more problematic. Fixed for a bit in ‘64-‘65, but returning afterwards until her retirement. In her prime though her B flats could knock down buildings, and the famous C at ‘io quella lama’ was so massive and secure there are tapes where an ovation breaks out and the music has to be halted. I also heard Olivero twice as Tosca, once with a young Pavarotti. Her dramatic presence was riveting, but her voice did not have anywhere near the power that it has been electronically given here.
For me, Tebaldi's top became tighter than a virgin. She should have either retired early or changed to mezzo like Crespin, Varnay, Resnick and a couple others did, becoming greatly successful in Carmen and other such roles
Vince la Olivero 😅 La Tebaldi purtroppo non aveva acuti sicuri. La Callas a 42 anni (ammesso che corrisponda al vero quanto dichiara l'autore del video) era invece in pieno declino.
Quello che sentite in questo video è assolutamente fedele alla realtà di ciò che quei 3 cantanti hanno prodotto quando sono stati registrati. Nessuna manipolazione.
In all instances, Magda Olivero was better on top of the fact that she was older than Callas and Tebaldi in her clips. Yes it's a lighter voice perhaps, but the intensity and Italian style is there
IT SEEMS SILLY TO FIX ON A SINGLE PHRASE....INDEED A SINGLE NOTE TO GIVE RELEVANCE OR JUSTIFICATION TO THIS SINGER OR THAT ONE.......BUT SINCE YOU ARE ALL DOING IT......WHY DONT I PARTICIPATE! 1ST SORRY FOR THE CAPITALS....AM USING ONE FINGER AND I CANT SEE THE BOARD....AND NO ....I REFUSE TO GO TO UNIVERSITY FOR 7 YEARS TO FINALLY FIND OUT HOW TO USE THIS STUPID PHONE PROPERLY. OVER ALL AS WE CAN HEAR...OLIVERO SEEMS TO BE MORE AT EASE IN THE HIGH C DEPT. THAN TEBALDI OR CALLAS. THATS ALL VERY WELL ON A RECORDING...EVEN A LIVE ONE......BUT IF YOU WERE IN THE AUDIENCE THE SHEER SOUND OF TEBALDI IN THE THEATRE IS EXTRORDINARY AND THOUGH HER C IS SHORTER IN HER LAST LIVE TOSCA.....THE SHAPE AND THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE PHRASE IS EXACTLY AS WRITTEN IN THE SCORE.....WHICH CANNOT BE SAID FOR CALLAS'S FINAL TOSCA.......ALL THE C'S HERE ARE BANG IN TUNE EVEN TEBALDI....THOUGH I DISTINCTLY HEAR THE ORCHESTRA AT THE START OF THE PHRASE IS SLIGHTLY DOWN IN PITCH......NOT AS MUCH AS A SEMITONE.....BUT ENOUGH TO NOTICE .......WHICH MAKES THE BANG ON C.....EVEN MORE BANG ON! AS FOR OLIVERO.....A LADY I MET WHO GAVE ME AN INTRODUCTION TO JUAN ONCINA AND TATIANA MENOTTI IN BARCELONA...WHERE I STUDIED WITH THEM FOR 2 YEARS.....MADAME OLIVERO....HER LONGEVITY AS A SINGER WAS HELPED BY HER TAKING NEARLY 10 YEARS OFF....BY RETIREING EARLY THEN COMING BACK TO A SECOND CAREER WHICH INCLUDED MAKING HER DEBUT AT THE MET IN 1970 AT THE AGE OF 60.....IN TOSCA...AND SHE WAS FABULOUS. OF COURSE IF TEBALDI HAD NOT SUNG FOR 10 YEARS IN THE LATE 50'S TO THE LATE 60'S.....AND HAD PROTECTED HER VOICE FROM THE THOUSAND OF PERFORMANCES OVER THAT PERIOD.......SHE TOO WOULD HAVE MANAGED TO HOLD THAT C FOR EVER. AND IF YOU LISTEN TO TEBALDI'S LAST CONCERT.......YOU ARE STILL HEARING........DOPPO TANTA IRISIONE.......A GREAT VOICE! NOW THAT DEAR OLIVERO HAS LEFT US AS WELL.......I AM SURE SHE STILL IS SINGING BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE......GOD REST THEM ALL!
Only Tebaldi has the voice of a young, "sexy" woman, unmarried and without children like Tosca was. Maria Kalogeropoulou and Magda Olivero have this not. They sound like their own old mothers after the climacterium. So is my feeling as a hetero man! I live in the opera-world since 60 years and know what I am writing here! Nevertheless thank you for the Boheme collection from Amsterdam with my old friend Luigi Lega from Wuppertal.
To each is own. If living in the opera-world for 60 years as an hetero man wanting "a young, "sexy" woman, unmarried and without children as Tosca" is OK with me, but to say that Callas and Olivero sound like their own mother after a climacterium is gross and unjustified. To use that kind of vulgarity to try to justify the obvious problems that a supposedly "young voice" like Tebaldi has in singing a high C on pitch, or worst, in the 1970 performance, aged 54 to lamentably crash that note, while Olivero, aged 69, gives a high C that is perfectly on pitch, denotes a very bias person to say the least.
