Janet Baker sings the Finale of Maria Stuarda LIVE (1973) "Ah! Se un giorno"
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
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December 13th, 1973 Live ENO
Mary Stuart: Janet Baker
Liecester: Keith Erwen
Talbot: Don Garrard
Cecil: Christian Du Plessis
Hannah: Audrey Gunn
Conductor: Charles Mackerras
In the early 1970s several major sopranos essayed this role, but Mary Stuart has never been more present as a character than here, which Baker sings in Donizetti's version of the role that he wrote for Malibran. Baker is on astonishing form vocally, and her pointing of the text has so much authority that you almost feel it's been written in English, especially when the legato is so brilliantly maintained. The final aria-cabaletta "Ah! Se un giorno" (7:15) is awe inspiring, Baker pushing her voice to its limits for expressive effect. It's impossible not to believe she means every word.
This live 1973 recording comes from Baker's prime and is even more thrilling than either the famous Chandos live CD (also with Mackerras) or the filmed version she chose to sing in the final year of her operatic career. Baker was never considered a bel canto specialist, which makes her mastery here all the more impressive.
Al English National Opera, ENO, les òperes es canten en anglès.
VIVA LA DAME JANET BAKER 👑💙 Arnold Bourbon Amaral
Sublime.
M’agrada més en italià.
Why would any major artist be in a bel canto project sung in English??
Back in the 70s before surtitles existed, singing in the local language was much more common. This performance happened at English national opera which in fact still sings exclusively in English to this day. Again, back in the 70s, it was more common for the big stars to sing at local houses than it is today.
Great moments of opera I think Dame Janet is one of the greatest singers of the last century, but it irritates me when she made things sound like Elgar that weren’t. Certainly the major houses in the 70’s were all singing in the original language. The problem may have been that in opera her instrument was not suited to large venues, so she tended to sing with smaller companies who remained eccentric in this matter.
@@ransomcoates546 This is such an old and boring argument. ENO had a policy to make opera accessible to audiences by singing it in the translation, just as German opera houses and Italian opera houses have done for centuries and some still do, to this day. It is not meant to be the final word in interpretation, nor meant to replace the original. It is an artistic decision aimed at an educational component and it has been hugely instrumental for the survival of the genre.
As for the "smaller voice - smaller companie" argument, that is pure bollox. The ENO is NOT a "Small eccentric company" any less than the Bavarian State Opera or the Paris opera house where she was phenomenal in Les Troyens, In French.
She does not make Mary Stuart sound like Elgar, that is such a flaccid and facile accusation of lazy armchair critics who do not actually know the repertoire.
By this performance, she sang her way into one of the great Bel Canto Marys of all time.
albert combrink Quite funny. I was listening in the theater to Tebaldi and Corelli and Sutherland in their prime while you were probably in diapers or not even born. If you think you are revealing some arcane fact that European houses used to sing in their native language, don’t congratulate yourself. Everybody knows this. They also know that Wagner would not have been sung in Italian at La Scala in 1972. And why, pray tell, did the great Dame Janet not sing this part at the Met.? Because she could never have filled a space that large in any opera and was smart enough to know it. It remains perverse to sing bel canto in English, and given the very distinct timbre of the artist in question, one does indeed expect her to break out into ‘Softly and gently...’. And by the way, did you ever hear Dame Janet in the theater? I’d be careful of the phrase ‘armchair critic’, lest you give a description of yourself.
@@ransomcoates546 If she could fill London's Coliseum Theatre (home of English National Opera) then should could have filled any opera housre.