Joan Sutherland - "Attilla - "Santo di patria" Giuseppe Verdi

 

 

 

 

Dame Joan Sutherland,
  7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010

The Australian dramatic coloratura soprano  noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto  repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.One of the most remarkable female opera singers of the 20th century, she was dubbed La Stupenda by a La Fenice  audience in 1960 after a performance of the title role in Handel's "Alcina" . She possessed a voice of beauty and power, combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, "supremely" pinpoint staccatos , a splendid trill  and a tremendous upper register, although music critics often complained about the imprecision of her diction. Her friend Luciano Pavarotti once called Sutherland the "Voice of the Century"; Montserrat Caballé described the Australian's voice as being like "heaven".
I just love the power that Sutherland has in this aria. Magnificent singing.

 

Attila the Hun.

 

"Attila" is certainly a well-known Verdi opera (although maybe not one of his masterpieces, like "Rigoletto"). This music clip, featuring the wonderful Joan Sutherland in her prime (1963), shows us how one of "Attila"'s arias, "Santo di patria", can become a real showpiece in the right hands.
Not many sopranos can sing this ball busting aria. Attila the Hun murdered Odabella's father, who was the Lord of Aquileia, her she swears to revenge her fathers murder. Attila's is so impressed by her courage that he hands her a sword. At the end of the opera she kills him with that sword.
I just love the power that Sutherland has in this aria. Magnificent singing.
Click to listen.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fk5KWSK4Jg
 

I saw this opera twice. The first time in 1993 at Covent Garden with Samuel Ramey as" Attila" and the South African born soprano Elizabeth Connell as Odabella.

 

Samuel Ramey and Elizabeth Connell. "Attila"

 

 

At the Metropolitan Opera the title role was sang by Ildar Abdrazakov during  the 2009 season .
The role of Odabella was sung by Violeta Urmana. In this production the costumes were designed by Miuccia Prada. She had great problems designing costumes for "women" and not models.  Even with Ricardo Muti as conductor the opera was not very well received.

 

Violeta Urmana and Ildar Abdrazakov "Attila" Metropolitan Opera

 

 

Elena Souliotis "Nabucco"

 

 

 

 

 

Elena Souliotis.(earlier Suliotis )

Greek Soprano.

28 May 1943 – 4 December 2004.

 

 

Elena Souliotis was born in Athens Greece , of Greek and Russian parents but moved with her family to Argentina  at an early age. She studied with Mercedes Llopard  in Rome, who also taught Renata Scotto. Anna Moffo ,Fiorenza Cosotto, Ivo Vinco and Alfredo Kraus.She made her debut in 1964 as Santuzza in Mascagini's " Cavalleria Rusticana" .Two years later she was singing in every top opera house of the world .Later she would sing "Norma", "Anna Bolena", "La Gioconda" and "La Forza del Destino" as well. 

The  opinion is that Souliotis's early assumption of difficult roles damaged her voice. After an absence from the stage that lasted several years, she began a second career in secondary roles, beginning in 1979. Toward the end of her career, she sang the role of the Comtesse in Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades"  in several venues, and gave her farewell to the operatic stage in this role in Stuttgart in February 2000.

 

 

 

Verdi's "Nabucco " with Elena Souliotis.

 



 

 

In 1971 just before I went to Italy to study, I borrowed this recording of Verdi's "Nabucco" with Elena Suliotis (as the name was spelt then) and Titto Gobbi from a friend .The weeks before I left South Africa I could not get enough of this recording and I loved it .I played it over and over.

Elena Suliotis was an unknown soprano from Argentina and at 22 years old  she recorded this very dramatic and difficult roles with another very famous singers. 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to the 22 year old soprano Elena Souliotis singing Abigail  in Verdi's  "Nabucco".

 

This is the entrance aria where she comes into the Israelis temple and catches the Israeli soldier Ismael, who she loves with another woman .Tenor Bruno Prevedi and soprano Dora Carral before Elena Souliotis enters.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnrTtV6hLxg

 

In this aria she as a slave girl Abigail overthrows Nabucco and becomes Queen for a while.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYOqRCHXDp8

 

She had a very short career and when I had to opportunity to see her in "Cavalleria Rusticana"at Covent Garden Garden in 1973, her voice was gone.

 

 

 

Elena Souliotis and Maria Callas.

 

 

Elena Souliotis died of heart failure in 2004 in Florence Italy aged 61.

 

 

Anna Moffo "Die Schone Galathée" Franz von Suppe

 

 

 

 

Anna Moffo . America soprano

(June 27, 1932 – March 9, 2006)

 

 

Please click to hear the duet from "Die Schone Galathée" by Franz von Suppe

Anna Moffo and Renee Kollo.


 

 

http://myfreemp3.eu/music/Anna+Moffo,Rene+Kollo


This is  the awakening scene in the operetta when  the beautiful statue of Galathée comes to life to the joy of  Pygmalion .He prayed to Venus to changes this beautiful statue into flesh and blood  .This turns out not to be what he wished for, as Galathée is unfaithful and finds his servant  Ganymede  more attractive. At the end he prays to Venus to change  her back into a statue and he sells her to Midas.
 

 

Anna Moffo was born in Wayne Pennsylvania, USA to Italian parents, Nicola Moffo (a shoemaker) and his wife Regina Cinti. After graduating from Radnot High School,, she turned down an offer to go to Hollywood and went instead to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied with Eufemia Giannini-Gregory, sister of soprano Dusolino Giannini . In 1954, on a Fulbright  scholarship, she left for Italy to complete her studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia  in Rome where she was a pupil of Mercedes Llopart  and  Luigi Ricci . Moffo made her official operatic debut in 1955 in Spoleto  as Norina in "Don Pasquale ".After that she he appeared in all the top opera houses of the world - La Scala ,the Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She had a very successful career as coloratura  in Europe as well as America.

She was very popular in Italy and had her  won television program there.

 In the early 1970s, she began appearing on German television and in operetta films such as "Die Csardasfurstin " and "Die Schone Galathée" The recording above is from this era .

 

 

The beautiful Anna Moffo in Verdi's  "La Traviata"

Metropolitan Opera 1966
 

 

 

Here she is with Nicolai Gedda in this role .

  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvn5O7QsY5Q

 

 

Anna Moffo 1962

 

Anna Moffo was a very beautiful woman , and it annoyed her that people spoke about her looks more than her voice. It was a rather small voice . I never liked it too much in opera recordings and she tended to make it all sound to sweet and sugary. It recorded very well. I did love the voice in operetta and here one can here how beautiful the voice was.


She died in New York in 2006 of cancer where she lived the last years of her life.