The Art of the Prima Donna
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Free Music Notes for The Art of the Prima Donna
Free Music Review: Give it a rest!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a Callasfan speaking. I love Callas and Sutherland, I think this and "The art of the Primadonna" is supreme. But hear me out: I think it's obvious that only the famous Callas-recs on Emi are slandered and the efforts on other labels judged fairly, even if the reviewers didn't like Callas. Lets get back to balance and fairness. I never wrote a one-star review on Joanie and I never will. Here and there I complained and fought against fanatism. (See my review on her first Norma) Neither Callas-fanatism nor Sutherland-fanatism is good. Neither of them was perfect. Both had their pros and cons. Please, you guys, edit your reviews and write them fairly. Thus we'll prevent an even greater outrage. Us operafans should stick together. I'm willing to start. Please, lets be on this together!And a little P.S. This did not force Callas in retirement, she never officially retired and sang her last performance (Tosca) in 1965.
Free Music Review: A miracle
Hit: 5 Stars
I'm too stunned by her technical brilliance to come up with fitting superlatives! Her interpretations and diction might have been a problem later but this is just DIVINE! BRAVA DAME JOAN! A supreme effort!(And this from a CALLAS-Fan! *GRIN*)
Free Music Review: 16 arias...the test of every coloratura skill known to man..
Hit: 5 Stars
The recital by one Australian diva recorded in 1960 by a young and unknown soprano that has taken the world by storm. She not only became the most celebrated coloratura soprano the world had ever known, she became the most loved. 16 arias...the test of every coloratura skills known to mankind. Does she past, or fall short? You be the judge. I say she sings the most incredible recital ever recorded in the history of the grammophone. A gigantic claim. A claim that is substantuated by her singing.
Free Music Review: most popular coloratura recital of all time...remaster
Hit: 5 Stars
This came out in 1960 and has been overrall through the years the best selling coloratura recital ever. By a landslide. Why? Sutherland is superhuman. She sings the most beautiful she's ever sing. Beat and forces Callas to retire.The reason it's not selling as well as it was even 2 years ago is becuse everyone has it. but this remastering better sound warrants a new purchase
The special thing about this "Art" is the great remastering. Showing the glorious Sutherland sound for the first time.
Free Music Review: Coloratura singing of mind boggling proportions.
Hit: 5 Stars
I love this "Art of the Prima Donna". It is a true feat of Bravura for Dame Joan Sutherland, and I am thrilled to death to have it on cd. I already have this on cassetteand lp, but this is my first Cd with Sutherland because I'm a starving artist. But it is superb, far more
luminous than the lp or the cassette. The sound is so life-like! Finally, a medium that allows the
Sutherland voice to be heard as it should be. Every aria is a tour de force of the highest caliber.
The most remarkable thing is the huge top. It is both enormous and has a brilliant vibrato. Funny
thing that as Sutherland ages, the high notes got smaller and smaller. But not here, this is Sutherland
at her best. I think if Birgit Nilsson had an E flat, that's what it would sound like, Wagnerian in size.
Almost every aria has an high E flat or E. Besides the high notes is the most true to form of a trill that
exist. An actual trill, not a tremolo like other divas.
I believe that when Donizetti and Bellini wrote for Pasta, Grisi, and Malibran, this is the kind of
soprano he had in mind when he wrote these near impossible arias. A true diva from the golden age.
Of course, the difference between these divas of the past and Sutherland is the enormous size of
Sutherland's instrument. Plus the fact that all those divas of Bellini's time transpose these arias down
one full step or more.
Sutherland doesn't do that. Even though she has a right to do so because the tones today are now
almost a full tone higher than they were in the 17th century, so a high C then is only a B flat today.
So an E flat today is much higher than an E flat in Donizetti's time. So all of Sutherland's E flats are
actually high Fs! Imagine that.
If there is a single cd I can have on a desert island, this would be it. This is, without a doubt, the
most taxing program that any prima donna has attempted in a single recital, every arias is a tour de
force, stretching the limits of the human voice in all but Sutherland. In fact, this seems easy for her -
it's effortless. I challedge anyone to find a coloratura today, or anyday, who can match up to La
Stupenda.
IMCOMPARABLE!