Re: worst ever soprano - NOT!

Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 13:23:16 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.opera
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> What really impresses me is that I gave you only the name of a Soprano and
> an Opera. I didn't even mention the recording label and you immediately
> knew that she was singing with Beniamino Gigli. Now however did you know
> that?
What other recording could it be?
I must disagree with your assessment of Toti Dal Monte. IMO this is the
best of all Butterflies, the only one which comes near to capturing the
essence of a fifteen year-old girl. And my ears hear much here that is
beautiful, and when it is not, it is by calculation and control. Toti Dal
Monte was a superb technician, and made her voice do what she wanted it to
do. I believe that her High C at the conclusion of the 1st Act is one of
the most perfect and beautiful notes ever captured on disc.
You might consider the following comments of Uwe Schneider:
"Toti Dal Monte's Butterfly has become famous for her girlish
characterisation. Consequently she uses her voice to bring out the naive and
innocent side of Cio-Cio-San. Though this is not free of artificial moments,
her voice control is nothing less than brilliant. And the stressing of a
naturalistic interpretation of Butterfly as a young girl is never at the
cost of the beauty of her voice. Butterfly has been, together with Mimi in
Puccini's La Bohème, a milestone in Dal Monte's career, who had started as a
coloratura soprano. From today's point of view - with experience of the
great 20th-century Butterflys like Callas, Tebaldi, Oliviero or Freni - her
lyric timbre may seem a bit too light, and her voice is not as profound in
the suicide scene as the pathos of the music requires. Her conception of the
character comes from another tradition - a turn-of-the-19th-century
tradition where the boundary between the 'lyric Fach' and the 'dramatic Fach
' had not yet developed. Accordingly she follows and counteracts the
harmonic, timbral and rhythmic elements in the orchestration with the
magnificent floating simplicity of her splendid soprano. Interaction instead
of dramatic self-representation makes this portrait moving and convincing. "